Digital Commons Network^™

Sri Lanka, Amanda Donahoe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Sri Lanka has been entrenched in a civil war for two decades. As in ethnic conflicts in many other post-colonial countries, the different groups of Sri Lanka give loyalty primarily to the group, rather than to the entire country. The Sinhalese majority have slowly populated the government and treated the Tamil minority as a threat to national stability, instead of as candidates for conciliation and power sharing. Consequently, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has taken up arms against the Sinhalese controlled government to fight for an independent homeland in the north and north-east parts of the country in …

Equality News (Winter 2005-2006), Matthew R. Dubois

Equality news / EqualityMaine (2004-2008)

No abstract provided.

Cultural And Individual Influences On Foreign Policy, Emine Sunduz Demir

Masters Theses

The principle aim of this thesis is to examine how strategic culture affects foreign policy decision-making, as contrasted to the particular decree of influence the individuals have on the foreign policy process in the concept of an immediate extended deterrence. This thesis is based on three case studies that are tested separately using both Cha's notion of strategic culture and Allison's Bureaucratic Politics Model in order to find which model (if any) best explains foreign policy decision making. Cases are: The SemiVietnamese War in 1979 and Deng Xiaoping, the Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1996 and Jiang Zemin, and the Kosovo …

Ethnicity And Religion: An Inquiry Into The Origin And Nature Of Conflicts In Nigeria, Ugochukwu Chrys. Nwabueze

Masters Theses

The policy goal of a Pax Nigeriana in the African continent is hardly realizable without a focused confrontation by Nigeria of its own security deficits. A security and politically deficient Nigeria will have nothing to offer the African continent in terms of peace and political stability if it cannot by example overcome its own accidental and structural flaws.

With this in mind, the work sets out to address the origin, nature and resolution of conflict in Nigeria. Before adequate resolution therapy could be recommended for violent conflicts in Nigeria, any intending researcher must of necessity address the origin and nature …

Politics, Rights, And The Refugee Problem, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

In The Origins of Totalitarianism, the political philosopher Hannah Arendt pointed to the years between World War I and World War II as the time when the plight of refugees became a pressing political problem.' If Arendt were still alive (she died in 1975), she would no doubt agree that the problem is at least as pressing in the early twenty-first century as it was sixty or more years ago, when she herself was a refugee from Nazi Germany. Who would not agree? According to a report of the U.N. Population Division, 16 million people were refugees at the …

Argentina Is Deity And Juan Domingo Perón Its High Priest: The 'Politics Is Religion' Metaphor In Perón's Political Discourse, 1946-1952, Deborah Berho

Faculty Publications - Department of Sociology

This essay examines how charismatic former president of Argentina Juan Domingo Perón used the metaphor 'politics is religion' in his political discourse.

The Influence Of Presidential Operational Code Beliefs On U.S. Foreign Policy Actions In The Middle East, Samuel Robison

LSU Master's Theses

Empirical research on U.S. foreign policy has largely assumed that the president’s influence is subordinate to global and domestic political constraints. This idea is given further weight by the fact that, even within the political psychology literature, there is scant large-n, quantitative evidence supporting the notion that leaders matter. This study is an attempt to explore the influence of U.S. presidential psychological characteristics on foreign policy actions through assessment of two operational code constructs: “image of the political universe” (P-1), and “strategic preferences” (I-1). This is assessed through an extensive sample of operational code beliefs for every president from Ronald …

Common Sense Philosophy And Politics In America: John Witherspoon, James Mccosh, And William James, Scott Philip Segrest

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the political significance of the two leading strains of common sense thought in the history of American philosophy—Scottish Common Sense and Pragmatism—as suggested in the writings of John Witherspoon and James McCosh in the Scottish Common Sense line, and of the more famous co-founder of Pragmatism, William James. These two strains of American common sense are placed in context of the larger Western common sense tradition. Each is shown to aim at finding a solid middle ground epistemologically between skeptical doubt and idealistic certitude that could serve as a stable basis for moral and political life. Witherspoon, …

The Spouse In The House: What Explains The Marriage Gap In Canada?, J. Matthew Wilson, Michael Lusztig

Political Science Research

A literature has emerged in American voting studies noting a “marriage gap”—the propensity for married voters to support the Republican party. Using Canadian Election Study data, we establish the existence of a significant marriage gap in Canada. We also seek to determine if the marriage gap is driven by socio-demographic factors or attitudinal ones. We find that while socio-demographic factors contribute to the marriage gap, they explain relatively little variance. In probing the attitudinal basis of the marriage gap further, we find that married Canadians differ from the unwed very strongly on issues of moral traditionalism, but much less so …

Finding The Door In The Mirage: The Politics Of Cultural Change In Mongolia, Evan Buxbaum

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

In 1996, as the Mongolian delegation entered the Olympic arena in Atlanta, a Russian announcer let his tongue slip and heralded the country as a true independent nation, because nobody depends on them. The comment triggered a scandal which was suppressed under a deluge of meaningless public apologies, yet merely eight years later, the Russian announcer’s insult seems to barely even apply anymore. With Mongolia’s entrance into the international community of interdependents, free from dictatorial control for the first time during the age of globalization, it has plunged into an era of change. The outcome of this transitional period will …

Are You For Bush Or For Kerry? A Discourse Analytical Study Of The Russian Mass Media Response To The 2004 United States Presidential Elections., Matthew Thomas Calvin

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This research project seeks to combine a Russian Language component with a look at Russian foreign politics by performing a discourse analytical study of the Russian mass media reaction to the November 2004 United States Presidential elections. Discourse analysis is a method by which a language or speech sample is analyzed to discover the greater social and societal meanings and implications hidden within those words. The attempt was made to gain a greater understanding of Russian society and culture through an analysis of answers given to the question “Are you for Bush or for Kerry?”, posed to various members of …

Advocate, October 2004, Vol. [16], No. [2], Gc Advocate

The Advocate

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Scaffolding Ads Remain Despite Expired Deadline. Andrew Kennis (p. 1)

GC Students Win Right to Use Baruch Gym. James Trimarco (p. 1)

AELLA Bakes for the People of Haiti. Valeria Treves (p. 1)

Contents (p. 1)

Editorial: A Generation Comes of Age (p. 2)

Short Takes: CUNY Adopts Master Plan. CUNY Board of Trustees (p. 2)

Nuclear Double Standard in the Middle East. Jae Kim (p. 6)

Hierarchies in Bike Culture, Part II. Will Weikart (p. 10)

Conference Review: Old Bottles / New Wine: Renewing the Anarchist Tradition. Will Weikart (p. 11)

Some Facts About Hummers (p. …

The Return Of The Sick Man Of Europe: A Study Of The Political, Economical And Cultural Grounds For/Against The Entrance Of Turkey To The European Union As Viewed By Turkish Immigrants And Germans Living In Berlin, Ursula A. Arno

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

On 17 December 2004, the European Council will decide whether to enter into membership negotiation with Turkey. In the following sections the political, economical and cultural reasons for and against Turkey’s accession will be examined. The views of both Germans and Turks living in Berlin will be discussed. Following this synopsis, it will be argued that the underlying grounds for not welcoming Turkey into the EU are cultural. Consequently, the study of the Turkey-EU debate will be indicative of the issues that the EU as a supranational organization has.

The Case For Clumsiness, Michael Thompson, Marco Verweij

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Most climatologists agree that by burning fossil fuels and engaging in other forms of consumption and production we are increasing the amount of greenhouse gases that float around in the atmosphere. These gases, in trapping some of the sun’s heat, warm the earth and enable life. The trouble is, some predict, that if we continue to accumulate those gases, over the course of the new century the average temperature on earth will rise and local climates will change, with possibly catastrophic consequences. Will this indeed happen? If so, should we do something about it? And if yes, what and when? …

Ashok Kumar Malhotra. Instant Nirvana: Americanization Of Mysticism And Meditation., Michael Andregg

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Toward A New Constitutional Anatomy, Victoria Nourse

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

There is an important sense in which our Constitution's structure is not what it appears to be--a set of activities or functions or geographies, the 'judicial" or the "executive" or the "legislative" power, the "truly local and the truly national. "Indeed, it is only if we put these notions to the side that we can come to grips with the importance of the generative provisions of the Constitution: the provisions that actually create our federal government; that bind citizens, through voting, to a House of Representatives, to a Senate, to a President, and even, indirectly, to a Supreme Court. In …

A Tournament Of Judges?, Stephen Choi, Mitu Gulati

Faculty Scholarship

We suggest a Tournament of Judges where the reward to the winner is elevation to the Supreme Court. Politics (and ideology) surely has a role to play in the selection of justices. However, the present level of partisan bickering has resulted in delays in judicial appointments as well as undermined the public's confidence in the objectivity of justices selected through such a process. More significantly, much of the politicking is not transparent, often obscured with statements on a particular candidate's "merit"- casting a taint on all those who make their way through the judicial nomination process. We argue that the …

Access To Health, Natalie Huls

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Access to health is an often-overlooked aspect of the right to health. Without practical access, the right to health becomes an empty promise. International human rights conventions and declarations do not directly mention access to health, but the above comment on the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights does address the issue.

Proportional Representation Electoral Systems And Indigenous Representation: Case Studies From Bolivia, Ecuador, And Peru, Arne Romanowski

Masters Theses

The central question of this analysis is how the proportional representation electoral systems in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru are linked to indigenous political representation. I argue that the electoral system and its affect on party structures and party development are part of the reason why indigenous people, who make up a great part of the population in these three countries, are chronically under-represented in their political systems. In these case studies, district and national level data from the two most recent elections for the national legislatures was analyzed in terms of indigenous party formation and success. The study concludes that …

Social Underdevelopment In Sub-Saharan Africa, Michelle L. Wingo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For the past thirty years Africa has produced a more noticeably inferior reserve of human capital than other developing regions. This is puzzling because at the inception of independence, the future of Africa looked promising. However, during the 1970s both the political and economic situation in Africa began to deteriorate, and since 1980, the aggregate per capita GDP in sub-Saharan Africa has declined at almost one percent per fiscal year. Thirty-two countries are poorer now than they were twenty years ago, and sub-Saharan Africa is now the lowest-income region in the world despite the fact that during the last two …

Whose Right Is It Anyway? Rethinking A Group Rights Approach To International Human Rights, Peter Zwiebach

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Rethinking Human Rights for the New Millennium by A. Belden Fields. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003. 244pp.

and

International Human Rights in the 21st Century: Protecting the Rights of Groups edited by James Mayall and Gene M. Lyons. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. 240pp.

Nationalism And Multiculturalism, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

If any issue dominates contemporary political theory, it is how to deal with cultural diversity and the claims –moral, legal, and political – made in the name of ethnic, religious, linguistic, or national allegiance (Kymlicka,2001: 17). Today, governments are confronted by demands from cultural minorities for recognition, protection,preferential treatment, and political autonomy within the boundaries of the state. Equally, international societyand its political institutions, as well as states themselves, have had to deal with demands from various peoplesfor political recognition as independent nations, and for national self-determination. The turbulent politics ofthe contemporary world may account in part for this development: …

Globalization: New Challenges, Cornelio Sommargua, Robert Jackson, Ramu Damodaran, Philip Bobbitt

New England Journal of Public Policy

From the EPIIC Symposium at Tufts University. These articles speak about topics on war and the effects that the UN has on it, sovereignity, and human rights to name a few.

Worldview And Culture: Leadership In Sub-Sahara Africa, Betsie Smith

New England Journal of Public Policy

The traditional worldview and culture of Africa was very different from that of the West today: man was at the center of a religious universe; time was generally felt to be under the control of man, not the reverse; the belief that the dead are able to influence the living enhanced reverence for the elderly; a belief in collectivism was far stronger than a belief in individualism. Colonial- ism, the Cold War, and three decades following independence upset the traditional African worldview and created bewildering frictions within the political, economic, and social wellbeing of the continent. The role of African …

Commentary On Philosophy And Aviation Security, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article outlines how the formal study of philosophy can be applied to aviation security, considering the merits of the inclusion of philosophers in the international working groups tasked with discerning and commenting on aviation security trends and their relevance for intelligence and security activities.

Trends. Commentary On “The Influence Component Of Counterterrorism: A Systems Approach, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This Trends article discusses the guiding principles for and challenges to a conceptual framework for deterring terrorism against the United States and its interests as presented by Paul Davis and Brian Jenkins in the Spring 2003 issue of Rand Review.

Discourse Of Evil: Speaking Terrorism To Silence, Galip Isen

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

That the impact of terrorism is equal to the reaction it elicits may be a truism, but one that deserves further probing as demonstrated by the way that reaction is put to use politically. Whichever of 150-strong definitions [1] is accepted, the consequential aspect of terrorism is ideational: the assault targets the concept and experience of normal in the lives and minds of ordinary people. Several writers argue that terrorism is generally inefficacious, strategically counterproductive and mostly unsuccessful as a method of attaining socio-political objectives [2]. However, overall public response to 11 September 2001 has been so profound …

The Electronic Polis: Media Democracy And The Invasion Of Iraq, Jeff Lewis, Kirsty Best

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

The American-led victory in Baghdad was announced to the world with scenes of Iraqi citizens dragging down the statues of the deposed tyrant. Like the spectacle of World Cup Soccer or the Olympic Games, the image was transmitted live through the global media network to the billions of people who had been closely watching the three week invasion. President Bush shared in the celebration, announcing the dawn of a new age for freedom and democracy in the Middle East. This new democracy, the president proclaimed, would bring stability and prosperity to the region through the obliteration of terrorism …

The Cia World Factbook: Marriage Of Archive And Empire?, Jack Shuler

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture

[First paragraph]

A recent exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art cites the production of textiles as integral in establishing the power of the Mongol empire. In the accompanying notes to the exhibit, the museum curators write that, In the creation of luxury textiles and objects for the Mongol elite, Chinese artists developed a visual language that was an effective means of establishing their rule and continuous presence throughout the vast empire. These artists used certain motifs such as the dragon and phoenix, to create tangible representations of power. The mythical beasts integrated the ideas of cosmic force, earthly strength, …

Lying And Logic On Iraqi Weapons Of Mass Destruction And Linkages To Al Qaeda, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author examines the following question in this article: Did the Bush administration lie in asserting that Iraq had operational weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and linkages to al Qaeda?