Digital Commons Network^™

Immigrant Integration Into Host Societies: The Case Of Yemeni Immigrant Communities In Metro Detroit, Samra Abdulla Nasser

Wayne State University Dissertations

This study is intended to extend our understanding of immigrant political integration by analyzing Yemeni immigrants' attitudes toward integration into North American society, exploring the case of Yemeni-Americans, a group reputedly resistant to integration, in both Dearborn and Hamtramck, Michigan, and comparatively assessing those data with already published data on Lebanese-Americans, retrieved from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Detroit Arab American Study (DAAS). Relying on an existing theoretical framework on immigrant integration based on sociological and cognitive approaches and my own theoretical model on transnational dimensions related to political, economic, and cultural integration, I will examine a series of …

When "Boys Will Not Be Boys": Variations Of Wartime Sexual Violence By Armed Opposition Groups In Sri Lanka, Sierra Leone, And Nepal, Matthew Bolyn Conaway

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

Wartime sexual violence is often assumed to be inevitable during conflict yet empirical evidence indicates that sexual violence varies in type and frequency within and across conflicts as well as among armed groups. A solid understanding of what variable(s) and causal pathway(s) permit the variation of systematic sexual violence in intrastate conflict situations by specific groups has yet to be developed. What factors explain the variation of sexual violence by certain armed opposition groups during conflict situations? This comparative study employs process-tracing and the congruence method to consider the utility of hypotheses drawn from the work of Elisabeth J. Wood …

The Effects Of Social Media On Democratization, Melissa Spinner

Dissertations and Theses

"Within the past decade people around the world have become progressively more aware and interested in the new uses of digital technologies in movements for political change. The technologies have given more people and groups access to information and the tools needed to increase productivity and communication than in the past. As a result of these new digital technologies, the number of people contributing to their civil societies has radically increased. My thesis questions: What is the value of digital activism in the process of democratization around the world? How did those that succeed successfully use these new technologies as …

Iran; A Nuclear Super Power? Understanding Nuclear Ambitions, Lindsey Sera

Dissertations and Theses

"Iran is a nation in flux, with a history of political strife and revolution. The everchanging political atmosphere in the nation has made Iran an unpredictable political actor. It is a nation coping with a new governing system, just a few decades out from a revolution from the reign of the Shah of Iran. The fall of reformism has left the nation politically isolated from the international community. Iran is a nation on the brink of nuclear weapon capabilities and with strained relations there is little comfort in sight for an amicable solution. The conservatives of today's Iran seek independence …

The Third World War: American Hegemony In Latin America And The Overthrow Of Salvador Allende, Samuel Mitchell

CMC Senior Theses

Why has the United States frequently intervened in the affairs of Latin American governments? How have the motivations changed over time, and how have they stayed the same? Are American Presidents more motivated by economic or political threats to hegemony? What methods has the United States used to maintain its dominance over the Western Hemisphere, and how have they changed?

This paper seeks to address all of these questions, using a full historical examination as well as the case study of Salvador Allende's Chile. Drawing upon numerous scholars' work as well as individual research and investigation, this paper seeks to …

Creed Vs. Deed: Secession, Legitimacy, And The Use Of Child Soldiers, Trace C. Lasley

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

The use of child soldiers has troubled human rights activists, policy-makers, and local communities for decades. Although rebellions around the world routinely use children in their activities, many do not. Despite its overwhelming importance for conflict resolution, the topic of child soldiers remains understudied. My research blends classic rational choice and constructivist themes to develop an explanation for when child soldiers will be used, and when they will be avoided.

The likelihood of child recruitment is influenced by the value of international opinion; this is determined by the groups' long-term goals. Secessionist rebellions desire to have their own state. However, …

Understanding French Foreign Policy After The Second World War, Christophe D. Amegan

Masters Theses

This thesis is about providing a general understanding of French foreign policy since the end of the Second World War as suggested by the existing literature on soft power, military interventions, and the promotion of democracy. Even though France came out of the war very weakened, the country over the years has found ways to remain influential on the international scene. France's preference for diplomacy, its reliance on an international institution such as Francophonie, its readiness to intervene militarily when needed, and its support to the promotion of democracy internationally, have all work to preserve France's standing as a middle …

Maritime Pirates And Foreign Terrorist Organizations: Complicit Against The United States And Nato?, William Lusk

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Maritime piracy, a phenomenon which has plagued free maritime trade for thousands of years, has entered a new age of sophistication and global reverberation. These acts of illegal criminal activity in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries yield a significant profit margin for the perpetrators while creating considerable cost for ransom payments, security measures, capital, and human life. The classification of maritime pirates, as either criminals hoping to gain financial income or terrorists hoping to usher in political change, is warranted and compelling. If maritime pirates conduct their operations to institute political change, it is possible that flags of …

Why Open Borders, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The present contribution offers a defence of open borders. It presents a critique of the idea that the state has a justified claim to regulate themovement of people because they reflect the collective endeavours of the members of the state to pursue a shared project of self-rule or self-determination. Itargues that this view rests on an indefensible understanding of the nature of thestate, which should be viewed less as a collective endeavour than as a productof conflicts among political elites. There is a strong prima facie case for freemovement that suggests there should be a presumption in favour of open …

United States' Strategy In Afghanistan From 2001 To Today, Haley Stauss

Pepperdine Policy Review

No abstract provided.

Cyberwar And International Law: An English School Perspective, Anthony F. Sinopoli

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cyberwar challenges future endeavors of state security. As technological capability has improved, and access to information has become more widespread the importance of the issue in today's ever-globalizing world grows each day. A primary objective is to evaluate the place of cyber-warfare against nation-states and any repercussions under an international law paradigm. Utilizing an English School perspective, emphasis will be applied to the argument that disruptive circumstances could come to fruition if international conventions are not created to bring consensus and order among nation-states on this subject. This study hypothesizes that a future application could be an agreement under international …

The Morality Of Humanitarian Interventions, Per Bauhn

International Dialogue

In this paper I develop an argument to the effect that humanitarian moral interventions, far from being inconsistent with the normative framework of just war, fit in very well with the justifying conditions of this framework. The argument develops by considering three objections against humanitarian military interventions, emanating from just war criteria. The criteria in question are just authority, just cause, and non-combatant immunity. It will be argued that while just authority logically depends on just cause and has no independent argumentative force of its own, the criterion of just cause should be understood to include a defence of human …

2011-2012 Us Army War College Key Strategic Issues List, Antulio J. Echevarria Ii

Articles & Editorials

No abstract provided.

Knights Of Justice: Blockbuster Terrorism In Code Geass: Lelouch Of The Revolution, Aaron Choo, Wilson Koh

Re-visioning Terrorism

Sell Unipolarity? The Future Of An Overvalued Concept, Jeffrey W. Legro

Political Science Faculty Publications

For at least the past thirty years, scholarship on international relations has been bewitched by a simple proposition: the polarity of the international system is a central cause of great power strategies and politics. The number of "poles" (dominant countries) in the system is like an invisible fence that shapes states as if they were dogs with electronic collars or a Skinner box that conditions national "rats." States can choose to ignore the fence or box, but if they do, they must pay the consequences. The polarity of the international system as defined by the number of great powers - …

Nuclear Dependence: The Russian Federation's Future Reliance On Nuclear Weapons For National Security, Adam J. Lukszo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Russian Federation‘s reliance on nuclear weapons for national security will steadily increase over time. Based on current evidence and historical data, the Russian state will be unable to recruit, arm, train, equip, reform, and fund their conventional forces well enough to match up with capabilities of what it views to be its potential adversaries. Russia‘s historic experience with invasion and vulnerable geographic position reinforce the need for a powerful weapon with which to maintain the current regime and ensure its territorial integrity. Declining demographics and persistent social illnesses will reduce the number of eligible male candidates able to serve …

The Use Of English-Language Internet Propaganda By The Taliban Insurgency In Afghanistan, 2007–2010, Matthew T. Calvin

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

After nearly a decade of war in Afghanistan, military and government officials have described the propaganda efforts of the Taliban insurgency as increasingly sophisticated and effective. These statements fail to distinguish between insurgent propaganda efforts at the local level and those carried out online and targeted at Western populations. This research investigates the effectiveness of the Taliban's use of English-language media to reach Western populations and shape their own image in a way that furthers their strategic objectives. An analytical approach that combines quantitative analysis performed on a set of Taliban messages from 2007 to 2010 and a deeper, qualitative …

Town-Gown Relations At Providence College: Perspectives And Interactions Between Students And The Local Community, Joe Paola

Global Studies Student Scholarship

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and comment on the relationships that exist between Providence College students and the local Smith Hill‐Elmhurst community. In conducting my research I concentrated mainly on the nuanced perceptions that the students and the local residents have of each other. My main interest was to see how the students defined themselves in relation to the outside community, and in discovering how much their relationship is based upon these perceptions. At the same time, I also aimed to find out what the locals’ opinions were on the place of the students; namely, if they …

Hellfire And Grey Drones: An Empirical Examination Of The Effectiveness Of Targeted Killings, Matthew A. Morehouse

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This study examines the effectiveness of the United States’ targeted killing program. Specifically, do targeted killings work as an effective program for combating global terrorism? This thesis is divided into parts. The first section provides a brief introduction to targeted killings. The second part consists of an examination of targeted killings as an essentially contested concept, arguing that targeted killings can be defined in a manner consistent with the scientific enterprise. The third section contains a thorough review of the literature on targeted killings, demonstrating that there is a dearth of works investigating the actual effectiveness of targeted killings. The …

You'll Never Walk Alone: The Scales Of Identity Of Celtic Football Club Supporters, Neil Conner

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

How and why a person chooses to support a specific sports team/club is more complex than one might imagine. Historically, this selection was primarily established based on a number of socially constructed identities associated with geographic location and the ideas of place and space. This formed a dynamic relationship between the team and the supporter that was relentlessly renegotiated. In today's globalized world, these multifaceted decisions take on additional intricacies as place and space become amplified by growing global cultural exchanges. This ethnographic study will examine how these recent transformations have affected how supporters of the Glasgow Celtic Football Club …

Impact Of Sanctions And Isolation Measurement With North Korea, Burma/Myanmar, Iran And Zimbabwe As Case Studies, Clara Portela

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The present study explores how the introduction of targeted sanctions has transformed the practice of international organisations, looking at the examples of North Korea, Burma/Myanmar, Iran and Zimbabwe.

Although the ultimate effectiveness of the individual sanctions measures can hardly be ascertained, not least due to their co-existence with unilateral sanctions proactively enforced by the US, the analysis demonstrates that the character of sanctions measures, and the changing nature of the international system, has put the use of sanctions and isolation measures in different terms than was the case just a couple of decades ago.

While it is beyond the scope …

Rising Navies And New World Order, Victoria S. Daigle

Senior Honors Projects

Long-term economic and military trends indicate that a shift in the current world order is imminent between the United States and China.  The United States is accustomed to its current position as the leading naval power but this position is increasingly being threatened by emerging Chinese naval power.  Despite their best efforts, the United States has not been able to ease the threat of China’s naval development.  The public and many U.S. policymakers identify China as a major threat to U.S. hegemony and fear China’s growing power will ultimately make the United States weaker. In this paper, I propose that …

1983: The Most Dangerous Year, Andrew R. Garland

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A series of otherwise unrelated events culminated to make 1983 the most dangerous year the world has ever known, with the United States and the Soviet Union even closer to war than during the much more well-known events of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. The crisis of 1983 arose from a sequence of accidents, misunderstandings, and mistakes. From highly publicized events such as President Ronald Reagan‘s application of morality to foreign policy to the Soviet Union‘s attempt to discover NATO‘s secret attack plans, an extraordinary confluence of events brought the two superpowers closer to nuclear exchange than is commonly believed. …

The Origins Of Modern International Chemical Weapons Law, Albert H. Rivero

Maria Dittman Library Research Competition: Student Award Winners

No abstract provided.

Former Soviet Bloc Locales In Africa's Illicit Arms Trade Network, David Todd Kinsella

Political Science Faculty Publications and Presentations

Small arms and light weapons are the primary cause of death in the violent conflicts raging today, but the small arms trade is difficult to track, and the illicit trade in small arms is doubly so. Nevertheless, information is available and research institutes like the Small Arms Survey and the Norwegian Initiative on Small Arms Transfers are at the forefront of efforts to collect and distribute this information. This paper focuses on the illicit arms trade and draws on a database I am developing, the Illicit Arms Transfer Database, which systematizes information contained in journalistic reports on illicit small arms …

Amid The Vipers: Establishing Malware's Position Within The Information Ecosystem, Shawn Louis Everett Robertson

Computer Science and Software Engineering

The paper consists of a detailed examination of malware broken down into three main sections.

1. Introduction: Malware in the World Today. Begins with a definition of terms, examination of the types of malware, research into historical pieces of malicious code, a detailed analysis of the attackers, why malware is so prevalent, and why it is so hard to defend against. This section finishes with a comparison of reasons to create and not to create malware.
2. Background: "Good" Pieces of Malware. Examination of what makes malware effective. Analysis of the existing CVSS standard and proposal of the alternative VIPERS classification system. …

Stretching The Parameters Of Diplomatic Protocol: Incursion Into Public Diplomacy, Shahidul Alam

Exchange: The Journal of Public Diplomacy

The end of the Cold War saw the United States retrenching its public diplomacy program. However, as the sole remaining superpower, it saw the opportunity to spread its values and ideals – particularly those of liberal democracy, human rights, and the free market economy – to those countries that were lacking in them. Paradoxically, intense public diplomacy efforts were required in pursuit of that objective. Traditional diplomats then began to take on public diplomacy functions, but, in so doing, often violated Article 41 of the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. They were mostly from the United States, while the …

The Relation Of Theories Of Jurisprudence To International Politics And Law, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

In this essay we shall be concerned with the real world relevance of theories of international law; that is, with the question of the theories themselves as a factor in international decision-making. To do this it is first necessary to review briefly the substance of the jurisprudential debate among legal scholars, then to view some basic jurisprudential ideas as factors in international views of "law," and finally to reach the question of the operative difference a study of these theories might make in world politics.

Ambivalent Sovereignty: Inquiries Into The Dual Foundation Of Political Realism's Subject, Paul Timmermans

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Ambivalent Sovereignty inquires into the subject of political realism. This subject, sovereign authority, appears to have a dual foundation. It appears divided against itself, but how can realism nonetheless observe legitimate modes of sovereignty emerge? Against the liberal idea that a "synthesis" of both material-coercive and ideal-persuasive powers should be accomplished, within the world of international relations, realism gives meaning to a structural type of state power that is also constitutionally and legitimately dividing itself--against itself. Machiavelli but particularly also other realists such as Hannah Arendt, Max Weber, and Aristotle are being reinterpreted to demonstrate why each state's ultimate authority …

Aware: Analyzing The Impact Of An Anti-Human Trafficking Advocacy Curriculum Using Sixth Grade Students In Colorado, Alex Kornelius Monroe

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Human trafficking is an international problem that penetrates every society on the globe. Trafficking in children for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation, forced labor, and domestic servitude occurs in every state of the United States. Education is key in preventing human trafficking and American students lack proper knowledge of the issue. This study seeks to bridge this shortcoming through the creation and implementation of a holistic anti-trafficking advocacy curriculum that not only informs and motivates students and educators toward advocacy, but also meets Colorado state academic standards. Case studies using sixth grade students in Denver show the impact that …