International and Area Studies Commons^™

The Importance Of Ecological Security For Protective Security: A Case Study Of Northern China And The Impact Of Water Scarcity On Food Security, Molly A. Walton

Josef Korbel Journal of Advanced International Studies

China’s surging growth rate of nearly 10% over the past 20 years has accelerated the nation to the forefront of the global economy. However, this growth has been predicated upon the destruction and depletion of the natural environment. Consequently, China is beginning to experience the deterioration of its ecological capital, particularly in regards to its water supply. This paper seeks to evaluate the impact of water scarcity in Northern China on the Chinese Communist Party’s policy of food self-sufficiency by utilizing the protective security component of Amartya Sen’s development as freedom framework. It is argued that ecological security is a …

Pathways To Interstate War: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis Of The Steps-To-War Theory, Brandon Valeriano, Victor Marin

Josef Korbel Journal of Advanced International Studies

The steps-to-war theory (Vasquez 1993) suggests that war is brought on by a series of steps that increase hostility and then make the issues under contention more intractable. Power politics strategies, including coercion in the face of territorial disputes, rivalry, hardliners in power, alliances, and arms races, are all important steps to war. This paper utilizes the steps-to-war theory using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). With this method, we can observe differing pathways to war, rather than the correlations associated with war. This research also represents the first attempt to classify domestic leaders according to type as suggested by existing theory. …

Gender, Empowerment And Coffee In Mexico And Central America: A Policy Analysis, Lisa M. Fry

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Coffee is an important commodity for Central American countries. Like other agricultural production, coffee production in the region is undergoing a “feminization” in which women become the primary producers. However, female agricultural producers face constraints that their male counterparts do not. This study analyzes policies to determine if they promote or continue the inhibition of empowerment of female coffee producers. The results of the study indicate that policies relating to Central American coffee production are promoting women’s empowerment, but implementation remains weak. Policy recommendations are included.

Can The Icc Ever Get It Right?, Richard Burchill

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Nesrine Malik makes clear with her title, “The ICC’s Blunder on Sudan,” that something has gone amiss with the efforts of Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo to ensure the ICC statute is applied to those circumstances it was meant to address. But why is something amiss in this situation? The Prosecutor has a mandate and the legal regime for the ICC is relatively clear (at least procedurally); the crimes it covers can always be debated, but there is a degree of clarity present as to what acts are addressed; so what has gone wrong? The difficulty lies in expectations about justice and …

March Roundtable: Icc And Darfur Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The ICC's Blunder on Sudan” by Nesrine Malik. The Guardian. February 4, 2010.

Confronting The Politics And Law Behind Battles Over The Icc’S Bashir Indictment, Anthony Chase

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Nesrine Malik points in the wrong direction in arguing that charges of genocide embarrass the ICC more than they do Omar al-Bashir. The embarrassment here should come from those, such as Malik, who snidely downplay the level of war crimes committed in Darfur, who discuss genocide as if it is a cultural rather than political matter (does Malik seriously think genocide ever has anything to do with a country’s cultural traditions, as she says in defending Sudan?), or who naively give credence to predictable political push-back from Sudan and its allies. The ICC faces serious legal and political obstacles, some …

Politics And The Law: Enforcing Judicial Integrity, Anna Talbot

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The ruling by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in early February concerning the arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir provoked controversy. The role of the Court has been called into question, with Nesrine Malik’s piece surmising that the ruling has shown that the Court is out of touch with political reality. She argues that the decision plays into the hands of authorities who are using it to their own political ends; that the charge of genocide is unjustified; and that the practicalities of enforcement undermine the Court.

Bashir And The Icc, Kurt Mills

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Nesrine Malik argues that the International Criminal Court (ICC) made a mistake when it declared that it might charge Omar al Bashir with genocide, in addition to the existing charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity. She argues that the court’s ruling will contribute to Bashir's propaganda efforts and that the current charges have had no appreciable effect. Given the extreme duplicity of Bashir and the other crimes he has quite clearly committed, it is unclear how the genocide charge would make a big difference.

Hope For Haiti?, Kurt Mills

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Kara McDonald raises the question of whether or not the international community will go beyond its patchwork response to Haiti's problems. One wonders why the question is even asked, given the international community's track record in Haiti, as well as in other parts of the world. Indeed, setting aside the many positive acts of individuals and states to address the suffering after the earthquake, the response to Haiti illustrates the inability of the international community to respond in a coherent and humane manner to many crises around the world.

Can They Stay The Distance? The International Response To The Earthquake In Haiti, Anna Talbot

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Haiti is devastated again. Over one hundred thousand people are presumed dead. Reports of looting and violence are emerging. The international community is responding, with a statement from the Secretary-General of the UN, a resolution by the Security Council, a Special Session, and resolution from the UN Human Rights Council and numerous aid and UN agencies in the country seeking to help as many survivors as possible. Various commentators, including Kara McDonald, have claimed this is an opportunity for a stronger Haiti. Whether this opportunity is realized or not depends in large part on the international community, and whether it …

A Time For Anger. And A Time For Rights, Not Charity, Anthony Chase

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Sadness but also anger is the immediate reaction to the deaths of 200,000 Haitians. Among the dead are Myriam Merlet, Magalie Marcelin and Anne Marie Coriolan (founders of three leading Haitian feminist organizations) and 14 of the 16 members of SEROvie, the main Haitian organization providing HIV-related services for men who have sex with men and the transgendered – people who have been at the front line in pushing for political change from within Haiti. Kara McDonald’s words that “it is hard to identify another country that has had as many peacekeeping forces, stabilization operations, and crisis responses at work …

What Is The Best Use Of The International Community’S Resources; Responding To Disasters Or Trying To Strengthen Fragile States?, Richard Burchill

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The recent earthquake in Haiti is, beyond doubt, a truly tragic event. The impact of the quake in terms of the physical destruction of buildings and infrastructure, the massive loss of life, and the inability of the government to respond all demonstrated how fragile the Haitian state is. While Haiti is probably at the extreme end of fragility, it is not alone in terms of states struggling to survive in difficult conditions. And when something unexpected hits a fragile state, the response of the international community is crucial, because the impact is so much greater and the state's own ability …

February Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Tragedy and Opportunity for Haiti” by Kara C. Mc Donald. Council on Foreign Relations. January 14, 2010.

Climate Change And Indigenous Peoples In Latin America, Amy C. Rademacher

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research focused on the detrimental effects of climate change on indigenous peoples in Latin America. Indigenous peoples throughout the region tend to live subsistence livelihoods, which tie them closely to their land and the surrounding environment. This close relationship often means that indigenous peoples acutely experience the effects of climate change and are more susceptible to its negative outcomes than other populations. Further, indigenous peoples in the region lack the mitigation and adaptation capacities to deal with damaging climatic effects.

This research was designed to view the impacts of climate change on indigenous peoples through a human rights framework, …

The Role Of The Epistemic Community In Influencing Privacy Legislation: The United States And The European Union, George Edward Richie

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Threats to individual privacy from computer information, database, and surveillance technologies of the mid-20th century prompted the formation of a privacy epistemic community that informed and influenced privacy policy and legislation in the United States and the European Union. Because the United States was more advanced in computer technology than the European nations, awareness of privacy issues, and the privacy epistemic community, emerged first in the United States---and migrated to Europe a generation later. The United States legislated the Privacy Act of 1974, which became the benchmark for individual privacy protection in the United States. While several European nations passed …

Terrorism Conflict: How The United States Responds To Al Qaeda Violence And Expressed Grievances, Richard Craig Rosthauser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes how the United States responds to Al Qaeda's messages and expressions of grievances and how America's responses escalate the conflict between the United States and Al Qaeda.

After its first two attacks against America, Al Qaeda devised a strategy to draw America into a guerrilla war in Afghanistan, stating its intentions in its "Declaration of War" in 1996. Before this declaration, Al Qaeda worked from the shadows and denied reports it was either funding terrorism or participating in terrorism. Bin Laden continued his denials but took responsibility for some terrorist acts in his messages. President Clinton did …

Deconstructing Collective Identities And Violence: Analytical Perspectives From Indonesia, Brandon Scott Sternquist

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to establish a more applied, analytical approach to analyses of collective identity and violence while providing insights into the dynamics of the regions of Indonesia considered. By focusing on two regions of Indonesia - Aceh and Kalimantan - which are populated by distinct peoples and have experienced violence in contemporary times, this study contributes to the expanding literature on the social dynamics of identity and violence. To ensure a more practical approach within the study, concepts and frameworks which have contributed to discussions of the nature of identity and acts of violence are utilized. …

Peace Makers Or Draft Dodgers: Haredi Resistance To Israeli Military Conscription, Jay M. Politzer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The haredim in Israel are an ultra-Orthodox Jewish religious group who uphold the most conservative of Jewish laws. Instead of serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) as all other Israelis do, the haredim are exempted from the IDF's policy of universal conscription. This thesis proposes three hypotheses to determine why Israel's haredim do not serve in the IDF. First, the haredim do not serve in the IDF because they do not want to; second, the haredim do not serve because they hold pacifistic political opinions; and third, the haredim do not serve because Jewish religious tradition forbids military service. …

Leadership Analysis: Decision Making In Syria, Taylor Reed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is intended to identify the distinctive traits of Syrian leadership. Its purpose is to better serve policy makers as they confront the challenges Syria presents. The first section identifies major research on decision making and leadership analysis. The second section is an analysis of Syria's leadership components. The third section uses several quantitative methods to identify the leadership traits of President Bashar Al-Assad. A psychological leadership profile of the figurehead creates added complexity to the structural analysis, but is relevant because it has the capability of allowing actual policy makers to deal with their Syrian counterpart. Bashar Al-Assad …

Palestinian Refugees: Protection In Exile, Vivienne Chew

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The Palestinian refugee problem is perhaps the most critical and complex of the outstanding issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sixty-two years have now passed since the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, in which hundreds of thousands of Palestinians were displaced en masse and rendered stateless. Since then, successive generations of Palestinian refugees have endured discrimination, insecurity, repeated cycles of displacement, and infringement of their basic rights and freedoms.

Amazigh Legitimacy Through Language In Morocco, Sarah R. Fischer

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Contemporary Morocco rests at a geographic and developmental crossroads. Uniquely positioned on the Northwestern tip of Africa, Morocco is a short distance away from continental Europe, cradled between North African tradition and identity, and Western embrace. The landscape is varied: craggy mountains trail into desert oases; cobbled streets of the medina anchor the urban centers; mud homes dot the rural countryside. Obscured from the outside observer, behind the walls of the Imperial cities and between the footpaths of village olive groves, Morocco’s rich and diverse Arab and Amazigh cultures and languages circle one another in a contested dance. Morocco’s identity …

Establishing Governmental Legitimacy In Iraq: The Path To Protecting Human Rights, Matt Mines

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Rule of law is essential for ensuring the protection of human rights in post-conflict societies. Contention and disagreements, however, often arise regarding the best ways to establish rule of law in a reconstructive state. It is a vital prerequisite to rule of law that a government be viewed as legitimate. Following an armed conflict, the restoration of basic services and infrastructure is essential for instilling confidence that the government is legitimate and is capable of providing for the needs of the local populace. The essential services include water, electricity, and security on a consistent basis. In order to ensure ongoing …

Tunisia–The Imprisonment Of Fahem Boukadous (Part One Of A Series), Rob Prince

Human Rights & Human Welfare

To most Americans with the exception of those few who, for whatever reason, have an attachment to the North African country of Tunisia, the name Fahem Boukadous, foreign to American ears, means nothing. It means a good deal more to "Reporters Without Borders” and to the US State Department that actually issued a statement (half way down the page) on his behalf, to the US intelligence agencies and military that have carefully followed the Spring, 2008 uprising in the Tunisian region of Gafsa–deemed the most extensive and militant social protest in that country’s history in the past quarter century.

© …

Paul Okojie On Darfur And The Crisis Of Governance In Sudan: A Critical Reader. Edited By Salah M. Hassan And Carina E. Ray. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009. 528pp., Paul Okojie

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Darfur and the Crisis of Governance in Sudan: A Critical Reader. Edited by Salah M. Hassan and Carina E. Ray. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2009. 528pp.

Arbitrary Arrest And Detention Of Human Rights Defenders In Iran: Subduing The Voices Demanding Rights, Sachchi Karki

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Arbitrary arrest and detention, oftentimes used to curtail the freedom of opinion and expression, as well as the right to association and peaceful assembly, has continued to characterize Iranian regimes since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Such arrest and detention of human rights defenders (HRD)–who individually or with others act to protect and promote human rights—has demonstrated the repressive nature of the Iranian regime. Human rights lawyers, civil society representatives, journalists, and women’s rights movements and trade union activists are among the most commonly targeted HRD.

Steve C. Ropp On Human Rights In Latin America: A Politics Of Terror And Hope. By Sonia Cardenas. Philadelphia, Pa: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2010. 256pp., Steve C. Ropp

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Human Rights in Latin America: A Politics of Terror and Hope. By Sonia Cardenas. Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010. 256pp.

Barb Rieffer-Flanagan On Muslims In Global Politics: Identities, Interests, And Human Rights. By Mahmood Monshipouri. Philadelphia: University Of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. 325pp., Barb Rieffer-Flanagan

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Muslims in Global Politics: Identities, Interests, and Human Rights. By Mahmood Monshipouri. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. 325pp.

“Revolution By Eradication:” On The Khmer Rouge’S Making Of The Tragedy Of Cambodia, Matthew S. Weinert

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Killing of Cambodia: Geography, Genocide and the Unmaking of Space . By James A. Tyner. Aldershot, England: Ashgate Publishing, 2008. 209pp.

Introduction: Human Rights In The Middle East And North Africa (Mena), Raslan Ibrahim

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The wave of revolutions and popular uprisings across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) at the dawn of 2011 highlights the inescapable relevance and impact of human rights on the region’s politics and security. The Arab regimes’ violations of human rights and lack of respect to the human dignity of their citizens are in fact the seeds of the Jasmine revolution in Tunisia, the rebellion of the Egyptian people against Mubarak regime, as well as the ongoing uprisings across the rest of MENA. The women and men who are protesting in the streets of Egypt, Bahrain, Libya, Syria, Yemen, …

The Abuse Of Child Domestic Workers: Petites Bonnes In Morocco, Joanna Miller

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The International Labor Organization (ILO) classifies child domestic labor as a “worst form of child labor” for a very good reason. Driven by dire poverty and lack of access to education, children are sent away from their homes, often moving to large and unfamiliar cities to work for wealthier families. Morocco has one of the worst child domestic labor problems in Northern Africa with an ILO estimated 66,000-88,000 children between the ages of 7 and 15, 70% of whom are under age 12, working in Morocco today (Rinehart 2007). Many of these child laborers are young girls working as maids, …