Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Beyond Recognition: The Significance Of External Legitimacy For De Facto States In The Global Arena, Megan K. Payler Ms

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation investigates the concept of external legitimacy and its implications for de facto states in the international system. Previous research on state recognition has primarily relied on United Nations recognition as a binary measure, neglecting the nuanced variation in the external legitimacy of de facto states. To address this gap, this study introduces a new External Legitimacy Dataset and develops a comprehensive measure of external legitimacy. Using this dataset, the study demonstrates the utility of the measure by providing latent estimates for 31 de facto states and predicting violence based on their level of external legitimacy. The results indicate …

Nato Cyber Defence, 2000-2022, Ryan J. Atkinson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The emergence of more devastating and organized cyber attacks by non-attributable threat actors internationally raises questions about whether classical deterrence theory in its contemporary form has assisted important military defence alliances, like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), to adapt to the changing threat landscape. The timeline of the NATO Alliance's adaptation to external cyber threats is examined at critical historical junctures. Changes and adaptation within internal policy-making processes at NATO headquarters and its affiliated centres, think tanks, and military bases are analysed with input from informed decision-makers. The research project demonstrates that NATO policy substantively changed over the period …

The Ambiguity In International Law And Its Effect On Drone Warfare And Cyber Security, Amina Khan

MA Major Research Papers

Drone warfare and artificial intelligence have considerably shaped cybersecurity and international law over the years. The rapid growth of technology has slowly forced entry into the international and domestic affairs of states. How countries conduct surveillance and practice defence does not look the way it did many years ago. One must observe how the rule of law is affected by technological advancement at the international level where many complexities are seen to rise to the surface. Balancing domestic and international law comes into question when drones and artificial intelligence become key components in state affairs that transcend geographical borders. This …

How Can Local Transitional Justice Mechanisms Work Towards Measures Of Non-Recurrence?, Isaac Bayor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation examines questions of local agency and inclusion. It develops a conceptual understanding of whether, and if so how, local customary justice mechanisms could serve as guarantees of non-recurrence. It looks at how grassroots practices of “justice” could be utilized at the community level to deter the commission of future abuses and prevent the repetition of violent conflict, especially where the state has been completely absent. It specifically explores Acholi indigenous and customary practices of peacemaking and justice in Northern Uganda to understand how local practices could secure a lasting peace and cement communities’ commitment to peaceful coexistence.

While …

Explaining The Origins And Evolution Of The Global Financial Inclusion Agenda, Tyler Girard

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The idea of “financial inclusion,” understood as the access to and use of a broad range of retail financial services (including bank accounts, payment services, credit, and insurance) by everyone in society, emerged as a global priority in the late 2000s. Financial inclusion now features prominently in global economic governance and the activities of disparate international organizations, states, businesses, and civil society organizations. This dissertation asks: what explains the origins and evolution of the global financial inclusion agenda? Existing scholarship often emphasizes the interests and power of Western states and businesses, asymmetric debt and power relations, and the centrality of …

“One Of The Most Elaborate Doping Ploys In Sports History”: The Impact Of The 2016 Russian Doping Scandal On Anti-Doping, Wada And Athletes’ Rights, Mikael J. Gonsalves

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation analyzes the impacts of the 2016 Russian doping scandal from a philosophical and historical perspective. This dissertation’s second chapter, the article entitled (1) “The Brave New World of Athletes’ Rights: A Canadian Perspective on Significant Shifts for the World Anti- Doping Agency” in time for the World Anti-Doping Agency’s (WADA) 20 th anniversary, puts into words the new investigative reality of contemporary anti-doping. It explains a new attitude of anti-doping authorities in response to the ‘game-changing’ Russian manipulation of samples, what has been described as “one of the most elaborate doping ploys in sports history” 1 (Icarus, 2016) …

From Stateless People To Citizens: The Reformulation Of Territory And Identity In India-Bangladesh Border Enclaves, Md Rashedul Alam

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This dissertation analyzes nation-building in hitherto ungoverned territories of two Indian chhitmahals in Bangladesh and explores the transformation of their residents from stateless Indian nationals to citizens of Bangladesh. Chhitmahals comprised nearly two hundred enclaves located along the Bangladesh-India border that belonged to one country but were located inside another’s territory. Chhitmahals came into existence with the partition of India in 1947; their non-contiguous locations kept them without state administration and citizenship rights. People developed political councils and adopted illicit practices to survive in the absence of the state, but the impossibility of exercising sovereignty in chhitmahals led Bangladesh and …

Global Governance And Imperial Entanglements: Competition, Cooperation, And Catastrophe In Anglo-Italian Relations, 1922-1940, Jessi Gilchrist

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study reconsiders the road to war narrative by focusing on cooperation rather than conflict in Anglo-Italian relations. I link international and imperial historical methods in order to examine British and Italian efforts to cooperate over their clashing interests in empire between 1922 and 1940. By comparing six case studies drawn from British and Italian archives, this thesis explains why the two governments pursued cooperation over empire; how imperial methods facilitated or challenged cooperation; and what this tells us about the global order and the norms that governed it during the interwar years.Three case studies highlight imperial spaces where cooperation …

Exhuming Norms: Examining The Influence Of International Norms On The Independent Commission For The Location Of Victims’ Remains In Northern Ireland, Tamara Kathleen Hinan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Forced disappearances are crimes against humanity that occur when individuals disappear, often occurring during a period of political conflict. During the Troubles in Northern Ireland, the conflict among Irish nationalists and British unionists between 1968 and 1998, 16 people were disappeared by Irish nationalist paramilitary forces. In 1999, the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains (ICLVR) was established to investigate the disappearances, locate the remains and return the victims to their families.

The ICLVR is not the first institution to conduct forensic human rights investigations into forced disappearances, these investigations have become the standard approach internationally. However, little …

Nato's Security Sector Reform In Afghanistan, Sakhi Naimpoor

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This study aims to understand the security policy of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and investigate whether NATO’s Security Sector Reform (SSR) approach in Afghanistan was a mixed record of success and failure between 2003 and 2014. In terms of NATO’s SSR approach in Afghanistan, what worked, what did not work, and why did certain aspects of SSR fail? The analysis sheds light on the policy-relevant, logistic and doctrinal intricacies associated with NATO’s now almost twenty-year record of involvement in Afghanistan, as well as liberal institutionalism’s policy relevance. This research benefits the security policy community by asking whether NATO's …

The Sino-Lankan Relationship: Challenging Liberal Foundations Of Transitional Justice, Thurka Brabaharan

MA Major Research Papers

Sri Lanka continues to demonstrate the challenges of implementing legitimate transitional justice mechanisms in a post-conflict state ruled by its victors. While the island-nation of Sri Lanka has managed to sustain relative peace for over a decade, the government’s outstanding human rights record remains a concern for the country’s minority ethnic groups. While there is substantial evidence against the Sri Lankan Army to validate the human rights abuses and war crimes alleged by Tamil civilians, little has been done to hold these individuals accountable. Within the sphere of liberal international order, a victor’s peace, such as Sri Lanka’s, would likely …

Republican Nationalism: Nations, Cultures, And Politics, Bojan Ratkovic

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This project deals with the ongoing importance of nations, cultures, and politics in the modern world, and with the complex and layered relationships between them. Despite the expanding phenomenon of globalization, which promises to open up borders and tear down the boundaries between peoples, nations remain the most important actors in international politics and nationalism continues to be a potent force throughout the world. This project explores the significance of nations and cultures for politics, with special emphasis on the importance of nationalism and nationalist theory in the twenty-first century. I argue that there are significant gaps in the literature …

Explaining The Evolution Of The Arctic Council, Andrew Chater

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The Arctic Council is an international institution made up of the eight states that have territory in the Arctic, namely Canada, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States, as well as six indigenous peoples’ organizations. When states created the Council in 1996, it was a research institution that addressed environmental issues and a loosely defined version of sustainable development. It was a weak institution, without a permanent secretariat. By 2014, it had become a policy-making body, as well as a research body, that addressed a wide range of issues, with the aid of a permanent secretariat. New …

Elusive Peace, Security, And Justice In Post-Conflict Guatemala: An Exploration Of Transitional Justice And The International Commission Against Impunity In Guatemala (Cicig), Daniel W. Schloss

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Guatemala has, until today, struggled to achieve security and justice following the end of nearly half a century of civil war in 1996. One specific institution, the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), has been implemented to rectify many of the Guatemalan state’s difficulties in establishing and maintaining the rule of law. In this thesis, I look to better explain CICIG’s role in Guatemala relative to security and justice in a post-conflict setting: I define CICIG as an institution potentially capable of building societal trust, and I explain how the inclusion of procedural justice within transitional justice can help …

The Origins And Evolution Of De Facto States: Implications For Iraqi Kurdistan, Zheger Hassan

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

De facto states, defined as entities that possess control over a defined territory, population, and government, but without recognition from other states, have become increasingly important over the past three decades. Although the universe of cases is small (there have been 24 de facto states since the 1960s), de facto states play an important role in regional security and stability. Despite this relevance, we still know little about why de facto states emerge, how their preferences are formed, and what shapes their behaviour and decision-making. Shedding light on these overlooked issues will allow us to better understand the role of …

Explaining The Establishment Of The Independent Prosecutor Of The International Criminal Court, Laszlo Sarkany

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The aim of this dissertation is to discern and explain why states established the International Criminal Court (ICC) with an independent Prosecutor with the aid of theories of international relations. The theories utilized were neorealism, neoliberal institutionalism, historical institutionalism, constructivism and liberal-pluralism. In order to complete the above-stated task, two supplemental questions were asked: first, how may one able to explain policy formulation in regards to the ICC; and second, what accounts for the victory of the supporters. The comparative case study method of the ‘method of agreement’ was employed. Canada and the United Kingdom – from among the supporters …

La Dialectique Du Bourreau : Étude Du Bourreau Nazi Dans La Littérature Contemporaine Française, Désirée Lamoureux

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

La parole du bourreau nazi est absente de la majorité des documents historiques. Pour contrer cette carence, certains auteurs ont choisi de donner une place narrative à ce personage sybillin à l’intérieur de leur diégèse. Cette étude a pour but d’analyser la manière dont trois auteurs, soit Robert Merle, Jonathan Littell et Laurent Binet, octroient une place narrative au bourreau nazi. Nous cherchons aussi à élucider les raisons pour lesquelles il existe un intérêt dans la perspective du bourreau au début de ce nouveau millénaire.

Canada And The 2001 United Nations World Conference Against Racism, Steven J. Seligman

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

The 2001 United Nations World Conference against Racism (WCAR) was one of the most controversial United Nations events of the post-Cold War era. Major issues on the agenda included the Middle East, the question of reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and colonialism, and the rights of indigenous peoples. Utilizing interviews with government and non-governmental actors as well as archival material, this dissertation examines Canada’s preparations for, and participation at, the WCAR as a case study to explore key theoretical debates about the Canadian foreign policy-making process. At the international level, Canada was an active participant during the multilateral negotiations …

Theorizing 'Transitional Justice', David Anton Hoogenboom

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Early literature in the field of transitional justice was dominated by debates over the meaning of justice, with retributivists arguing for the need for criminal prosecutions following mass human rights violations and advocates of restorative justice claiming that non-prosecutorial forms of justice like truth-telling are better suited for post-conflict societies. This debate was eventually settled, at least in the field, by a belief that post-conflict societies require both criminal prosecutions and truth-telling. More recently, the debate over justice has centred on the question of whether the field and practice of transitional justice has prioritized civil and political rights over economic …

Fluid Identities: Toward A Critical Security Of Water, Cameron Harrington

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Water wars are coming! Water is the defining security threat of the 21st century! The future belongs to the water-rich! These types of warnings are frequently proclaimed, urging attention to looming water conflict, which will occur as stores of freshwater diminish in both quality and quantity. Yet the issue of water security is far more complex than as an inevitable source of future violent conflict. Water is a central component to all aspects of life and planetary health and thus it contains within it a multiplicity of social and political meanings, pivotal to our understandings of security. This dissertation begins …