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Education In Post-Conflict Colombia, Juliana Cabrera Pena

Master's Theses

After 52 years of civil war, Colombia now enters a period of precarious peace. The Colombian government and the largest guerrilla group, the FARC, signed a monumental peace agreement which ushered a period of change in a country which has yet to have sustained peace. Utilizing the power of civil society and social services, the Colombian government has the authority to maintain peace. Education, with its stabilizing power, has the capability of cultivating a society of peace. Thus, this thesis explores the level of value and importance the Colombian government is placing on the expansion of quality education to …

Is All Politics Local? Determinants Of Local And National Election Campaigns, Colm A. Fox

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In recent decades election campaigns have shifted their focus from the local to the national level, increasingly featuring party leaders, labels, and national platforms. Despite this trend, there remains significant variation in the local/national orientation of campaigns across countries and parties. This article tests several propositions on why campaigns adopt a local or national orientation by analyzing a unique collection of more than 12,000 geocoded Thai election posters. Specialized software was used to measure the spatial proportions of visual and textual content on each poster. Using Thailand’s mixed electoral system to enable a controlled comparison of electoral rules, I demonstrate …

Arms Control And Disarmament: Legitimacy, War, And Peace, Milo R. Ventura

International Studies Honors Projects

The 2013 Noble Peace Prize was awarded to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the same year that events in the Syrian Civil War made clear the difficulties of implementing global disarmament and the imperative for doing so. In relation to this situation, my thesis asks if arms control and disarmament reduce conflict and tensions between states. Attempts at chemical weapons disarmament have been relatively successful but global disarmament faces major obstacles that will be difficult to overcome. To be sure, arms control and disarmament can be beneficial to peace: they are not a cause of war, can …

The Un’S Political Engagement In The Occupied Palestinian Territories: Reconceptualized Strategies In Humanitarianism And Diplomacy In The Middle East Peace Process, Alara Hanci

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper studies the humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territories, focusing on the Palestinians’ short-term needs in emergency relief as well as their long-term needs regarding sustainable development, good governance, legal and physical protection. Against the backdrop of a cost/benefit analysis of the current UN humanitarian operational model, the paper then introduces new models of engagement, such the UN’s positioning itself as a mediator between the PA and the civic society throughout the implementation of a decentralized development model. Within this framework, the UN is advised to complement its engagement by facilitating negotiations towards a unified Palestinian government that …

Quiet Transformation From The Bottom: Emerging Transnational Coalition Of Non-State Actors In East Asia Community Building, Seung-Youn Oh

Political Science Faculty Research and Scholarship

If analyses of community-building efforts in Northeast Asia are fixated on the level of the nation-state and the central government, then one fails to capture the complex, transnational integration dynamics that are now vigorously at work in the region, contends Seung-Youn Oh in this chapter. Non-state Actors—less constrained than national authorities by political tensions and historical legacies—are not only generating a new capacity for regional community-building, they are also strengthening existing forms of regional cooperation.

Oh’s chapter explores how non-state actors in Northeast Asia in both individual countries and at the regional level serve as transnational constituencies and create regional …

Us Advocacy For Azerbaijani Press Freedom And Democracy, Danny Burns

Capstone Collection

This study sought to determine best practices for policy advocates who promote press freedom, freedom of expression, and democracy in Azerbaijan to influence policymakers in the United States of America. Results from other studies, the literature on the topics of Azerbaijan and policy advocacy, and expert interviews were used for this study. Its goal is to increase the amount of influence the average policy advocate has in the US by analyzing current advocates' experiences and synthesizing concrete suggestions for actions to effectively enact desired policy changes. The interviews and literature clearly support the premise that the regime in Azerbaijan is …

The Next Recruits: 16–18-Year-Olds And The United States' War On Terror, Mary E. Moyer

Capstone Collection

For many who experienced it directly or indirectly, 9/11 marked a dramatic shift as the United States processed the attacks and went from a country at peace to a country at war. Though the attacks themselves were geographically targeted, 9/11 was a nationally traumatic event and resulted in the formation of a collective memory and national narrative across the country. With the War on Terror, the military became synonymous with patriotism, as leaders and the media invoked the trauma of Pearl Harbor and the glories of World War II. Military records from the time describe patriotism as the motivation behind …

Contemporary Russia In America's World: Russian Narratives On Post-Soviet Space, Marianna Portniagina

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This study analyzes Russian perceptions and narratives of the post-Cold War international order, with attention to both Russia’s role in this order and to Russia’s perceived special mission in post-Soviet space, or what is often referred to as the ‘near abroad.’ Although Russia’s visions of the world and post-Soviet space were constructed, to some extent, during the Soviet era, this study shows that the experience of the US-led world order has had a great impact on contemporary Russian discourse. America often misunderstands the factors that motivate and inspire contemporary Russia, in part because the end of the Cold War resulted …

The Personality Profile Of North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un, Aubrey Immelman

Psychology Faculty Publications

This paper presents the results of an indirect assessment of the personality of Kim Jong-un, supreme leader of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, conducted 2013–2018 from the conceptual perspective of personologist Theodore Millon.

Psychodiagnostically relevant data about Kim was collected from open-source media reports and synthesized into a personality profile using the Millon Inventory of Diagnostic Criteria (MIDC), which yields 34 normal and maladaptive personality classifications congruent with DSM–III–R, DSM–IV, and DSM–5.

The personality profile yielded by the MIDC was analyzed in accordance with interpretive guidelines provided in the MIDC and Millon Index of Personality Styles …

The Quest For Recognition: Taiwan’S Military And Trade Agreements With Singapore Under The One-China Policy, Pasha L. Hsieh

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This article examines the evolution of Taiwan’s relationship with Singapore since the 1960s as a unique case study in the Asia-Pacific. The theoretical concept of recognition in international relations (IR) and its nexus with international law are used to analyze the conclusion of the bilateral military and trade agreements absent diplomatic relations. The article argues that beyond security dimensions, the two states’ struggles for recognition exhibit the formation of national identities, which invigorate the claims for sovereign state status in global politics. First, this article explores the emerging notion of recognition in IR and sheds light on the significance of …

U.S. - Russian Relations: Dissonance Of Ideologies, Elena N. Glazunova

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This paper examines Russian and American ideologies and their influence on the foreign policies of both countries in historical retrospective and today. The paper especially illustrates the role of ideology in Russia and U.S. relations during different periods with different intensity. In the relatively “calm” periods of history ideology was not that noticeable. However, at other times, Russia and the United States have engaged in a clash of ideologies that provided a powerful impulse to the formation of new models of international relations. Despite the post-Cold War hope that there would be less ideology in international relations in recent decades …

Rita, Rita, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Rita Alkhaledy grew up in Sadr City, a poor suburb of Baghdad. Her father is an Iraqi Arab and her mother was Kurdish Iranian. Her mother lived in fear that she would be cast out of Baghdad as being an outsider in Iraq was frowned upon. Her father served in the Iraqi army in the 80s and was gone a great deal, leading to a strained relationship. Their relationship was mended when her mother died from cancer.

After the Iraq war, Rita and her brothers realized that their lives were in danger. They had to move from house to house …

Government And The Intelligence Community: A Case Study On Russia And The United States Government's Effect On Intelligence Systems, Jessica M. Lago

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The United States and Russia are two major superpowers with governments that are run in different manners. Central to a government's and country's defense is their intelligence systems. The intelligence systems of these two countries are run as part of the government and are integral to its functioning. The purpose of this thesis is to discuss how both the governments and intelligence systems are structured and do they coincide with their respective systems. Using a case study on the United States and Russia, their intelligence systems and governments a comparison was drawn. While looking at the history of both governments …

The Foundations Of Aleksandr Dugin's Geopolitics: Montage Fascism And Eurasianism As Blowback, Grant Scott Fellows

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an examination of Aleksandr Dugin's The Foundations of Geopolitics, of which I have translated important sections into English and these are included as an appendix. Despite the importance of Foundations of Geopolitics to Russian strategic thought there has not been a translated edition published in English. This work was published in 1997 and has been quite influential for Russian political and military leadership. I strive to provide context for the setting in which Foundations of Geopolitics was created through an analysis of the social and political conditions that existed in Russia while the text was being …

Cultural Diplomacy And Trade: Making Connections, North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative

FIMS Publications

The North American Cultural Diplomacy Initiative’s (NACDI) approach to cultural diplomacy is based on: an expansive and nuanced approach to the term culture; a belief in the necessity of relational, rather than transactional engagement; and an interest in understanding the significance of non-state actors in the current network environment of diplomacy. Rather than seeing the multifaceted nature of cultural diplomacy as a challenge, NACDI points to complexity as a reason to advance nuanced discussions, including the recognition of a wide range of actors and activities, and well-developed indicators that have specific qualitative and quantitative measurements. The report, Cultural Diplomacy and …

Corruption: Brazil's Everlasting Parasite, Patricia Vilhena

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore corruption in Brazil, how it has endured for so such a long period, and the effects it has in the country. Understanding the history of Brazil, how the government was established, and how the branches operate is crucial to comprehend the rooting causes of the Brazilian corruption. The focus is not just about what corruption is and the effects it has on education, economy, and infrastructure, but also on the factors that contributed to its expansion and the circumstances that allowed it to sustain until today. Brazil is a country known for …

Ali, Ali, Twila Bird

TSOS Interview Gallery

At eighteen fate placed Ali and his family in the center of hostilities in northern Afghanistan. Warring militant factions killed hundreds of people in his village. Ali helped identify and bury dozens of his friends and neighbors in a mass grave.

We spent days and nights in the mountains and blocked on the borders. I crossed the mountainous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan walking with my handicap. Then it took us another sixteen hours to cross the border between Pakistan and Iran, also in very high mountains of more than 2500 meters. The Iranian police were killing people on the …

Sigma: Journal Of Political And International Studies

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

Who Is My Neighbor? Identifying Epistemic Peers Among Polarized Communities, Alex Hoagland

Sigma: Journal of Political and International Studies

No abstract provided.

Jeanusnat, Jeanusnat, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Jeanusnat’s father, who was chief of a Nigerian community, was murdered by an enemy community. The murderer intended to kill Jeanusnat and his mother as well, but they fled to neighboring Niger. There, Jeanusnat parted ways with his mother, who stayed at the church with a family, and Jeanusnat crossed into Libya in the back of a truck. But once in Libya, danger persisted. He was confronted by some robbers who stabbed him with a knife and beat him, leaving injuries on his legs and shoulder. In Tripoli, a man offered him temporary refuge, where Jeanusnat stayed until he decided …

Are Indigenous Peoples Better Off Under Evo Morales? Towards Understanding The Effects Of Decolonization Policy On Social Inclusion In Bolivia, Cailin Campbell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This undergraduate thesis examines how to measure the influence of the Evo Morales administration’s decolonization policies on the social inclusion of indigenous peoples in Bolivia. Given the ongoing colonial legacy of exclusion of indigenous peoples in Bolivia, the Morales administration has created a national agenda to decolonize the state and improve conditions for the marginalized, oppressed, and excluded indigenous peoples. In examining the nacionalización de los hidrocarburos, the ley de la reconducción comunitaria y reforma agraria, the plan nacional de desarrollo, the ley de la educación, the ley de deslinde, the ley de marco de …

The Trade-Security Nexus And U.S. Policy Making In Critical Minerals, Yujia He

Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce Faculty Publications

The United States increasingly relies on import to meet its demand for critical minerals. Using the case of rare earth elements (REEs), this paper analyzes the conditions and the strategies for the U.S. government to address import dependence. The paper finds that market factors, including the lack of comparable and sufficient substitutes and recycling, the high ratio of import relative to consumption, the high concentration of import supply by country, and regulations from the major supplier country, were insufficient to prompt intervention. Significant policy action only occurs when changing circumstances turn import dependence into perceived national security threats to the …

Voices Of Women: The Impact Of Women's Political Reservations On Female Child Mortality In India, Kohsheen Sharma

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper uses state-level variation in the implementation of the 73rd amendment in India to observe the relationship between political reservations for women in local government and female child mortality. Nationally, reservations for women are not associated with a statistically significant difference in female child mortality. However, a state by state analysis shows variations in the level of impact of reservations on the topic of female child mortality. This paper examines the constraints on female representatives and their level of effectiveness in executing pro-female policies given the political and social environment. The two case studies on Kerala and Haryana explore …

Coal-To-Liquid Technology: A Look At The Geopolitical Tension Behind China's Energy Strategy, Kaela Cote-Stemmermann

Scripps Senior Theses

As interest in renewable energy development continues to rise around the globe, the alignment of China’s capabilities and incentive to invest in the green energy sector position the country in a leading role. However, China’s recent investment in coal-to-liquid (CTL) technology raises questions as to the direction of China’s energy policy and reflects broader geopolitical tensions within the Chinese government. Although CTL technology has been widely criticized as being environmentally unfriendly and economically unsustainable, China continues to invest in it at an astounding pace. Research proposes several possible explanations, such as corruption or local conflicts of interest, however, a critical …

Measuring Vulnerability Interdependence: To What Extent Do Chinese Investments In Africa Make China Vulnerable?, Nurullah Ayyilmaz

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The pace of Chinese investments in Africa accelerated after the 2000s as one of many consequences of China’s “going out” policy. The importance of Sino-African investment relationship has been signified by conveying large-scale tri-annual collective dialogue forum, named Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC), first in 2000. It is generally assumed that Africa needs China, mostly due to being recipient of Chinese investments, but what about the opposite and what would that mean for China? This dissertation looks at the bilateral relationship between China and Africa from the perspective of creating vulnerability for the investor party. Accordingly, the research questions …

Policy Implications Of News Media Coverage Of The Islamic State Of Iraq And Syria., Godfred A. Ababio

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) garnered global news media attention in Summer 2014 when it seized a significant section of land in Iraq and Syria. The group then mishandled and executed its captives. There is a lack of consensus among the international community, led by Russia and the United States, on how best to address the threat posed by ISIS. An understanding of the function of Russian and U.S. news media coverage of the ISIS threat is an appropriate research topic. The purpose of this qualitative content analysis study was to explore how the U.S, Russian, and …

Crime On The High Seas: What Conditions Are Necessary To Achieve Effective Maritime Governance Regime?, Michael A. Celic

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores why international maritime governance regimes have inconsistent rates of success. The global community relies on the world’s oceans for food, trade, and resources. Therefore, the regulation of these oceans is necessary to provide adequate passage through its waters and the management of all the resources they supply for the mutual benefit of all. Although there are international laws such as the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS), many of these laws fail to address current global threats and have proven inadequate in forming proactive collective responses. It is particularly problematic addressing transnational criminal …

Nationalism, Soft Annexation And Hybrid Warfare: Putin's Recipe For Russian Resurgence, Brian E. Szlenk Straub

Dissertations and Theses

Over the last decades since the fall of the Soviet Union, The Russian Federation has struggled to reclaim its grasp over Eastern Europe and re-establish itself as a major player on the international scene. Increased NATO expansion towards its borders, and the “Westernization” of Eastern Europe has led to the country feeling it has been boxed into a corner. The feeling that the Russian nation has been encroached upon by the Western world has led to the rise of Vladimir Putin as President of Russia, and the marked rise in nationalism within the country. In this Master’s Thesis, I intend …

The Impact Of Security Crises On Political Development: An Analysis Of CôTe D’Ivoire, Guinea, And Senegal, Zoe King

CMC Senior Theses

This paper explores the relationship between security concerns and political development in three case studies: Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Senegal. It first analyzes the foundations of political institutions within the three states by exploring the creation of nationalist leaders in the pre-independence era, and how their personal development within these years affected their governance style after independence. Afterwards, the discussion separates into the three distinct case studies. The purpose of this analysis is to first outline the major developments within each country in the political field, highlight the major security concerns within the country, and then analyze how these two …

Applying Psychological Theories Of Personality, Identity, And Intergroup Conflict To Radical Violence: A Case Study Of Extremist Behavior, Sydney Flynn

CMC Senior Theses

This paper aims to address possible psychoanalytical explanations for the heinous acts in which terrorists, particularly ISIS, engage. It focuses on Harold D. Lasswell’s principles of the id, ego, and superego as well as Tajfel and Turner’s social identity theory. Within the framework of these two theories, relevant psychological and social psychological theories are discussed in order to explore a possible connection between the psyche of violent perpetrators and their actions. By exploring these connections, I find that there may be more nuanced psychological explanations for these violent acts, which could lead to new methods of weakening perceived biases, intergroup …