Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

From The Editor In Chief, Antulio J. Echevarria Ii

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Welcome to the Summer 2024 issue of Parameters. We open this issue with a special “In Memoriam” by General Charles A. Flynn, Commander US Army Pacific, honoring the life and legacies of our director and consummate colleague, Carol V. Evans. We dedicate this issue to her. General Flynn’s memoriam is followed by an In Focus commentary on China’s Belt and Road Initiative. We then feature three forums covering the Russia-Ukraine War, the Middle East, and Professional Development. This issue also contains special essays on the role of professional writing, the US Army War College’s Civil-Military Relations Center, …

The Dynamics Of Us Retrenchment In The Middle East, Paul K. Macdonald, Joseph M. Parent

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article argues that conditions favor American retrenchment from the Middle East because the United States can shift burdens to capable states in the region, there are few areas where US commitments are interdependent, and the local conquest calculus favors defense. Forward military deployments do not positively influence potential threats in the Middle East, and maintaining deployments there will detract from meeting challenges from China. Through comparisons to prior cases of great-power ordinal decline, this article puts America’s modest decline in historical perspective and finds that retrenchment policies will likely have positive consequences.

Belonging And Disagreeing: Arab Student Activism On A College Campus, Angelina E. Baroud

Honors Capstones

There has not been sufficient research on Arab college students and their activism in the United States. This topic is especially important because of the new wave of protests across college campuses due to the Israel-Hamas war. This project focused on what made Arab students join an Arab organization at a university in the Midwest and the disagreements that exist within the group. Data was gathered through participant observations of the group meetings and semi-structured interviews with the group members. This study found that the desire to connect with their culture and find a sense of community brought Arab students …

From The Editor In Chief, Antulio J. Echevarria Ii

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Welcome to the Spring 2024 issue of Parameters. Readers will note a few differences in the formatting for this issue: we are now using endnotes instead of footnotes to facilitate switching from pdf to html via Adobe's Liquid App; also, readers will be able to click on each endnote number to view the full endnote and then switch back to the text to resume reading. Please drop us a note to let us know how you like the changes. More are coming!

Parameters Spring 2024, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Armed Conflict And Household Water Sources, George Naufal, Michael A. Malcolm, Vidya Diwakar

Economics & Finance Faculty Publications

Access to safe drinking water is among the most important determinants of public health outcomes. We pair household-level data from Iraq together with data on armed conflict and adopt a generalized difference-in-differences approach to study the relationship between household drinking water sources and armed conflict intensity. We find that households located in conflict-affected areas are more likely to use piped water accessed at their homes or bottled water as their primary source of drinking water, but are less likely to use public water sources or tanked water delivered on trucks and carts. We explore the temporal dynamics of these adjustments …

Identity Formation In The Lebanese-American Christian Diaspora, Matthew Cesar Audi

Honors Projects

Since the late 1800s, people have immigrated to the United states from Lebanon and Syria, and the community’s racial and ethnic position within the United States has been contested ever since. Previous research emphasizes that while people from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are legally classified as “white” on the U.S. Census. However, many people from the region do not identify as white, and they often face discrimination or threats of violence. For people of Arab and Christian backgrounds this is further complicated because they are a part of the majority through their religion, but part of a …

Evaluating The Effectiveness And Efficiency Of U.S. Foreign Aid, Rebecca Baley

Selected Honors Theses

The U.S. is the top spender in the world when it comes to foreign aid, sending billions of dollars around the world each year. There are many different goals and objectives that the U.S. government hopes to accomplish with their spending. This paper is structured as an extended literature review analyzing previous literature on the topic of U.S. foreign aid spending and the results of these funds around the world to test the effectiveness and efficiency. The process of how the foreign aid budget is set will also be discussed as well as the history of why the U.S. started …

Knocking On Europe's Door: A Comprehensive Analysis Of The European Response To The 2015 Refugee Crisis And The Ukrainian Refugee Crisis, Jacob J. Mckim

Global Studies Senior Capstone

Europe is, and has long been at the center of refugee reception for many areas of the world due to its geographical position and general security. However, the European response to refugees has varied drastically in different situations. This paper examines the European response to both the 2015 Refugee Crisis and the Ukrainian Refugee Crisis. The focus being on what factors, whether political, racial, or religious, has led for some individuals to be received more favorably in Europe than others. Through examining this, the conditions for successful and long-lasting refugee reception hopefully be more clearly seen.

2023 Annual Estimate Of The Strategic Security Environment, Usawc Ssi

Monographs, Collaborative Studies, & IRPs

The Annual Estimate of the Strategic Security Environment serves as a guide for academics and practitioners in the defense community on the current challenges and opportunities in the strategic environment. This year’s publication outlines key strategic issues across the four broad themes of Regional Challenges and Opportunities, Domestic Challenges, Institutional Challenges, and Domains Impacting US Strategic Advantage. These themes represent a wide range of topics affecting national security and provide a global assessment of the strategic environment to help focus the defense community on research and publication. Strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China and the implications of …

Democratic Commitment In The Middle East: A Conjoint Analysis, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Polls from the Middle East/North Africa show high support for democracy. However, the veracity of this support has been called into question. This study uses a conjoint analysis to show that citizens support democratic institutions, as well as favoring an effective welfare state and a state religion. The results demonstrate that support for elected governance is not contingent on the state's providing economic benefits; citizens are more likely to favor participatory government at each level of economic outcome. Interest in incorporating religion in the state, however, is contingent on the political and economic profile described; the contingent effects suggest interest …

Dancers Of The Book: Yemenite, Persian, And Kurdish Jewish Dance, Quinn Bicer

Anthós

Despite the cultural significance of dance in Jewish communities around the world, research into Middle Eastern Jewish dance outside of the modern nation-state of Israel is sorely under-researched. This article aims to help rectify this by focusing on Yemenite, Persian/Iranian, and Kurdish Jewish dance and explores how these dancers have functioned and been received within the societies they have been a part of. The methods that have gone into this article are a combination of analyzing primary source recorded dances and existing secondary source research into the dance of these communities. Through these methods, this article reveals how Yemenite, Iranian, …

Mother’S Coping While Caring For A Child With Cancer And Its Relationship With Mother-Child Relationship, Alaa Nasr

Theses and Dissertations

Having a child with cancer is one of the most stressful situations families can experience. This study sheds light on mothers’ stress and coping with pediatric cancer in the Arab world, with a specific focus on Kuwait. The first aim of this study was to examine mothers’ stress and how it related to the quality of mother-child relationship, and subsequently the child’s behavioral problems. The second aim was to explore mothers’ main stressors, resources and services that help or could help with alleviating the stress experienced from having a child with cancer. A total of 102 mothers living in Kuwait …

Seeking Justice For Jews From Mena Countries Through International Law: Comparing The Cases Of Morocco And Iraq, Jessica E. Yeroshalmi

Student Theses and Dissertations

Little is known of the Jews of Middle Eastern North African (MENA) origin whose long standing history in the region did not protect them from discrimination, persecution, and ethnic cleansing. Although much of the research on contemporary Jewish history and persecution revolves around the Holocaust and European events and its implications for Jews and international law, far less is researched about the uprooting of nearly one million Jews from the MENA region. In this investigation, I aim to reconstruct that narrative, applying international law to Jewish refugees from Arab countries. My thesis will be a comparative analysis of Morocco and …

Validating A Human Trafficking Screening Tool For Women Returning To Uganda From The Middle East, Jason Pope

All Dissertations

Human trafficking is a global issue. Denying its existence creates an atmosphere where it can thrive. Therefore, visibility is a key step in prevention. Human trafficking screening tools bring visibility to this hidden issue. Identifying individuals who have experienced human trafficking is essential for preventing it from happening in the future. Identifying survivors of trafficking allows them to be provided aftercare and opens the doors for prosecuting those who perpetrate harm against others.

This study validated a human trafficking screening tool and developed a standard for interpreting the results. This study aimed to develop a tool that could identify human …

Timeline Itinerary For Webinar Series Talk With Guest Elżbieta Goździak, Integration And Belonging Hub

Webinars & Events

An internal timeline itinerary made for the Integration & Belonging Hub's Webinar Series talk on March 1st, 2023. Elżbieta Goździak was the guest speaker, giving a talk titled "The Deserving and the Undeserving: Ukranian Migrants and Middle Eastern Asylum Seekers in Poland". This webinar was hosted on Zoom.

This PDF was converted from an Excel sheet. The "Notes" column on page two corresponds to the rows on page one and so on and so forth.

Date refers to date of event, not date of creation.

Presentation Slides, "The Deserving And The Undeserving: Ukranian Migrants And Middle Eastern Asylum Seekers In Poland", Elżbieta Goździak

Webinars & Events

Contains the PowerPoint slides for Elżbieta Goździak's presentation "The Deserving and the Undeserving: Ukranian Migrants and Middle Eastern Asylum Seekers in Poland". This presentation was given on March 1st, 2023 as part of the Integration and Belonging Hub's webinar series. This webinar was hosted on Zoom.

Elżbieta Goździak is a migration scholar whose contributions span academic research and the world of policy, ranging from human trafficking, migrant children, global health and health disparities, and immigrant integration.

The main document is in text-only PDF format. To see the PowerPoint presentation, download the related file.

Permission was obtained by Elżbieta Goździak …

Arlen Specter: How A Jewish Boy From Kansas Became A Mediator For Middle East Peace, Georgia G. Skuza

Arlen Specter Center Research Fellowship

Amongst all the things Senator Arlen Specter had accomplished in his thirty years as a United States Senator, one of the most fascinating is that of the late Senators work on the Israel-Palestine conflict. The long-held debate of the borders surrounding Israel & Palestine has made politicians and people chose sides. As a Jewish individual, Senator Specter had to set aside his religious and personal beliefs to affectively pass legislation in the state of Pennsylvania and United States Congress. One of Senator Specter’s largest areas of study was Middle East Diplomacy. His Pro-Israel stance led him to have an aura …

United States Policy To Undermine Iran’S Regional And Global Strategy, William Stewart

CMC Senior Theses

This paper aims to understand the way in which Iran uses proxy groups to implement its regional foreign policy strategy while increasing relationships with foreign actors to implement its global foreign policy strategy. I will dive into the intricacies of Iran’s strategy on a country-by-country basis while outlining the goals of the regime. I will analyze the way in which the United States has dealt with Iran and its proxy groups in the past as well as provide suggestions on the steps the Biden administration and the United States as a whole must implement in order to contain Iran’s influence …

Regime Transitions, Democracy, And Terrorism In The Muslim World, Kevin Joyce

Honors Theses

In the 21st century, the Muslim world is continuously growing, in which Muslim’s make up approximately 24% of the world’s population. Additionally, the Muslim-majority countries, of which 50% or more of the population identify as Muslim, have lagged behind historically in democratizing. In many of these Muslim-majority countries, terrorism has an active presence and often times a destabilizing effect. In this study, I utilize the Global Terrorism Database, and other various data sources, to provide an empirical assessment of the political institutions of Muslim-majority countries, and their correlations to terrorism. I find that Muslim-majority countries in a state of failure …

Qatar Foreign Policy In Middle East Conflict Mediation, Kresna Kusumawijaya, Yon Machmudi

Journal Of Middle East and Islamic Studies

Qatar's role as a regional mediator allowed it to emerge even further into global politics and it’s a step toward creating its own evolving independent political persona. As a mediator, Qatar has left its choices open to develop diplomatic relations with non-state actors and countries that have controversies in the Middle East. This research uses a case study approach to explore information about several foreign policies carried out by Qatar against countries and non-state actors in the Middle East. The results of this study show that Qatar, with its rationality, weighs the benefits for the personal interests of the state. …

Convening For A Prosperous Future: Middle East North African South Asian (Menasa) Convening, Global Diversity & Inclusion, Portland State University, Middle East, North Africa, South Asia (Menasa), Portland State University

Global Diversity and Inclusion Publications and Presentations

PSU is proactively leaning into its future as a majority-BIPOC student institution and is dedicated to coming alongside BIPOC communities, critical partners, actors, and agents to act in the present to ensure a prosperous future.

We recognize that opportunities and challenges for BIPOC communities require collective, rather than singular, action. In that spirit, we invite you to save the date and join Portland State University's Global Diversity and Inclusion Division on Sunday October 23rd between 11am-2pm for a convening luncheon contemplating present challenges and imagining a prosperous future for our Middle East North African South Asian (MENASA) Community.

This social …

The Grand Strategy Of Gertrude Bell: From The Arab Bureau To The Creation Of Iraq, Heather S. Gregg

Monographs, Collaborative Studies, & IRPs

The remarkable life of early-twentieth-century British adventurer Gertrude Bell has been well documented through her biographies and numerous travel books. Bell’s role as a grand strategist for the British government in the Middle East during World War I and the postwar period, however, is surprisingly understudied. Investigating Gertrude Bell as both a military strategist and a grand strategist offers important insights into how Great Britain devised its military strategy in the Middle East during World War I—particularly, Britain’s efforts to work through saboteurs and secret societies to undermine the Ottoman Empire during the war and the country’s attempts to stabilize …

Dismantling New Democracies: The Case Of Tunisia, Hannah M. Ridge

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

After a decade as the stand-out democracy of the Middle East, Tunisia took an anti-democratic turn in July 2021 with President Kaïs Saïed’s self-coup. Using a survey fielded in the weeks after these reforms, this article documents the substantial support for liberal institutions and civil rights in Tunisia. Democracy itself, on the other hand, is not so strongly supported. The study thus identifies potential for democratic backsliding in Tunisia through the strategic implementation liberal but anti-democratic actions. Other would-be authoritarians could follow Saïed’s model of strategic regression to autocratize their regimes.

Mobilizing For What? Polarized Citizens And Electoral Turnout In Transitioning Tunisia, H. Ege Ozen, Andrew Bennett, Ekrem Karakoc

Publications and Research

In countries that have recently transitioned to democracy, what factors most drive citizens to mobilize and participate in early elections? Many comparative studies on democratization and elections stress the vital importance of early elections in new democracies – with voter turnout inexorably linked to a democracy’s long-term stability and legitimacy – however, much of this literature focuses on aggregate rather than individual-level behaviour, and very little targets the Middle East/North Africa region. This study closely examines individual voting behaviour in democratizing Tunisia’s critical second election in 2014. We argue that amidst great uncertainty, the polarizing issues of national and political …

The Violence Induced By Climate Change: An Evolving Controversy, Josephine Kurdziel

Senior Theses

Climate-induced violence has become more prominent and scrutinized in research, media, and discussion in the last decade with the emergence of new patterns of violence. Conflicts have been scrutinized particularly in key regions and countries such as West Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia, which are the focus of the three case studies in this paper. The research is centered on several types of violence such as civil war and terrorism, and then further expanded to how climate change may or may not influence their patterns. Correspondingly, there is also an analysis on the importance of state stability and …

The Role Of Non-Governmental Organizations (Ngos) In Improving Human Rights In Iraq, Naser A. Yahya

Department of Political Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Iraq has had a long history of human rights violations since its inception as a modern state in 1921. This is true especially under the personalistic dictatorship of Saddam Hussein. Under his regime, the Iraqi people suffered a consistent pattern of gross violations of internationally recognized human rights, including political imprisonment, torture, and summary and arbitrary executions. This regime used a variety of mechanisms to squelch political dissent, including house-to-house searches; arbitrary arrests, often in large numbers; surveillance; harassment and questioning of family members; detention of targeted individuals, such as those returning to Iraq pursuant to amnesties, at unknown locations; …

The Communicative Capacities Of The Medical Discourse In Authoritarian Societies : The Case Of Aids In Iran, Elham Pourtaher

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This study explores the role of medical discourse in the Iranian formal public sphere. It examines how an epidemiological wave of HIV/AIDS—known as "the third wave"—highlighted nontraditional sexual behaviors in public and enabled a shift in policy and discourse by the Islamic Republic State. Through analyzing published content on HIV/AIDS from five major Iranian newspapers between 2009 and 2013, this study identified four competing narratives of the third wave which coexist and have a dynamic relationship with one another. First, the medical narrative warns of an unfolding public health crisis and provides a technical perspective to make sense of the …

The Universal Periodic Review: Determining An International Organization’S Impact On Women’S Rights In A State, Miranda R. Peterson Ms.

Honors College Theses

How does official criticism from the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) affect the level of government respect for women’s rights in a state? International governmental organizations (IGOs), such as the Universal Periodic Review, play an important role in the overall global community. Although there is some evidence that IGOs can improve respect for human rights in a state, scholars do not yet know the impact on women’s rights specifically, especially when it comes to naming and shaming. I investigate this relationship, theorizing that the UPR will positively impact women’s rights, but this effect will be contingent on the level of terrorist …

The Treaty Of Versailles, Imperialism, And The Middle East, Eileen Deming-Mcnabb

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I.Synthesis Essay……………………………….. 3

II. Primary Documents and Headnotes……….. 32

III. Textbook Critique……………………………...51

IV.New Textbook Entry………………………….. 58

V.Bibliography………………………………….... 62