Political Science Commons^™

Response By David N. Gibbs, David N. Gibbs

Class, Race and Corporate Power

David N. Gibbs responds to the six scholars who addressed his article in this issue of Class, Race and Corporate Power.

Responses To David N. Gibbs Article By John Theis, Scott Laderman, Jean Bricmont, Latha Varadarajan, Kees Van Der Pijl, And John Feffer, Various Authors

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This piece comprises the responses of six scholars to the article posted in this same issue of Class, Race and Corporate Power by David N. Gibbs titled "How the Srebrenica Massacre Redefined US Foreign Policy."

The Martian: A Nasa-Tionalist Utopia, Bryant W. Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

The Martian presents the audience with a near-future that is a pervasively depoliticized neoliberal utopia—and what is scariest is that it does so very successfully. That is, The Martian is a very well-made and largely entertaining film that is also one of the shallowest movies likely to be considered for an Academy Award, though the competition for that will likely be strong.

How The Srebrenica Massacre Redefined Us Foreign Policy, David N. Gibbs

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This special perspectives section features commentary on the implications of the Srebrenica massacre for U.S. foreign policy. Given the 20-year anniversary of the massacre, we felt that it was appropriate to invite a range of scholars to participate in a forum to address different aspects of the tragedy and its aftermath in the context of U.S. foreign policy. The forum is structured around a commentary by David Gibbs, author of First Do No Harm: Humanitarian Intervention and the Destruction of Yugoslavia, Vanderbilt University Press, 2009. Gibbs article, "How the Srebrenica Massacre Redefined U.S. Foreign Policy," is featured below. Within the …

Marx In Miami: Reflections On Teaching And The Confrontation With Ideology, Bryant W. Sculos, Sean N. Walsh

Class, Race and Corporate Power

In composing this piece we hope to detail some of our strategies and pedagogical experiences teaching Marx and Marxism in Miami, Florida. Although Miami is certainly a special case regarding the intensity and character of ideological fervor against Leftist political and social theory, we believe the lessons adapted to this specific environment can be generalized for instructors regardless of geography. Teaching Marx in the United States often poses unique challenges. In Miami, those obstacles feel frequently amplified.

Cut From The Same Cloth: The Us Textile And Apparel Industry And Post-Disaster Designs For Haiti., Ransford F. Edwards Jr.

Class, Race and Corporate Power

In the aftermath of the 2010 Haitian earthquake, various neoliberal strategies have been advanced to help in short-term disaster mitigation and reconstruction, as well as more long-term improvements in the country’s overall economic integration and growth. One such strategy has been focused on revitalizing the country’s apparel assembly industries through an aggressive expansion of export processing zones (EPZs). The disaster, it appears, represented an important opportunity to improve economic conditions by reorganizing the country’s role in the global apparel commodity chain. However, this reorganization conflicts with the preferences of US textile and apparel producers who have used trade preference programs …

Crises And The Myth Of The Money Supply, James H. Nolt

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Money, credit and capital are three fundamental economic terms that every high school student, at least, should understand. Yet we live in a society that does not treasure clarity about itself. Power prefers obscurity. So not only do few high school students understand these concepts, but few PhDs in economics do either. If you learn anything from this article, at least I hope you will understand these three. If you already know, or think you do, what money, credit and capital are (readers of this journal should know these), perhaps nonetheless you will be somewhat surprised by the simplicity, clarity …

Economic Aid To Egypt: Promoting Progress Or Subordination?, Dina Jadallah

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This article evaluates the political economy of U.S. aid in Egypt, arguing that transnational actors worked symbiotically with political and crony capitalist Egyptian elite to formulate and implement aid policies. The transnational elite project, narratively described as promoting ‘market democracy,’ defined reforms within a narrow frame where political and economic engagement would not challenge the dominant U.S.-Israeli security structure. The aid regime used a dual strategy based on partnerships and privatization, whereby reforms functioned to enhance asymmetric elite profit-making, economic integration into the U.S.-dominated capitalist system, and the geostrategic stability, and hence, dictatorship, within that order. Dictatorial power was central …

The Role Of Iran Policy The Saudi-American Rift, Christopher Parmly

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores what effect Saudi and American policy differences towards Iran have had on their bilateral relations. It is based on the recent thaw in Iran-U.S. relations, and the critical reaction of the Saudi government towards this policy. The question has two components – first, how severe the current Saudi-American rift is, and second, to what extent it can be traced to their differences over Iran. The topic will be addressed through process-tracing methods.

The thesis concludes that there is indeed a rift in Saudi-U.S. relations marked by an increasingly assertive and independent Saudi foreign policy, though its alliance …

Gis-Integrated Mathematical Modeling Of Social Phenomena At Macro- And Micro- Levels—A Multivariate Geographically-Weighted Regression Model For Identifying Locations Vulnerable To Hosting Terrorist Safe-Houses: France As Case Study, Elyktra Eisman

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adaptability and invisibility are hallmarks of modern terrorism, and keeping pace with its dynamic nature presents a serious challenge for societies throughout the world. Innovations in computer science have incorporated applied mathematics to develop a wide array of predictive models to support the variety of approaches to counterterrorism. Predictive models are usually designed to forecast the location of attacks. Although this may protect individual structures or locations, it does not reduce the threat—it merely changes the target. While predictive models dedicated to events or social relationships receive much attention where the mathematical and social science communities intersect, models dedicated to …

In Search Of Safety, Negotiating Everyday Forms Of Risk: Sex Work, Criminalization, And Hiv/Aids In The Slums Of Kampala, Serena Cruz

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation offers an in-depth descriptive account of how women manage daily risks associated with sex work, criminalization, and HIV/AIDS. Primary data collection took place within two slums in Kampala, Uganda over the course of fourteen months. The emphasis was on ethnographic methodologies involving participant observation and informal and unstructured interviewing. Insights then informed document analysis of international and national policies concerning HIV prevention and treatment strategies in the context of Uganda. The dissertation finds social networks and social capital provide the basis for community formation in the sex trade. It holds that these interpersonal processes are necessary components for …

400 Parts Per Million: An Eco-Political Music Video, William K. Carroll

Class, Race and Corporate Power

400 ppm is an eco-political music video which encapsulates climate crisis and climate justice in three minutes flat. It is an intervention in popular political ecology/economy, aimed at those who are uneasy with the increasingly obvious deterioration of the living systems of which we are an inextricable part.

The Bankruptcy Of Liberalism And Social Democracy In The Neoliberal Age, Ronald W. Cox

Class, Race and Corporate Power

The increasing similarity between the economic policies of center-left and center-right political parties has effectively diminished the legitimacy of governments in relationship to their citizenry in Western Europe and the U.S. Capitalist democracies during the period of managed capitalism gained legitimacy by the appearance of the separation of capitalist ownership rights in the marketplace from the political institutions that govern capitalism. During this period, Social Democratic parties in Western Europe, and to a lesser extent the Democratic Party in the U.S., paid some amount of attention to labor unions and mass constituents in formulating their policy agendas. The era of …

Utopia, A Must: A Review Essay On Benjamin Kunkel’S Utopia Or Bust, Bryant William Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Utopia or Bust, more than many foundational alternatives, forcefully though with non-sectarian wisdom, re-implants the notion of utopia to the front-of-the-line of Left theory (whether economic, geographic, political, social, and/or cultural). Kunkel's introductory survey reminds us through Harvey, among others, that “Utopia exists and that other systems, other spaces, are still possible."

Automatons, Robots, And Capitalism In A Very Wrong Twenty-First Century: A Review Essay On Neill Blomkamp’S Chappie, Bryant William Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Contrary to prevailing opinions, Neill Blomkamp’s recent feature film Chappie is not a movie about robots or artificial intelligence. It is not Robocop. It is not Short Circuit. It is also not District 9 or Elysium. Chappie is a movie about humanity’s dialectically creative and destructive potential. It is a movie about how it is that humans come to behave how they do through their social and material circumstances, as well as the barbaric results when the two are mixed under the thoroughly undemocratic conditions of neoliberal capitalism.

Neglected Masterpieces Of Cinema, Louis Proyect

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This article will acquaint you with ten of the more important leftwing films I have reviewed over the past sixteen years as a member of New York Film Critics Online. You will not see listed familiar works such as “The Battle of Algiers” but instead those that deserve wider attention, the proverbial neglected masterpieces. They originate from different countries and are available through Internet streaming, either freely from Youtube or through Netflix or Amazon rental. In several instances you will be referred to film club websites that like the films under discussion deserve wider attention since they are the counterparts …

Ballots For Equality: An Approach To The Radical Tradition In U.S. Electoral Politics, Daniel Skidmore-Hess

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Posing radical challenges to structural inequality is the defining quality of the Left. What role electoral politics might play in such processes is a dilemma of radical politics, the contours of which vary by historical and national contexts. For the U.S. Left there is a distinctive aspect of the dilemma directly related to the failure of a "Left" party of even the most moderate social democratic type to take root, creating a seemingly never ending debate over the value if any of "third party" progressive organizing. This debate is current, as illustrated by three divergent approaches; independent left electoral politics …

Is The Corporate Elite Fractured, Or Is There Continuing Corporate Dominance? Two Contrasting Views, G. William Domhoff

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This article compares two recent analyses of continuity and change in the American power structure since 1900, with a main focus on the years after World War II. The first analysis asserts that the “corporate elite” has fractured and fragmented in recent decades and no longer has the unity to have a collective impact on public policy. The second analysis claims that corporate leaders remain united, albeit with moderate-conservative and ultra-conservative differences on several issues, and continue to have a dominant collective impact on public policies that involve their major goals. After comparing the two perspectives on key issues from …

The World Of The United States Foreign Policy Elite: A Case Study Of The U.S. Foreign Policy Think Tanks' Debates In The General Elections Of 2004, 2008, And 2012, Seyed Hamidreza Serri

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

American foreign policy think tanks are an important part of the American foreign policy elite. By gathering data, publishing research, and reaching out to the public and government, think tanks help set the public debate agenda. The question I asked was whether these American foreign policy think tanks exhibited a shared worldview during the past three election cycles. I analyzed 7,000 documents (half a million verbs) published by the seven American foreign policy think tanks active in the three general elections of 2004, 2008, and 2012: the American Enterprise Institute, the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the …

Identity, Ideology, And Cinema: Making Sense Of Japan's Foreign And Security Policies In The 1950s And 2000s, Yukari Ito

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Japan is an important ally of the United States–the world’s third biggest economy, and one of the regional great powers in Asia. Making sense of Japan’s foreign and security policies is crucial for the future of peace and stability in Northeast Asia, where the possible sources of conflict such as territorial disputes or the disputes over Japan’s war legacy issues are observed.

This dissertation explored Japan’s foreign and security policies based on Japan’s identities and unconscious ideologies. It employed an analysis of selected Japanese films from the late 1940s to the late 1950s, as well as from the late 1990s …

Public Service Motivation In Public And Nonprofit Service Providers: The Cases Of Belarus And Poland, Palina Prysmakova

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The work motivation construct is central to the theory and practice of many social science disciplines. Yet, due to the novelty of validated measures appropriate for a deep cross-national comparison, studies that contrast different administrative regimes remain scarce. This study represents an initial empirical effort to validate the Public Service Motivation (PSM) instrument proposed by Kim and colleagues (2013) in a previously unstudied context. The two former communist countries analyzed in this dissertation—Belarus and Poland— followed diametrically opposite development strategies: a fully decentralized administrative regime in Poland and a highly centralized regime in Belarus. The employees (n = 677) of …

The Modern State And The Re-Creation Of The Indigenous Other: The Case Of The Authentic Sámi In Sweden And The White Man’S Indian In The United States Of America., Luca Zini

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present study comparatively examined the socio-political and economic transformation of the indigenous Sámi in Sweden and the Indian American in the United States of America occurring first as a consequence of colonization and later as a product of interaction with the modern territorial and industrial state, from approximately 1500 to 1900.

The first colonial encounters of the Europeans with these autochthonous populations ultimately created an imagery of the exotic Other and of the noble savage. Despite these disparaging representations, the cross-cultural settings in which these interactions took place also produced the hybrid communities and syncretic life that allowed levels …

Russia's Islam: Discourse On Identity, Politics, And Security, Simona E. Merati

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Despite the long history of Muslims in Russia, most scholarly and political literatures on Russia’s Islam still narrowly interpret Muslim-Slavs relations in an ethnic-religious oppositional framework.

In my work, I examine Russia’s discourse on Islam to argue that, in fact, the role of Islam in post-Soviet Russia is complex. Drawing from direct sources from academic, state, journalistic, and underground circles, often neglected by Western commentators, I identify ideational patterns in conceptualizations of Islam and reconstruct relational networks among authors. To explain complex intertextual relations within specific contexts, I utilize an analytically eclectic method that appropriately combines theories from different paradigms …

The Lack Of A Structured Universal Healthcare System In The United States: How This Affects The Lives Of Millions Of Americans And What Can Be Done About It, Daniel Lazo

Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

The purpose of this research is to explore on a deeper level the healthcare system of the United States, its background, and other factors that could provide possible solutions to simplify the fragmented healthcare system. The ultimate goal is the formation of concise ideas that could make the system, which prevents millions of Americans from obtaining adequate medical attention, substantially better. The paper will offer a better insight into the four different models of healthcare insurance found around the world in other developed countries with the purpose of establishing a comparison with that of the United States.

The changes implemented …

An Analysis On The Decline In The Authoritative Powers Of The Papacy And Its Application To Challenges To Authoritative Powers Faced By The Permanent Membership Of The Un Security Council, David Ocampo

Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

The organizational authority of the Papacy in the Roman Catholic Church and the permanent membership of the UN Security Council are unique from institutions that are commonly compared with the UN, like the Concert of Europe and the League of Nations, in that these institutional organs possessed strong authoritative and veto powers. Both organs also owe their strong authority during their founding to a need for stability: The Papacy after the crippling of Western Roman Empire and the P-5 to deal with the insecurities of the post-WWII world. While the P-5 still possesses similar authoritative powers within the Council as …

Prisons, Profits, And Hard Labor: A Brief History Of Convict Labor In Florida, Gordon Kingston

Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

The purpose of this research is to develop a broader understanding of the system in Florida. Specifically, I am looking at the privatization of convict labor programs by the Prison Rehabilitative Industries and Diversified Enterprises Corporation (PRIDE) in the 1980s and 1990s in state correctional institutions. This research will contribute to historiography of prisons in Florida in the context of the developing research about the Prison-Industrial Complex. Many scholars studying the Prison-Industrial Complex have drawn comparisons to today’s prison industries and the convict lease system of the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries, seeing the prison system go …

The Other Face Of Cuban Medical Diplomacy: Domestic Impact, Danielis Lazo

Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

Since 1963 Cuba has provided medical assistance to third world countries while gaining international, political and economic support from its participating liaisons. But what exactly have been Cuba’s domestic consequences of such medical diplomacy? While the Cuban government sends many of its medical professionals and supplies abroad, the country suffers from extreme scarcity and a deterioration of its healthcare system. The purpose of my research is to enquire more on the consequences of such medical diplomacy on the Cuban healthcare system and how it has affected domestic medical infrastructure, health professionals working on the island as well as the quality …

Race Relations & Politics In Venezuela During Punto Fijo (1958 – 1998), Gaetano Calagna

Undergraduate Research at FIU (URFIU) Conference

In 1998, Hugo Chávez Frías’ presidential candidacy brought race to national discussion in Venezuela for first time since 1945. For long, the country’s politics had abided by the myth of racial harmony and racial democracy. This approach pointed to institutional separation in the United States and Africa as examples of true racism. Latin America was largely void of such atrocities. Nonetheless, Chávez claimed the present political parties (Acción Democrática, Copei and Unión Republicana Democrática) disenfranchised the common, colored Venezuelan. He continued to assert the opposition’s racism during his presidency. And his political fanbase agrees. A variety of scholars have studied …

China's Building Of A Blue-Water Fleet, Gareth Pearson

Jack D. Gordon Institute for Public Policy - Student Research

In recent years the People’s Republic of China has begun to exhibit a more aggressive naval policy as a result of its decision to switch its naval force from a primarily green-water fleet (coastal) to a blue-water fleet (expeditionary) (“China’s New,” n.d.). This decision has brought China to loggerheads not only with other local East and South Asian powers such as India and Japan, but also with the predominant blue-water power of the world, the United States, that sees its supremacy threatened (“When Grand,” n.d.). Why would China embark on a route that would pit it against the world naval …