Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Individual And Organizational Human Rights Activism In Liberia, Sierra Leone, And Kenya, Robert M. Press

Faculty Publications

This article examines the ways individual and organizational activists peacefully resisted government repression in recent decades in three sub-Saharan Africa countries. It is based on both archival research and more than 170 interviews by the author with key activists and others in the countries at various times from 2002-2012. This qualitative study makes several contributions to the literature. First, by including individual activism as well as organizational activism, it reveals wider and more varied participation in human rights activism than is normally detected. Second, where the usual focus in resistance studies is on mass movements, this study presents a more …

Herbert Hoover And Belgian Relief, Albert Winkler

Faculty Publications

Herbert Hoover was an orphan, who retained great empathy for the weak and hungry his entire life. Working without pay, he organized and administered Belgian Relief starting in 1914 to get food to ten million Belgians and Frenchmen behind German lines. His efforts doubtlessly saved hundreds of thousands from starvation. This was only the starting point in his career as the "Great Humanitarian." He got food to Germany at the end of both world wars, aided Russia in their great famine, and reportedly got food to hundreds of millions of people in his lengthy career. No one has ever done …

Addressing The "Go Green" Debate: Initiatives That Encourage Small Green Behaviors And Their Political Spillover Effects, Katherine Lacasse

Faculty Publications

While there are numerous supporters of initiatives that promote small green behaviors, there are also critics who debate the effectiveness of these actions in addressing global climate change. The critics claim that people often choose to perform easy green behaviors to rationalize their inaction in other ways, which is detrimental to garnering support for political action. The supporters emphasize the cumulative effects of small green behaviors, including the likelihood of these actions spilling over into further green behaviors as well as greater political concern about climate change. The relationship between green behaviors and political attitudes should be considered more closely, …

Prominent Peripheries: The Role Of Borderlands In Central Africa’S Regionalized Conflict., Lindsay Scorgie

Faculty Publications

The Great Lakes region of Central Africa has been beset by conflict for close to two decades now. Aside from the unprecedented humanitarian consequences, the most striking feature of the violence has been its profoundly regional character. This paper seeks to explore how one might better understand the spread and cross-border nature of conflict in this region. It argues that the dominant contemporary model for explanation of regional conflict, with its overwhelmingly state-centric orientation, is inadequate in providing a comprehensive understanding of the structure of this type of violence. Rather, the so-called peripheries of states – borderlands – need to …

Recasting The Agency Of Unaccompanied Youth, Lauren Heidbrink

Faculty Publications

This is Chapter 6 of Emerging Perspectives on Children in Migratory Circumstances: Selected Proceedings of the Working Group on Childhood and Migration June 2008 Conference, published by Drexel University Department of Culture & Communication. Click for full-text.

Excerpt from the book abstract:

Most of the pieces provide in depth points of view from child migrant perspectives—data that is often difficult to obtain and portray sensitively. Child-centered data is exceptionally valuable in helping us to grasp the micro-forces by which childhood is changing through migration and how children experience or activate agency under trying conditions...Lauren Heidbrink [discusses] Spanish speakers in …

The India-Us Nuclear Cooperation Agreement: Explaining The Contentious Indian Debate, Karthika Sasikumar, Gilles Verniers

Faculty Publications

The U.S.-India civil nuclear energy agreement triggered a contentious debate in India from 2005 to 2008. Regional political actors played crucial and unanticipated roles in the debate. We present explanations for the positions adopted by the main actors and the level of contention. We find that parties’ positions were driven not by ideology but by the compulsions of coalition politics.

Enclave Under Siege: International Norms And Challenges To The Indian Nuclear Complex, Karthika Sasikumar

Faculty Publications

This article analyzes the effects of international connections on India’s nuclear program; specifically, the use of international norms and resources by domestic actors to influence the Indian nuclear enclave. These actors are from the Indian executive (pressure from above) as well as civil society (pressure from below). India’s self-presentation as a responsible state necessitates compliance with international norms, and concomitant restraints on the nuclear estate from ‘above.’ Environmentalists, local residents, and their transnational allies seek to make the nuclear complex more accountable, responsive, and transparent by using social media, civil society institutions, and cross-border links. The Indian case suggests that …

What Matters To Social Democratic Party Voters? Liberal And Economic Interests Trump Ethnoreligious Identity In Bosnia And Herzegovina, Joan Davison

Faculty Publications

Bosnia and Herzegovina possesses both a history marked by ethnic differences and a tradition of tolerance and coexistence among religious groups. The millet system of Ottoman times depended upon the authority of confessional communities. With the rise of nationalism in the 1800’s, religious identity and organization became complicated by ethnicity. Later, the authoritarianism of Tito enabled the state to accommodate this multinational, multi-religious character, uniting people as socialist Yugoslavs. Thus, the collapse of the socialist, Yugoslavian ideals and structures created new and sometimes polarizing choices for the population. Previously authoritarian government mediated religious and ethnic relations, but now coexistence depended …

Petitions, Privacy, And Political Obscurity, Rebecca Green

Faculty Publications

People who sign petitions must accept disclosure of their political views. This conclusion rests on the seemingly uncontroversial (if circular) premise that petition signing is a public activity. Courts have thus far shown little sympathy for individuals who take a public stand on an issue by signing a petition and then assert privacy claims after the fact. Democracy, after all, takes courage, as Justice Scalia wrote in the petitioning disclosure case Doe v. Reed. But signing a petition today brings consequences beyond public criticism. The real threat of disclosure for modern petition signers is not tangible harassment, but the loss …

The Punishment Of Gaza, Edward Sayre

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.