Peace and Conflict Studies Commons^™

Ambigú Trashumante Barra De Café Ambulante Ambigú Trashumante Barra De Café Ambulante, Augusto Martin Rivero

Master's Projects and Capstones

Ambigú Trashumante Barra de Café Ambulante is an applied research project which took shape over the course of a calendar year from May 2022-2023. A six-person team evolved including the personified project itself, united as one communal entity in collaboration. The project entailed creation of a bicicargo, or cargo bike–useful art becoming a mobile coffee bar and literal vehicle embodying justice through coffee offered freely in México, as facilitated through decolonized ethnography and Mesoamerican Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR). The project’s theoretical framework centers on Bruguera’s (2012) arte útil conceptualization. Five core patterns emerged, including the right to thrive in …

The Role Of African Non-National Storytelling In Challenging Xenophobic Discourses In Post-Apartheid South Africa, Kelly Allyn Cruchett

Master's Theses

A growing body of literature on xenophobic violence in post-apartheid South Africa has shown that this form of violence targeted towards African non-nationals is closely linked to a xenophobic discourse of national chauvinism that has been deployed by powerful institutions since the nation’s independence. This capstone project seeks to highlight the role that non-national storytelling plays in addressing the issue of anti-African xenophobia and xenophobic violence in post-apartheid South Africa by challenging the discourses that contribute to it. Through the analysis of a NGO’s youth summit that revolved around the stories of four non-national speakers, this study examines the impact …

Conflict Of A Nation, And Repatriation In Collapsed States: The Case Of South Sudan, Emmanuel Bakheit

Master's Theses

The purpose of this paper is to intervene in the discourse about South Sudan’s civil war to express and provide insights into the broader reality of South Sudan’s civil war. This is to highlight challenges for democracy, possible interface in the peace process, and repatriation of refugees and resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs). The aim of this paper is, therefore, to transcend the current literature that lacks critical analysis in capturing the true nature of the civil war. South Sudan’s civil war has been portrayed as a conflict of two tribes, Dinka and Nuer. This is the imprecise politics …

Tall Tales Of Danger And Security: How A Critical Human Security Approach Can Address Major Contradictions Revealed Through A Critical Narrative Analysis Of Dominant U.S. Security Strategies, Stephen Schneider

Master's Theses

Over many generations, humans have developed many perspectives and practices regarding the best ways to recognize and address what they perceive to be dangerous. Stories are used to help shape and narrate perceptions about the world, and they serve to pass on vital information that impacts how a society responds to threats and vulnerabilities. These narratives of danger and security are subjective to the experiences and political intentions of society, and therefore in many ways are partial and biased in their assessments and policies. This results in flawed security practices that may actually exacerbate threats or create new insecurities. What …

Security Dilemma In U.S.-China Relations: A Non-Traditional Security Studies Perspective, Jessica Tran

Master's Theses

Since Former President Barack Obama’s announcement of the Pacific Pivot in 2011, the security dilemma in U.S.-China relations have worsened considerably. Under President Donald Trump’s administration, the shifting of U.S. military focus to the Asia-Pacific region is expected to continue. As the U.S. moves forward with increasing its military presence in the Pacific to counter a perceived “aggressive” China, it may lead to serious consequences. This thesis presents the argument that China’s conception of national security includes the defense of the state from both foreign and domestic threats. Therefore, China’s military developments and policies are not strictly in response to …

Peace Education In Kenya: Tracing Discourse And Action From The National To The Local Level, Kathleen Louise Zanoni

Doctoral Dissertations

Recent Presidential elections in Kenya (2017) resulted in a contested re-run election and demonstrated the presence of systemic corruption, a culture of impunity, and a continued rift among civil society. Deep wounds were awakened during this recent election triggering past grievances from the post-election violence in 2007-08. It is critical and timely to explore various cross-sectoral peacebuilding approaches at the national and local levels to increase the capacity of individuals to act as agents of peace. However, peacebuilders often overlook the possibilities that exist within formal education to foster spaces of resistance against direct, structural, and cultural forms of violence. …

Critical Peace Pedagogies At The American Center For Civil And Human Rights And The Canadian Museum For Human Rights: A Comparative Case Study, Ion Vlad

Doctoral Dissertations

The struggle for racial equity in the United States and Canada is ongoing. Troubled historical legacies in both countries have present-day implications. African Americans and Indigenous Canadians are still two of the most marginalized populations from the standpoint of socioeconomics and political representation (Giroux, 2013; Vickers, 2012). In order to redress these problems, human rights and peace education have to pose structural questions and expose systemic unbalances. In the recent past, neoliberalism has had a major influence on the organization and content of American and Canadian formal education, obscuring some of these structural questions (Ravitch, 2013). In this context, human …

San Francisco's Response To Sexual Assault: Pathways To Creating A Survivor-Centered Criminal Justice System, Bianca Rosen

Master's Projects and Capstones

This research examines the process when adult sexual assault survivors in San Francisco decide to pursue legal justice and how survivors experience the local criminal justice system. My analysis exposes the mistreatment of survivors who participate with local law enforcement and recommends survivor-centered policies that could support the wellbeing of survivors pressing charges. The purpose of this research is to encourage law enforcement practices that prioritize survivors’ self-determination and welfare.

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.

A Place To Call Home: The Acceptance And Denial Of Burmese Refugees, Alexandra Craig

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

For more than 25 years Burma has been experiencing a refugee crisis due to the military government’s excessive human rights violations. The argument for not accepting refugees often prioritizes the economic troubles that a country can face when taking care of refugees. Meanwhile, those who prioritize humanitarianism often appeal to human morals and argue that refugees should be accepted wherever they need to in order to be safe. This project ultimately focuses on whether Burmese refugees should be accepted into the surrounding countries or if countries should be able to deny refuge within their borders.

Into The Red: A Look Into The Reasons Why Refugees Decide To Flee, Settle Or Migrate To And From Morocco, Fadeelah E. Holivay

Master's Theses

This research paper explores some of the main reasons why refugees and asylum seekers, particularly from sub-Saharan African countries, embark on a journey and decide to settle, flee or migrate to and from Morocco. Because of this phenomenon, Morocco has seen a 96% increase of refugees migrating to the borders of Morocco each year for the past three years. Many say that this astonishing increase of migrants choosing Morocco is due to such factors as: wars breaking out regionally across central African and Middle Eastern countries causing them to flee; Morocco being a culturaly diverse francophone country whose laws and …

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 …

Improv To Improve Interprofessional Communication, Team Building, Patient Safety, And Patient Satisfaction, Candace A. Campbell

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Projects

The purpose of this process improvement project was to implement a test of change within a healthcare team utilizing applied improvisational exercises (AIEs), and to lay the groundwork for more effective inter- and intra-professional communication.

Literature review: AIEs have been shown to facilitate individual participant communication strengths through a process of un-learning certain common behavioral habits, and learning new habits that assist in creating and expanding closed-loop communication. Such un-learning and learning enriches the participant’s awareness of the environment and encourages participant adaptability through positive group interactions.

Method: An all-day AIE seminar/workshop was conducted with members of two healthcare teams …

American Peace Movement Organizations: The 1988 And 1992 Surveys, Mary Anna Culleton Colwell, Doug Bond

Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

This is the definitive description of the 1988 Survey of Groups and Organizations Working for Peace and the 1992 follow-up of the peace movement organizations which responded in 1988. We discuss American peace movement organizations and the origins and history of the research effort in Part One along with a brief review of some of the theoretical considerations underlying this process.

In Part Two we explain the survey methods and procedures including details on the stratified sample selection, questionnaire development, survey procedures in 1988 and 1992 and response rates. The 1992 effort, especially, was the product of a …

Organizational And Management Characteristics Of Peace Groups, Mary Anna Culleton Colwell

Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The contemporary American peace movement is a mixture of many small and a few large organizations pursuing a wide range of goals. There has been almost no organizational research focused on these peace movement organizations (PMOs) or detailed studies of the goals, values, and activities of a large sample of PMOs.

The activity of these varied PMOs has had limited impact on public policy. Some authors cite the strength of external forces or the conservative American political culture as the key factors in this relative lack of success. There are few facts with which to evaluate these or …