International Relations Commons^™

Thank You For Considering Me Such A Huge Threat: A Critical Analysis Of Iran's Foreign Policy, Liza Boyer

Honors Theses

The United States has long held the idea that Iran poses a threat to our interests as well as global stability, implying that Iran is irrational and makes decisions rooted purely in ideology. After creating an independent framework based on rational choice theory, descriptive decision theory, and the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, I determined four possible ways to describe Iran’s foreign policy: rational-constitutional, irrational-constitutional, rational-unconstitutional, and irrational-unconstitutional. I then apply this framework to six cases which I have identified to be vital to understanding Iran’s foreign policy: Iraq, Israel, United States of America, China, the nuclear program, …

Analyzing The Onset And Resolution Of Nonstate Conflict In The Middle East & North Africa, Emily A. Barbaro

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

By applying structural-functionalist theories of deviance and opposition, this thesis deconstructs nonstate mobilization in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Using data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset, the quantitative analysis interpreted both group and leader behavior in conflict situations to determine factors that influenced conflict onset and resolution. The quasipoisson regression analysis of group behavior suggested that polity and state capacity were both significant predictors of violent and nonviolent mobilization. The negative binomial regression of regime behavior suggested that civilian casualties were the most significant predictor of a government response to nonstate mobilization. Ultimately, the …

Nonstate Actors And Anti-Access/Area Denial Strategies: The Coming Challenge, Jean-Loup Samaan Dr.

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

This monograph explores the emerging challenge of nonstate actors’ anti-access and area denial (A2/AD) strategies and their implications for the United States and its allies by looking at two regions, the Middle East and Eastern Europe, with case studies such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the Houthis in Yemen, and separatist groups in Ukraine. The historical monopoly of states over precision-guided munitions has eroded, and this evolution eventually challenges the ability of the most advanced militaries to operate in specific environments. As they gain greater access to advanced military technology, some nonstate actors increasingly lean toward …

Cooperation Or Conflict: Using Alliance Theory To Explain The Current Gulf Cooperation Council Crisis, Pierre Aguirre

Honors Scholar Theses

What caused the current diplomatic crisis between countries in the Gulf Cooperation Council? I analyze this question through the lens of alliance politics. In the past, scholars have used these different theories to explain the formation and sustainability of certain alliances, including the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the Gulf Cooperation Council. Specifically, I test Walt's theory of the Balance of Threat against others to see which can best explain the Council's downfall. Using a case study research design, I disaggregate the alliance into three notable periods: formation, sustained cooperation, and discord. My findings reveal that Walt’s theory lacks certain …

Moving Away From The West Or Taking Independent Positions: A Structural Analysis For The New Turkish Foreign Policy, Suleyman Senturk

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This paper focuses on understanding and explaining the change of Turkish foreign policy,particularly in the last decade. Many observers have expressed a suspicion that Turkey is abandoning its Western-centric alignment and gradually shifting its axis. The thesis argues that rather than a shift, Turkey is taking an independent position. It maintains that the end of the Cold War and the change in the international structure from bipolarity to unipolarity has provided incentives for countries with some degree of material capabilities to pursue independence from the U.S. policy preferences. This study analyses structural effects on the behavior of Turkey.

Later it …

Foreign Intervention And The Process Of State Failure Case Study On Libya, Islam Mohamed Goher Mohamed

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis investigates the relationship between foreign intervention and state failure. I argue that even an ideal international multilateral humanitarian intervention in a weak state will lead to deepening state failure if the intervention was biased and driven by material rather than ethical interests, focusing on achieving military victory of one party of the internal conflict rather than a negotiated settlement between all conflict parties and ignores the responsibility to rebuild in the aftermath of the intervention.

In making this argument, I developed a conceptual framework to analyse the impact of intervention motives, patterns, forms and instruments on strengthening or …

The Role Of Institutions, Islamism, And Militaries In The Outcomes Of The Arab Spring: The Cases Of Tunisia, Egypt, And Syria, Olivia Delmonico

Sacred Heart University Scholar

During the Arab Spring in 2011, much of the Middle Eastern world faced a series of uprisings demanding democracy and equality. Most of these attempts at revolution desperately failed, with some nations faring far worse than before. Some, however, remain more stable than others, with Tunisia being the sole full success. This article delves into the varying causes of the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria. These countries respectively represent the good, the bad, and the ugly outcomes of the Arab Spring.

Through a thorough analysis of other literature on the subject, I conclude that the success of modern Arab …

Beyond Carrots And Sticks: An Analysis Of U.S. Approaches To Counterterrorism From 2000-2016, Margaret M. Seymour

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Soft power, a concept developed and presented by Joseph Nye in 1990, has quickly become a critical concept in U.S. foreign policy. Scholars and practitioners discuss the utility or futility of soft power. Theorists rank countries by their use of effective soft power against one another. Critically lacking in the discussion, however, is an analysis of how one country’s use of soft power changes, or remains the same, over time.

Counterterrorism policy has been a focus of U.S. foreign policy since 9/11, and while there is a robust discussion on effectiveness of various policies and strategies, scholars have routinely failed …

America's 'Just Wars' In The 21st Century: Implications Of Just War Theory On The Middle East, Sara Bakhtiar

Senior Theses

This paper will examine the presence of just war theory in the rhetoric and actions of U.S. leaders and policymakers. I look at Afghanistan to highlight the United States' misuse of just war doctrine, which led to highly destructive consequences. I then look at Syria and how just war language is already being used to justify a potential intervention in the state. Last, I assess the United States' intervention in Yemen to argue that the U.S. does not intervene in the Middle East for strictly humanitarian purposes, but rather to pursue and advance its own interests like policies of regime …

Iran’S New Interventionism: Reconceptualizing Proxy Warfare In The Post-Arab Spring Middle East, Emmet Hollingshead

Political Science Honors Projects

Iranian proxy groups in the Middle East pose a continuing challenge to stability, American interests, and peaceful self-governance in the region. From a strategic standpoint, Iran’s innovative use of proxy groups to pursue their political and military interests has proven difficult to understand and respond to within a comprehensive framework. This paper will argue in favor of reviving and modifying the ‘new wars’ literature as a theoretical framework for understanding Iranian proxy groups and regional interests. It analyses Iranian actions in fostering relationships with non-state actors in the region as an extension of the state into ‘new wars’ dynamics and …

Aspects Of Islamic Revival And Radicalization In The Region Of Middle East, Redi Papa

UBT International Conference

The main objective of this topic is to provide a detailed panorama of the causes of Islamic Revival and radicalization of Islam, particularly in the region of Middle East. In this perspective, it’s somehow puzzling to at the first sight that Arab World used to be a leader in the science, military and science, is now paradoxically a region characterized by unrest and turmoil. Contrary to the past decades where peace was a distinctive peculiarity of the region and economy flourished, now is overwhelmed by the phenomena of the Radicalization of Islam for political purposes and to come to power. …

In Pawn: Kurdish Economic Development In The Context Of Conflict, Stephen E. Mcavene Iii

Sustainability and Social Justice

In this paper the author examines the struggle of the Kurdish people for self-determined social, political, and economic development in the whirlwind of conflict in the Middle East. It uses a case study of how a Kurdish minority in Iraq interact with multiple stakeholders in their struggle for nationhood, and implications of these interactions for overall Kurdish social and economic development. Studies on economic development while interested in social, economic and political aspect of development, are less concerned with the implications of right to self-determination on development; the unique case of the Kurdish struggle provides an opportunity to expand the …

Us Aid In The Arab World Fact Checking Us Democratization Rhetoric Against Reality, Nicholas Canfield

Student Research – Stevenson Center

Many factors have been used to explain durable authoritarianism in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), and one of the most important external influences of MENA governments’ structure is support from the United States. The US balances security concerns and democratization rhetoric in the region, but much literature promotes that security concerns are the most important factor for US support in MENA. Using US aid as a proxy for US support, this study finds that US aid actually increases democratization in MENA, and counterintuitively, aid to MENA military and police forces seems to have a stronger democratization effect than …

Explaining The Rise Of Isis, Anas Alqaed

Political Science Theses and Capstones

In this paper I study the circumstances that led to the rise the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS/Daesh) and its economic power. I use articles, testimonies before US House of Representatives and analyze economic data to generate facts and draw conclusions. All references rely on primary source documents that were not released in an official capacity by ISIS. These are documents that have been released online by pro or anti-ISIS activists or information that was gathered and analyzed by research centers and international organizations. It is worth noting that non-officially released documents were very helpful in shedding more …

The Empowerment Of Women In The Middle East, Ailbhe M. Rice

Honors Undergraduate Theses

This thesis assesses the current rights of women in Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates. Within each case study, four main factors are measured based on their individual influence in each state. The first factor, historical context, examines various historical influences and their effect on the empowerment of women in their country. The second factor, the socio-cultural context, describes social and ethnical effects on society such as the influence of tribal lineage. The third factor researched is the political structure of the state and the impact that each different political system has upon gender equality in that region. …

Political Islam And Democracy, Mikellon S. Browne-Michael

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The Middle East is a predominately Islamic region. Islam is not only a religion, it is the Muslim way of life and law. The western world follows a more modern system of government, in the form of democracy. Democracy is not modern, as in new, since it was started by the ancient Greeks, but it is modern, because it is the main system being adopted in contemporary times.

Muslims follow the ideals found in the Holy Quran, the book dictated by the prophet Muhammad. The Middle East has had a strong Islamic influence since the mid-seventh century. Islam originated in …

The Wwi Middle East: Western Intervention And Modern-Day Political Conflict, Pauline Park

Global Tides

This paper analyzes three conflicting agreements made by the Allied powers between 1915 and 1917: the Husayn-McMahon correspondence, the Sykes-Picot arrangements, and the Balfour Declaration. It reveals the agreements as demonstrative of deeper patterns of political power and strategy in the Middle East that persist today. This paper moreover compares the Middle East with the European colonization of Rwanda in the 1880s, and how the nation's internal division was caused by external global powers seeking political and economic gain. This analysis seeks to connect global events as part of a wider political agenda propagated by Western powers.

"Who Am I?": The Development Of A Male Palestinian Political Identity, Tala J. Dayyat

Master's Theses

The Palestinian people have lived under numerous imperial rulers; first, the Ottoman Empire, then later the British. Today they live under the military occupation of the state of Israel as second class citizen millions more living abroad as refugees. Young Palestinian men have become the leaders and the physical manifestation of the struggle against Israel, a political Goliath that has used tactics to repress the Palestinians such as, detentions, beatings, and land confiscation, which many outside of the Israeli state deem as illegal. Scholar Rashid Khalidi states that “the quintessential Palestinian experience, which illustrates some of the most basic issues …

The Failure Of Westphalia: A Constructivist Examination Of Western And Middle Eastern Relations, Jayson Warren

Masters Theses

This thesis is not intended to be a dogmatic or pedantic endorsement of any one religion, ethic, or culture. To the contrary, it is the intent of the author to examine a number of competing ideas, philosophies, and belief systems in order to extrapolate their geopolitical implications and to pursue them to their logical (albeit sometimes inevitable) conclusions. Too often, any number of presuppositions at work within a given situation go overlooked and subsequently skew geopolitical analysis and resulting policy decisions. This thesis seeks to transcend mere opinion or speculation and achieve instead a framework of Constructivism for pragmatic comprehension …

“Frames” And Bias: How A Lack Of Context In Middle East News Coverage Can Impact U.S. Foreign Policy, Jennifer Lois Moore

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

This thesis is a critical examination into how American mainstream news media outlets often neglect to incorporate religious, cultural and historical context into their coverage of the Middle East. I show through my research and analysis that the news coverage of the Middle East, even at the highest echelons of American journalism, is often lacking in sophistication in terms of cultural and religious context, sometimes to the point of affecting its fairness and accuracy. The danger of this is that it has the power to grossly simplify and reduce to an “us versus them” frame an entire contingent of the …

Cultural Awareness In Nuclear Security Programs: A Critical Link, Al-Sharif Nasser Bin Nasser, Jasmine Auda, Katherine Bachner

International Journal of Nuclear Security

Nuclear security programs that offer training and capacity building opportunities to practitioners working in nuclear facilities play a central role in strengthening the global nuclear security architecture. There is often a significant divide, however, between both the development of these programs and their implementation, and between the programs’ intended and actual outcomes. As this article will argue, this disconnect can often be attributed to an absence of cultural awareness and an inability for internationally-designed programs to effectively resonate with local audiences. Accordingly, the importance of the role of cultural awareness in implementing nuclear security programs will be assessed, and its …

Veto Syria: Explaining The Power Of The United Nations Security Council And The Syrian Refugee Crisis, Hanouf Khallaf

Master's Projects and Capstones

The purpose of this research is to provide an analysis of the United Nations Security Council compliance with the Charter of the United Nations and the effectiveness of its Responsibility to Protect innocent civilians from crimes committed against them, particularly within the Syrian region in the Middle East. In addition, this research suggests that the Security Council needs reform in order to meet its obligations and function effectively in world crises. In order to achieve this, the research proposes multiple reform recommendations that could be implemented immediately within the system.

Iranian Nuclear Program: Domestic Implications, Manuel A. Serrano

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The intent for this thesis is to explain and inform the process of the Iranian Nuclear Program throughout the last decades. The stand of the Islamic Republic of Iran has brought very delicate issues and confrontations to the international community. This thesis discusses the history of key countries that play an important part into developing the Iranian nuclear program. These countries being the United States, Israel, Russia and other countries part of the UN Security Council. This thesis also attempts to analyze and focuses on the domestic policies the government of Iran and its people have interacted with the nuclear …

Causes Of Third Party Military Intervention In Intrastate Conflicts, Hailey Bennett

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

Since the conclusion of World War II, the number of expansive interstate wars has decreased while devastating intrastate wars and conflicts have increased exponentially. The Cold War ushered in an era of international stability in the bipolar balance of power, but proxy wars, wars of succession and independence, genocide and civil war made the era anything but peaceful. These conflicts proved to be breading grounds for third party military interventions, which increased simultaneously. In this thesis, I attempted to determine what factors encouraged third party states to intervene militarily in the affairs of other states in the post-World War II …

The Hashemite Kingdom Of Jordan And Its Role In Middle Eastern Geopolitics, Elizabeth Heckmann

International and Global Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

The Middle East is notorious for the seemingly endless series of conflicts, instances of internal unrest, and political insurrections it witnesses. From the Gulf Wars in the late 20th Century, to the Arab Spring that began in 2010, to the rise of the Islamic State in 2013, it appears that almost every state in the region is inescapably engulfed in violence and instability. However, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has proven itself to be the exception to that rule over the years. While Jordan is not unfamiliar with domestic conflict and political unrest, the kingdom has demonstrated a remarkable resilience …

Energy As A Factor For Turkish - Russian Rapprochement, Saltuk Bugra Karahan

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation started with a simple question: What was the main source of Turkish-Russian rapprochement seen generally after the end of the Cold War, specifically within the last 15 years (2001-2015)? A review of the literature on the subject revealed three explanations for Turkish-Russian rapprochement: (1) Perception of the U.S. as a threat in the Black Sea and Caucasus region, (2) Deterioration of Turkey’s relations with the West, and (3) Turkey’s need for energy. Thus came the main question for this work: To what extent does Turkey’s need for energy play a role in Turkish-Russian rapprochement? Although each of the …

The Power Of Ideas In Politics: Social Constructivism And Obama’S Foreign Policy In Iraq, Courtney Kayser

Political Analysis

No abstract provided.

A Path To Peace: Reconciling The Sunni-Shi’A Conflict In Iraq, Kelsey L. Modica

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The Iraqi state has a long history of division between Sunnis and Shiites. This conflict has often been violent and continues even today. Ultimately, this division dates back to the seventh century after the death of Muhammad. In order to better understand why there is a conflict between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq and not other countries, it is essential to understand the similarities and differences between their ideologies but also how they have been rooted against each other throughout history. Therefore, I begin with a description of the similarities and differences between Sunnis and Shiites to show the common …

A Comparative Study Of Middle Eastern Foreign Policy: How Middle Eastern Intelligence Agencies Shape Current Events, Megan A. Fink

Honors Theses

This study monitored the intelligence and foreign policy actions of Israel, Iran, and Saudi Arabia from August 2013 to August 2014. Data was collected from coverage by Associated Press, The Wall Street Journal, and Al-Jazeera, three reliable and respected news sources that cover global events. The actions taken by foreign policymakers in these countries were recorded throughout the study period.

These actions were organized into a taxonomy based on whether they were intelligence-based or non-intelligence based. Within those broad categories, more distinguishing characteristics were analyzed to show patterns of behavior within national intelligence services of the nations studied. These patterns …

Global Climate Change: The Political Impact Of Global Warming On Developing Countries. The Case Studies Of Egypt And Oman, Eugene Thomas O'Neal

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The discourse of climate change has become important in the field of political science, as well as in the policy-making community. Climate change has become a political phenomenon that has and will greatly impact political stability regionally and globally. Using the ecological security theory as a framework, I explored the relationship between climate change and political stability in developing countries.

This study utilizes both qualitative and quantitative analyses to investigate the relationship between climate change and its effects on political volatility in developing countries. Using regression models, the author examined all non-OECD countries (140 countries) and their relationship to political …