Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Examining The Challenges To The Anti-Human-Trafficking Movement In Russia, Stephen Alexander Barton

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This paper examines the success of the anti-human trafficking movement in curbing the enslavement and trade of Russians to other parts of the country and world. This paper outlines how and why human trafficking is a major human rights and security issue for Russia and the “destination” countries to which traffickers send their victims. The anti-trafficking movement in Russia, which gained strength in the late 1990s through grassroots organization and international backing, successfully lobbied the Russian government to pass the country’s first anti-trafficking legislation in 2003. This paper analyzes the many challenges this law has faced, while also focusing particularly …

The Rights-Based Approach To Development In Latin America, Catherine Divita

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Many scholars and practitioners believe the rights-based approach represents a significant step forward in the development field towards the eradication of poverty. In lieu of blind service provision, aid organizations implementing the rights-based approach use human rights to address underlying causes of poverty such as exclusion, discrimination and corruption. However, integrating human rights into the development process is no clean, simple task. The rights-based approach has been conceptualized and implemented in many different ways around the world since its emergence in the 1990s. Scholars and practitioners now ask: Which rights-based approach is the most successful? I examine the rights-based approaches …

Ecuadorian Migration: An Ethnographic Approach To Analyzing Socio-Cultural Influences On Migration, Michele S. Cantos

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This research project is about national and transnational migration, as experienced by one Andean Ecuadorian family, currently living in the New York Metropolitan area in the United States. Through the collection of their life histories and an analysis of literature on this particular migrant group, I explore the different cultural trends that played a role in their migration from; rural Andean towns to large urban centers, from rural communities and urban centers into the Amazon jungle and their later migration to the United States of America.

Using Social Network Theory as an analytical framework, I am focusing on these individuals’ …

Chinese Soft Power: The Role Of Culture And Confucianism, Meng Meng

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Soft power, a term coined by American scholar Joseph S. Nye in the early nineties, has been widely used in the academic and political arenas. This paper attempts to analyze soft power from Chinese perspectives. By thoroughly examining official documents, scholarly writings, news reports, and various related websites, I hope to address the following questions: how do Chinese scholars interpret soft power? What is soft power with Chinese characteristics? How does China wield its soft power? What is the importance of soft power? What are the results of Chinese soft power building? And finally, is it a zero-sum game competing …

The Financial Consequences Of Turkey’S Potential Accession Into The European Union, Onur Can Ozer

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Turkey, with a population of nearly 74 million and a strategic location opening up to Europe, Middle East, North Africa, and East Asian markets, has been one of the fastest growing markets in the world in the present day. Having recorded a GDP growth with a level of 11% in the first half of 2011, Turkey was regarded to have the fastest growing industry in Europe. Turkey’s accession talks have been around since 1950s and have been official when Turkey became an associate member of the EU in 1963. Although Turkey has made a remarkable progress in the last decade, …

The Obama Doctrine: The Lici Foreign Policy Perspective, Wesley Michael Milillo

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Every U.S. President has maintained and crafted a prescriptive set of policies with which they conduct international affairs. All Presidents have left their historical mark- what they believe to be America’s position in the world, and its commensurate role. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, the world transformed as America achieved international hegemony as the sole superpower and subsequent victor of the Cold War. However, many today question U.S. primacy shifting the debate toward questioning if and how America should act in the world.

Barack Obama’s foreign policy eludes the confines of a single political ideology and philosophy. After …

Dirty War: Across Borders And Generations, Robert Douglas Solonick

Honors Capstone Projects - All

The term “dirty war” has been applied to various periods of political violence and armed conflict around the world: the dirty wars of Latin America in the 1970s and 1980s, the dirty war in Chechnya, and even the dirty war in Israel. Yet, given its broad spectrum of application, there is no established definition explaining what a dirty war is. These conflicts all titled “dirty wars” occur in different times, different locations, and for different reasons. Such ambiguous use of this term in such different environments is extremely confusing.

This project set out to establish a working definition for …

American Zionism And The Evolution Of ‘Pro-Israel’ In U.S. Politics, Samuel Taylor

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This thesis will determine how and to what extent the definition of ‘pro-Israel’ in U.S. mainstream political activism has undergone a change. In light of recent publications and polls indicating that ‘support’ for or ‘connection’ to Israel was waning among college-aged Jewish students in the United States, I decided to examine the potential causes for this attitude shift, and determine how the shift is being reflected in the U.S. relationship with Israel, if at all. To adequately identify changes in the U.S.-Israeli relationship and the definition of ‘pro-Israel’ in the United States, one must first distinguish between, at least, two …

Turkey: Emergence Of A Regional Power And A Strategic U.S. Partner, Jonathan C. Nwosu

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Positioned in a dynamic part of the world, Turkey is notable for its unique identity which connects Europe and Asia and in many ways conflates the heritage and culture of the East with the modernity of the West. This unique identity has translated into a distinctive role for Turkey characterized by burgeoning influence in the region. The emergence of Turkey as a regional power can be explained by several components: the historical foundations of the Republic, the process of democratization, economic and political policies, and internal changes induced by interaction with Europe. None of these factors exclusively resulted in the …

Providing Protection, Discouraging Applications: The Influence Of Policy On Asylum Seekers’ Destination Choice, Elin Wiklund

Honors Capstone Projects - All

Each year, hundreds of thousands of individuals become asylum applicants as they request protection from persecution in a state other than their own. While many of these persons requesting to be recognized as refugees lodge their claims in neighbouring states, since the 1980s, Europe has seen an increasing number of asylum seekers arriving from developing nations in Africa and Asia. This has contributed to concerns among populations in Western Europe regarding immigrants and the emergence of political parties with anti-immigration discourses. As a result, immigration and asylum policies today are issues high on the political agenda as governments attempt to …

An Interdisciplinary Study Of Modern-Day Slavery: Human Trafficking, Margaret Ruiz

Honors Capstone Projects - All

This project uses a multidisciplinary approach to analyze different forms of modern-day slavery, with a focus on sex trafficking. More specifically, it examines how historical slavery has transformed into modern-day slavery and it illuminates similarities and differences between historical slavery and modern-day slavery. In my work, I also studied the underlying causes of modern-day slavery, by analyzing various factors that affect slavery. Lastly, my work examines the existing legal and political instruments that confront and combat slavery. Finally, in this project, I reflect and discuss the lack of effective programs that work towards the reparation of victims.

I came up …