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Articles 241 - 262 of 262

Full-Text Articles in Political Theory

Racism Vs. Social Capital: A Case Study Of Two Majority Black Communities, Bruce W. Strouble Jan 2015

Racism Vs. Social Capital: A Case Study Of Two Majority Black Communities, Bruce W. Strouble

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Several researchers have identified social capital as a means to improve the social sustainability of communities. While there have been many studies investigating the benefits of social capital in homogeneous White communities, few have examined it in Black homogeneous communities. Also, there has been limited research on the influence of racism on social capital in African American communities. In this dissertation a comparative case study was used within a critical race theory framework. The purpose was to explore the role of racial oppression in shaping social capital in majority African American communities. Data were collected from 2 majority Black communities …

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Aiding And Abetting: The Illegality Of Morocco's Nationalist Expansion Into Western Sahara And Their Support From The United States, Rachid H. Yousfi May 2014

Aiding And Abetting: The Illegality Of Morocco's Nationalist Expansion Into Western Sahara And Their Support From The United States, Rachid H. Yousfi

Master's Theses

This paper will address the illegality of Morocco’s nationalist annexation of Western Sahara and how the United States plays the accommodating role through the selling of arms, economic aid, and diplomatic support. Considered as Africa’s last colony, the Saharawi people have not experienced the basic human right to self-determination and the right for independence. These rights are continued to be withheld for the sake of Moroccan nationalism and their “rightful and ethnic” claims to the territory, disregarding the International Court of Justice (ICJ)’s advisory opinion ruling in favor of Saharawi self-determination. It explores the chronology of the Saharawi population from …

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Winning Well: Civil Resistance Mechanisms Of Success, Democracy, And Civil Peace, Jonathan C. Pinckney Jan 2014

Winning Well: Civil Resistance Mechanisms Of Success, Democracy, And Civil Peace, Jonathan C. Pinckney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Several recent studies indicate that revolutions of non-violent civil resistance lead to more democratic and peaceful political transitions than either violent revolutions or elite-led political transitions. However, this general trend has not been disaggregated to explain the many prominent cases where nonviolent revolutions are followed by authoritarianism or civil war. Understanding these divergent cases is critical, particularly in light of the problematic transitions following the "Arab Spring" revolutions of 2011. In this paper I explain why nonviolent revolutions sometimes lead to these negative outcomes. I show, through quantitative analysis of a dataset of all successful non-violent revolutions from 1900-2006 and …

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The Ethics Of ‘Responsibility While Protecting’: Brazil, The Responsibility To Protect, And Guidelines For Humanitarian Intervention, James Pattison Apr 2013

The Ethics Of ‘Responsibility While Protecting’: Brazil, The Responsibility To Protect, And Guidelines For Humanitarian Intervention, James Pattison

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In the aftermath of the NATO intervention in Libya, the responsibility to protect (RtoP) doctrine has received considerable blowback. Various states, most notably some of the ‘BRICS’ states (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa), claimed that NATO exceeded its mandate given to it by United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1973 (by allegedly focusing on regime change rather than on the protection of civilians), was inappropriate in its target selection, violated the arms embargo by transferring arms to rebels, and generally caused too much harm to civilians and civilian infrastructure.1 It was also suggested that the UK, US, and …

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Hunting For Huntington’S Evidence: An Empirical Reassessment Of The Clash Of Civilizations Theory, John Daniel Shindelar Jan 2013

Hunting For Huntington’S Evidence: An Empirical Reassessment Of The Clash Of Civilizations Theory, John Daniel Shindelar

Political Science Theses and Capstones

I inquire into Samuel P. Huntington’s clash of civilizations theory as outlined in his landmark The Clash of Civilizations. I explore conflicts starting at the end of the Cold War to 2007 in order to examine whether Huntington’s theory has been materializing (there is a marked increase in conflicts between Civilizations, and they have become more intense) or if the face of conflicts has stayed relatively similar to Cold War era clashes. I use International Crisis Behavior data on conflicts since the fall of the U.S.S.R. which Huntington cites as the end of a bipolar world and the beginning of …

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Managing The Polarities Of Democracy: A Theoretical Framework For Positive Social Change, William J. Benet Jan 2013

Managing The Polarities Of Democracy: A Theoretical Framework For Positive Social Change, William J. Benet

Journal of Sustainable Social Impact

People around the globe have embraced democracy to bring about positive social change to address our environmental, economic, and militaristic challenges. Yet, there is no agreement on a definition of democracy that can guide social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model is a unifying theory of democracy to guide healthy, sustainable, and just social change efforts. The Polarities of Democracy model consists of ten elements, organized as five polarity pairs: freedom & authority, justice & due process, diversity & equality, human-rights & communal-obligations, and participation & representation. In this model each element has positive aspects and negative aspects and …

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Myths About Syria, James Pattison Jan 2013

Myths About Syria, James Pattison

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In my contribution, I want to focus on five fallacious claims and arguments that have been presented about the conflict in Syria. (Please note that this piece was written in Dec 2012).

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Weakest-Link Attacker-Defender Games With Multiple Attack Technologies, Daniel G. Arce, Dan Kovenock, Brian Roberson Sep 2012

Weakest-Link Attacker-Defender Games With Multiple Attack Technologies, Daniel G. Arce, Dan Kovenock, Brian Roberson

Economics Faculty Articles and Research

In this article, we examine a model of terrorism that focuses on the tradeoffs facing a terrorist organization that has two qualitatively different attack modes at its disposal. The terrorist organization's objective is to successfully attack at least one target. Success for the target government is defined as defending all targets from any and all attacks. In this context, we examine how terrorist entities strategically utilize an efficient but discrete attack technology e.g., suicide attacks when a more conventional mode of attack is available, and the optimal anti-terrorism measures.

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The Moral International Sphere As A New "Civic Virtue", Claudia Heiss Sep 2011

The Moral International Sphere As A New "Civic Virtue", Claudia Heiss

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Liberal political theory, the predominant paradigm at least since the 1970s, rules out as oppressive the imposition of any substantive notion of a "good way of life" and proposes instead a neutral conception where each individual should have the right to pursue his or her own preferred project of life. This opposition of an ancient "virtue" and a modern "freedom" seems challenged by current debates about morality and the responsibility to protect innocent civilians from massive crimes. The moral outrage of the international community may be interpreted as a signal of a perhaps minimal notion of civic virtue, which translates …

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Post-Conflict Reconstruction In Sri Lanka And Cyprus: Avoiding A Stalemate, Jyotsna Shankar Jan 2011

Post-Conflict Reconstruction In Sri Lanka And Cyprus: Avoiding A Stalemate, Jyotsna Shankar

CMC Senior Theses

By comparing the post-conflict reconstruction patterns of Cyprus and Sri Lanka, it is possible to evaluate what was or was not effective in the Cyprus case and how these lessons may be applied to Sri Lanka. Considering the underlying similarities of the two islands’ respective conflicts, the focus determining the best course of action for Sri Lanka, so that it does not face the same stalemate situation as Cyprus. The recommended policy contrasts with the consociationalist models proposed for Cyprus, and is instead based on the unique Basque model of autonomy.

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Nationalism And Public Opinion In Contemporary Spain: The Demobilization Of The Working Class In Catalonia, César García Oct 2010

Nationalism And Public Opinion In Contemporary Spain: The Demobilization Of The Working Class In Catalonia, César García

All Faculty Scholarship for the College of Arts and Humanities

This paper examines the relationship between nationalism and public opinion in the region of Catalonia in contemporary Spain. It analyzes the interaction of the climate of opinion, expectations, poll results, and political action. This holistic approach permits a conclusion that successive Catalan governments and the political class, in an effort to solidify their foothold in and emerging democracy, have been successful in creating a climate of opinion that has encouraged the nationalist part of the Catalan population, concentrated proportionally in highest socioeconomic strata, to be actively involved in politics, while at the same time demobilizing a significant part of the …

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Why Terrorism? Whose Terror?, Ibpp Editor Mar 2010

Why Terrorism? Whose Terror?, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author considers terrorism as a competitor for the legally constituted authority and power of governments.

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The Failure Of The Oslo Peace Process: Causes And Impacts, Nidal Mahmoud Al-Natour Jan 2006

The Failure Of The Oslo Peace Process: Causes And Impacts, Nidal Mahmoud Al-Natour

Archived Theses and Dissertations

[abstracts not provided]

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Politics, Rights, And The Refugee Problem, Richard Dagger Jan 2005

Politics, Rights, And The Refugee Problem, Richard Dagger

Political Science Faculty Publications

In The Origins of Totalitarianism, the political philosopher Hannah Arendt pointed to the years between World War I and World War II as the time when the plight of refugees became a pressing political problem.' If Arendt were still alive (she died in 1975), she would no doubt agree that the problem is at least as pressing in the early twenty-first century as it was sixty or more years ago, when she herself was a refugee from Nazi Germany. Who would not agree? According to a report of the U.N. Population Division, 16 million people were refugees at the …

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Vestiges Of Communism And Personnel Security, Ibpp Editor Sep 2002

Vestiges Of Communism And Personnel Security, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article illustrates several interpretive difficulties in employing personnel security criteria in the context of national security.

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Terrorism As Defense, Defense As Terrorism, Ibpp Editor Apr 2001

Terrorism As Defense, Defense As Terrorism, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes some definitional complexities of the construct terrorism.

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Falling Dominoes In 2001: Nuclear Weapons And Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Ibpp Editor Mar 2001

Falling Dominoes In 2001: Nuclear Weapons And Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes psychologies of inevitability and their foundations pertaining to nuclear weapons and weapons of mass destruction.

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Ideologies That Kill: One Way In, No Way Out, Ibpp Editor Dec 2000

Ideologies That Kill: One Way In, No Way Out, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes the phenomenon of ideology as an ineluctable trap from which there is no detour and no escape.

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Trends. Head Count And Nuclear War: What To Believe, Ibpp Editor Nov 2000

Trends. Head Count And Nuclear War: What To Believe, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article discusses three significant conundrums that arise in planning to deter nuclear war: 1. decapitation of the strength of the opposition; 2. lack of clear ontological validity for nuclear weapons-related language; and 3. the simultaneity of deterrence and provocation in one action.

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Nuclear Weapons In The 21st Century: Sense, Nonsense, No Sense, Ibpp Editor Oct 2000

Nuclear Weapons In The 21st Century: Sense, Nonsense, No Sense, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article considers commonly posited benefits of nation-states' possessing nuclear weapons.

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A Place For Ahistoricism In The Mideast, Ibpp Editor Aug 2000

A Place For Ahistoricism In The Mideast, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article advocates for an ahistoricism in conflict resolution between Israel and the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

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Wanted: New Methodologies For Peace, Ibpp Editor Jul 2000

Wanted: New Methodologies For Peace, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes problems with common methodological approaches to developing knowledge that will prevent war and attain peace.

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