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You Say You Want A (Nonviolent) Revolution, Well Then What? Translating Western Thought, Strategic Ideological Cooptation, And Institution Building For Freedom For Governments Emerging Out Of Peaceful Chaos, Donald J. Kochan Mar 2012

You Say You Want A (Nonviolent) Revolution, Well Then What? Translating Western Thought, Strategic Ideological Cooptation, And Institution Building For Freedom For Governments Emerging Out Of Peaceful Chaos, Donald J. Kochan

Donald J. Kochan

With nonviolent revolution in particular, displaced governments leave a power and governance vacuum waiting to be filled. Such vacuums are particularly susceptible to what this Article will call “strategic ideological cooptation.” Following the regime disruption, peaceful chaos transitions into a period in which it is necessary to structure and order the emergent governance scheme. That period in which the new government scheme emerges is particularly fraught with danger when growing from peaceful chaos because nonviolent revolutions tend to be decentralized, unorganized, unsophisticated, and particularly vulnerable to cooptation. Any external power wishing to influence events in societies emerging out of peaceful …


The Un "Surrogate State" And The Foundation Of Refugee Policy In The Middle East, Michael Kagan Jan 2012

The Un "Surrogate State" And The Foundation Of Refugee Policy In The Middle East, Michael Kagan

Scholarly Works

Many challenges surrounding refugee protection relate to a de facto shift of responsibility from sovereign governments to the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) to directly administer refugee policy. This phenomenon is legally anomalous, and it is UNHCR policy to avoid the operation of such "parallel structures." Yet the existence of a UN "surrogate state" offers important advantages to some host governments, which makes state-to- UNHCR responsibility shift difficult to reverse. Using the Arab Middle East as a case study, this article argues that, while not ideal, UNHCR's state substitution role offers important symbolic and material benefits to governments that host refugees …