American Politics Commons^™

September Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness” by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian. The Nation, July 30, 2007.

Occupational Hazard, Michael Goodhart

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“The Other War” describes how the patrols, supply convoys, checkpoints, raids, and arrests, which make up the daily routines of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, sometimes involve degrading and abusive treatment of Iraqi civilians. Through interviews with some of those soldiers, the article portrays the everyday tragedy of the Iraq war and demonstrates how the very policies used to “secure” the country are creating greater insecurity and sparking Iraqi resentment of the occupation. The authors’ main point is that such abuses are inevitable under what they call “misguided and brutal colonial wars and occupations” like Iraq, “the French occupation of Algeria… …

Facing Up To The Truth, Susan E. Waltz

Human Rights & Human Welfare

American GIs who liberated Dachau from the Nazis in April 1945 exist in our collective memory as iconic representations of the American soldier-hero: competent and capable, disciplined, principled and fundamentally good. From their collective example, we expect American soldiers to reveal, report, and excoriate war crimes. This makes it difficult to acknowledge that Americans may also commit war crimes—and on a regular basis.

Typed Document: Classroom Notes, Edna Louise Saffy

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Miscellaneous class notes August 28- September 27, 2007.

Letter: Terry Mcauliffe; Friend, Terry Mcauliffe

Saffy Collection - All Textual Materials

Campaign letter about the contribution program 10 for 10. Paid for by Hillary Clinton for President Exploratory Committee. No date given. Box 14 Folder 11

Gender In Politics, Sheri L. Kunovich, Pamela Paxton, Melanie M. Hughes

Sociology Research

Women’s political participation and representation vary dramatically within and between countries. We selectively review the literature on gender in politics, focusing on women’s formal political participation.

We discuss both traditional explanations for women’s political participation and representation, such as the supply of women and the demand for women, and newer explanations such as the role of international actors and gender quotas. We also ask whether women are distinctive—does having more women in office make a difference to public policy? Throughout the review we demonstrate that a full understanding of women’s political representation requires both deep knowledge of individual cases such …

What Are America’S Obligations To Iraq After An Unjust War?, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

Since the goal of a just war is to restore a political condition of peace and justice, and since allowing a just war is always a mournful concession to the reality of injustice, a country that wins a war has post-bellum obligations to advance the common good within the losing nation and among the community of nations. It has the moral duty to make up for the damage it has caused, even if it was justified in causing that damage. (Note that the idea of a "just" war is not that war is a good in itself, but that it …

Do The New Nixon Tapes Tell Us Anything New?, Richard A. Moss, Luke Nichter

Presidential Studies Faculty Articles and Research

"The Richard M. Nixon Presidential Library—now officially integrated into the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)—and its director, Dr. Timothy Naftali, should be commended for the release of Nixon tapes that occurred on July 11, 2007. The release, totaling 165 conversations recorded between November 3 and November 19, 1972, was both symbolic and substantive."

Nichter On Kurthen And Menéndez-Alarcón And Immerfall, 'Safeguarding German-American Relations In The New Century: Understanding And Accepting Mutual Differences', Luke A. Nichter

Presidential Studies Faculty Articles and Research

A review of Safeguarding German-American Relations in the New Century: Understanding and Accepting Mutual Differences edited by Hermann Kurthen, Antonio V. Menéndez-Alarcón, and Stefan Immerfall.

Mercenaries And Other Ways Of Breaking The Law: Why Our Blood Should Boil, Judith Blau

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Among the many consequences of the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the absence of investigative journalism and critical reflection in the U.S. is, perhaps, the most troubling; though we are now seeing a reversal of this trend. Jeremy Scahill has been one of the brightest and best examples of this reversal, relentlessly pursuing a trail of wrongdoing involving the U.S. government and private corporations.

Can The Next American President Switch The Tracks?, Harry Kreisler

Human Rights & Human Welfare

For decades the Washington mantra has been privatization. As Secretary of Defense in Bush 41’s administration and as CEO of Haliburton, Dick Cheney was influential in the application of this idea to defense policy. Now as Vice President of the United States, he and his coterie of followers have taken the idea to a new level. According to Jeremy Scahill, the United States has reached a tipping point in waging the Iraq war, with dire consequences for defense policy, democratic accountability, and the global perception of who we are and what we stand for.

Private Military Industry And The Laws Of War, Mahmood Monshipouri

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The “war on terrorism,” according to Jeremy Scahill, has led to the most privatized war in the history of the United States of America: the war in Iraq, waged partially by private security contractors who are, for the most part, accountable to no higher legal-political authority. This brings us to an obvious question: Is this type of warfare an imperative part of counterterrorism?

Rooting The Privatization Of War In A Broader Political Context, Ali Wyne

Human Rights & Human Welfare

On the issue of military outsourcing, I think that it would be valuable to place Jeremy Scahill’s research and critique in a broader context.

The Politic 2007 Summer, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.

The Voting Rights Act And The Election Of Nonwhite Officials, Pei-Te Lien, Dianne M. Pinderhughes, Carol Hardy-Fanta, Christine M. Sierra

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Voting Rights Act (VRA) is one of the most important—if not the most important—public policies developed over the last half century to increase access to the U.S. political system for people of color. The VRA also provides an important context for understanding the ascension of nonwhite groups into the elected leadership of the nation (Browning, Marshall, and Tabb 1984; Davidson and Grofman 1994; Menifield 2001; Mc-Clain and Stewart 2002; Segura and Bowler 2005; Bositis 2006). This essay assesses the present-day significance of the VRA for the political representation of communities of color by examining the implications of majority-minority districts and …

The Political Personalities Of 2008 Republican Presidential Contenders John Mccain And Rudy Giuliani, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of indirect assessments of the personalities of Arizona senator John McCain and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, contenders for the Republican Party nomination in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon.

Information concerning Sen. McCain and Mayor Giuliani was collected from biographical sources and published reports and synthesized into personality profiles using the second edition of the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with Axis II of DSM–IV.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed on …

July Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Outsourcing the War ” by Jeremy Schaill. The Nation. May 28, 2007.

The Nixon Legacy: How It Informed The Administration Of George W. Bush, Carolyn C La Fontaine

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Breaking The Law! Conditions For And Perception Of Civil Disobedience By Democratic Citizens, Adam Stanley

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

This paper examines actions of civil disobedience and the laws relevant to those actions. Each case study was tested against an operational definition of civil disobedience to see if these actions could be considered a legitimate expression of civil disobedience. The legitimacy of the laws was assessed through the use of two competing legal philosophies of H. L. A. Hart and Ronald Dworkin. Then, the public’s opinion of civil disobedience was measured through the use of polls and survey data. The results showed that the three cases did follow the guidelines of civil disobedience established by the literature, but the …

Fifteen To Twenty-Five Year Olds' Civic, Electoral, And Political Behavior...Or The Lack Thereof, Erica D. Griffith

Honors Capstones

Capstone submitted as a graduation requirement for the BSU Honors Program.

A Pre-Apocalyptic Masterpiece, Brad Orleck

Senior Honors Projects

This article or section or project is not written in the formal tone expected of an honors project. Please improve it or discuss changes on the talk page. See URI's guide to writing better articles for suggestions. For years, various groups have predicted the end of the world, usually a spiritual or nuclear armageddon. Religious groups have predicted the second coming, Hollywood directors have predicted devastating wars with artificial intelligence, and conspiracy theorists predicted Y2K, among others. But every year, the world keeps not ending (widely regarded by scholars as a good thing). And while the world may not end …

Music, The Non-Governmental Actor Changing Political Policy: Have We Failed The Power Of Music?, Alex Hershey

Senior Honors Projects

Music, the Non-Governmental Actor Changing Political Policy: Have We Failed the Power of Music? People learn that making music as well as listening to it frees them from the toil and tedium of a life dominated by the privileged and the powerful. Music means trouble for those who would own and control it as they perpetuate injustice and suffering. – Mat Callahan It is believed that the pen is mightier than the sword, but is the guitar playing vocalist, a beatnik, mightier than the M-16 machinegun and an American political oligarchy? To find the answer to this question we must …

The Convenient Alliance: President Reagan And Pope John Paul Ii, Cold Warriors, Tighe P. Flatley

Senior Honors Projects

Historians and non-scholars alike have long regarded the work of President Reagan and Pope John Paul II to be a tremendous force in helping to end the Cold War. In 1992, Time Magazine cited the relationship as a “Holy Alliance”, a political partnering of two men who, after surviving separate assassination attempts merely six weeks apart, saw their role in global politics as a divine signal to promote the free world and take down communism internationally. By the time the President and the Pope first met at the Vatican in 1982, the two were privately discussing Cold War politics. They …

Politique Partisane Et Indépendence Judiciare, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Evolution And Impact Of Documentary Films, Amma Marfo

Senior Honors Projects

Long considered either high art or the bane of every student’s existence when a substitute teacher came to class, documentary film has developed into a popular and visible form of entertainment. As a result, they are starting to have a bigger effect on society, as they begin to address issues with the goal of informing the public and pushing for social change. This project will first address historical documentaries, the reasons that they were made, and what techniques were established that have carried through to documentary film today. My paper will then examine today’s documentary films, what techniques they use …

The Politic 2007 Spring, The Politic, Inc.

The Politic

No abstract provided.

Equality News (Spring 2007), Matthew R. Dubois

Equality news / EqualityMaine (2004-2008)

No abstract provided.

A Critical Comparison Of The Church-State Jurisprudence Of Chief Justice William Rehnquist And Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, Christy Harrison

Honors Theses

The relationship between government and religion is a difficult one. The question of how religious beliefs and practices should be treated by the government remains at the forefront of constitutional debate. There are concerns about religious freedom and the extent to which it conflicts with public duty. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution states, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." The Supreme Court's interpretation of the religion clauses has been unclear, inconsistent, and, therefore, extremely controversial. In fact, it has not become less controversial over time, but quite …

Scientific Advice To The House : Who Has The Congressional Ear?, Kristen Greenholt

Honors Theses

In 2001, President George W. Bush remarked, "Science and technology have never been more essential to the defense of the nation and the health of the economy." The responsibility for formulating science and technology policy primarily falls into the hands of Congress. However, since few members of Congress possess a broad base of knowledge in either science or technology, they must rely on external sources of information. I examine the sources of information on which they rely, or the question "Who has the Congressional Ear?"with regard to science and technology issues. Using the downfall of the Office of Technology Assessment …

The Perceived Effects Of Increased Fuel Prices, Sean O'Roark

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

This project, “Perceptions About the Causes and Effects of Increasing Fuel Prices,” seeks to understand the attitudes of major newspaper editorials concerning the increase of fuel prices. A content analysis of various newspaper editorials from the New York Times, Washington Times, Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post was conducted to gain an understanding of the attitudes and predictions these writers put forth concerning the increase in the price of fuel. Some of the areas this study focused on included what the writer’s attitude was, what were the attributions of and consequences of increased prices, and what was the main …