Digital Commons Network^™

Use It Or Lose It: Canadian Identity And The Construction Of Arctic Security Policy, Michael P. Mccormack

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the specific factors that drive state action in Canadian Arctic security policy, particularly in relation to securitization of the Arctic region and historical factors that influence decision-making. The purpose of this research is to develop stronger linkages between securitization processes and actual policymaking. When studying the Arctic as a defined geographical space, we see considerable differences between Arctic states when it comes to how cultural and historical attachment to the Arctic region may serve as a selling point for the ability of national governments to justify allocation of defense resources to their respective publics. Using the Canadian …

Achieving And Maintaining Food Security In The Prc: The Impact On Foreign Policy, Paul D. Rittenhouse

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how the People’s Republic of China has used domestic and foreign policy to achieve and maintain food security. This is a formidable task for the PRC given that it has 20% of the world’s population and only 7% of its arable land. It has been made more formidable by domestic policy errors and its changing position within the international system.

The PRC has evolved from a Marxist revisionist state to one that mixes state capitalism and free enterprise and has become a combination of revisionist and status quo. Such changes lend …

Parenting For Progress: Reflections On Matt Ross’S Captain Fantastic, Bryant W. Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Matt Ross's film Captain Fantastic explores the difficulties of raising one's kids to be critical of modern capitalistic society. This essay explores the parenting lessons that can be taken from the film in connection with contemporary politics and protest movements. As people who are concerned with social justice, this essay attempts to think through the question: how should we be raising our children in these tormented, unjust times?

Trump’S Ponzi Scheme Victory, Ronald W. Cox

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Donald Trump campaigned as an economic nationalist but has surrounded himself with a transnational corporate transition team that supports policies of neoliberal capitalism. These include tax breaks for the rich and for corporations, further privatization of public services, deregulation and the reduction of the social safety net. Trump used the rhetoric of an "anti-politician" to conceal his real policy agenda, and appealed directly to sections of the white working class that rejected Hillary Clinton's corporate centrism.

Black Lives Matter Or, How To Think Like An Anarchist, Joaquin A. Pedroso

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Since February of 2012 a social movement clamoring for racial justice took the country by storm. Black Lives Matter (BLM) evolved into a movement and a diffuse network of social justice activists who have worked tirelessly to both reform the inherently discriminatory and abusive police practices endemic to the American justice system and sought to build alternative forms of community that would immediately improve the lives of black people in America. Members of the conservative establishment have called out Black Lives matter as being "anarchist" in nature. Indeed, these conservative critics are right in more ways than one. BLM approaches …

My Students Are Terrified: Teaching In The Days After Trump, Bryant W. Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

After the election of Donald Trump, politically-engaged teaching has taken on a new importance--and difficulty. We don't know what Trump's presidency will mean in terms of policy, but we do know what that presidency already stands for: bigotry, exclusion, hate, and injustice. This short piece is an autoethnography of the author's initial experience teaching shortly after Trump's victory and his thoughts on how we should proceed politically, inside and outside the classroom.

Us Foreign Policy, Business Ngos And Low-Intensity Democracy, Ronald W. Cox

Class, Race and Corporate Power

U.S. intervention in developing countries has routinely enlisted the assistance of corporate NGOs whose activities in civil society are often an extension of U.S. policy objectives. The pattern of collaboration between the U.S. government and NGOs has included electoral intervention, destabilization campaigns, and support for pro-U.S. governing coalitions. The U.S.-NGO relationship has also been used to legitimize elections in highly militarized environments where conflict between opposing interests undermines democratic accountability.

Nationalism As A Process For Making The Desired Identity Salient: Bosnian Muslims Become Bosniaks, Mirsad Krijestorac

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study is concerned with the particular relationship between the process of nationalism and a group’s salient identity. It proposes that nationalism as the independent variable serves as a principal factor and facilitator for a change of identity, which is seen as the dependent variable. The Bosnian Muslim emergence as an independent nation with the new salient Bosniak identity was used as a case study to test the main proposition.

The inquiry was completed through a mixed research method, using grounded theory and the historic process tracing technique, a large survey analysis collected specifically for this study, and a logistic …

Disaster Capitalism: Empirical Evidence From Latin America And The Caribbean, Ransford F. Edwards Jr.

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Natural disasters are uniquely transformative events. They can drastically transform physical terrain and the lives of those unfortunate enough to be caught in their wrath. However, natural disasters also provide an opportunity to reflect on past failures and, at times, a clean slate to correct those shortcomings. This project takes a political economic approach and recognizes natural disasters as occasions for agenda-setting on behalf of transnational commercial enterprises and market-oriented policy elites. These reformers often use the post-disaster policy space to articulate long-term development strategies based on market fundamentalism, and, more importantly, advance a set of policies consistent with their …

The Politics Of Democratization: Jean-Bertrand Aristide And The Lavalas Movement In Haiti, Dimmy Herard

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As the 29-year Duvalier dictatorship ended in 1986, the emergence of Mouvement Lavalas out of the grassroots organizations of Haiti's poor majority, and election of charismatic priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 1990, challenged efforts by Haitian political parties and the U.S. foreign policy establishment to contain the parameters of Haiti's democratic transition. This dissertation examines the politics of Lavalas to determine whether it held a particular conception of democracy that explains the movement's antagonistic relationship with the political parties and U.S. democracy promoters.

Using the qualitative methodology of process-tracing outlined in the works of Paul F. Steinberg (2004) and Tulia G. …

Exponential Capacity Of Power And Its Impact On The Military Alliance Dynamics, Nikoloz G. Esitashvili

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Cold War ended in 1991, yet the North Atlantic Treaty Organization still persists. This outcome defies paradoxically two exceedingly important facts: First, NATO’s central and greatest geostrategic rival—the Soviet Union—disappeared a quarter of a century ago. Second, China and Russia are insufficiently capable to individually challenge and counterbalance NATO’s military supremacy and conventional military might. From a theoretical perspective, in the absence of an immediate threat and/or the need to counterbalance relative power, International Relations alliance theory would posit the dissolution of military alliances. Nonetheless, NATO continues to endure. This study seeks to elucidate the strategic factors generating this …

The Western Sahara And The Search For The Roots Of Sahrawi National Identity, David Suarez

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work is a socio-historical study of the roots of Sahrawi national identity. The Sahrawi are a community of people who live in the Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony. Most of its territory has been occupied since 1975 by Morocco, which denies the existence of a distinctive population inhabiting the Western Sahara. In contrast, the POLISARIO Front, vanguard of the Sahrawi nationalist movement, argues that the Western Sahara belongs to the Sahrawi and seeks its full independence. It bases its claims on the notion of a distinctive history, language, and culture for the Sahrawi, separate from that of Moroccans. …

Explaining China's Contradictory Grand Strategy: Why Legitimacy Matters, Lukas K. Danner

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzed the internal incoherence of China’s grand strategy. To do so, it used the cultural driver of honor to explain the contradictory behavior of China, which ranges from peaceful, responsible international actor to assertive, revisionist rising power with hegemonic ambitions. The central research question asked why China often diverges from Peaceful Development, thus leading to major contradictions as well as possible misperceptions on the part of other nations. Honor was the standard of reference that was utilized and examined in order to establish congruence and coherence between deed and praxis. Accordingly, the first hypothesis of this study posited …

Response To Daniel Skidmore-Hess On The “Bankruptcy Of Liberalism And Social Democracy In The Neoliberal Age”, Ronald W. Cox

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Ronald W. Cox writes a response to Daniel Skidmore-Hess' reply to Cox's "The Bankruptcy of Social Democracy and Liberalism in the Neoliberal Age," which was originally published in CRCP Volume 3, Issue 1.

The “Bankruptcy” Of Liberalism And Social Democracy In The Neoliberal Age: A Response To Ronald W. Cox, Daniel Skidmore-Hess

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Daniel Skidmore-Hess writes a response to an earlier Perspectives article written by Ronald W. Cox titled "The Bankruptcy of Social Democracy and Liberalism in the Neoliberal Age," Volume 3, Issue 1. Cox then responds to Skidmore-Hess in a follow-up Perspectives article.

Anarchy And Anti-Intellectualism: Reason, Foundationalism, And The Anarchist Tradition, Joaquin A. Pedroso

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Some contemporary anarchist scholarship has rejected the Enlightenment-inspired reliance on reason that was supposedly central to classical anarchist thought and expanded the anarchist critique to address issues ignored by their classical predecessors. In making reason the object of critique, some contemporary anarchists expanded the anarchist framework to include critiques of domination residing outside the traditional power centers of the state, the capitalist firm, and the church thereby shedding light on the authoritarian tendencies inherent in the intellect itself.

Though contemporary anarchist scholarship has sought to apply this anti-authoritarian ethos to the realms of epistemology and ontology (by employing Michel Foucault’s …

Capital Revenge: Ideologiekritik And The Revenant, Bryant W. Sculos

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Though superficially The Revenant is an expertly written, acted, and directed new age Western about one man's wild quest for revenge. It is all of those things to be sure, but this critical review essay goes deeper and explores the ideological dimensions of the film, arguing that the film's main antagonist is actually a capitalistic hero representing the mindless application of the endless drive for profit and wealth. Furthermore, this essay concludes with the dialectical assertion that it is precisely because of the audience's situatedness within the ideological confines of capitalism that they are able to view the antagonist as …

Another Politics (Book Review), Chris Hardnack Phd

Class, Race and Corporate Power

What are the main political articulations of today's radical movements in North America? In a review of Chris Dixon's Another Politics these questions are addressed in terms of the influence of anti-racist, feminism, anarchism, and prison abolition movements, and how a new form of radical leftists politics is emerging across the continent.

Marx At The Gold Coast: Reflections On Teaching And The Confrontation With Ideology, Allan Ardill

Class, Race and Corporate Power

This article engages with Marx in Miami and the strategies and pedagogical experiences of teaching Marx and Marxism. It relates the experience of teaching Marxism in a compulsory law course at the Gold Coast, Australia. Marx rarely makes an appearance in law schools and this poses particular challenges when it is taught to politically conservative students. Therefore the article supplies a case for teaching Marx arguing why it is not just appropriate for lawyers but irresponsible to exclude it.

Religion And Class, Joerg Rieger

Class, Race and Corporate Power

While analyses of gender, ethnicity, and race have become widely accepted and are put to use in religious and theological studies, this is not the case with the notion of class. Despite the fact that race, gender, and class are often mentioned together, there is very little sustained reflection on class. Reflections on race and gender in religious and theological studies, while addressing issues of power, rarely include reflections on class. In the rare cases when class is addressed, especially in the United States, it is connected to notions of poverty, social stratification, or income differentials, which are insufficient at …

The Political Economy Of A Transnational Elite In The [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council (Gcc), Seyed Ahmad Mirtaheri

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Transnational elites are sometimes considered a dominant political and economic force in shaping the global economy. Their impact, however, may differ from one region to another. This article analyzes the transnational elites in the [Persian] Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in order to determine the regional and global significance of their political and economic power. Three factors are important in this regard. The first is the significant role played by petrodollars controlled by the GCC’s transnational elite. The second factor is the visible participation of the Western educational system in the GCC. The third factor is the presence of a transnational …

Transnational Capitalism And The Middle East: Understanding The Transnational Elites Of The Gulf Cooperation Council, Seyed Ahmad Mirtaheri

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, I argue that transnational elites within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have been integrated within a Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC) economically, militarily and politically through relationships that transcend the boundaries of the nation-state. These relationships exist within the context of a global capitalist structure of accumulation that is dependent on the maintenance of a repressive state apparatus in the GCC. There have been few attempts to analyze the relationships that Middle Eastern political and economic elites have developed with global elite networks. This work fills an important gap in the scholarly literature by linking the political and …

The Gender Problem Of Buddhist Nationalism In Myanmar: The 969 Movement And Theravada Nuns, Grisel D'Elena

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis uses transnational and Black feminist frameworks to analyze Buddhist nationalist discourses of gender and violence against religious and ethnic minorities in Myanmar. Burmese Buddhist nationalists’ marginalization of the Muslim Rohingya ethnic minority is inextricably linked to their attempts to control Buddhist women. Research includes interviews with U Ashin Wirathu, the leader of the monastic-led nationalist group, the 969 Movement, and with other monks of the organization, as well as with non-nationalist monks, nuns and laywomen. I also analyze Theravada textual discourse as read by my subjects in light of the history of Myanmar to understand the ways the …

Status Competition Between The U.S. And China On The Stage Of Africa, Vanessa C. Leon

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This case study traced the American reaction to Chinese activities in Africa from the year 2000 to the present. Two keys to understanding how this reaction might unfold were power-transition theory, which predicts that rising states will challenge the hegemon in an international system in order to revise the rules, and status-based competition theories.

The U.S. appeared delayed in reacting to competition in Africa from its rising challenger there, China, until it understood that competition to be status-based. A clear, progressive reaction on the part of American leaders was traced. First, there was a split between the reactions of members …

History, Identity Politics And Securitization: Religion's Role In The Establishment Of Indian-Israeli Diplomatic Relations And Future Prospects For Cooperation, Michael Mclean Bender

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to provide an understanding of the historical and contemporary dynamics of India’s foreign policy towards Israel within the context of religious identity from 1947 to 2015. A historical analysis of the relationship between India and Israel exhibits the ways that religious identity has served as a primary factor impeding as well as facilitating relations between the two nations.

The analysis was done within the context of the historical Hindu-Muslim relationship in India and how the legacy of this relationship, in India’s effort to maintain positive relations with the Arab-Muslim world, worked to inhibit relations with Israel prior …

China And The Eu: Development Competitors Or Partners?, Lukas K. Danner

Lukas K. Danner

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