International Relations Commons^™

Digital Diplomacy And Activism: Sustaining Institutional Legacy Through State-Proxy Discursive Competition In The Aftermath Of The Usaid 2025 Suspension, Maryam Alaa Elprince

Capstone and Graduation Projects

This study examines how the 2025 suspension of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) transformed the arena of U.S. foreign-aid diplomacy by eliminating the agency’s operational capacity and erasing its digital presence, thereby redistributing discursive authority across a fragmented communicative field. The research aims to determine how diplomacy adapts when a bilateral institution central to American soft power is dismantled through top-down decision, and whether discursive power exercised online can extend institutional relevance and legitimacy beyond structural collapse. Using an interpretivist qualitative design that combines digital-forensic reconstruction, document-based content analysis, and elite interviews  with top ranking officials, the …

Nuclear Deterrence And The Security Dilemma In A Complex Multipolar World, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Objectives: The purpose of this research project is to examine how nuclear deterrence intersects with the concept of security dilemma, i.e., when a state takes an action intended to increase its own security it may inadvertently create a risk or threat to another state and contribute to increased levels of tension. Fourth, how nuclear and conventional systems are becoming increasingly interconnected, which will serve to potentially amplify risks associated with these systems.

Methods: Utilizing a qualitative analytical approach of documents such as national strategy documents, defense policy statements and historical records of crises dating from 1945-2025, the study identifies four …

Ho Chi Minh’S Thoughts On Gender Equality In The Political Sphere In Vietnam And Strategic Implications For Indonesia, Tri Minh Nguyen

Jurnal Wacana Politik

This paper provides an exhaustive examination of the theoretical foundations of Ho Chi Minh’s thought regarding gender equality and its institutionalization within the political fabric of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Focusing on the contemporary period (2021–2026), the analysis evaluates the efficacy of the Vietnamese model of State Feminism in achieving descriptive and substantive representation for women in legislative and executive bodies. Furthermore, the paper conducts a comparative analysis with the Republic of Indonesia, particularly following its 2024 general elections, to identify structural, cultural, and legal divergences. By synthesizing data from government reports, international indices, and academic literature, this study …

Examining The Results Of Revolutions In The Third World: A Case Study Of The Iranian, Libyan, And Nicaraguan Revolutions, Noah A. Mohammedelamien

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis examines the post-revolutionary trajectories of Libya, Iran, and Nicaragua to explain why some Third World revolutionary projects preserve and use elements of their founding ideology while others fragment, personalize, or diffuse over time. Rather than focusing on the causes of revolution alone, it analyzes the durability of religious-socialist ideological continuity after revolutionary upheaval. Using a (MDSD) comparative historical and institutional approach grounded in primary and secondary sources, the study evaluates five key dimensions across the cases: religious-socialist ideological fusion, religious elite loyalty, popular religious mobilization, institutional embedding of ideology, and external pressure. The findings suggest ideological continuity is …

No Coup, No Conscience: Coup-Proofing In The Armenian Genocide, Rachel Svoyskiy

CMC Senior Theses

The Armenian Genocide functioned as a form of coup-proofing under the Committee of Union and Progress (CUP). Existing scholarship emphasizes nationalism, wartime radicalization, and security dilemmas, but does not fully account for why the military complied, why dissenters were removed, or how Armenian property became tied to political loyalty. Applying Hicham Bou Nassif’s framework of coup-proofing, this study examines four tactics the CUP used to secure military obedience while carrying out mass violence. First, the regime framed Armenians as an existential threat to align the officer corps ideologically with the state. Second, it promoted the material interests of military and …

Immigration Policy Priorities In The Carter And Reagan Administrations, Sulgi Kim

History and Political Science | Senior Theses

Historically, immigration policy has been important for the United States. It has shaped the nation’s economy, demographics, and political landscape. In each presidential administration, immigration has been addressed differently, shaped by a combination of political, economic, and international factors. While scholars such as Higham (1956), Zolberg (2008), and Pineau and Waters (2016) have examined the events leading up to and the effect of various immigration policies, the literature has not focused on a critical actor in immigration policy: the president. This thesis asks what factors shaped the immigration policy priorities of Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan? This study used …

Fear, Memory, And Deterrence: Reassessing Nuclear Peace In The 21st Century, Nathan H. Schroeder

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research investigates the paradox of nuclear peace theory: the idea that nuclear weapons, despite their destructive capacity, have contributed to a more stable global order. By tracing the historical development of nuclear arsenals and the strategic logic of deterrence, the project examines whether the post-1945 decline in large-scale wars between superpowers and wartime deaths can be attributed to the threat of mutual annihilation. It also explores the psychological and cultural consequences of this deterrence-based peace, including the normalization of fear and its potential link to desensitization toward violence in younger generations. From Cold War-era school drills to modern apocalyptic …

Bloody Sunday: A Comparative Analysis Of Nonviolent Marches In Selma And Derry, Samantha J. Romero

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis examines two different nonviolent civil rights marches: Selma’s march for voting rights in 1965 in the United States and Derry’s march to end internment without trial in 1972 in Northern Ireland. The two marches yielded drastically different outcomes despite employing the shared tactic of nonviolence. This research addresses the vital role that the political opportunity structure, rather than tactical repertoire alone, plays in determining whether state repression leads to reform or further conflict. Through a controlled comparative analysis, the research positions the march itself as a constant across the two cases. Subsequently, governmental allies, institutional openness, and regime …

Politics Of A Silent Pandemic: Antimicrobial Resistance And State Capacity In India And Nigeria, Mia Kelly

CMC Senior Theses

Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) has emerged as one of the most pressing yet widely underestimated health threats of the 21st century; this thesis explores the potentially devastating global impact of this “silent pandemic”, exposing how deeply health outcomes depend on political choices, regulatory capacity, and economic constraints. Although the danger of spreading drug-resistant pathogens is now widely acknowledged in both the scientific and political communities, states differ in their abilities to contain the issue, with low- and middle-income countries facing the greatest obstacles to national action plan implementation. This thesis investigates these disparities through a comparison of India and Nigeria, two …

Mapping Coastal Community-Based Tourism Empowerment: Public Policy And Sustainable Development On Bangka Island, Putra Pratama Saputra, Hadiyanto Abdul Rachim, Arie Surya Gutama, Moch. Zaenal Hakim

Jurnal Wacana Politik

This study analyzes the conceptualization and practice of community-based tourism empowerment on Bangka Island, serving as a strategic approach to promote sustainable and inclusive coastal tourism. Employing a qualitative descriptive approach, data were gathered through interviews with nine key informants, observations, and policy document analysis. Findings reveal that these empowerment initiatives significantly strengthen individual and institutional capacities, enhance community participation in tourism planning, and drive economic diversification from extractive industries to sustainable tourism. Furthermore, this approach facilitates economic transformation through the development of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and coastal ecotourism, concurrently reinforcing environmental conservation and cultural preservation. However, …

(En)Gendering Capacity: Neoliberalism, Empowerment, And Responsibility For Women In The Un’S Capacity Building Agenda, Sabrina K. Harris

Emancipations: A Journal of Critical Social Analysis

This article analyzes how the UN constructs capacity building as an element of its development agenda. It theorizes that the UN operates as a governmental actor, adopting and pursuing a political rationality of good governance, while also navigating structural limitations to its organizational authority in implementing this agenda imposed by the liberal international order. As such, this article argues capacity building emerges as a valuable technology of development for several reasons: firstly, it operates as an individual-level intervention, circumventing UN limitations on authority in mandating state action, and secondly, it is framed as demand-driven and empowering while delivering on the …

Driving Social Revolutions In 20th Century Latin America, Oliver Orellana

Student Scholar Symposium

This paper explores various definitions of social revolutions to create one cohesive and operationalized definition that measures success through a numerical rating scale. Once establishing what revolutions were successful or fall into different typological sortings, this research employs qualitative content analysis as well as quantitative methods still being refined, in order to investigate the potential drivers of social revolutionary success in Latin America throughout the 20th century. The findings have implications for whether the masses and political movements should pursue this endeavor and when their efforts will have the highest potential and likelihood of success. On the other hand, these …

How Armenia And Azerbaijan Are Lobbying For Influence In D.C., Gibran C. Boyce, Dawn Kikel

Capstones

In the wake of President Trump taking office, foreign government agencies and U.S.-based non-profits serving Armenian and Azerbaijani interests have been hiring lobbyists in Washington, D.C. as part of their concerted efforts to curry favor, gain influence, and seek policy changes that would benefit the rival post-Soviet nations.

Table Of Contents, Rory J. Conces Prof.

International Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Notes From The Editor, Rory J. Conces Prof.

International Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Works Of Love From Russia, Alisa Gorshenina

International Dialogue

This reflective artist’s statement by Alisa Gorshenina (Alice Hualice) intertwines autobiographical narrative with the creative context of four works produced during and after her politically forced displacement from Russia. Gorshenina recounts a lifelong pattern of resisting external pressures—from expectations to relocate for education and career advancement to demands that she flee Russia following the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. She frames her continued desire to live in her hometown of Nizhny Tagil as an act of personal agency and a “new language of resistance,” grounded not in state loyalty but in an authentic, non-nationalistic love of place. Increasing censorship, denunciations, canceled …

Introduction And Letter To Firas And Ali, Joanna Zabielska

International Dialogue

In this deeply personal and politically charged epistolary essay, Joanna Zabielska reflects on the intersecting forms of erasure occurring within European cultural institutions and at the continent’s militarized borders. Framed as a letter to two men—Firas and Ali—whom the author met during the humanitarian crisis at the Polish-Belarusian border, the piece recounts their experiences of pushbacks, violence, detention, and survival, contextualizing their stories within a broader critique of European migration regimes. Zabielska juxtaposes this with her account of institutional censorship in Austria, where the names of the two men were removed from her VR installation Über das Neue at Belvedere …

Fragments, Najlaa Attaallah

International Dialogue

In Fragments (شظايا), Najlaa Attaallah offers a poetic, intimate, and devastating meditation on exile, trauma, and the unrelenting violence endured by Palestinians in Gaza. Written from Reykjavík yet emotionally tethered to her homeland, Attaallah narrates the psychic rupture caused by witnessing war from afar—the guilt of safety, the suffocating pull of memory, and the sense of existing as “a body without certainty.” Across lyrical vignettes, she explores the collapse of ordinary life under the weight of collective horror: sleeplessness, paralysis, obsessive monitoring of news, and the disintegration of routine maternal roles. The text moves between present anguish and childhood …

Political Discoveries In A Žižek Substack Project Critical Digital Studies, Edward Sankowski, Betty J. Harris

International Dialogue

This review essay analyzes Slavoj Žižek’s recent turn to Substack as a publishing platform, examining both his motivations and the philosophical and political implications of this medium for contemporary critical theory. Sankowski and Harris argue that Žižek’s Substack writings continue long-standing themes in his work—anti-capitalism, ecological crisis, updated Communism, and the cultural dimensions of ideology—while also revealing notable shifts, including heightened pessimism about historical progress and new reflections on environmental catastrophe. The authors assess the advantages and pitfalls of Substack for intellectual discourse, including its circumvention of traditional editorial “censorship,” its contribution to information glut, and its role in fostering …

Of The Freedom Famine In Palestine, Ibtisam Barakat

International Dialogue

In this searing essay, poet and author Ibtisam Barakat bears witness to what she names the “Freedom Famine” in Gaza—a deliberate, decades-long deprivation of basic human rights culminating in the catastrophic conditions of 2025. Writing from the United States while in conversation with Gazan author Omar Hammash, Barakat juxtaposes their drastically unequal realities: her safety and his daily encounters with death, displacement, and starvation. Through Hammash’s testimony—delivered amid constant bombardment and interrupted by news of a friend’s killing—Barakat documents the collapse of Gaza’s infrastructure, the mass targeting of aid workers, the lethal failures of international relief, and the killing of …

Dear Belvedere, Rabbya Naseer

International Dialogue

In this powerful open letter—originally delivered as a video message—artist Rabbya Naseer explains her decision to cancel her 2025 solo exhibition at Belvedere 21 after the museum refused to allow her proposed works addressing Palestine, colonialism, and contemporary violence. Framed as both personal testimony and institutional critique, the letter meditates on the ethics of waiting, perseverance (sabr), and the responsibility of artists amid geopolitical crisis. Naseer recounts months of stalled communication and escalating curatorial restrictions that ultimately rendered any engagement with the Israel–Palestine conflict “not possible.” Rejecting the museum’s demands for neutrality, depoliticization, and the substitution of existing …

Investigating The Relationship Between Noun Classes And Plant Folk Taxonomy In Chasu Language Of Kilimanjaro Region In Tanzania, Peter Rabson Mziray

Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The current study investigates the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu (G 22). The study focuses on two objectives: the first objective is to describe the plant folk taxonomy in Chasu and the second objective is to determine the relationship between noun classes and plant folk taxonomy in Chasu. Data were collected from rural villages in Same and Mwanga districts by using free listing, field interviews (jungle-walk-and-identify), and written texts containing Chasu plant names. The findings reveal that Chasu folk taxonomy reflects different ethnobotanical categories; including a unique beginner which is mmea/mimea ‘plant(s)’, and three life …

An Introduction To Ecofeminist Thought For International Relations Students, Vivian Ike

International Relations - All Scholarship

This article introduces students of International Relations (IR) to ecofeminism, its diverse approaches, and critiques. Ecofeminism emerged in the 1970’s following the history of the intersection between the transnational women’s movement and the global environmental movement (Kelleher 2019).

The Imperial Gaze: Affective Governance, Hybrid Cartography, And China’S U-Shaped Line, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article develops ‘the imperial gaze’ concept to explore how maps not only represent the world, but also do things in geopolitics, even provoking mass demonstrations. It examines China’s early-modern and contemporary maps to highlight how they create an imperial gaze that guides Chinese understandings of world order. If your cartographic ‘view of the world’ produces your ideological ‘worldview’, then it is important to see how China’s early-modern maps inform the PRC’s twenty-first-century claims in the South China Sea. The article argues that Chinese cartography does things in geopolitics by mobilising the affective governance of an assemblage of hybrid combinations …

"Legitimacy, War, And The State: A Framework For Understanding Legitimation Strategies In Us Foreign Policy", Daniel Jose Palomino

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Do social norms play a role in policy maker’s foreign policy choices? What methods or strategies are effective in generating sustainable public support? In contrast to certain theories that conceive of international relations as purely divorced from social norms – be they international or domestic - I argue that the characteristic of legitimacy is critical to understanding how states construct and pursue their foreign policy. Using a methodology of historical review I examine four primary qualities of legitimation theory: Concern, Audience, Effort, and Reception; using the test case of the Americanization of the Vietnam War (1961-1965) this study will …

India As A Net Security Provider In South Asia: Challenges, Opportunities, And Geopolitical Dynamics, Ngo Tuan Thang, Tran My Hai Loc

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

India’s emergence as a net security provider in South Asia is a significant development, driven by its strategic interests and the region's shifting geopolitical landscape. This paper explores the challenges, opportunities, and broader geopolitical dynamics that shape India’s security policies and initiatives in South Asia. Through qualitative research and the lens of structural realism, the study assesses India's efforts to maintain regional stability, counter terrorism, and address security threats in its immediate neighborhood, including Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, and the Maldives. The analysis delves into the complexities posed by India’s traditional rivalries with Pakistan and China, highlighting how these …

Beyond Victory And Settlement: Rethinking War Termination Through Post-Conflict Conditions, Emery C. Thigpen

Honors Theses

This thesis examines how different war termination types—decisive military victory, negotiated settlement, and ceasefire—shape long-term political stability through the mechanisms of enforcement, political inclusion, and economic recovery. While much of the existing literature focuses on civil wars, this study applies those insights to interstate conflicts, arguing that stability depends not on how wars end, but on whether post-war structures support compliance, legitimacy, and economic resilience. The central claim is that post-war peace is more likely to endure when enforcement mechanisms deter spoilers, inclusive political frameworks prevent renewed grievances, and economic recovery restores state capacity and legitimacy. Using a most similar …

Government Trust And Its Influence On Voter Turnout During Wartime, Samantha Claire Richard

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

What impact does the public's level of trust in government during wartime have on voter turnout in US elections? Previous research focuses primarily on the impact public trust has on political parties and tends to neglect the impact wartimes may have on these factors. I will argue that during wartime, there is a negative relationship between public trust and voter turnout. Oftentimes, those who find themselves not trusting the government have a stronger desire to vote in hopes of changing the system; in comparison to those who have a high level of government trust, they feel a weaker desire to …

Foreign Involvement And Economic Outcomes In Coups, Paul Hanson

SPARK Symposium Presentations

A variety of factors come into play when determining economic outcomes. One of these factors is tied to political stability. After coup events, the literature finds that economies perform worse overall. This literature has explored other factors tied to coup events, such as overall political stability and the effects of different governing types on economies. Previous methods of exploring coups did not permit foreign intervention to take an active role, or even any role in most cases, in their models. This study will explore the correlation between economic output, utilizing GDP data from the Penn World Table, and foreign intervention …

Workshop Series: Reflections On An Emerging Leadership Journey, Sanjay D. Paul

Doctor of Strategic Leadership (DSL) Capstone Abstracts

Defense Date

April 1, 2025

Candidate Name

Sanjay Paul

Personal Email Address

[email protected]

First Advisor

Dr. Emile Hawkins

Second Advisor

Dr. Debra Dean

DSL Final Project Abstract

Project Type

Global Conference Presentation

Project Overview

Reflections on an Emerging Leadership Journey is a PowerPoint presentation (of approximately 3 hours and 15 minutes) which designed to connect glo al interests in a way that can share best practices across an interdisciplinary front. Sanjay Paul shares ideas, observations, educational, volunteer, and professional experiences, along with his growth in the leadership journey. This journey can serve as a catalyst for others who are on …