International Relations Commons^™

Building Global Labor Solidarity: Where We Are Today (Early 2024), Kim Scipes

Class, Race and Corporate Power

Labor activists have long-been encouraging workers to build international labor solidarity to empower each other and to improve all workers’ lives and well-being going back to before the First International. This tradition, while dismembered by the Cold War between the US and the UK on one hand and the Soviet Union on the other, has been resuscitated since the 1970s, with efforts by activists, scholars, and some workers to build cross-national border solidarity across the globe for workers, an effort that is growing.

This paper details these efforts, dividing the work between 1978-2011 and 2011 to today, listing some of …

The Iranian Crisis Of The 1970s-1980s And The Formation Of The Transnational Investment Bloc, Mazaher Koruzhde

Class, Race and Corporate Power

The events surrounding the Iranian Revolution in the 1970s and 198s significantly contributed to the formation and consolidation of a U.S-Saudi transnational investment bloc.

Longing For The Homeland: The Palestinian American Diaspora And Palestinian Advocacy In The United States, Mohamed Khaled Ghumrawi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores how Palestinian Americans in the diaspora connect with Palestine, Palestinian advocacy, and the Palestinian question. It analyzes and synthesizes the interaction of the Palestinian American diaspora and Palestinian advocacy, exploring its domestic and transnational linkages. It also explores the nexus of domestic and transnational aspects relating to Palestinian identity, political life, advocacy, culture, and politics. This project utilizes two main frameworks, the first is the tripartite composite state theory, focusing specifically on the normative-social structure. The second applies a framework of intersectionality, highlighting the interconnectedness of the Palestinian diaspora and the Palestinian question with other social …

Canadian Financial Imperialism And Structural Adjustment In The Caribbean, Tamanisha J. John

Class, Race and Corporate Power

From the start of the early 1980s, structural adjustment was already normalized in the Caribbean given the power of a variety of self-interested actors, including the U.S., IFIs, and Canadian investors who continued to advance and support— by any means necessary— structural adjustment policies in the Caribbean. Debt traps, coupled with incursions on Caribbean state’s sovereignty would see the neoliberal and capitalist doctrine accepted by all of the independent states in the English-speaking Caribbean region by the mid-1980s. Structural adjustment drastically intensified the existing inequalities in states and removed the ability for governments to alleviate these situations. Alongside Caribbean structural …

Cuban Exiles And U.S. Foreign Policy, Caroline Ranawn Mcculloch

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the influence of Cuban-American exiles in shaping U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba from the 1980s to the present. The role of Cuban-American interest groups is analyzed within a larger context of U.S. national security objectives, national politics and Cuban politics. Instead of privileging domestic politics or national security politics in explaining Cuban-American influence, as other International Relations theories do, this study argues that Cuban exile politics can best be understood as an expression of subnational interest group power that affects, and is affected by, the shifting dynamics of local, national and global politics. Also, ideological divisions and …

Eu Accession Negotiations In The Shadow Of The Market, Deniss Kaskurs

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

At the end of the 20th century, the European Union (EU) had decided to expand into Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) by extending accession invitations to ten CEE states. During the accession process, each nation had a bargaining committee which was established to negotiate with EU representatives about the entrance requirements. Formally, negotiations revolve around political and economic bargaining between politicians of the incoming member states and the EU representatives. Informally, however, private commercial entities heavily influence the bargaining process, both from the EU and from the member state side. This scholarly work refers to these entities as transnational interest …

Transformative Constitutionalism And The Adjudication Of Elections In Kenya, Carl Bevelhymer

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The judicialization of politics has been an ongoing and expanding global phenomenon for decades. In Kenya, the record number of cases brought before courts prior to and following the 2017 elections is evidence of the continued growth and spread of the judicialization of politics, and more specifically elections; it is also the result of Kenya’s 2010 Constitution, which introduced a new form of governance, expanded the number of elective seats and mandated judicial and electoral reforms. One of the most remarkable events of the 2017 election period was the Supreme Court’s nullification of the presidential election due to electoral irregularities. …

Turkey-Russia Relations In 2001-2020: Deepening Partnership And Heightening Competition Amid Regional Restructuring, Muhammet Koçak

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explains the evolution of Turkey-Russia relations in 2001 2020. Turkey and Russia are two of the most critical powerhouses of Central Eurasia. In the past, the Russian Empire played a significant role in the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and Turkey took part in containing the USSR during the Cold War. In 2001 2020, however, Turkey and Russia invested in bilateral trade and established partnerships in the defense and energy sectors. Two countries also worked together to resolve several regional conflicts, including the Syrian Crisis. Despite this trend’s regional and global significance, the literature suffers from an inadequacy …

The Evolution Of United States - Central Asian Security Policy Post-9/11: Military, Terrorism, And Cyber-Security, Shamsuddin Karimi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Rudyard Kipling once described and wrote about the Great Game as a way to outline 19^th century great power politics in the struggle for empire in Central Asia. While Kipling’s tale of spy-craft and espionage is fiction, the political philosophy behind the story has never lost relevance. The struggle for political dominance in Central Asia continued through the twentieth century in the Cold War as well as into twenty-first century after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. Although the great power players may have changed over the past 120 years, the importance of Central Asia has not.

This …

Sino-American Competition In Latin America And The Caribbean, Anthony Russo Orezzoli

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the various ways in which great-power competition between China and the United States will affect regional stability within Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). This research will evaluate various theoretical approaches within the study of international relations (neorealism, neoliberal institutionalism, constructivism), as well as review foundational works of Robert Koehane, Robert Gilpin, and other major IR theorists. By utilizing these approaches, this thesis seeks to explain an increased Chinese presence in Latin America and the Caribbean through diplomatic, information, military and economic lens (DIME). In doing so, it becomes clear that stable …

Gender Politics And Policies In Post-Communist Democracies, Vera N. Beloshitzkaya

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The dissertation investigates why variation exists in gender policies that challenge traditional power hierarchies across central and eastern European (CEE) countries and the role of political parties in this process. I first ask how gender issues get onto party agendas and then test whether parties in government that have campaigned on gender issues ultimately deliver on their promises. I examine three policy domains, marginally affected by the EU and international "soft" norms, affirmative action in the labor market, father's leave, and anti-domestic violence policies.

I argue that parties are least responsive when it comes to altering gender power hierarchies at …

Understanding The Motivations And Pathways Of Women And Girls' Involvement In Terrorism In Nigeria, Peculiar M. Awa

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the experiences of 20 women and girls who lived in the Boko Haram camp in 2014-2018 and had varying levels of engagement in the organization's activities. The study employs a qualitative phenomenological in-depth interview methodology. Semi-structured interviews conducted in Nigeria and the United States yielded data on the experiences of the respondents before, during, and after their lives with Boko Haram. Based on the analysis of interview responses and field notes, several themes emerged. Overall findings suggest that family and community dynamics play a significant role in terrorism in Nigeria. The study found that early child marriage …

Drug Policy In An Era Of Normative Change: Prohibition And Harm Reduction In Uruguay, Ecuador, And Peru, Nicolas A. Beckmann

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present dissertation investigates how the advocacy and contestation of international norms related to the production and use of psychoactive substances affected drug policy decisions in South America since 1971. The goal is to provide a more complete account of why most states in the region are sticking to prohibitionist policy models, despite their evident failure and an international context that has become more favorable to the exploration of alternative policies. At the same time, it seeks to detect some of the factors that enabled countries to move towards a framework of harm reduction, prohibition’s main competitor in international drug …

Silenced Bodies: (En)Gendering Syrian Refugee Insecurity In Lebanon, Jessy Abouarab

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While there has been a shift in security studies from the security of states to that of people, realpolitik still takes place under the banner of an emerging discourse of ‘refugee crisis.’ Refugee insecurities are (en)gendered and experienced where their depth and breadth pose significant challenges to asylum seekers, neighboring host-states, and humanitarian agencies. To this end, this research captures the unique dynamics of a South-South refugee crisis in Lebanon, in which Syrians residents make up nearly one-third of its population. It applies a transnational feminist framework to trace how refugee security norms get defined, are managed, and how they …

Japan’S Relations With Muslim Asia: Trans-Continental Normativity And Policy, B. Bryan Barber Iv

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2006, Japanese Foreign Minister Asō Tarō outlined a new pillar of Japan’s foreign policy across Asia he called the ‘Arc of Freedom and Prosperity.’ The Arc would become the most lucid case for values-based diplomacy elaborated by Tokyo in the postwar era. It is a significant change from what was both a constrained and myopic approach for a state of such global economic influence and substantial diplomatic potential. In practice, however, is Japan’s values-based diplomacy actually working? How is Tokyo grappling with reconceptualizing an Asia inclusive of Muslim societies in a time when the global metanarrative is to protect …

Resource Nationalism And Energy Integration In Latin America: The Paradox Of Populism, Brian Hollingsworth

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the relationship between resource nationalism and energy integration, and uses Bolivia and Brazil as a test case. Essentially, does resource nationalism affect energy integration? The findings nest within more expansive questions on international political economy and export-driven models of development. Why do populist regimes, historically operating under an economic nationalist cum protectionist paradigm, simultaneously pursue policies of economic integration? What is the relationship between resource nationalists and open markets, especially in the hydrocarbons sector? What is the relationship between populists, who are typically resource nationalists, and their decision to choose policies of energy integration?

The most common …

Buffer States In Sub-Systemic Rivalries: Analyzing Nepal's Role In Sino-Indian Security Dynamics, Bibek Chand

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the relevance and importance of small buffer states for contemporary International Relations. It argues that sub-systemic interactions reinvigorate the role of buffer states in regional security. Using the case study of the triadic relationship among India, Nepal, and China, this study explains the evolving role of buffer states. The technological innovations in weapons systems, transportation, and communication have extended the reach of potential adversaries, rendering intermediate territorial space less significant than in the past. Thus, it is hypothesized in this dissertation that increased sub-systemic rivalry reinvigorates differently the relevance and significance of buffer states. The role of …

Iran And The Constitutionalism: History And Evolution And The Impact On International Relations, Farshad Ghodoosi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The sweeping changes in the Middle East, so-called the “Arab Spring”, necessitate revisiting constitutionalism in the region. This task entails a fresh look at the idea of rule of law and constitutionalism amongst the people of the Middle East. One of the widely misconceived and yet understudied constitutional movements in the Middle East belongs to Iran. A new perspective on the trajectory of constitutionalism in Iran would better equip us to comprehend rule of law in the Middle East. From the 1905 Constitutional movement to the 1979 Revolution, Iran has undergone major changes. Each transformation created a rupture with the …

The Syrian Refugee Crisis And The European Union: A Case Study Of Germany And Hungary, Simone-Ariane Schelb

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the impact of the Syrian refugee crisis on the Common European Asylum System. It evaluates the extent to which the European Union was able to implement a common asylum system, identifies discrepancies between different European countries, primarily Germany and Hungary, and briefly examines the roots of these differences. To this end, the structure of the international refugee protection regime and the German and Hungarian asylum systems are analyzed. Furthermore, the thesis explores how the governments of the two countries perceive the rights of refugees and how their views have affected their handling of the crisis. The case …

Refugees Welcome: A Multilevel Analysis Of Refugee Labor Market Integration In The Swedish Welfare State, Jeffrey D. Maslanik

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

To explore the complexities of refugee labor market integration in Sweden, the research performed a multi-level analysis of refugee labor market integration: from the perspective of civil society (meso-level) and from that of the refugee (micro-level). Sweden was ideal for this task because historically, it has been Europe’s most generous welfare state and during the height of the crisis, received the highest number of refugees of any European Member State (163,000 or 1,600 per 100,000 people).

The research was guided by two primary research questions: First, how have the roles of the state and civil society adjusted over time in …

Contested Natures, Insecurities And Territorialities: The Aerial Eradication Of Coca In Colombia, Alexander Huezo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Until very recently, Colombia was the only country in the world that still permitted the eradication of illicit crops –primarily coca and to a lesser extent, opium poppies— through aerial fumigation. It was a controversial practice for a number of reasons, chiefly the damage caused to plants, animals, and people living in or near fumigated areas. A favored tactic in the U.S.-supported War on Drugs, aerial eradication actually contributed to the spread of illicit crops to increasingly remote areas of Colombia, such as the collectively titled lands of both indigenous and black communities. Concerns about the practice of aerial eradication, …

Contemporary State Policies Toward Anti-Semitism In Germany And Poland, Thomas Just

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Broadly speaking, this research is intended to shed light on how post-genocide societies attempt to address a traumatic history and reconcile the problems of ethnic and religious hatred. Germany and Poland are especially ripe cases for such research given their historical memories of the Holocaust and unique legal and diplomatic efforts to counter anti-Semitism. However, since many of the policies on this issue have only been implemented in the past ten to fifteen years, there has not yet been a comprehensive study that has evaluated their effectiveness. This dissertation will attempt to fill this gap in the literature and provide …

Foreign Policy Evaluation And The Utility Of Intervention, Graham Slater

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation identifies and explains the factors contributing to the presence and severity of U.S. foreign-policy blunders, or gross errors in strategic judgment resulting in significant harm to the national interest, since the Second World War. It hypothesizes that the grand strategy of preponderance and the overestimation of military power to transform the politics of other states have precipitated U.S. foreign-policy blunders since 1945. Examining the Vietnam War and Iraq War as case studies, it focuses on underlying conditions in the American national identity and the problematic foreign policy decision-making (FPDM) that corresponds to this bifurcated hypothesis, termed the overestimation/preponderance …

Degree And Patterns Of Formal Ngo Participation Within The United Nations Economic And Social Committee (Ecosoc): An Appraisal Of Ngo Consultative Status Relative To Political Pluralism, Barry D. Mowell

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United Nations (UN) has invested increasing levels of effort in recent decades to cultivate a more effective, diverse and democratic institutional culture via the inclusion of and interaction among international civil society organizations (CSOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to supplement the traditional role of states as the primary transnational actors. The principle vehicle for the UN-civil society dynamic is the consultative status (CS) program within the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), wherein a diverse range of nearly 5,000 transnational organizations ostensibly participate.

This research examined patterns of participation and the nature/level of CSO/NGO involvement within the UN, with particular …

Kim Was Korea And Korea Was Kim: The Formation Of Juche Ideology And Personality Cult In North Korea, Bianca Trifoi

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Juche ideology, created by founder Kim Il-Sung, governs all aspects of North Korean society. This thesis attempts to answer the questions of why and how Juche ideology and the cult of personality surrounding Kim Il-Sung were successfully implemented in North Korea. It is a historical analysis of the formation of the North Korean state that considers developments from the late 19th century to the late 20th century, with particular attention paid to the 1950s-1970s and to Kim’s own writings and speeches. The thesis argues that Juche was successfully implemented and institutionalized in North Korea due to several factors, including the …

Us Foreign Policy Toward Azerbaijan, 1991-2015, Galib Bashirov

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation aims to investigate the sources of United States (US) foreign policy toward Azerbaijan by examining the relative impact of domestic, geostrategic and structural factors in explaining US foreign policy toward the country. Azerbaijan is one of the newly independent states that emerged after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Despite its small size, the country’s strategic location, vast oil and natural gas reserves, and its conflict with Armenia over the Nagorno- Karabakh region elevated its importance and made Azerbaijan the center of interest for great powers. As the sole superpower after the end of the Cold War, the …

Use It Or Lose It: Canadian Identity And The Construction Of Arctic Security Policy, Michael P. Mccormack

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigates the specific factors that drive state action in Canadian Arctic security policy, particularly in relation to securitization of the Arctic region and historical factors that influence decision-making. The purpose of this research is to develop stronger linkages between securitization processes and actual policymaking. When studying the Arctic as a defined geographical space, we see considerable differences between Arctic states when it comes to how cultural and historical attachment to the Arctic region may serve as a selling point for the ability of national governments to justify allocation of defense resources to their respective publics. Using the Canadian …

Achieving And Maintaining Food Security In The Prc: The Impact On Foreign Policy, Paul D. Rittenhouse

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how the People’s Republic of China has used domestic and foreign policy to achieve and maintain food security. This is a formidable task for the PRC given that it has 20% of the world’s population and only 7% of its arable land. It has been made more formidable by domestic policy errors and its changing position within the international system.

The PRC has evolved from a Marxist revisionist state to one that mixes state capitalism and free enterprise and has become a combination of revisionist and status quo. Such changes lend …

Disaster Capitalism: Empirical Evidence From Latin America And The Caribbean, Ransford F. Edwards Jr.

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Natural disasters are uniquely transformative events. They can drastically transform physical terrain and the lives of those unfortunate enough to be caught in their wrath. However, natural disasters also provide an opportunity to reflect on past failures and, at times, a clean slate to correct those shortcomings. This project takes a political economic approach and recognizes natural disasters as occasions for agenda-setting on behalf of transnational commercial enterprises and market-oriented policy elites. These reformers often use the post-disaster policy space to articulate long-term development strategies based on market fundamentalism, and, more importantly, advance a set of policies consistent with their …

Explaining China's Contradictory Grand Strategy: Why Legitimacy Matters, Lukas K. Danner

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzed the internal incoherence of China’s grand strategy. To do so, it used the cultural driver of honor to explain the contradictory behavior of China, which ranges from peaceful, responsible international actor to assertive, revisionist rising power with hegemonic ambitions. The central research question asked why China often diverges from Peaceful Development, thus leading to major contradictions as well as possible misperceptions on the part of other nations. Honor was the standard of reference that was utilized and examined in order to establish congruence and coherence between deed and praxis. Accordingly, the first hypothesis of this study posited …