International and Area Studies Commons^™

Institutional Divides: How Democracy Affects Economic Complexity In The Transition Economies Of Eastern Europe And Central Asia, Mary Frances Holland

Honors Theses

The transition economies, in making their way from a command economy to an integrated market economy, experience vastly different levels of development. This work proposes an influence of inclusive, democratic institutions on increased economic complexity. This project reviews the history of diverging political and economic policy decisions across the region. Case studies for Poland, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan review trade data and democratic policies to better understand groups of development across the region. This paper utilizes Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson’s institutional developmental theory as a basis for the creation and sustainability of democratic and economically diverse structures.

Renewables & Refugees: A Solution For Jordan, Lauren Burns

Honors Theses

As the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan continues to host the third largest Syrian refugee population in the world, the state’s infrastructure and its people are taking a toll. Before the war in Syria began, Jordan was already suffering from a weak economy, resource scarcity, and an enormous population boom. Since accepting nearly 2.5 million refugees, these issues have compounded year after year—nearly reaching a breaking point. I propose an unconventional solution to some aspects of the refugee crisis: renewable energy. Renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels, consume less water in electricity generation, emit fewer greenhouse gases, and promote job creation …

The Holy See And The Syrian Refugee Crisis: A Study Of The Catholic Church's Soft Power, Lauren A. Newman

Honors Theses

The Syrian Migrant and Refugee Crisis has created 5.6 million refugees who have fled outside of Syria and 6.1 million internally displaced peoples within Syria. Undoubtedly, it is one of the largest humanitarian crises of the modern day. The Catholic Church joins governments and NGOs in responding to the conflict, but modern scholarship has not focused heavily on its role. This paper seeks to investigate how the Catholic Church interacts in the secular field of international relations by looking at its response to the Syrian Migrant and Refugee Crisis. In order to analyze the Church’s response, this paper looks at …

German Regional Identity And Soccer: Comparison Of Soccer’S Impact On Cultural And Political Identities In Munich And Dortmund, Germany, Megan Degrafft

Honors Theses

This paper aims to explore the relationship between soccer from a regional perspective using FC Bayern Munich and Munich, Germany and Borussia Dortmund and Dortmund, Germany and how those cities’ soccer teams elicit political and regional identities through the dichotomy between the fans and the business mindset of contemporary German soccer. A media analysis using two German language newspapers was used in order to collect articles that reported on the two soccer clubs apart from their result on the field. Pre-existing Twitter hashtags were also used to collect fan reactions towards the reported events. The findings revealed three different crises …

Economic Advancement Across The European Playing Field, Zac Herring

Honors Theses

This project seeks to examine the relationship between economic history, soccer, and economic institutions in countries who have attained varying levels of success on the soccer field and economically. The work of several influential scholars in recent decades has drawn attention to the need for a shift in the goal for economic achievement from industrialization to institutional effectiveness. This study develops a model to further understand the relationship between economic achievement and soccer success. It then includes case studies of three countries from the model in order to further understand the impact of the institutions that have a significant presence …

Japanese Mascots: Diplomatic Tool, Domestic Escapism, Gwenafaye Mccormick

Honors Theses

In Japan, mascots are not only representatives of sports teams and sugary cereals, but are vital diplomatic tools of communication and domestic tools of escapism. Though a multitude of mascots exist, scholarship on the topic tends to portray the body of mascots as one-dimensional. This thesis analyzes the modern mascot field and provides previously undefined categories for mascots based on their application, as their absence hinders further analysis. These definitions also describe the subversive social space that mascots inhabit in Japanese society and allow the thesis to examine consumers’ relationships with mascots. An analysis of the U.S. and Israeli embassy …

Rice Bunnies In China's #Metoo: Discussion Of A Feminist Movement Under Censorship, Tyler Caple

Honors Theses

This paper aims to assess the reception of the currently developing #MeToo movement in China from the perspective of Chinese internet users, feminists, and the state government as well as how censorship affects the way in which these individuals express their opinions on gendered sexual violence in Chinese society. By using a qualitative content analysis to comb through Chinese social media posts, Chinese state- sponsored news articles, and Western news articles, findings suggest that Chinese netizens are engaging with societal concerns over #MeToo and sexual assault, but do not define their grievances as being within a movement presumably to avoid …

Watering The Desert: Azraq, Public Opinion, And Environmental Post-Materialism, Wesley Gerard

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I analyze the physical, political, and societal transformations in Azraq, Jordan, caused by over-exploitation of the town’s aquifer. I also connect the changes I and others have observed in Azraq to two main theories: postmaterialism and its counterarguments, and the tragedy of the commons. In short, postmaterialism argues that societies that have advanced so that citizens do not have to devote their time and money to survival will have larger rates of environmentalism; the tragedy of the commons details the negative consequences of environmental degradation on those living around a common resource. In conducting the study, I …

Border Disorder: 'Irregular Bangladeshis', Xenophobia And Crimmigration Control In India, Sujata Ramachandran

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

In India, the crisis of migration tied to the entry, presence and assimilation of the so-called ‘irregular’, ‘illegal Bangladeshi migrants’ is now an undisputed reality, seemingly affecting all geographical areas located within the national territories in multiple adverse ways. A decidedly strident xenophobic rhetoric attaches the presence of such migrants in an indiscriminate fashion to unending anxieties and urgent problems, whilst constantly drawing attention to the inefficacies of immigration enforcement and deficiencies of (interior and exterior) borders controls. This dissertation addresses key moments in the making and deepening of this national crisis and its management by state authorities over the …

Evangelical Faith And Culture In The Lives Of Vietnam’S Upland Hmong - 1987-2017, Jim Lewis

Biblical and Theological Studies Faculty Works

This paper centers on the contemporary conversion movement to Christianity among the Hmong of the Northern Mountainous Region (NMR). Taking place within the brief scope of only 30 years, religious change among the 1.2 million highland Hmong in Vietnam’s fourteen provinces has resulted in some 330,000 declaring they have exchanged many traditional beliefs for faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have embraced substantially the same faith as the Tin Lanh Church, which first came to Vietnam in 1911, one of Vietnam’s six officially approved religions. It is reasonable to claim that a mass movement of this magnitude among a …

Surpass, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Where is China going? How will it influence world politics in the twenty-first century? Such questions currently vex commentators not only in the West, but within the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as well.¹ In his first month as China’s leader in 2012, Xi Jinping addressed this concern when he proposed the ‘China Dream’ (zhongguo meng) as his vision of the PRC’s future direction. Such discussion of directions and dreams is actually part of a broad and ongoing debate about the ‘moral crisis’ that China faces after four decades of economic reform and opening up. Public intellectuals from across the …

Sons Of The Sāqiya: Grassroots Water Politics In Southeastern Morocco, John Chappell

Honors Theses

This study examines the informal institutions that govern the sāqiya and khettāra irrigation system in southeastern Morocco. I frame those institutions using literature concerning politics of irrigation, governing the commons, and North African political culture. While interviewing farmers in agricultural communities near the Morocco-Algeria border, five themes emerged as key aspects of sāqiya and khettāra governance: the definitions of irrigation communities, the methods of water distribution, the institutions for selecting leaders, and those leaders’ authorities and responsibilities. Institutional arrangements and management practices associated with those themes show that sāqiya and khettāra governance is rooted in the democratic values of consensus …

Conflict Or Cooperation: How Climate Change Is Transforming Geopolitics In The Arctic, Mcrae E. Mayfield

Honors Theses

The purpose of this project was to show how climate change is transforming geopolitics in the Arctic by creating new economic opportunities leading to the increased militarization of Arctic nations. This thesis triangulates the current Arctic policy of member nations, economic resources and opportunities in the region, and the increased military presence in the region to demonstrate how a potential conflict may occur in the region if the current trend continues. This thesis aims to show how resource greed over non-contiguous territory and an increased military presence escalated tensions in the Arctic.

Foreign Direct Investment And Migration To The Persian Gulf, Paul Hunt

Honors Theses

This thesis studies the effect of foreign investment policy in the Gulf Cooperation Council member nations on labor migration to the Persian Gulf. The study uses a difference in differences regression to estimate coefficients for financial liberalization, special economic zones, and foreign direct investment on total immigrant stocks. The regression analysis finds a weakly negative association between special economic zones and immigration, and no significant effect of foreign investment.

Commodity Fetishism And Performative Identity: Studying The Effects Of Neoliberal Reform On The Work Of Non-Governmental Organizations In Cairo, Cynthia N. Bauer

Honors Theses

This paper explores the economic dimension of identity politics, exemplified in the case study of the NGO Safarni in Cairo, Egypt. In doing so, I argue that neoliberal economic reform has led to an expansion of the capitalist mindset to include new subjectivities, one of which is the categorization of identity. By teaching values of "diversity" and "openness," and getting significant international funding to do so, Safarni is participating in a system that is creating a new type of labor and laborer, and where this labor is one in which the self objectifies itself.

Note The Change: A Comparative Study Of Demonetization Efforts In India And Sweden, Danielle Browske

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

On the evening of November 8th, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced to a shocked India that the two most common banknotes would thereafter cease to be legal tender. Newly designed notes were printed and dispersed to Indians who were forced to wait in long bank and ATM lines, which frequently ran out of cash due to such high demand. There were reports of people dying in lines, not getting paid their salaries due to the chaos, and losing everything in the resulting inflation that plagued rural farmers. Since then, India has seen a rise in cash usage rates compared …

Field Expertise: How To Create An Effective Travel Risk Policy, Aaron D. Clevenger

Publications

Aaron Clevenger, Assistant Provost, Dean of International Programs, and Senior International Officer at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, has worked within higher education for 17 years. After a mudslide accident where student and faculty travelers may have been nearby, the President of the university called Clevenger's office to find out traveler locations. Not having the ability to answer his questions, Clevenger wanted to ensure that in the future, he had a better answer than "I don't know." Through conversations with other experts in the field, Clevenger discovered there were few comprehensive sources available with advice on how to author a travel policy. …

Recording The Past Of "Peoples Without History": Southeast Asia’S Sea Nomads, Barbara Watson Andaya

Asian Review

This essay has been developed from the conviction that scholars of all disciplines, particularly from Southeast Asia, must work together to prioritize the task of recording the traditions of “marginalized peoples” before practices, beliefs and memories disappear completely. Although anthropologists dominate contemporary studies, historians have much to offer, especially in dealing with the relationship between such groups and the state. Here I provide a background to historical work on sea peoples, tracking the evolution of the now accepted view that, traditionally, they were respected by land-based states and that this relationship was mutually beneficial. However, the demise of reciprocity combined …

Civil Service And Oligarchy: American Colonial Principles In Early Twentieth Century Philippines And Hawai'i, Lance D. Collins

Asian Review

This paper surveys the history of the introduction of an American-style merit-principle in the creation of a classified civil service system in the Philippines and Hawai'i. The paper illustrates how the implementation of the idea of the "merit principle" in civil service and in organizing public workers in the Philippines and Hawai'i was undermined by opposing forces within the American colonial governing apparatus. The Philippines was an early adopter of the Progressive-era “merit principle” reforms being pushed in the United States proper while Hawai‘i was one of the last—implemented halfway through the New Deal era. This paper attempts to understand …

Communist Defeat In The Second Indochina War, Paul T. Carter

Asian Review

Once I talked with them (his North Vietnamese captors) about captured soldiers at the front line. They asked me which front line? I was thinking of Plain De Jars and Sky Line Ridge, so I told them. They laughed and told me that’s not the front line. They said their front line was Thailand. (Thai Forward Air Guide CROWBAR, captured by the North Vietnamese in Laos in 1972 and kept captive for over four years.) (Warriors Association 333 1987, 6)

Dealing With Diversity: State Strategies On Ethnic Minority Management In Southeast Asia, Hansley A. Juliano, Matthew David D. Ordoñez, Enrico Antonio B. La Viña

Asian Review

Southeast Asia’s ethnic, political and cultural diversity continues to pose major policy and governance hurdles in enforcing a common community born out of the post-colonial nationalist baggage of almost all the region’s countries. ASEAN’s “non-interference” clause gives leeway to each member state to respond to its ethnic diversity with nation-building projects through exclusionary governance. With this leeway, each Southeast Asian country’s nation-building policies legitimize a particular, existing ethno-nationalist or “ethno-religious” majority at the expense of democratic accountability. This study proposes a preliminary quantitative model which uses regression analysis to compare Southeast Asian countries’ data on their religious and ethnic populations. …

South China Sea Contestations: Southeast Asia’S Regional Identity And Asean’S Sustainability, Victor R. Savage

Asian Review

Current global news is focused on China’s territorial claims in the South China Sea and the ensuing clash with the United States over the “freedom of marine navigation.” Against this background of territorial claims lies the complex history of old Asian civilizations which undergird no easy resolution of such territorial issues. This paper interrogates the region’s cultural identity paradigm arising from China’s territorial claims, the US-China hegemonic global contestation, the US-China trade war and ASEAN’s responses to the changing geopolitics and extension of China’s geography. It argues that both domestic changes and externalities are affecting ASEAN’s regional cohesion.

Rosenberg Institute For East Asian Studies At Suffolk University Annual Report For 2018-2019, Rosenberg Institute

Rosenberg Institute Annual Reports

These reports summarize the activities of the Rosenberg Institute during the academic year, including information related to public programming, visiting scholars, cooperation with the Asian Studies program at Suffolk College of Arts & Sciences, promotion of Suffolk's Asia-related activities, community outreach, and funding. Most reports also contain photographs of scholars, staff, and events.

When Words Are Not Enough: The Development Of Human Trafficking In Venezuela Under The Maduro Administration, Holly Prather

Honors Theses

This thesis discusses the role the Maduro administration has played in the development of human trafficking in Venezuela. It does so by employing a qualitative analysis of primary sources such as governmental and NGO reports to determine the links between the Maduro administration and the increase of human trafficking. I argue that the Maduro administration has chosen to employ social policy, the Misiones (Misiones), as the state’s approach to human trafficking instead of enforcing anti-trafficking laws. This, in conjunction with unsound economic policy in response to the 2014 decline in oil prices, gives the Maduro administration a substantial role in …

Impact, Implementation, And Insights Of Peace Education: A Case Study Of The M.A. In Peace Studies And Conflict Transformation Program At The University Of Rwanda, Sarah M. Doerrer

LMU Theses and Dissertations

Higher education is arguably critical for healing and stabilization in postconflict contexts, by developing leaders who value peace and have the skill sets to achieve it in various sectors. A rapidly growing body of literature concludes that peace education in particular has great potential to transform postconflict communities, both in higher education and at other levels of schooling. Yet there exists little rigorous analysis of the decisions faced by educational leaders responsible for implementing such programs, particularly those in postconflict settings where the needs are uniquely challenging.

This qualitative investigation documented the M.A. in Peace Studies and Conflict Transformation program, …

Hemen Mazumdar: The Last Romantic, Caterina Corni, Nirmalya Kumar

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Hemendranath Mazumdar, popularly referred to as Hemen Mazumdar, was born 1894 in Gachihata village of Mymensingh district, which is currently part of Bangladesh. Coming from a relatively wealthy landowning family, at the age of sixteen, Hemen dropped out of school and ran away to Calcutta to pursue his passion for painting. He enrolled at the Government College of Art in 1911, but left in 1912 for another institution, Jubilee Art Academy. By 1915, he left Jubilee Art Academy to start earning his living through portrait painting. Abanindranath Tagore’s coterie had banished any artist following the western academic approach. In response, …

Hungary's New Church Law Is Worse Than The First, H. David Baer Ph.D.

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

In early December 2018, the Hungarian parliament passed a series of sweeping laws with major constitutional implications. The parliamentary session itself was something of a circus. In order to pass the law, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government was forced to disregard rules of the chamber that would have allowed the opposition to derail the legislation with parliamentary maneuvers. In protest, the opposition sounded bullhorns in Parliament while throwing confetti, before walking out. Perhaps the most significant law was one establishing a new, parallel system of courts which critics say give Orbán complete control of the judiciary. Less noted, but also …

Cross Country Comparison And Concluding Remarks, Viktorija Borovska

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

Political, economic and cultural elites in the Western Balkans share common views on the role of religion in society, but different perspectives on the challenges and concerns related to interreligious relations.

The Thai Perception Of The Bounds Of Masculinity: An Analysis Of Boys’ Love Drama Series, Anthony Thien Pham

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

The study lays a foundation for understanding gender and sexuality within a Thai sociocultural, political, and economic context and goes on to elaborate how Thai boys' love drama series productions are built upon the foundation of their Japanese and Chinese predecessors. An analysis of the evolution of boys' love drama series within Thailand will be conducted from the years 2014 to 2018, utilizing the Uses and Gratification Theory as well as the Media System Dependency Theory in order to rationalize growth and success of the genre. Queer Theory and Social Constructivism are applied in order to better understanding the shifting …

Social Integration Of Chinese Students In Thai Society: The Case Of Chinese Students In Chulalongkorn University And Dhurakij Pundit University, Caoyi Zhang

Chulalongkorn University Theses and Dissertations (Chula ETD)

International students may not integrate as successfully and smoothly as has been assumed. These students may experience multiple challenges in their new social and academic host environments. As Chinese student is the majority and the main source of international students in Thailand, promotion for their better integration into Thai society should be done. Therefore, this study aims to investigate social life of Chinese students in Thailand and the factors that influent Chinese students’ integration into Thai society. The author chosen two representative universities as case study. The data was collected from observation and semi-structured interviews about integration in various domains …