International and Area Studies Commons^™

Drowning In Rising Seas: Navigating Multiple Knowledge Systems And Responding To Climate Change In The Maldives, Rachel Hannah Spiegel

Pitzer Senior Theses

The threat of global climate change increasingly influences the actions of human society. As world leaders have negotiated adaptation strategies over the past couple of decades, a certain discourse has emerged that privileges Western conceptions of environmental degradation. I argue that this framing of climate change inhibits the successful implementation of adaptation strategies. This thesis focuses on a case study of the Maldives, an island nation deemed one of the most vulnerable locations to the impacts of rising sea levels. I apply a postcolonial theoretical framework to examine how differing knowledge systems can both complement and contradict one another. By …

Explaining The Rise Of Isis, Anas Alqaed

Political Science Theses and Capstones

In this paper I study the circumstances that led to the rise the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/Daesh) and its economic power. I use articles, testimonies before US House of Representatives and analyze economic data to generate facts and draw conclusions. All references rely on primary source documents that were not released in an official capacity by ISIS. These are documents that have been released online by pro or anti-ISIS activists or information that was gathered and analyzed by research centers and international organizations. It is worth noting that non-officially released documents were very helpful in shedding more …

[Introduction To] Natsional-Bol'shevizm: Stalinskaia Massovaia Kul'tura I Formirovanie Russkogo Natsional'nogo Samosoznaniia, 1931-1956, David Brandenberger

Bookshelf

During the 1930s, Stalin and his entourage rehabilitated famous names from the Russian national past in a propaganda campaign designed to mobilize Soviet society for the coming war. Legendary heroes like Aleksandr Nevskii and epic events like the Battle of Borodino quickly eclipsed more conventional communist slogans revolving around class struggle and proletarian internationalism. In a provocative study, David Brandenberger traces this populist "national Bolshevism" into the 1950s, highlighting the catalytic effect that it had on Russian national identity formation.

Beginning with national Bolshevism's origins within Stalin's inner circle, Brandenberger next examines its projection into Soviet society through education and …

A Study Of The Determinants Influencing The Legislative Success Of A Government-Proposed Bill In Korea, Byung Jun Ahn

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

As there is a widespread perception of legislative gridlock and subsequent failure in addressing national problems in Korea, this study examines what factors influence the legislative success and legislative time of a government-proposed bill in Korea. This study uses government-proposed bills from 1988 to 2016 to estimate the effect of explanatory variables such as divided government, the year of presidential term (one to five year), the presidential approval rate, the unemployment rate, filibusters, jurisdictional area of a bill, and the ratio of members’ bills to government-proposed bills.

The results of regression analyses show that there is no evidence divided government …

Aquí Se Habla Español: Cultural Identity And Language In Post-World War Ii Puerto Rico, Joanna Marie Camacho Escobar

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The following study seeks to understand the process in which language and culture were linked together in order to institutionalize Puerto Rican cultural nationalism. In the decades after 1898, Puerto Ricans went through a U.S.-imposed process of Americanization. What the U.S. originally had in mind was that Puerto Ricans would become American colonial subjects through U.S. control over the curriculum that made English the language of instruction in public schools. With a vague explanation from the U.S. of what Puerto Rico and Puerto Ricans meant to the U.S. American nation, Puerto Ricans from various backgrounds debated Americanization practices. However, after …

Remembering 1965: Indonesian Cinema And The 'Battle For History', Espena Darlene Machell

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Using four films to probe the transformations in Indonesia’s historical memory, this paper examines how the Indonesian society remembers, interrogates, and comes to terms with one of their nation’s most traumatic episodes: the widespread communist purge that followed the failed coup on 30 September 1965. It also demonstrates how they reflect various perspectives on the 1965 killings that are—to an extent—part of the “Battle of History” (van Klinken 2001) in postSuharto Indonesia, wherein different historiographic traditions introduce new actors, reveal the nuances, and challenge longstanding dominant understandings of 1965.

Communism's Futures: Intelligentsia Imaginations In The Writings Of The Strugatsky Brothers, Elizabeth Tammaro

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Arkady and Boris Strugatsky were the most popular science fiction writing duo in Soviet Russia from the 1960s through the 1980s. Examining their imaginative fictional worlds against the background of wider changes in the Soviet Union allows scholars to gain insights in the world of the Soviet intelligentsia, the educated bearers of culture. As members of this group, the Strugatskys expressed the hopes, frustrations and fears, of their peers, vindicating their intellectual and emotional life. I support the argument that the Brothers occupied a middle ground between conformity and dissident, dubbed the "lost" intelligentsia by Lloyd Churchward. I demonstrate this …

The Power Of The Periphery: Aid, Mutuality And Cold War U.S-Ghana Relations, 1957-1966, Moses Allor Awinsong

Masters Theses

This project interrogates how economic self interest motivated periphery states such as Ghana to use foreign policy as a vehicle to attract improved development assistance from superpowers, in this case the United States. While the United States viewed its aid program in Ghana in stringently Cold War terms, Kwame Nkrumah and his advisors were less inclined to get deeply concerned about Cold War ideology. This project shows that Ghanaian agency was manifested in the Cold War through the new state's construction of a foreign policy image that made it a prominent African voice globally. It then examines how that image …

Spiritual Journeys: A Study Of Ifá /Òrìṣà Practitioners In The United States Initiated In Nigeria, Tony Van Der Meer

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The purpose of this study is to understand the culture of one of the newest branches of traditional Yorùbá Ifá/Òrìṣà practice in the United States from practitioners born in the United States that were initiated in Nigeria, West Africa.The epistemology of the Ifá/Òrìṣà belief system in the United States has been based on the history and influence of Regla de Ocha or Santeria that developed out of Cuban innovation and practice.This is an ethnographic and auto-ethnographic study that pulls from participant observation, field notes, interviews, and photos as data.The central question of this dissertation is what are the challenges and …

Partisanship In Mexico: Influence Of Violence And State Spending, Christopher White

CMC Senior Theses

This paper serves to further investigate factors influencing partisanship in Mexican politics with a focus on state spending and drug violence. With state spending, this paper builds on prior literature about political effects of federal social spending (Handelman 1997, Domínguez and Chappell 2004, Díaz-Cayeros 2009) to propose a similar theory regarding state social spending. The proposed panel data model for national elections between 2000 and 2012 finds that for diputados elections, a thousand-peso increase in state spending had a statistically significant influence on party voting – boosting PRI candidates (typically incumbents) by 0.66% and hurting both PAN and PRD candidates …

Historical Trauma And Refugee Reception: Armenians And Syrian-Armenian Co-Ethnics, Nicole M. Campos

Master's Theses

This thesis considers the ways in which Armenian history has influenced integration of Syrian-Armenian refugees into Armenia due to the ongoing Syrian War. Ethnic Armenian outlooks were analyzed relative to the influx of Syrian refugees, particularly co-ethnic Syrian-Armenians. Field work in Armenia found a sustained cultural impression of Armenians’ Soviet membership and genocide. Findings suggest that recognizing the importance of history as it may or may not affect migration reception policies and attitudes is important to developing sustainable resettlement environments, at least until repatriation or third-country resettlement becomes an option to migrants. Ultimately, this thesis argues that more attention must …

The Eurasian Agenda: The International Relations Of Kyrgyzstan, Azamat Baiyzbekov

Master's Theses

The disintegration of the Soviet Union and the emergence of the newly independent states in Central Asia are among the most important historical events of the 20^th century. As one of these newly independent and sovereign state, Kyrgyzstan found itself in the sphere of the geopolitical rivalry among the Great Powers, such as the U.S., Russia, and China. Even though a relatively small and militarily weak state, Kyrgyzstan came to play an important role in their Eurasian agenda. In this thesis, I examine in detail the international relations of Kyrgyzstan with all its neighboring states, but focus extensively on …

Takun J Fought The Gbagba, Zach E J Williams

Capstones

Liberia's most famous rapper has embarked on a quest to save democracy in Africa's oldest republic. This challenge faces Jonathan "Takun J" Koffa after a nine-year reign as the king of HiCo — a local form of Hip Hop music defined by the local patois. A local form of corruption called "Gbagba" makes for a formidable enemy, but Takun J has a plan to defeat it.

Link to capstone project: https://zachjournalism.com/2016/12/12/takun-j-fought-the-gbagba/

Emigration, Repatriation And The Reality Of Returned Youth In El Salvador, Isabel C. Duarte Vasquez

Master's Theses

According to US Customs and Border Protection, over 59 thousand unaccompanied minors from the Northern Triangle (Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador) have been detained at the US border, of those 59 thousand, 17 thousand are from El Salvador. El Salvador is home to some of the most dangerous and ruthless gangs of the twenty-first century. Their ruthlessness comes from 1980s guerrilla warfare experience. In addition, El Salvador serves as a transshipment point for illicit substances from South America into Mexico. These dynamics fuel the homicide rate of the region as local gang members must protect their territory by any means …

Book Review: A History Of Rwandan Identity And Trauma: The Mythmakers' Victims, James J. Snow

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

The History Problem: The Politics Of War Commemoration In East Asia, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Seventy years have passed since the end of the Asia-Pacific War, yet Japan remains embroiled in controversy with its neighbors over the war’s commemoration. Among the many points of contention between Japan, China, and South Korea are interpretations of the Tokyo War Crimes Trial, apologies and compensation for foreign victims of Japanese aggression, prime ministerial visits to the Yasukuni Shrine, and the war’s portrayal in textbooks. Collectively, these controversies have come to be called the “history problem.” But why has the problem become so intractable? Can it ever be resolved, and if so, how? To answer these questions, the author …

Review Of Muslims And Jews In France. History Of A Conflict By Maud S. Mandel, Bryan Turner

Publications and Research

The mood of European scholarship with respect to the recognition and integration of Islam is typically pessimistic. The rise of anti-immigrant and anti-Islam political parties – Golden Dawn in Greece, the Northern League in Italy, Marine Le Penn and the National Front in France, and the English defense league in Britain – have exposed a hitherto hidden or ignored under-current of resentment against foreigners. In the context of these developments, Maud Mandel’s study of Muslims and Jews in France is a welcome corrective to the dominant focus on anti-Islam in the academic literature and in the popular media. The historical …

The History, Memory, And Representation Of The Holocaust: Reflections On A Yearlong Freshman Seminar And Study Trip, Brian Vetruba, Cecily Hibbs, Talia Wazana, Abigail Wippel, Erin Mcglothlin, Anika Walke

WashU Libraries Presentations

Presented at the Lessons and Legacies conference on Holocaust Studies in November 2016, these posters document a year-long freshman FOCUS seminar held at Washington University in St. Louis in 2015-2016 that aimed to give incoming college students a sophisticated understanding of the causes, dynamics, representation, and memory of the Nazi genocide. Created and co-taught by Anika Walke and Erin McGlothlin, this intensive academic engagement featured two semesters of coursework focusing on the history and the literary and filmic representation of the Holocaust and a twelve-day trip to Germany, Poland and Lithuania. The group visited important Holocaust-related sites to deepen their …

South Sudan : A New History For A New Nation, Douglas H. Johnson

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Africa’s newest nation has a long history. Often considered remote and isolated from the rest of Africa, and usually associated with the violence of slavery and civil war, South Sudan has been an arena for a complex mixing of peoples, languages, and beliefs. The nation’s diversity is both its strength and a challenge as its people attempt to overcome the legacy of decades of war to build a new economic, political, and national future.

Most recent studies of South Sudan’s history have a foreshortened sense of the past, focusing on current political issues, the recently ended civil war, or the …

Bethlehem Chapel: How A Place Can Be Reinterpreted By Government, Maya Lemaster

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

An important source of legitimacy for all types of government is the creation of or building up of a sense of nationhood for the citizens of the state. This can be achieved in many ways, including through the use of physical nationalist symbols. In my paper, I address this topic by exploring how the Communist government of Czechoslovakia reinterpreted and changed the traditional meaning of the historical Bethlehem Chapel in Prague in order to fit their own ideology. I found that the Communist government emphasized the communal aspects of the Hussite movement and ignored religious associations. My research is primarily …

Informe De Conferencia Maya- Pdf En Español, Alan Lebaron

Maya Heritage Community Project Texts

Memoria de la Conferencia; Noviembre 2016 en el local de Mesa, AZ

Maya Conference Report - Pdf In English, Alan Lebaron

Maya Heritage Community Project Texts

Remembering the conference; on November 2016 in Mesa, AZ

Modern Muslims : A Sudan Memoir, Steve Howard

Ohio University Press Open Access Books

Steve Howard departed for the Sudan in the early 1980s as an American graduate student beginning a three-year journey in which he would join and live with the Republican Brotherhood, the Sufi Muslim group led by the visionary Mahmoud Mohamed Taha. Taha was a religious intellectual who participated in the early days of Sudan’s anticolonial struggle, but quickly turned his movement into a religious reform effort based on his radical reading of the Qur’an. He was executed in 1985 for apostasy.

Decades after returning to the life of an academic in the United States, Howard brings us this memoir of …

Geopolitical Implications Of The Sino-Japanese East China Sea Dispute For The U.S., Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

This presentation updates the article "Geopolitical Implications of the Sino-East China Sea Dispute for the U.S." published in Geopolitics, History, and International Relations which is already available in epubs.

In Memoriam

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Back Matter

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Notes

Comparative Civilizations Review

No abstract provided.

Quigley's Model As A Model Model, Matthew Melko

Comparative Civilizations Review

Joseph Drew, editor-in-chief of the Comparative Civilizations Review, has updated and edited a paper from the early nineteen seventies composed by noted scholar and past president of the International Society for the Comparative Study of Civilization, Dr. Matthew Melko. In it, Dr. Melko advances the proposition that the best model for the study of civilizations -- exemplified by the model proposed by Dr. Carroll Quigley which advances a holistic method -- is the comparative study of civilizations. According to the paper, this model along with similar ones is the best avenue to study inter-civilizational connections. Another way noted by the …

Technology In Eurasia Before Modern Times: A Survey, Norman C. Rothman

Comparative Civilizations Review

This work traces the development of technology in Eurasia before 1400 C.E. It covers the Middle East, China, India, and Europe. It puts the emphasis on such key areas as metallurgy and textiles as well as the development of inventions and innovations in the technological and applied scientific processes. Simultaneously, it examines the role that trade, urbanization, governmental policy, and cultural imperatives played in this process. Chronologically, it covers the ancient, classical, and medieval period periods. It includes a brief introduction dealing with definitions and ends with a general conclusion.