Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Invisible Propaganda: A Case Study Of The Trump Administration’S And The Media’S Messaging On Sanctuary Cities, Valeriia Popova

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

How does systemic propaganda work in contemporary American democracy? The literature suggests that propaganda in its negative meaning is limited to authoritarian regimes. In democracies, it is the corporate and partisan newsrooms that acts as propaganda mouthpieces. This dissertation challenges this status quo and shifts the focus to the interaction between contemporary democratic governments and the media. This dissertation develops a model of democratic propaganda that accounts for the two- step propaganda process in contemporary democracies: the government (responsible for the original message) and the media (responsible for the final message). The project proposes an innovative eight-fold spectrum of media …

The Politics Of The Self: Psychedelic Assemblages, Psilocybin, And Subjectivity In The Anthropocene, Joshua Falcon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines how psychedelic substances become drawn into particular sociohistorical and political arrangements, and how psychedelic experiences with psilocybin ‘magic mushrooms’ are used as tools of subjectivation. Guided by literatures in philosophy, critical theory, and the social sciences that focus on subjectivity, assemblage theory, and critical posthumanism, I argue that psychedelics are drawn into variegated assemblages, each of which conceptualizes the nature of psychedelics in highly specific ways that reflect implicit conceptions of the world and the self. In developing the concept of psychedelic assemblages, this research provides a window onto the politics of the self in the Anthropocene. …

The Normalization Of The Exception: The Nexus Of Emergency Powers And Criminal Justice In Colonial And Postcolonial Jamaica, Jermaine Ar Young

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Since the antiquity, the study of emergency powers has tended to revolve around the dichotomy between norm and exception, suggesting that governments follow established rules of law in ordinary circumstances and resort to extraordinary measures only in times of genuine emergency. My dissertation challenges this dichotomy by analyzing Jamaica’s colonial and post-colonial experiences with emergency powers in order to provide a different story about the norm-exception binary. In fact, Jamaica’s case shows there are no neat partitions between both spheres. Instead, what we see unfolding is the technical application of emergency provisions as legality, rule by law, rooted in continual …

Support For Workfare And Labor Programs In The Bahamas: The Role Of Subjective Poverty, Insecurity, Conservatism, And Empathy., Utha Butler

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research extends the literature on individual-level determinants of workfare and labor programs support (WLPs) using a mixed factors model to explain individual behavior. Extant research focused on institutional factors, which did not sufficiently explain much of the variance. This study, conducted primarily online and through mobile applications in The Bahamas, focused on the individual-level determinants that may explain support for such programs. This research revealed that conservatism, empathy, and government spending efficacy contextualized as goal achievement are significant predictors. We found that support for social spending in this context was affected by whether the respondent was a direct beneficiary …

Longing For The Homeland: The Palestinian American Diaspora And Palestinian Advocacy In The United States, Mohamed Khaled Ghumrawi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how Palestinian Americans in the diaspora connect with Palestine, Palestinian advocacy, and the Palestinian question. It analyzes and synthesizes the interaction of the Palestinian American diaspora and Palestinian advocacy, exploring its domestic and transnational linkages. It also explores the nexus of domestic and transnational aspects relating to Palestinian identity, political life, advocacy, culture, and politics. This project utilizes two main frameworks, the first is the tripartite composite state theory, focusing specifically on the normative-social structure. The second applies a framework of intersectionality, highlighting the interconnectedness of the Palestinian diaspora and the Palestinian question with other social …

Semi-Presidential Executive Branch Institutionalization And Personalization Under Cuba's 1940 Constitution, Daniel Pedreira

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ratification of Cuba’s Constitution of 1940 ushered hopes for democratic stability, most notably through the implementation of a semi-presidential system. Innovative for its time, semi-presidentialism sought to reduce the “perils of presidentialism” that plagued the early decades of the Cuban Republic. Yet, over the next two decades, the Cuban Republic declined and fell as it devolved into authoritarianism and totalitarianism.

This study analyzes the extent to which Cuba’s executive branch was institutionalized or personalized under the 1940 Constitution. Taking a close look at the presidential administrations of Fulgencio Batista Zaldívar (1940-1944, 1952-1954, and 1954-1959), Ramón Grau San Martín (1944-1948), …

Stoicism And Just War Theory, Leonidas D. Konstantakos

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ancient philosophy of Stoicism, itself one of the foundations for international law, can improve contemporary just war thinking by forming a coherent set of philosophical principles to serve as a foundation for a just war theory. A Stoic approach considers justifications for moral actions to come not from an appeal to human rights, conformity to deontological rules, or from the utility of the actions themselves, but from virtuous character traits and corresponding virtuous actions. As such, a Stoic approach to just war theory is a virtue ethics perspective in which metaethical incentive for moral action is the agent’s own …

Political Economy Of Religion: Maintaining State Legitimacy Through Religious Discourse In The Arab Gulf, Lana Shehadeh

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Contrary to the popular belief in IR that religion has no place within the political sphere, religion has been an integral part of the political and social fabric of the Middle East since the advent of Islam. States in the Arab Gulf, more specifically, have used religion and the religious establishment (Ulama) to proactively encourage support from the public when trying to permit or prohibit policies that would benefit or undermine state interests and objectives. For these states, religious discourse has become an essential tool to legitimate their authority and policies. By exploring this trend more closely, my dissertation fills …

Credibility And Opportunity: The Limits On U.S. Coercive Strategies After The Cold War, Danijela Felendes

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In coercive diplomacy, states employ the threat of force to get an opponent to change its behavior. A common belief is that strong military powers, such as the United States, make persuasive threats due to their capability to inflict punishment in the case of noncompliance. However, the record shows that the failure of asymmetric coercion has been a persistent feature of international crises. This finding inspires the core question of this dissertation: Why do weak states resist coercive threats from a militarily superior state, and under what conditions do weak states concede?

This dissertation addresses the question by proposing the …

Canadian Banks And Imperialism In The English-Speaking Caribbean, Tamanisha J. John

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Canadian banks have been important components of an imperialist system since at least the 19^th century. However, their long and rich history of operating as purely exploitative entities in the English-speaking Caribbean region is often overlooked— leading to many incomplete and conflicting narratives about Canada’s role within the global system. I argue that Canada is an imperial actor that exerts agency in supporting a Canadian banking oligopoly both within Canada and in the English-speaking Caribbean. Insufficient attention is given to these Canadian banks, especially considering the power they have wielded in the Caribbean over the centuries. By analyzing the …

Discourse, Threats, And Affirmative Action: A Comparative Analysis Of Race-Based University Admissions Policies In Brazil And The United States, Linda D. Smith

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In the early part of the 21^st century, both Brazil and the United States questioned the use of affirmative action policies that dictate the extent to which race is used as a factor in university admissions. This study compares discourse frameworks adopted by policymakers and subsequent affirmative action policies, in addition to Black enrollment trends in Brazil and the United States. This research contextualizes how three frameworks—justice, abstract liberal, and threat— shape race-based admission policies by examining demographic, admissions, and enrollment trends in both countries. I argue that discourse frameworks are a more reliable indicator than racial threat in …

The Creation Of International Crimes: How Narratives Shape Our Understanding Of The "Most Serious Crimes Of International Concern", Christine Bianco

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Rome Statute for the International Criminal Court labels the crimes within its jurisdiction as “the most serious crimes of international concern.” This characterization creates a hierarchy of international issues in which those that are under the jurisdiction of the court are portrayed as more important than those that are not. The Statute’s framing implies a permeance and absolutism to the distinction between international issues that obscures the political contestation behind this topic. The line between wrong and criminal in international law is one that is neither constant nor entirely coherent. It is one that has grown and changed over …

Cuban Exiles And U.S. Foreign Policy, Caroline Ranawn Mcculloch

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the influence of Cuban-American exiles in shaping U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba from the 1980s to the present. The role of Cuban-American interest groups is analyzed within a larger context of U.S. national security objectives, national politics and Cuban politics. Instead of privileging domestic politics or national security politics in explaining Cuban-American influence, as other International Relations theories do, this study argues that Cuban exile politics can best be understood as an expression of subnational interest group power that affects, and is affected by, the shifting dynamics of local, national and global politics. Also, ideological divisions and …

Eu Accession Negotiations In The Shadow Of The Market, Deniss Kaskurs

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At the end of the 20th century, the European Union (EU) had decided to expand into Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) by extending accession invitations to ten CEE states. During the accession process, each nation had a bargaining committee which was established to negotiate with EU representatives about the entrance requirements. Formally, negotiations revolve around political and economic bargaining between politicians of the incoming member states and the EU representatives. Informally, however, private commercial entities heavily influence the bargaining process, both from the EU and from the member state side. This scholarly work refers to these entities as transnational interest …

Political Misfit At Work: Examining The Effects Of Political Affiliation Dissimilarity In Selection And Work Processes, Alexander Snihur

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Over the last two decades, political affiliation membership has become an increasingly divisive social identity in the United States. Many organizational researchers have pushed for more investigation into understanding the effects of this salient yet understudied identity in the workplace. The purpose of this dissertation was to answer this call to action and examine the influence of political affiliation (Republican or Democrat) (dis)similarity on two discrete parts of the work process. Study one assessed how political affiliation (dis)similarity between a rater and a fictitious job applicant affected perceptions of applicant hireability through the potential mediators of applicant liking and applicant …

Transformative Constitutionalism And The Adjudication Of Elections In Kenya, Carl Bevelhymer

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The judicialization of politics has been an ongoing and expanding global phenomenon for decades. In Kenya, the record number of cases brought before courts prior to and following the 2017 elections is evidence of the continued growth and spread of the judicialization of politics, and more specifically elections; it is also the result of Kenya’s 2010 Constitution, which introduced a new form of governance, expanded the number of elective seats and mandated judicial and electoral reforms. One of the most remarkable events of the 2017 election period was the Supreme Court’s nullification of the presidential election due to electoral irregularities. …

Turkey-Russia Relations In 2001-2020: Deepening Partnership And Heightening Competition Amid Regional Restructuring, Muhammet Koçak

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explains the evolution of Turkey-Russia relations in 2001 2020. Turkey and Russia are two of the most critical powerhouses of Central Eurasia. In the past, the Russian Empire played a significant role in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and Turkey took part in containing the USSR during the Cold War. In 2001 2020, however, Turkey and Russia invested in bilateral trade and established partnerships in the defense and energy sectors. Two countries also worked together to resolve several regional conflicts, including the Syrian Crisis. Despite this trend’s regional and global significance, the literature suffers from an inadequacy …

The Evolution Of United States - Central Asian Security Policy Post-9/11: Military, Terrorism, And Cyber-Security, Shamsuddin Karimi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rudyard Kipling once described and wrote about the Great Game as a way to outline 19^th century great power politics in the struggle for empire in Central Asia. While Kipling’s tale of spy-craft and espionage is fiction, the political philosophy behind the story has never lost relevance. The struggle for political dominance in Central Asia continued through the twentieth century in the Cold War as well as into twenty-first century after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Although the great power players may have changed over the past 120 years, the importance of Central Asia has not.

This …

National Material Capability Buildup And The Rank-Magnitude Distribution Of Wars, Matthew Felice

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Are there physical laws, rather than conventions like diplomacy, that determine when war will break out and how severe it will be? On the eve of World War II, L. F. Richardson discovered a curious pattern: Major wars are rare and minor wars are common to such a predictable degree that the size-frequency offset can be plotted with a straight line. Complex-systems theorists have since confirmed those findings and tested them with computer models. Yet none of the research has fully synthesized this law-like observation with the established theoretical approaches in international relations that would apply, such as power transition …

A Rising Regional Power: Making Sense Of Ethiopia's Influence In The Horn Of Africa Region, Yonas K. Mulat

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates the conditions under which a state’s regional influence increases, or a state becomes a regional power, using an in-depth analysis of the case of Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa. I make a two-fold argument (a) developments in the Horn of Africa over the last two decades show that the regional influence of Ethiopia has been growing, and (b) analysis of attributional capabilities – population, military, economy – alone do not fully explain this development. This dissertation tests a hypothesis derived from neo-classical realism recognizing that relative power (vis a vis the neighbors), although key to …

Sino-American Competition In Latin America And The Caribbean, Anthony Russo Orezzoli

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the various ways in which great-power competition between China and the United States will affect regional stability within Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). This research will evaluate various theoretical approaches within the study of international relations (neorealism, neoliberal institutionalism, constructivism), as well as review foundational works of Robert Koehane, Robert Gilpin, and other major IR theorists. By utilizing these approaches, this thesis seeks to explain an increased Chinese presence in Latin America and the Caribbean through diplomatic, information, military and economic lens (DIME). In doing so, it becomes clear that stable …

Neoliberalism And Monopoly In The Motion Picture Industry, Michael S. Wartenbe

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Monopolies and industry concentration have returned in our time, as did the ramifications in the globalized political economy. One of the most impactful in our daily lives are the Mass Media Conglomerates who not only own the majority of film, television, and news we access, but increasingly control the means of accessing it, from cable to digital. While many are familiar with these corporations via their services and products, less known by the public are their political operations and close cooperation with Washington. This is due to the lack of holistic analysis of the industry and cooperation in the media …

Historical Geopolitics Of Kashmir: A Discourse Analysis Of Civilizational Framings, Thomas J. Liguori

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation attempts to locate the intractable issue of Kashmir within a global context. The global setting utilized here is constituted and shaped by multiple levels, none of which is purely discrete, and which act upon each other with differing degrees of salience. Taking a discourse analytic approach, political positions can be seen as activating (acting upon, mobilizing, or challenging) existing discursive material in a given political context and then deploying it. This dissertation aims to show how the Kashmir problem has: 1) come about; that is, how it has been constituted and the (discursive) contexts which shaped the available …

Gender Politics And Policies In Post-Communist Democracies, Vera N. Beloshitzkaya

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation investigates why variation exists in gender policies that challenge traditional power hierarchies across central and eastern European (CEE) countries and the role of political parties in this process. I first ask how gender issues get onto party agendas and then test whether parties in government that have campaigned on gender issues ultimately deliver on their promises. I examine three policy domains, marginally affected by the EU and international "soft" norms, affirmative action in the labor market, father's leave, and anti-domestic violence policies.

I argue that parties are least responsive when it comes to altering gender power hierarchies at …

Bangladesh And India: The Domestic And International Repercussions Of Asymmetric And Securitized Hydro-Politics, Tamanna Ashraf

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

India, the second-most populous country in the world, is experiencing the worst water crisis in its history, and by 2030, 40% of Indians will lack access to drinking water. Equally concerning is Bangladesh’s situation, with 2.5 million people experiencing water shortage due to increased salinity. Both India and Bangladesh share 54 transboundary rivers in the larger Ganges Brahmaputra and Meghna (GBM) basin. Even though the two nations have signed multiple treaties on the Ganges River, disputes still take place over the Ganges and other transboundary rivers. Since this region of the world is facing an increasing population and water demand, …

After Deterrence: Policy Choices During Crises Of Conventional And Nuclear Direct Deterrence Failure, Yang Gyu Kim

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite a plethora of research on the conditions of successful deterrence, the literature has been remarkably silent on the aftermath of its possible failure. Especially in the situation of direct deterrence where the defender’s people and territory are at stake, the defender experiences tremendous pressure and stress when a challenger defies the former’s threat. Due to the high interest at stake, direct deterrent threat is regarded as the most credible type of deterrence and, according to the literature, is most likely successful. How could an intrinsically credible threat fail? What should the defender do when direct deterrence fails and its …

Understanding The Motivations And Pathways Of Women And Girls' Involvement In Terrorism In Nigeria, Peculiar M. Awa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the experiences of 20 women and girls who lived in the Boko Haram camp in 2014-2018 and had varying levels of engagement in the organization's activities. The study employs a qualitative phenomenological in-depth interview methodology. Semi-structured interviews conducted in Nigeria and the United States yielded data on the experiences of the respondents before, during, and after their lives with Boko Haram. Based on the analysis of interview responses and field notes, several themes emerged. Overall findings suggest that family and community dynamics play a significant role in terrorism in Nigeria. The study found that early child marriage …

Theory And Practice In Political Economy: Explaining Continuity In South American Socioeconomic Conditions, Diego Zambrano

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The socioeconomic history of South America has been traditionally marked by the chronic problems of poverty and inequality. South American states and societies have commonly failed to address these issues effectively, which continue to characterize the region’s socioeconomic outlook today. The persistence of poverty and inequality has created social and political pressures on those designing economic policy, prioritizing short-term “alleviating” mechanisms rather than long-term structural solutions. These same conditions, combined with historical experiences, have created a singular cyclical dynamic in the political economy of the region. In this context, this dissertation explores the underlying causes behind the continuity of such …

How State Capacity Matters: A Study Of The Cooptation And Coercion Of Religious Organizations In Southeast Asia And Beyond, Adam Howe

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the complex relationship between state capacity, authoritarian regimes and religious organizations in Southeast Asia and beyond. Through an interdisciplinary synthesis of secondary literatures in Comparative Politics, Sociology, and Religious Studies, complemented by archival research conducted at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, this dissertation argues that relative state capacity endowment shapes the strategies that authoritarian regime elites employ against domestic religious organizations as a means of ensuring regime survival.

Through typological theory-building and a comparative case-study methodology, I argue that state capacity, imagined in terms of both bureaucratic/administrative and coercive components, influences whether authoritarian regime elites decide to pursue …

How The Balance Of Power Conditions International Trade Agreements: A Comparative Case Analysis, Kevin Modlin

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explains how the balance of power influences the incidence of international trade agreements. It shows the interaction of factors from the disciplines of Economics, Politics, and International Relations. Specifically, it shows the influence of the balance of power within three cases of trade agreements. The following cases illustrate how states, when negotiating agreements, respond to power competition. This influence of power within state relations is a social interaction but also one where individual states respond. Some of those responses include trade agreements with other states. Systems influence the decisions of negotiators involved in trade agreements. As the cases …