Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The "Othering" Of America: How The Strategic Use Of Crisis And Ressentiment Succeeded In The Trump Era, Laura J. Franklin

Dissertations

The establishment of a crisis theme through public rhetoric often triggers widespread attention, resulting in public concern and media coverage of an issue that could potentially be overblown or deceptive. In right-wing political discourse, this crisis warning is typically delivered by a White male leader with ready access to the powerful news media. An “us versus them” theme often occurs. Within this mode of a hegemonic exclusion, a culture of immigrants or an American minority are often depicted, perhaps aggressively, as a threat: A threat used to motivate, enrage and create the frustrations inherent in ressentiment. This dissertation explores the …

A Critical Analysis Of Political And Media Discourse On Immigration During The Trump Era, Daleana Phillips

Dissertations

This research examines political and media discourse on Immigration through four studies: Trump’s immigration reform speech, newspaper coverage of DACA, a Saturday Night Live episode, and social media via #ColoradoBorderWall memes. Various critical cultural theoretical frameworks are used within critical discourse and textual analysis is to examine media and political rhetoric about immigrants and immigration policy during a period of drastic institutional political change evidenced by Trump’s administration. As a collective, these narratives examine how Trump’s rhetoric and populist style of communication demonstrate a return to restrictive immigration rhetoric not witnessed in a presidential administration since the 1920s. This research …

Policy Implications Of Managing Biodiversity And Natural Resources Across International Boundaries, Dillon Brown

Dissertations

Fisheries Management under the best of scenarios is a complex action. It requires thoughtful consideration of resources that tend to be out of sight, widely distributed, highly variable both spatially and temporally, and present dramatic variation in life history and ecology. No one management approach has been developed which can effectively incorporate all these variables. Add to this the issue of transnational boundary movements of these resources, and one discovers that this complex issue needs to be addressed by multiple entities, agencies, and nations to have any chance of success.

This research set out to discover ways in which fisheries …

Revisiting The Economic Voter Hypothesis: Electoral Volatility And Economic Uncertainty In Latin America (1997-2018), Charles Tibedo

Dissertations

The large majority of studies concerning the “economic voter” have tended to follow specifications that assume retrospective, myopic, and sociotropic voter behavior. However, the magnitude of the economic effect and the conditions under which the effect is found have varied considerably across the entire body of research.

This study reframes the study of economic voting by focusing on variability in economic performance over the medium-term as a causal factor as opposed to specifying particular directions and levels of economic performance over the short-term as the necessary condition for retrospective and sociotropic voter behavior. Additionally, structural and institutional conditions associated with …

Re-Framing Gender: An Analysis Of Journalism’S Social Media Characterization Of Female Presidential Candidates During The 2020 Presidential Election, Taylor Kiernan

Dissertations

The completion of this dissertation would not have been possible without those who supported me both academically and personally throughout this process.

I would like to thank my dissertation chair and mentor, Dr. Christopher Campbell whose expertise and guidance made this research possible. I would also like to thank my dissertation committee members Dr. David Davies, Dr. Cheryl Jenkins, Dr. Laura Stengrim, and Dr. Fei Xue, for their guidance and advice during the research process, as well as their expertise in the classroom which molded my abilities as a researcher during my time at The University of Southern Mississippi.

I …

The Formation Of Proxy Force And External State Relationships: Prospect Theory And Proxy Force Decision Making, Brandon Temple

Dissertations

Proxy war is a common tactic employed by great powers as a safer alternative to direct conflict, especially in the era of nuclear weapons. While proxy war is common, there is a lack of research on the formation of proxy-external state relationships. Previous research has typically examined the phenomena of proxy war through the perspective of the external state power, leaving a gap in the literature. This dissertation fills that gap by assessing the conditions under which armed groups enter into proxy relationships with external states. Using prospect theory as a framework for understanding more clearly armed group decision making …

Identification Of Cultural Differences And Their Effects On International Relations: A Novel Approach, Stephen W. Jones

Dissertations

International Relations suffers from underspecified treatments of culture that risk reifying, essentializing, or ignoring the effects of cultural differences in the conduct of relationships between states. Following a review of the development of the culture concept, this interpretivist, epistemologically critical realist, dissertation introduces intercultural adaptive frameshifting from the intercultural communication literature. To assess whether culture has effect within an epistemic community, four frameworks are evaluated within a non-IR field (global Christian reasoning). Speech act theory is used to assess meaningful affect through illocutionary and/or perlocutionary divergence based on cultural difference.

Following the findings that such cultural differences do in fact …

When You Play The Game Of Drones, You Win Or You Die: Examining The Role Of U.S. Drone Strikes In U.S. And English Language Allies Newspapers From 2008-2019, Melissa Aho

Dissertations

In the years following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States ramped up its usage of drones and drone strikes around the world. Spanning three United States’ presidents, drone strikes became a regular feature in the US military arsenal. While American newspaper media and citizens have been very pro-drone, global citizens view drones in a far more negative light. This study examines US military drone strikes and English-speaking allied newspapers in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom and evaluates if coverage remains positive or negative depending on the newspaper’s conservative or liberal leanings from 2008–2019. …

Water Elites’ Perceptions Of Water Security In The Middle East And North Africa Region, Ghaleb Akari

Dissertations

The Middle East and North African region continues to face significant water security challenges. The purpose of this dissertation is to gain a deeper understanding of water elites’ perceptions of water security in the MENA region. It is not meant to generalize the findings. Instead, the intention for the research is to identify, explain, and analyze by national elites' contrasting perceptions in Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, and Tunisia.

The study examines water elites’ perceptions in four areas: current knowledge level of water security, water resource management, water service delivery, and water-related risk mitigation. These elites’ perceptions of water security will help …

Globalization, Immigration, And Cultural Change: Conditions That Predict Shifts In Nationalistic Attitudes, Kelly Trail

Dissertations

Globalization is on the rise across the globe. In many instances, nationalism appears to be, too, as evidenced by the anti-immigrant and “nation first” rhetoric and success of presidential candidates, such as Donald Trump in the United States and Sebastian Pinera in Chile. However, the author questioned whether nationalistic attitudes are truly on the rise across the globe and what conditions cause some countries to shift toward nationalistic attitudes in the face of rising globalization, while others to shift away from it. She utilizes descriptive statistics, case studies, and fuzzy set Qualitative Comparative Analysis to analyze the conditions that influence …

Predicting Political Development After United States Military Assistance: Evidence From Case Study Analysis, Susan Rae Alaniz

Dissertations

During the administration of former President Barak Obama, United States foreign policy increased its focus on international development instability that threatened U.S. national security. In 2010, President Obama issued Presidential Policy Directive 6, which declared that international development is a vital U.S. national interest. This was a watershed moment for not just how the United States views its national interests, but in which resources should be dedicated to protect them. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Defense has security assistance relationships with 155 countries. These countries represent a wide range of international development challenges.

This research examines the recipient state …

Political Public Relations Agenda-Building: A Content Analysis Of The Us 2016 Presidential Campaign Speeches, Tweets And News Stories, Emmanuel Nwachukwu

Dissertations

This study investigated the role of political agenda building of political speech and tweet in the 2016 US presidential elections and the relationships between the campaign messages and the news cycle during the election campaign period. It also used functional theory of political campaign discourse to evaluate the speech and tweets of the presidential candidates. The study utilized content analysis and analyzed 5303 units of speech, tweets, TV (CNN, FOX and NBC news) clips and news stories from New York Times and Washington Post to derive its conclusions.

The result of the study showed how tweets shaped the media agenda …

Winning Public Hearts And Minds: Security And Development Aid In The 21st Century, Mohammad Ashraf

Dissertations

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks against the United States, foreign aid has focused on winning public hearts and minds in the aid recipient states as a hedge against insecurity and means to achieve progress in the “war on terror.” Western donors, especially the United States, argue foreign aid is an effective tool to expand government capacity and control over territory, win public hearts and minds, and ultimately mitigate the need and significant military costs of deployment to counter insecurity, extremism, and terrorism in weak, fragile and failing states.

This dissertation uses case studies to explore the …

Europe Rising (Again): A Comparative Study Of The Dynamics And Types Of Modern European Nationalisms, 1989-2018, Timea Varga

Dissertations

Nationalism is nothing new to Europe. While theoretical explanations of the catalysts of post-1989 European nationalist phenomena remain contested along material and non-material lines, this dissertation posits that it is the interaction of economic insecurities, societal fears, and populism over time that have shaped the rise and types of post-1989 European nationalisms. Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is combined with a collective case study design to examine: 1) how forces – political, economic, societal, or other – have dominated the formation and latest surge of European nationalisms since the end of European Communism in 1989; and 2) whether different, context-dependent …

Predicting Leader Survival: Evidence From Covert Action Case Study Analysis, Joy S. Patton

Dissertations

This research explores the unique relationship between covert action and leader survivability, in particular, how leadership styles and personality traits influence this relationship. The life of a ruler is ephemeral. For those who are lucky, their exit from office is through retirement or old age. For most, their tenure is short, often ending through violent means. The overthrow of rulers by their rivals is a common theme throughout world history, and the strategy remains a popular choice in contemporary warfare. However, despite the frequency of regime change, very little is discussed in international relations about covert regime change and its …

Refugee Resettlement And Perceptions Of Insecurity: A Comparative Study Of The United States And Canada, Erik Amundson

Dissertations

In the United States and Canada, refugee resettlement has been the subject of extensive scrutiny and political debate, particularly since the November 2015 terrorist attacks carried out by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) against targets in Paris. While public opinion polls have shown increasingly negative attitudes toward refugees, existing survey questionnaires only provide a limited understanding of what shapes these views. As such, this study focuses on two important factors that influence attitude formation toward refugees, pre-existing levels of knowledge and contact with minority groups. Using a comparative case study approach, this research examines how refugee resettlement …

Tribal Governance In The United States: Adaptation And Change, Michelle Watts

Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to contribute to the body of knowledge on indigenous governance, specifically that of Native Americans and Alaska Natives. This project examined how differing circumstances of Native Nations influence how Native Nations leaders perceive their ability to govern and their relationships with non-indigenous entities. It sought a greater understanding of the cultural adaptations of Native Nations, and how these adaptations influence governance and relationships with state and federal government entities. To gather information, surveys were sent out to all leaders of Native Nations in the United States, according to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) …

Political Accountability And Determinants Of Governance Under Principal-Agent Theory, Matthew Bluem

Dissertations

This study examines the theory that quality of governance is largely dependent upon political accountability, and that the effect of political accountability on governance varies based on three main determinants: level of democracy, level of information available to the public, and diversification of the economy (Adserà et al. 2003). With quality of governance, represented by the World Bank’s World Governance Indicators (WGI), as the dependent variable, this study considers how these three independent variables, and several control variables, affect governance quality. Incorporating data from 2010 – 2015 for 143 countries in both cross-sectional OLS and fixed effects panel regression analysis, …

Human Trafficking: Flying Under The Radar, Amber L. Hulsey

Dissertations

The global hegemon, the United States encompasses roughly 57,000 to 63,000 of the roughly 45.8 million slaves present across the world today (Walk Free Foundation 2016a). This dissertation research uses the theoretical lens of Human Security as a unique approach in that it is people-centered, focusing on the individual, rather than the more traditional theories in international relations that emphasize the state as the central actor. This dissertation focuses on the understudied area of human trafficking into and within the United States. More specifically, the objective of this research examines the movement of trafficked persons via air and details actions …

Determinants Of The Generalized Trust Radius In Scripted Fragile Sub-Saharan African States, Anthony Caito

Dissertations

Trust between strangers does not come easily in collectivist societies governed by coercive institutions and subject to unstable market forces. More than one-third of all states are fragile, yet the trust literature has shown little interest in explaining the variability of generalized trust among them; instead fixating on social capital, the consequence of the expansion of generalized trust, putting the cart before the horse and leaving unexamined many of its causes. The enhanced accuracy of the reconfigured World Values Survey trust question has generated new research opportunities to address this concern. This dissertation advances the trust literature through identifying, measuring, …

Security Is Local: An Analysis Of The Use Of Community-Based Security Forces During Counterinsurgency Operations, Alexander Stephenson

Dissertations

Counterinsurgency (COIN) operations are the most common type of military operation conducted by the United States and other Western powers. In most cases, conventional forces intervening in an insurgency are limited in personnel and turn to local community-based security forces to mitigate this shortcoming after initial attempts fail to defeat an insurgency with the conventional forces available. While the use of community-based security forces is a common element of COIN operations, little research has been conducted to determine the factors that contribute to their successful employment. A synthesis of existing COIN and community-based policing theory provides a model to evaluate …

The Effects Of Geospatial-Intelligence On United States-Mexico Border Security, Heather Martin

Dissertations

Following the September 11, 2001 (9/11) terror attacks on American soil, politicians and the media drew a parallel between US-Mexican border security issues such as illegal immigration, and terrorism, highlighting an increased need to secure our southern border in an effort to prevent another 9/11-style terror attack (Maril 2011). Under securitization theory, the linking of border security issues such as illegal immigration to terrorism can be defined as a securitization act or more simply put, the portrayal of a specific issue as a threat to national security (Balzcaq 2011). Once an issue has been deemed a threat (“securitized”), the use …

Strategic Culture In Sub-Saharan Africa: The Divergent Paths Of Uganda And Tanzania, Kevin Frank

Dissertations

Strategic culture is a concept accepted by scholars and practitioners, but with problematic applicability to states newly independent or emerging from conflict. The elements that comprise strategic culture in the developed world are not always present in emerging states. This research addresses the pertinency of strategic culture in Uganda and Tanzania, and then tests the operationalization of the concept using the case of participation in the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). The African Union and the international community expected Uganda and Tanzania to contribute troops to AMISON in 2007. In the event, Uganda did and Tanzania chose another path. …

Local Workforce Development Boards: Alignment With Operational Indicators And Behavioral Characteristics, Sharon Humphreys Johnson

Dissertations

The ability of a region to remain competitively viable is dependent upon attracting new business and retaining existing businesses (Good & Strong, 2015). In many instances, regional growth depends on the workforce and the region’s ability to develop a talent pipeline of existing or accessible workers (Blakely & Leigh, 2010). The passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) increases the expectations of local workforce board leadership. The WIOA vision for Local Workforce Development Boards (LWDB) is to serve as strategic leaders and act as conveners of regional workforce system partners, stakeholders, and businesses to develop new structures for …

Property Rights And International Trade: An Institutional Determinant Of Export Structure, Gregory Alan Bonadies

Dissertations

This work investigates the connection, independent of other factors, between a country’s system of law and property rights and patterns of trade. Stronger property rights institutions are hypothesized to lead to greater diversity in exports and a greater proportion of higher value-added exports. Production and export possibilities depend on capital, labor, and technology. Technology is the way in which capital and labor resources can be organized for productive purposes. Property rights condition expressions of technology and thus production possibilities and export potential. Consequently, if property rights vary between countries, then technological expression, production possibilities, and export potential vary as well. …

Natural Disasters In Latin America: The Role Of Disaster Type And Productive Sector On The Urban-Rural Income Gap And Rural To Urban Migration, Madeline Alice Messick

Dissertations

This research provides insight into the impact of natural disasters as drivers of rural to urban migration in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Disasters of varying types are predicted to have differing impacts on the productive sectors of agriculture, industry, and services; which due to the concentration of the various productive sectors in either urban or rural areas, subsequently changes the urban-rural wage differential. Changes to the wage differential (as measured by the urban-rural income gap) are predicted to lead to movement between urban and rural areas until a new equilibrium wage is reached.

This dissertation first identifies a …

Fascism Revisited Or Millennial Eurosceptic Populism? Analysis And Rationale For A New Political Movement In The 21st Century, Prebble Q. Ramswell

Dissertations

Euroscepticism has steadily increased since the late 1990s, culminating in the emergence and success of numerous Eurosceptic and anti-establishment parties at the national and international level. Though often considered fascist and extremist, these groups have successfully achieved recognition and mainstream support as their once non-traditional ideas have become the norm. It is argued that these groups are a new class of social movement organization, a modern-day manifestation of fascism to be called Millennial Eurosceptic Populism. What conditions have allowed for these groups to emerge and attain such levels of success? Analysis utilizing fsQCA will test variables from McAdam’s Political Process …

Remittances As Contributor To Risk Management And Poverty Reduction In Grenada, Dianne Jntl Rosemary Forte

Dissertations

A Small Island Development States (SIDS) viewpoint is underrepresented in the existing migration literature. That perspective is necessary because SIDS geography creates a unique set of social and economic circumstances that predisposes small states to high vulnerability to external shocks from environmental events and influences emigration decision making. Like other SIDS, Grenada is characterized by small land mass, small population, limited opportunities for productive labor, and limited resources to efficiently support all the requirements of modern institutions. This has resulted in high levels of emigration and a pattern of circularity as Grenadian households make rational decisions to manage risk and …

Choral Theatre, Albert Joseph Wolfe Jr.

Dissertations

Jamaica gained its independence from Great Britain in 1962, after some 300 years of colonization. Prior to Independence, the standard arts education curriculum was decidedly British and Western European. That which was labeled Caribbean or Jamaican “folk” by the British was deemed inferior and was not taught, demonstrated, or performed in formal settings. Thus, generations of Jamaicans never observed or imagined a Caribbean aesthetic in the visual and performing arts. Instead, pre-Independence Jamaicans were taught British and Western European music and performed it the “British” way.

Today, Jamaicans boast a number of artistic developments that are instantly recognized across the …

Philosopher's Stone: The Faustian Geist Of Development, Salikyu Sangtam

Dissertations

The present study juxtaposes scientific rationality with polyphonic rationality in respect to societal development. This is done to illuminate how scientific rationality provides a narrow and truncated view of development. In order to explicate the exclusion of polyphonic rationalities/knowledges in favor of scientific rationality, several development scholarships are examined along with an episode of developmental scheme and two episodes of development programs. This is done to expound (note: ‘→’ = influences) how scientific rationality → scholarships → organizational/institutional schemes, such as the MDGs → actual applications of development schemes, such as transmigration and compulsory villagization. The present inquest, …