Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Emergence, Persistence, And Success Of The Cuban Social Movement Las Damas De Blanco, Gail Markle

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

In a three-day period, March 18-20, 2003, referred to as The Black Spring, the Cuban government arrested and imprisoned 75 journalists, human rights activists, and pro-democracy advocates. In response, the wives, mothers, and daughters of these political prisoners formed the non-violent protest organization, Las Damas de Blanco (The Ladies in White), calling for an improvement in prison conditions and the release of their relatives. In March 2011, after eight years of Las Damas’ activism, the final prisoners were released. The women’s organization, now named the Laura Pollán Damas de Blanco Movimiento, continues its human rights activism despite continued repression. Combining …

The Charismatic Revolutionary Leadership Trajectories Of Fidel Castro And Lázaro Cárdenas: From Guerrillas To Heads Of State In The Age Of Us Imperialism, Joseph J. Garcia

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

After attempting to overthrow the government of Fulgencio Batista in 1953, Fidel Castro fled to Mexico where he, his brother, Raul Castro, Ernesto Che Guevara, and other revolutionaries were later jailed by the Mexican government under the orders of the Batista dictatorship to be returned to Cuba. Using his knowledge of the Mexican Revolution, Castro wrote a letter asking for help from former president and revolutionary general, Lázaro Cárdenas, appealing to his sense of revolutionary history and social justice. Cárdenas was impressed by this young revolutionary and worked to obtain political asylum for he and his comrades. This allowed Castro …

“Your Chance To Make Your Voice Heard”: Akaliyat Magazine And The Creation Of A Queer Community In Morocco, Benjamin Ale-Ebrahim

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Publicly claiming an LGBTQ identity in Morocco can place a young person under the threat of violence, both on the part of the state, which criminalizes homosexuality under Article 489 of the Penal Code, and from actors within Moroccan society who wish to uphold a heteronormative conception of Moroccan national identity. The internet, with its potential for anonymous communication, serves as a relatively free and safe space for young queer Moroccans to explore their sexuality and gender identity. Akaliyat Magazine, an internet-based publication founded in 2015, serves as one of the only Arabic-language media outlets in Morocco that focuses on …

Moroccan Islamists Debate The Causes Of Violent Extremism, Jack V. Kalpakian

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Using Moroccan sources associated with the Islamist movement, this paper outlines the theological and political challenges facing Morocco in terms of violent extremism, especially those posed by certain Wahhabi and Salafist views that reject mainstream Moroccan Islam. It outlines the state’s response to terrorism and evaluates its causes as offered by several Islamist Moroccan intellectuals.

U. S. - Moroccan Relations In The Context Of The Anfa Conference, Karim Bejjit

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This essay seeks to shed new light on the intricate course of U.S.-Moroccan relations following the landing of American troops on the Atlantic coasts of Morocco. The Anfa Conference and Sultan Mohamed V’s dinner meeting with President Roosevelt marked an important stage in the process of Moroccan struggle for independence. Roosevelt’s personal interest in the Moroccan situation may have accentuated the inconsistencies in U.S. foreign policy in the 1940s regarding the French colonial empire and confronted its fundamental idealism with the exigencies of pragmatic politics. The vicissitudes of the war and America’s deep commitment to its French ally as well …

Moroccan Society’S Educational And Cultural Losses During The Years Of Lead (1956-1999), Brahim El Guabli

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

In this article, I argue that political repression during the Moroccan Years of Lead (1956-1999) engendered myriad losses in the fields of education and culture. However, the scholarly focus on the embodied effects of state violence on former prisoners and forcibly disappeared individuals has overlooked the intangible damages both education and culture sustained during this period. In investigating the imbrication of political conservatism, educational reform and censorship, the article opens a more critical space for the conceptualization of the broader implications of the Years of Lead for education and culture. Drawing on several primary sources in Arabic and French, including …

Full Issue - Jgi V. 14, N. 2

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Full issue of Journal of Global Initiatives volume 14, number 2.

Panoptic Vision: Disjuncture, Transgressions, And Imagination In Laila Marrakchi’S Film Rock The Casbah, Touria Khannous

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This article focuses on Laila Marrakchi’s film Rock the Casbah (2013), which reflects the exchange between global and local cultural and sociopolitical ideologies of a new Morocco. The film highlights the contradictions of globalization as it occurs through disjuncture. Arjun Appadurai’s theory of the world in motion and “a world of flows” provides a relevant framework for this analysis. The article uses Appadurai’s notion of “disjuncture” as a theoretical framework to discuss the dynamics and interrelationships involved in the protagonist’s movement between Western mediascapes as a filmstar and her Moroccan family’s local context. Appadurai’s conceptualization of globalization is crucial for …

Between The Circle And The Line: Ibn Khaldun’S View Of History And Change, Allen James Fromherz

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Historians from many different eras and contexts have viewed history and historical change as either linear or circular in nature. Giambattista Vico (d. 1744 CE), the Italian philosopher and historian, organized history in a cyclical way as different nations and peoples rise and fall. At the same time, according to Vico (2000), humanity was destined towards equity. Sima Qian of China (d. 86 BCE) viewed the past as a series of circular attempts to restore the Mandate of Heaven and consolidate central power, attempts that were then followed by breakdowns into feudal states (Qian, 1995). For Qian, history seemed to …

Morocco’S Makhzen And The Challenge Of National Development, Zakaria Fatih

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This article explores the question of national development in Morocco considering the institution of the makhzen. It asserts that to adequately assess Morocco’s national development as a post-colonial country, it is necessary to rely on an economic model based in politics rather than in theories exclusively informed by classical and neoclassical economics. Among the key economists called upon to investigate the validity of politics in discussions of national development and income inequality are the following: Simon Kuznets, Thomas Piketty, W. A. Lewis, and the duo Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson, all of whom continue a long tradition of economic …

Empowering Rural Participation And Partnerships In Morocco’S Sustainable Development, Yossef Ben-Meir

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This essay explores the vast potential for participatory and sustainable human development in Morocco. Though Morocco is a country with many diverse resources, it remains burdened by severe levels of poverty and illiteracy, and now growing social discord. There have recently been increased public calls for participatory development programs designed and implemented by and for local people. The essay identifies six existing Moroccan Frameworks intended to initiate decentralized human development programs, and critically examines their efficacy. Ultimately, the purpose of the article is to suggest a new model to implement these Frameworks with maximum impact. The six Frameworks deal with …

India’S Unbalanced Urban Growth: An Appraisal Of Trends And Policies, Purva Sharma

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

India is considered as a low-level urbanized country. However, the country has experienced a sharp increase in the number of towns and peri-urban areas during the last decade. Despite India’s efforts in planned development, the urban sector has generally remained unplanned and chaotic. It appears that policy interventions have not been able to achieve the desired goals and needs of the urban sector fully. This paper examines the urban policy measures taken since independence and highlights the inadequacies and dilemmas in the urban context of India. This analysis shows how metropolitan areas are spreading outwards due to shifts in population …

Is India Becoming More Liberal? Globalization, Economic Liberalization, And Social Values, Tinaz Pavri

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

India has undergone tremendous change in its economy and polity since its economic liberalization starting in the early 1990s. Globalization and liberalization have, in addition to coinciding with a dramatically increased GDP, increased the presence of global entities and the number of foreign nationals in India, and accelerated the spread of social media. The period has also been marked by a significant increase in xenophobic violence against women, religious minorities and LGBTQ individuals. In light of this sea-change in the country, I examine available survey data on social values of Indians (including young Indians) over the last decade, to see …

Connections And Disconnections: The Making Of Bombay/Mumbai As India’S “Global City”, Ravi Ghadge

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Scholarly literature on “global cities” has been criticized for ignoring the long-term historical context within which cities articulate the relationship between the global and the local. Employing a longue durée globalization perspective, this paper historicizes the unequal and uneven nature of contemporary urban development in Mumbai, India’s “global city.” The paper uses two analytical frames: the “port city” and the “colonial city” to highlight two essential dimensions of Mumbai’s contemporary transformation of interconnectedness and segmentation based on unequal power.

Year Of India: Introduction To The Special Issue, Daniel Paracka

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The Year of India marked the 34th anniversary of Kennesaw State University’s (KSU) award-winning annual country study program. The program has been a major force for internationalizing our campus introducing thousands of students to the rich diversity of world cultures that make up the human family and helping them to develop a complex understanding of today’s interdependent world. The program draws upon the expertise of our faculty to offer special courses, organize lectures and events, engage in collaborative research, partner with Indian universities and community groups, and mentor and assist students interested in learning about India and its place in …

Jgi Volume 13, Number 1 - Full Issue

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This is the full issue of Volume 13, Number 1 (132 pages).

Contains:

• Introduction to the Special Issue by Dan Paracka
• Vasco da Gama's Voyages to India: Messianism, Mercantilism and Sacred Exploits by S. M. Ghazanfar
• The World Parliament of Religions, the Swami, and the Evangelist: Contextualizing Late 19th-Century American Responses to Hinduism by Anne R. Richards
• Connections and Disconnections: The Making of Bombay/Mumbai as India's "Global City" by Ravi Ghadge
• India's Unbalanced Urban Growth: An Appraisal of Trends and Policies by Purva Sharma
• Housing for All in India and Its Future Sustainable Development by Nadia Shah
• Is India Becoming …

Vasco Da Gama’S Voyages To India: Messianism, Mercantilism, And Sacred Exploits, S. M. Ghazanfar

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The Portuguese explorer, Vasco da Gama (1460-1524), was the first European to sail from Portugal to India. Accolades for this achievement have long obscured the messianic motivation for the 1498 voyage, “to invade, capture, vanquish, and subdue all Saracens (Muslims) and pagans and other enemies of Christ; to reduce them to perpetual slavery; to convert them to Christianity; [and] to acquire great wealth by force of arms from the Infidels,” as sanctified by various Papal Bulls, together called “the Doctrine of Discovery” (Dum Diversas, 1452; Romanus Pontifex, 1455; Inter Caetera, 1493). The other key motive in …

The World Parliament Of Religions, The Swami, And The Evangelist: Contextualizing Late 19th-Century American Responses To Hinduism, Anne Richards

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This article explores how Hinduism and other religions and philosophies outside the Christian traditions were received by Americans influenced by secularism, science, globalization, and expanding U.S. imperialism in the late 19th century. The article also explores the role of two missionaries, John Henry Barrows and Swami Vivekananda, arguably the most influential participants in the World Parliament of Religions of 1893.

Get Karma, good—well rubbed into you—absorb it, wallow in it, and then you will batter down all the obstacles of life.
—New York Times book review, 1896

Political Homophobia As A State Strategy In Russia, Nikita Sleptcov

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This article examines the current state strategy of political homophobia used by the Russian government to create a sense of national identity by scapegoating Russian homosexuals as "foreign agents," reinforcing the power of the governing elite, and distracting people's attention from government misconduct.

Russia And Its Neighbors: A Geopolitical Analysis Of The Ukrainian Conflict, Michele Pigliucci

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Within the context of a new Cold War between the Western powers and Russia, one of the most dangerous hot spots is Ukraine. Since 2014, in fact, the Ukrainian army has been engaged in a civil war against Russian-backed troops of self-proclaimed Donetsk and Luhansk Republics. This crisis appears as a new geopolitical tool both for Russia and for the United States: for the former, in order to contain NATO expansion, for the latter, in order to counteract Russian influence and to open the way for U.S. liquefied natural gas exports in Europe, reducing European energy dependence on Russia (Chornii, …

Stanislavsky Inspired Acting Lessons For Life And Leadership, Harrison O. Long Prof.

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

An artist’s creative work can become the primary lens through which he or she sees the world; it is a fundamental tool for interpreting life. But artistry can also teach a great deal about effective leadership. Based on the principles of Konstantin Stanislavsky, the father of modern acting, this essay reflects on five important lessons for life and leadership: The Power of Purpose, The Power of Context, The Power of Listening, The Power of Partnerships, and The Power of Community. After a year of studying Russian culture, history, and foreign policy, I believe these lessons can be applied on the …

U.S. - Russian Relations: Dissonance Of Ideologies, Elena N. Glazunova

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper examines Russian and American ideologies and their influence on the foreign policies of both countries in historical retrospective and today. The paper especially illustrates the role of ideology in Russia and U.S. relations during different periods with different intensity. In the relatively “calm” periods of history ideology was not that noticeable. However, at other times, Russia and the United States have engaged in a clash of ideologies that provided a powerful impulse to the formation of new models of international relations. Despite the post-Cold War hope that there would be less ideology in international relations in recent decades …

Introduction To The Special Issue, Daniel Paracka

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Kennesaw State University’s (KSU) Year of Russia program provided an in-depth opportunity for our campus community to learn about Russia at a very important point in time. The program featured more than 30 events including a robust lecture series, special courses focused on Russia, a symposium on U.S.-Russia relations, and a faculty and student interdisciplinary seminar that traveled to Moscow and St. Petersburg. These different elements were intentionally organized to create synergistic opportunities for sustained intercultural exchange. For example, Dr. Tom Rotnem’s POLS 4449: Russian Foreign Policy class conducted eight Skype-enabled classroom discussion sessions with Russian counterparts (faculty and students) …

Jgi Volume 12, Number 1 - Full Issue

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This is the full issue of Volume 12, Number 1 (196 pages).

Contains:

• Introduction to the Special Issue by Dan Paracka
• The Economic Roots of the Cold War: The IMF, ITO and other economic issues in post-war Soviet-American relations by Kristina V. Minkova
• Lessons on Economics and Political Economy from the Soviet Tragedy by Peter Boettke and Rosolino Candela
• US-Russian Relations: Dissonance of Ideologies by Elena Glazunova
• Russia’s Fight for the Globe by Yuliya Brel
• Russia and Its Neighbors: A Geopolitical Analysis of the Ukrainian Conflict by Michele Pigliucci
• Putin’s “Eastern Pivot” and the Cold Silk Road: Evidence from the …

Putin's 'Eastern Pivot': Divergent Ambitions Between Russia And China? Evidence From The Arctic, Thomas E. Rotnem, Kristina Minkova

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Focusing upon the warming Sino-Russian relationship in general, this paper also examines in particular both countries interests in the Arctic region. The paper begins with a brief overview of the developing Sino-Russian relationship since the late 1980s. After discussing the blossoming of friendlier ties during the Putin-Xi era, it reviews some of the arguments and assumptions that scholars have held predicting either an ever closer relationship or an eventual rupture in those relations. The paper then analyzes both countries’ interests in the Arctic realm, using this case study as evidence supporting the view that the Sino-Russian relationship–despite its many difficulties–has …

Lessons On Economics And Political Economy From The Soviet Tragedy, Peter J. Boettke, Rosolino A. Candela

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper explores the economics and politics of the tragic Soviet experiment with socialism. Beginning with the period of “War Communism” between 1917 and 1921, the Soviet government’s attempt to implement socialism failed to achieve its stated objectives, namely to create social harmony, eliminate class struggle, and to unleash advanced material production. It attempted to achieve these ends by abolishing private property and market prices in the means of production, eliminating the incentives and information necessary to guide production in an efficient manner. The unintended political and economic results were disastrous, leading to tyranny, famine, and oppression. Failing to achieve …

Is “This Guy” A Dictator? On The Morality Of Evaluating Russian Democracy Under Vladimir Putin, Amir Azarvan

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Is it morally defensible to single Russian president, Vladimir Putin, out as a dictator? The popular impression that he is a dictator has been used to legitimize a dangerously adversarial policy towards what a U.S. Army general described as “the only country on earth…that could “destroy the United States.” I argue that this perception is in some ways misleading, and has contributed to escalating tensions with Russia, which is both unnecessary and harmful both to Russia and the U.S.

Russia’S Fight For The "Globe", Yuliya Brel

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

The foreign policy of Russia in the near abroad is the continuation of its domestic policy, which includes the consolidation of the population around a leader by means of creating an image of an enemy, especially at times when the economic situation in the country is deteriorating. When interpreting the inner processes in the country, political scientists usually apply the decomposition of the totalitarian Soviet regime as a framework. This paper suggests a broader framework through an analysis of historical structures anchored in Russian civilization. The key to understanding Russia's foreign policy, I argue, is rooted in the imperial syndrome …

The Economic Roots Of The Cold War: The Imf, Ito And Other Economic Issues In Post-War Soviet-American Relations, Kristina V. Minkova

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

In light of newly released archival resources, this article examines the traditional historiography of Soviet-American relations focusing on economic relations at the end of World War II.

Usage Of Green Spaces At The University Of Cape Coast By Non-African Foreign Students, Yaw Asamoah, Ishmael Mensah, Osman Adams, Paul Baidoo, Akosua B. Ameyaw-Akumfi, Collins Adjei Mensah Dr.

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

Universities all over the world have green spaces (GS) as an integral part of their campuses because of the significant benefits derived from them. Aside enhancing the image of universities, GS influence the academic performance of students by reducing stress. This paper examines the preferences and uses of green spaces on UCC campus by Non-African foreign students (NAFS). Data was collected through in-depth interviews, observations and by the use of Arc-GIS 10.1 software. Sixteen NAFS were interviewed during the second semester of the 2013/2014 academic year. It was found out that the usage of GS was influenced by factors such …