International Relations Commons^™

Five Public Concerns Represented By Environmental Groups In The Development Of Regional Free Trade Agreements: A Case Study Of The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (Usmca), Julian Rodriguez

International Studies (MA) Theses

This thesis explores how the public discourse surrounding the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) negotiations affected the formulation of the free trade agreement (FTA). More specifically, the project set out to determine if North American environmental groups successfully had public concerns addressed and codified in the Environment chapter of the USMCA. By analyzing official statements made in press releases by seventeen prominent Environmental groups operating in the United States, Mexico, and Canada, the thesis provides an account of the concerns related to liberalized regional trade prior to the USMCA’s ratification in 2020. The analysis of organization statements regarding public health, climate …

Contextualizing The 2019 “Chile Despertó” Movement: The Impact Of Historical Relational Processes On Mobilization And Repression, Tanya Leon

International Studies (MA) Theses

To expand our theoretical and empirical understanding of mobilization and repression in Latin America, this thesis asks three critical questions. Are economic indicators sufficient predictors of social movement emergence in Latin America? What other factors contribute to large-scale mobilization in Latin America? How do government’s respond to large-scale Latin American social movements? Specifically, when, and why do democratic governments choose to employ repression against social movements? Accordingly, I construct a quantitative model to test the correlation between rise in protest and worsened economic conditions. I apply it to a comprehensive dataset of political events in multiple South American countries throughout …

Eva Peron, The Radio, And Her Strategic Influence On Peronism, Or Eva Perón, La Radio Y Su Influencia Estratégica En El Peronismo, Natalya Bachoura

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

Eva Perón, la radio y su influencia estratégica en el Peronismo

Eva Perón (Evita) fue renombrada por sus discursos poderosos. Jugó un papel fundamental en el ascenso al poder de su esposo, Juan Perón, y ganó mucho poder para sí misma durante el proceso. En esta investigación, se estudian las estrategias de comunicación que Evita usó para ganar esta influencia en la sociedad y promocionar el peronismo. Se va a enfocar en dos estrategias que ella usó para mostrar su éxito en capturar los corazones de la gente: la retórica peronista y el uso de emoción—pathos. Específicamente, se analiza una …

A Network Of Thrones: Kinship And Conflict In Europe, 1495–1918, Seth G. Benzell, Kevin Cooke

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

We construct a database linking European royal kinship networks, monarchies, and wars to study the effect of family ties on conflict. To establish causality, we exploit decreases in connection caused by apolitical deaths of rulers' mutual relatives. These deaths are associated with substantial increases in the frequency and duration of war. We provide evidence that these deaths affect conflict only through changing the kinship network. Over our period of interest, the percentage of European monarchs with kinship ties increased threefold. Together, these findings help explain the well-documented decrease in European war frequency.

Financial And Trade Relationships Between The Eurozone And China In The Age Of Resilience, Alessandro Del Ponte, Paolo Canofari, Audrey De Dominicis

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

How did the financial and trade ties between China and the Eurozone develop in the aftermath of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis? We analyze these trends until the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Using data from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), we examine the financial and trade dynamics between the two currency areas and analyze the related risks and opportunities. The data point to several patterns. We find that financial volatility in China has been substantially greater than in the Eurozone. Even so, the largest and strongest Eurozone economies – France and Germany- …

Media Frames And Their Impact On Support For Immigrants And Immigrant Policies, Lisbeth Rosales

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

In this paper we will examine how media framing and how certain types of frames influence support for immigrants in the United States. I examine how likely a potential voter is to support immigrants and immigrant policies based on the information they are presented in the media, paying special attention to the use of equivalency frames, policy frames, episodic and thematic frames. The influence these frames have varies, depending on how they are used and what specific groups they target. It was also discovered that political ideology and location does influence the support or opposition for immigrants and immigrant issues. …

“Otherwise, It’S War”: Us-Taiwan Defense Ties And The Opening Of The People’S Republic Of China (1969-1974), Robert 'Bo' Kent

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

In 1969, President Richard Nixon inherited a much different Cold War than that which existed in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Writ large, the project of ‘containing’ communism appeared to be falling apart. The Soviet Union was ascendant in Eurasia, the Vietnam War was continuing to grind down American power projection, and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) was emerging as a potential partner on the world stage. Despite the uncertainty of the situation, both President Nixon and National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger saw these circumstances as an opportunity to reshape the global balance of power. Key to this …

Why Deteriorating Relations, Xenophobia, And Safety Concerns Will Deter Chinese International Student Mobility To The United States, Ryan M. Allen, Ying Ye

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Collaborations between American and Chinese universities have been critical to global knowledge production. Chinese students accounted for over a third of all international students in the United States prior to COVID-19, but the pandemic paused most global mobility in 2020. We argue that this international mobility to the United States will not fully recover if larger stressors are left unaddressed. First, relations between the United States and China have deteriorated in recent years, especially under the Trump administration, with growing suspicion against Chinese researchers and scholars. Second, viral acts of violence and anti-Asian incidents have painted the United States as …

Us Media’S Coverage Of China’S Handling Of Covid-19: Playing The Role Of The Fourth Branch Of Government Or The Fourth Estate?, Wenshan Jia, Fangzhu Lu

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

The present study is an analysis of a sample of reports on China’s handling of COVID-19 by several major US media with a focus on a controversial op-ed by the Wall Street Journal. It is found that instead of covering it objectively as a public health crisis, these media reports tend to adopt the strategy of naming, shaming, blaming, and taming against China. In other words, they seize the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan as an opportunity to serve Trump’s “America First” doctrine by a coordinated attempt to destroy the Chinese dream and arresting China’s ascendency. First, the naming/shaming …

Nationalism, Patriotism, And Support For The European Union, Leonie Huddy, Alessandro Del Ponte, Caitlin Davies

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Does attachment to a nation enhance or dampen support for the European Union (EU)? Using the 2003 and 2013 ISSP national-identity modules, we isolate and provide multi-item measures of two distinct types of national attachment—nationalism and patriotism. We find that they are positively related yet have divergent effects. We validate the measures showing that nationalism increases, and patriotism decreases, support for nationalistic policies (anti-immigration and protectionism) as expected. We then test the effects of nationalism and patriotism on EU attitudes and find that nationalism increases, and patriotism decreases, opposition to the EU. The presence of a neo-nationalist political party enhanced …

Evolutionary Possibilities Of Democratization And Atavistic Nationalism: A Comparative Study Of Unrecognized States, Hilmi Ulas

Peace Studies Faculty Articles and Research

The question of how rising atavistic nationalism will affect democracies worldwide is an essential one of our time. In this paper, I focus instead on conducting a comparative historical analysis of atavistic nationalism in two unrecognized states: North Cyprus and Taiwan. I argue that the democratic crisis of our times is, in its essence, economic and has been precipitated by the failure of democracies to build domestic capacities to support democratic values. Furthermore, I posit that engaging populaces at the local political level will prove essential to preserving democracies around the world. I conclude by underlining that atavistic nationalism is …

Pay Your Debts: Moral Dilemmas Of International Debt, Alessandro Del Ponte, Peter Descioli

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

Should a government repay its international debts even if this imposes severe hardships on its citizens? Drawing on moral psychology, we investigate when people think a government is morally obligated to pay its debts. Participants read about a government that has to decide whether to default on its debt payments or cut vital programs. Across conditions, we varied the number of jobs at stake and whether a full or partial default is required to save them. Overall, most participants judged that a government should pay its debt even when the damage to the debtor is greater than the benefit to …

China-Africa Relations: The Northern Nigerian Textile Industry, Afolabi Toye

International Studies (MA) Theses

This project takes a critical look into China’s policy in Africa. The work assesses the significance and challenges of China-Africa cooperation focusing on Nigeria. The paper argued that analyzing the nexus between Beijing and Africa should not center on China’s investments and financial aid. Instead, it should reflect on the competitive hedge China enjoys through these investments in terms of direct access to each market sector of the African economy, and it impacts on local businesses. The study examines the impacts of China’s approach on the textile industry in Kano and Kaduna states in northern Nigeria, to provide an insight …

Failure To Protect: Why The International Community Will Fail To Respond To The Cultural Genocide Of Turkish Cypriot People, Hilmi Ulas

Peace Studies Faculty Articles and Research

The international community has time and again committed to never let genocide occur again – however, multiple bouts of genocide have occurred since the Holocaust. This, in addition to the current quandaries surrounding the Uyghurs of China, points to the fact that the international laws and institutions have loopholes that allow for genocides – especially those that enact structural and cultural violence without necessarily employing direct violence – to ‘slip through’.

This has been the case in spite of R2P policies being in place. In this paper, I examine the inability of international systems to capture ‘cultural genocide’ or intervene …

The Influence Of Foreign Elite Rhetoric: National Identity, Emotions, And Attitudes Toward Austerity, Alessandro Del Ponte

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

How does foreign elite rhetoric affect citizens’ emotions and attitudes about austerity? In a survey experiment conducted on the online blogs of the two major Italian newspapers, participants read a fictional news article where the German Chancellor addressed Italians. Across treatments, I varied whether the message blamed or praised Italians, and whether the message focused on economic or symbolic concerns. Praise generated enthusiasm whereas blame spurred anger and anxiety. Moreover, respondents with a strong national or European identity who read a message of praise were more enthusiastic, less angry, and less opposed to austerity. Finally, people who identify strongly with …

Dual Immersion Programs And Their Implications: Focused Analyses On The Educational History, Francisco Reynoso Barron

International Studies (MA) Theses

As a social construct, education fulfills the necessary elements, ideologies, and rituals required to construct social norms for society. What a society deems as a norm determines the sentiments and direction that a nation will take. These normative tendencies lead to national identity and national security through policies and legislation within the nations' utilization of sovereignty. National interest being influenced by global events and ethnocentric ideologies has seen cycles leading to different immigration, educational, and economic policies. This paper analyzes dual immersion programs, which have been treated as a controversial topic due to its implications on national security and identity. …

The Origin Of Usurpation And Tyranny: Nonagentic Anti-Imperialism Of The Twenty-First Century And The Legacy Of Chavismo, Juan Bustillo

International Studies (MA) Theses

As Venezuela’s Chavista regime presides over the country’s descent into Latin America’s worst refugee and humanitarian crisis in modern times, a mass exodus of nearly five million Venezuelans since 2015, the rhetoric of Western anti-imperialists and the regime itself has absolved it of any responsibility for the crisis and the increasing authoritarianism that led to it by abdicating the regime's agency to act according to its own free will. This paper develops the discursive concept of nonagentic anti-imperialism, a rhetoric that effectively absolves self-declared anti-imperialist regimes, from Castro’s Cuba to Rajapaksa’s Sri Lanka, of human rights abuses and democratic erosions …

Carta Abierta: A Eliott Abrams (Enviado De Los Estados Unidos A Venezuela), Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

An open letter, in Spanish, from Peter McLaren to Eliott Abrams, the the Special Representative for Venezuela at the U.S. Department of State.

Open Letter: To Eliott Abrams (U. S. Venezuela Envoy), Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

An open letter from Peter McLaren to Eliott Abrams, the the Special Representative for Venezuela at the U.S. Department of State.

A Spanish translation is available here.

Media Discourses That Normalize Colonial Relations: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of (Im)Migrants And Refugees, Meng Zhao, Jorge Rodriguez, Lilia D. Monzó

Education Faculty Articles and Research

The im(migration) and refugee crisis that are being exacerbated under the Trump administration, is a manifestation of empire-building and the long history of colonization of the Global South. A Marxist-humanist perspective recognizes these as consistent aspects of a clearly racist global capitalism that functions in the interest of multibillion dollar U.S.–based corporations and increasingly transnational corporations. Trade agreements, international economic policy, political intervention, invasion or the threat of these, often secure corporate interests in specific countries and regions. The authors use critical discourse analysis to examine the discourses around Mexican, Central American, and Syrian im(migrants) and refugees as examples of …

God And Governance: Reflections On Living In The Belly Of The Beast, Peter Mclaren

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In this critical rage article, Peter McLaren unleashes his revolutionary critique aimed at capitalist injustice behind postdigital socio-technological developments, historical forms of injustice such as racism and colonialism, and recent political events and developments including but not limited to US interventions in Latin America and the presidency of Donald Trump. Rising from two important prongs of McLaren’s work—revolutionary critical pedagogy and liberation theology—the article connects myth, religion, science, politics, technology, and humanity. The article reveals McLaren’s most intimate thoughts and experiences and aligns them with sophisticated theory and philosophy. It dances between the individual and the collective, the realistic and …

Reasons For Public Opinion On Foreign Policy, Maria Kachulis-Moriarty

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

In recent years, especially under President Trump’s administration, United States foreign policy has seen a great deal of changes, as has public opinion on U.S. foreign policy. Foreign policy faces increasing criticism and scrutiny as information about international trade and relationships between countries becomes more accessible to the public. This paper will address public opinion on current U.S. foreign policy with regards to three countries – China, Russia, and Mexico – and how it may differ based on variables such as trust in media, ideology, and belief that immigration increases the U.S. crime rate. These variables are vital to understanding …

Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, And Immigration Policy: How 9/11 Transformed The Debate Over Illegal Immigration, Robert Nelsen

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Americans have been at war against some form of terrorism both at home and abroad. This includes abuses of federal immigration laws and policies that relate to legal and illegal immigration with Mexico. It is easily substantiated that thousands of Americans have died at the hands of illegal immigrants from Mexico through criminal activity in the United States or through illegal drug trafficking. This thesis considers whether the immigration policies of Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush were at fault for not properly securing the border prior to these attacks. Specifically, …

Through Community Eyes: The Transition Of International Organizations From Community Aid To Development In Postconflict Sierra Leone, Whitney Mcintyre Miller

Education Faculty Articles and Research

Sierra Leone experienced an 11-year civil war, brutalizing its people and destroying its communities. With the cessation of violence, international organizations helped to secure peace, deliver aid and supplies, and, after, assist with development projects. This grounded theory study, which aims to understand the role these organizations played from the viewpoint of community members in 2 communities, posits that community members’ regard of international organizations lessened as their efforts transitioned from securing the peace and relief efforts to aid for development. Highlighted are the successes and challenges of this work and a broad discussion of implications and recommendations.

Chinese And European Financial Systems: Instability Drivers And Contagion Channels, Paolo Canofari, Alessandro Del Ponte

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

This paper identifies systemic risk levels in the Eurozone and China. We first analyze the political and macro-financial factors underlying potential financial instability in both currency areas. Then, we examine the impact of a possible breakup of the Eurozone on the Chinese financial system and the risk of redenomination of Chinese assets expressed in Euros. Finally, considering the increasing credit gap in the Chinese economy and the enduring political instability in several Eurozone countries, we warn against a possible opening of contagion channels between China and Europe.

Debating Humanitarian Intervention: Should We Try To Save Strangers?, Fernando R. Tesón, Bas Van Der Vossen

Philosophy Faculty Books and Book Chapters

"When violence breaks out in a country, foreign governments face a difficult dilemma: should they intervene on behalf of the victims, or should they remain spectators? Each choice offers its own perils, and philosophers Fernando R. Tesón and Bas van der Vossen offer contrasting views of intervention by employing modern analytic philosophy, particularly just war theory. Tesón and van der Vossen refer to and weigh the consequences of past, present, and future interventions in Syria, Somalia, Rwanda, Bosnia, Iraq, Lybia, Egypt, and more."

Withdrawal: Reassessing America's Final Years In Vietnam, Gregory A. Daddis

History Faculty Books and Book Chapters

Withdrawal is a groundbreaking reassessment that tells a far different story of the Vietnam War. Daddis convincingly argues that the entire US effort in South Vietnam was incapable of reversing the downward trends of a complicated Vietnamese conflict that by 1968 had turned into a political-military stalemate. Despite a new articulation of strategy, Abrams's approach could not materially alter a war no longer vital to US national security or global dominance. Once the Nixon White House made the political decision to withdraw from Southeast Asia, Abrams's military strategy was unable to change either the course or outcome of a decades' …

The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise In Israel And Palestine, Nubar Hovsepian

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

A book review of Nathan Thrall's The Only Language They Understand: Forcing Compromise in Israel and Palestine.

Introducing International Relations: Placing “Disability”, Art Blaser

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

I base this paper primarily on my teaching of introductory international relations since 1979. Introductory international relations instructors need to give disability issues more attention. First, I look at participants in international relations: states and their leaders; global governance—particularly the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and transnational actors-particularly Disabled Peoples’ Organizations (DPOs). I then examine issues: rights, war and peace, and development. Second, I examine two approaches from the disability studies literature: disability as a deficit demographic category (based on a medical model), and disability as the basis for a social movement (based on a social model). …

Foreign Policy Brief: North Korean Nuclear Weapons, Jacob Chobanian

Political Science Student Papers and Posters

This paper is a brief on the current situation involving the United States and North Korea regarding the nuclear weapon controversy and possible war.