Tigray Conflict And Political Development In Ethiopia: Assessing Governance, Political Participation And Human Rights., Olileanya Amuche Ezugwu, Moses M. Duruji

Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies

The escalation of intra-state conflicts in Africa has assumed an endemic nature, posing a challenge to regional stability. Conflicts have the capacity to not only cause physical destruction to individuals and property, but also impede the establishment and maintenance of the rule of law, undermine the legitimacy of states, and pose a threat to institutional structures. This paper examines the effect of the Tigray conflict on the political development of Ethiopia: election, political participation and human rights. The objectives of the study include examining the extent the Tigray conflict affected the political development of Ethiopia and efforts made to resolve …

The Last Colony: Theoretical Explanations On The Protractedness Of The Western Sahara Conflict, Elisabeth H. Austrheim

Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies

“There has never been a protracted war from which a country has benefited” (Tzu 1963: 73).

The forty-eight yearlong Western Sahara conflict over the former Spanish colony between Polisario and the Kingdom of Morocco continues its low prospects of resolution. The future of the territory, with both strategic geopolitical and financial relevance, remains uncertain in which the reasons for the continued prolongation appear to be many. Different conflict theories emphasise various factors causing protractedness, suggesting that many different causes, together, have engendered the current lack of settlement. Whilst the theory of protracted social conflicts emphasises developed high-tensioned, hostile relations between …

Great Power Cyberpolitics: Re-Interpreting Offensive Realism And Power Transition Theory For Cyber Deterrence, Yavuz Akdaǧ

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation assesses the empirical relevancy of realist International Relations (IR) theory in cyberspace and shows how a richer IR-based theory of cyber conflict can enhance the understanding of interstate cyber deterrence, especially in the context of US-Sino hegemonic cyber conflict or cyberwar. As states increasingly engage in cyber conflict by exploiting security vulnerabilities due to global interconnectivity (i.e., the Internet), cyber threat has become relevant for national security. Scholars constructed cyber deterrence to counter the threat using the fundamentals of the Cold War nuclear deterrence. Yet this approach is highly contested; cyberspace defies traditional deterrence concepts. Further theoretical analysis …

Why China Cares About Canada’S Indigenous Residential Schools: From Whataboutism To Internal Denial, Xiyuan (Marvin) Xia

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article examines how the Chinese government and its propaganda departments use genocide-related discourses to fulfil different political purposes at home and abroad. By criticizing Western colonialist regimes’ assimilation policies, especially Canada’s Indigenous residential schools, the Chinese diplomats apply the rhetoric of whataboutism to dodge the international community’s questions about China’s systematic persecution of Uyghur Muslims. Domestically, China’s state media intensively cover Canada’s residential school system and the colonial genocide against Indigenous people, trying to distract the audience from the state atrocities in Xinjiang and mislead the public to distrust Canada and other countries’ motives for accusing China of committing …

Institutional Legacies And The Decision To Commit Genocide, Stacey M. Mitchell

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Despite their striking similarities, which include population demographics, size, and a legacy of inter-group conflict, the collapse of democratization in Rwanda and Burundi in the early 1990s led to genocide in Rwanda and a different type of violence in Burundi. This study suggests that to better comprehend why risk factors lead to genocide in some cases and not others, focus must be placed on how these factors are perceived by those in power of the state experiencing them. This study introduces a model that uses Comparative Historical Analysis (CHA), process tracing, and the inclusion of a decision model built on …

Security-Enhanced Serial Communications, John White, Alexander Beall, Joseph Maurio, Dane Fichter, Dr. Matthew Davis, Dr. Zachary Birnbaum

Military Cyber Affairs

Industrial Control Systems (ICS) are widely used by critical infrastructure and are ubiquitous in numerous industries including telecommunications, petrochemical, and manufacturing. ICS are at a high risk of cyber attack given their internet accessibility, inherent lack of security, deployment timelines, and criticality. A unique challenge in ICS security is the prevalence of serial communication buses and other non-TCP/IP communications protocols. The communication protocols used within serial buses often lack authentication and integrity protections, leaving them vulnerable to spoofing and replay attacks. The bandwidth constraints and prevalence of legacy hardware in these systems prevent the use of modern message authentication and …

Enhancing The Battleverse: The People’S Liberation Army’S Digital Twin Strategy, Joshua Baughman

Military Cyber Affairs

No abstract provided.

What Senior U.S. Leaders Say We Should Know About Cyber, Dr. Joseph H. Schafer

Military Cyber Affairs

On April 6, 2023, the Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative hosted a panel discussion on the new National Cybersecurity Strategy. The panel featured four senior officials from the Office of the National Cyber Director (ONCD), the Department of State (DoS), the Department of Justice (DoJ), and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The author attended and asked each official to identify the most important elements that policymakers and strategists must understand about cyber. This article highlights historical and recent struggles to express cyber policy, the responses from these officials, and the author’s ongoing research to improve national security cyber policy.

Operationalizing Deterrence By Denial In The Cyber Domain, Gentry Lane

Military Cyber Affairs

No abstract provided.

Round Table (Part 2): Reflections & Questions, Sarah Federman

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Defensive Industrial Policy: Cybersecurity Interventions To Reduce Intellectual Property Theft, Dr. Chad Dacus, Dr. Carl (Cj) Horn

Military Cyber Affairs

Through cyber-enabled industrial espionage, China has appropriated what Keith Alexander, the former Director of the National Security Agency, dubbed “the largest transfer of wealth in history.” Although China disavows intellectual property (IP) theft by its citizens and has set self-sustained research and development as an important goal, it is unrealistic to believe IP theft will slow down meaningfully without changing China’s decision calculus. China and the United States have twice agreed, in principle, to respect one another’s IP rights. However, these agreements have lacked any real enforcement mechanism, so the United States must do more to ensure its IP is …

Enter The Battleverse: China's Metaverse War, Josh Baughman

Military Cyber Affairs

No abstract provided.

Dossier: The Stateless Rohingya—Practical Consequences Of Expulsion, Fiza Lee-Winter, Tonny Kirabira

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

The international community has been called upon to ramp up efforts to end statelessness and provided with a guiding framework of 10 Actions. This dossier presents the practical consequences of expulsion, both direct and indirect outcomes of collective violence, directed towards the Rohingyas. Touching upon the nexus between children's rights, human trafficking, and practical challenges associated on-the-ground, the dossier also discusses the imperative need for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) states—collectively as a region—to take steps in fulfilling Action 7 of the Global Action Plan through the birth registration of Rohingya children as part of their existing efforts …

Dossier: Uyghur Women In China’S Genocide, Rukiye Turdush, Magnus Fiskesjö

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

In genocide, both women and men suffer. However, their suffering has always been different; with men mostly subjected to torture and killings, and women mostly subjected to torture and mutilation. These differences stem primarily from the perpetrators' ideology and intention to exterminate the targeted people. Many patriarchal societies link men with blood lineage and the group’s continuation, while women embody the group’s reproductivity and dignity. In the ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs and other Turkic Muslims in East Turkistan, the ideology of Chinese colonialism is a root cause. It motivates the targeting of women as the means through which to …

Book Review: Criminalizing Atrocity: The Global Spread Of Criminal Laws Against International Crimes, Verónica Michel

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Book review of the book Criminalizing Atrocity: The Global Spread of Criminal Laws against International Crimes by Mark S. Berlin.

Struggling Against The Odds: Social Movements In Pakistan During Authoritarian Regimes, Sajjad Hussain

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation extends scholarship on the role of social movements against authoritarian regimes. It argues that movements turn into popular mobilizations and achieve successful outcomes when they occur in the consolidated phases of authoritarian regimes. Using the political opportunity structure framework, the dissertation maintains that a regime’s stability instils confidence in it to substitute coercion with incentives wherein it allows limited but strictly regulated freedoms for oppositional politics. This creates new openings for the challengers, enabling mobilization with an increase in size and scope. Unlike the initial phase, when the regime is consolidating and repressing collective action in a ruthless …

The Domestic Reality Of Foreign Policy: The 1994 Clinton Administration Response To The Crises In Rwanda And Haiti, Camara Kemanini Silver

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Domestic politics steered The 1994 Clinton Administration's response to the violence in Rwanda and Haiti. This dissertation takes a novel approach by employing a case study method to gauge the political capital of domestic variables such as the news media, interest groups, and public opinion. This dissertation argues that domestic variables' presence and absence can explain foreign policy outcomes in a post-Cold War era. The fear of another version of a "Black Hawk Down" forced the Clinton Administration to streamlined its support in foreign policy decisions requiring domestic input. The 1994 crises in Rwanda and Haiti offer two case studies …

The Social Correlates Of War: Conflict Correlations Within Belief Systems., Richard R. N. Decampa

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Previous cross-national research concerning the political or economic factors that lead to international conflict tends to focus on leadership by elites, anarchic security, or democratic peace. However, less quantitative cross-national research focuses on how religious and national belief systems impact international conflict. Previous research suggests that value systems, such as religiosity and nationalism should impact conflict, though there is little cross-national empirical evidence to support these claims. Thus, I expand on this work by testing the relationship between several variables that represent religiosity and nationalism and the initiation and escalation of conflict between nation states. The main dependent variables are …

Migrations Internationales. Entre Enjeux Traditionnel Et Nouveaux Défis, Leonidas Ndayisaba

Journal of African Conflicts and Peace Studies

Résumé

Le premier semestre de l’année 2015 est dominé sur le plan médiatique par une crise migratoire caractérisée par des milliers de ressortissants syriens, afghans pour la plupart qui traversent la Méditerranée en vue de trouver asile, sécurité et, sans doute, de nouvelles perspectives de vie dans les pays européens et en Amérique du Nord. D’autres migrants, Erythréens, Sud-Soudanais, entre autres, viennent également grossir les rangs des migrants forcés au niveau régional et international. Pourtant, les migrations constituent un phénomène mondial et historique. La campagne médiatique qui s’en est suivie fait découvrir la tragédie qui sévit dans les pays d’origine …

The Influence Of Information Power Upon The Great Game In Cyberspace: U.S. Wins Over Russian Meddling In The 2018 Elections, Joseph H. Schafer

Military Cyber Affairs

The 2018 U.S. pivot in information and cyberspace degraded Russian operations in the 2018 election. Following pervasive Russian information power operations during the U.S. 2016 elections, the United States progressed from a policy of preparations and defense in information and cyberspace to a policy of forward engagement. U.S recognition of renewed great power competition coupled with Russia’s inability to compete diplomatically, militarily (conventionally), or economically, inspires Russia to continues to concentrate on information power operations. This great game in cyberspace was virtually uncontested by the U.S. prior to 2017. Widespread awareness of Russian aggression in 2016 served as a catalyst …

A Queer(Er) Genocide Studies, Lily Nellans

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This paper examines how queerness interacts with and is implicated in traditional genocides, i.e. those directed at racial, religious, national, and ethnic groups - the groups defined as protected classes in the Genocide Convention. It poses the following question: How can scholars of Genocide Studies learn from the queer theory-Genocide Studies nexus? To answer, this paper demonstrate how three distinct queer theory concepts can be woven with Genocide Studies to reveal novel insights into some of the field’s preeminent questions. Specifically, it draws on queer intellectual curiosity, heteronormativity, and reproductive futurism. Connecting queer theory with Genocide Studies yields empirical, analytical, …

Democratization As A Protective Layering For Crimes Against Humanity: The Case Of Myanmar, Anna B. Plunkett

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Myanmar has a history of state sanctioned violence against its own people. However, as the regime transition occurs the methods of conducting such violence have also changed. This has not led to an end to violence but an alteration in the methods used by the state. What can be identified is the use of democratic regime transition to legitimise the state’s actions whilst delegitimising the plight of communities that have historically resisted the state. By engaging in the minimal standards of democratic practice whilst developing relations with the international community on the basis of trade, Myanmar has been able to …

Predictors Of Economic Outlook In Stability Operations, Juan Carlos Garcia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The participation of the United States military in stability efforts has increased dramatically since 2001. The core of current U. S. stabilization policies and measures derives from the US military's lessons in countering insurgencies since the late 20th century through the ongoing conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and countries experiencing radical Islamic insurgencies. Counterinsurgency operations focus on gaining support from the relevant population through security, governance, and economic efforts. This research seeks to improve the understanding of the relationship between perceptions of security and governance on populations' economic outlook during stability operations. Applying the “Winning Hearts and Minds” approach to the …

Networks In The Norm Life Cycle And The Diffusion Of Environmental Norms, James E. Fry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this research, I analyze how Transnational Municipal Networks (TMNs) and cities affect the diffusion and transmission of a decarbonization norm. Urban policy and political science scholars assert that cities and their networks are influential in implementing internationally coordinated environmental policy. However, few projects have analyzed how local actors may diffuse environmental norms that have been developed in the international system. Using the norm life cycle, this research explores the transmission of a decarbonization norm by means of GHG measurement and mitigation. I identify two critical objectives associated with a decarbonization norm: establishing a system for monitoring GHG emissions and …

Making The Case For Genocide, The Forced Sterilization Of Indigenous Peoples Of Peru, Ñusta P. Carranza Ko

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Peru’s national health program Programa de Salud Reproductiva y Planificación Familiar (PSRPF) aimed to uphold women’s reproductive rights and address the scarcity in maternity related services. Despite these objectives, during PSRPF’s implementation the respect for women’s rights were undermined with the forced sterilization of women predominantly of indigenous, poor, and rural backgrounds. This study considers the forced sterilization of indigenous women as a genocide. Making the case for genocide has not been done previously with this particular case. Using the normative markers of the Genocide Convention, this study categorically sets forced sterilization victims from the state-led-policy as victims of genocide, …

A Dangerous New Era: Analyzing The Impact Of Cyber Technology On International Conflict, Kenneth Brown

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines the causal relationship between cyber technology’s deep global integration and changes in how states struggle for power in the international system. Specifically, it argues that cyber technology has changed international conflict by providing external actors the ability to penetrate states’ grand strategy decision-making and implementation processes to an unprecedented degree and scope. As a result, the meaning of power has changed from a material-centric metric to one that is more nuanced and difficult to measure.

To explore this hypothesis, the study follows a three-step process. First, it examines the history of cyber technology, how it has become …

Visions Of Greater Serbia: Local Dynamics And The Prijedor Genocide, Damir Kovačević

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article examines the process of genocide in the Prijedor municipality during the Bosnian civil war of the 1990s. In this article, genocide is understood as a dynamic and extraordinary phenomenon, which requires a subnational, or meso-level analysis, to capture the complexities of the case and to account for the shortcomings in the previous literature focusing mostly on the national-level. By narrowing the analysis to a more in-depth level, two explanatory factors help us understand the escalation and radicalization of violence to genocide: structural control and agency collaboration. Specifically, overwhelming political authority, territorial dominance, and a highly coordinated effort between …

The Politicization Of The Genocide Label: Genocide Rhetoric In The Un Security Council, Michelle E. Ringrose

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article examines the intersection of language, power and national interest by discussing how the UN Security Council permanent five (P5) members navigate the linguistic rhetoric of genocide in debates surrounding the conflict in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A discourse analysis methodology is adopted to ascertain how P5 member-states framed the genocide in Srebrenica through an analysis of linguistic themes and silences in council debates. This article argues that UN P5 members use language as a mechanism to frame a conflict in a particular way that aligns with their own national political interests. The article reaffirms the importance of genocide recognition, …

Book Review: Reluctant Interveners: America’S Failed Responses To Genocide From Bosnia To Darfur, Jeffrey Bachman

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

No abstract provided.

Human Rights? What A Good Idea! From Universal Jurisdiction To Crime Prevention, Daniel Feierstein

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Over the last decades, Genocide Studies has entered in a “comfort zone.” With fellowships and support from governments or NGOs, we have developed a very comfortable environment in which the knowledge we produce about genocide prevention is neither critical nor useful. We have become trapped by assumptions we have never checked against reality and many of us have chosen to work inside the circle of those assumptions: genocide and mass violence are horrible acts committed by horrible people; we cannot stand by and do nothing; we have the responsibility to protect civilian populations and that responsibility takes the form, as …