International and Area Studies Commons^™

Through The Looking Glass: Finding And Freeing Modern-Day Slaves At The State Level, Michelle L. Rickert

Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article delves into the interaction between federal and state laws prohibiting human trafficking. The article advocates for comprehensive human trafficking laws at the state level, including police training, victim aftercare, forfeiture, and prosecution as essential elements. It looks comprehensively at the existing state laws prohibiting human trafficking. Additionally it examines the five existing models for state law and suggests benefits and potential improvements for each model. The article concludes y advocating a holistic law prohibiting human trafficking in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Spy High: The Secret Of Secret Russian Agents, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

The author discusses Russian spying the United States, the psychology of espionage, and how spying as such may be part of the human condition.

Peer Helpers: Bridging The Gap Between The Student Community And The University’S Counseling Service, Timothy Hsi, Ada Yee Lin Chung

Research Collection Dean of Students Office

Students helping students as a concept is widely used in colleges and universities across the United States and Canada. One study observed that up to 78% of these educational institutions employed University and College students as peer helpers, educators and para-professionals in support of various programs (Klein, Sondag & Drolet, 1994). Since 2003, the Singapore Management University’s (SMU) Centre for Counseling and Guidance (CCG) have actively promoted, trained and developed undergraduates to serve alongside the counselors as Peer Helpers. This is part of the overarching strategy of the Centre to build an "Emotional Safety Net" across the entire student community …

Jim Butterfield, Nate Coe

International Faculty Researchers

Post-Cold War Russia has provided WMU political science professor Dr. Jim Butterfield with an exceptional model for conducting research on transition environments and the role civic initiative plays in defining the public agenda and addressing collective action dilemmas.

Jim Butterfield's website

Wmu International News Summer 2010, Haenicke Institute For Global Education

WMU International News

In this issue:

Confucius Institute brings new Chinese Instruction and Research Collection to Waldo Library

Haenicke Institute announces new website section: About Dr. Haenicke

Russian politics a “moving target” for WMU Fulbright scholar

Two WMU global studies alumni receive awards study international policy at Monterey Institute

Alternative spring break: D.C. draws international students

Food, fashion and culture featured at 2010 International Festival

Hollywood in the limelight at the 2010 International Ball

Chinese language skills net career opportunities for study abroad alumna

WMU music professor discovers database of rare Russian viola sonatas

Economic Development, Religion, And The Conditions For Domestic Terrorism, Brandon M. Boylan

Josef Korbel Journal of Advanced International Studies

This study examines the conditions that facilitate domestic terrorism. Research on domestic terrorism has been sparse in comparison to studies that examine terrorism as a general phenomenon and transnational terrorism in particular. Most researchers find that a country’s level of economic development and religious composition do not help explain its experience with terrorism. I examine if these claims apply to terrorist activity at the domestic level to explore the extent to which domestic terrorism differs from other forms of terrorism. Specifically, I employ a negative binomial regression model with time-series, cross-sectional (TSCS) data in order to observe if economic development …

The Importance Of Ecological Security For Protective Security: A Case Study Of Northern China And The Impact Of Water Scarcity On Food Security, Molly A. Walton

Josef Korbel Journal of Advanced International Studies

China’s surging growth rate of nearly 10% over the past 20 years has accelerated the nation to the forefront of the global economy. However, this growth has been predicated upon the destruction and depletion of the natural environment. Consequently, China is beginning to experience the deterioration of its ecological capital, particularly in regards to its water supply. This paper seeks to evaluate the impact of water scarcity in Northern China on the Chinese Communist Party’s policy of food self-sufficiency by utilizing the protective security component of Amartya Sen’s development as freedom framework. It is argued that ecological security is a …

Pathways To Interstate War: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis Of The Steps-To-War Theory, Brandon Valeriano, Victor Marin

Josef Korbel Journal of Advanced International Studies

The steps-to-war theory (Vasquez 1993) suggests that war is brought on by a series of steps that increase hostility and then make the issues under contention more intractable. Power politics strategies, including coercion in the face of territorial disputes, rivalry, hardliners in power, alliances, and arms races, are all important steps to war. This paper utilizes the steps-to-war theory using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). With this method, we can observe differing pathways to war, rather than the correlations associated with war. This research also represents the first attempt to classify domestic leaders according to type as suggested by existing theory. …

Tan Ah Choon: The Singapore ‘King Of Spirit Mediums’ (1928-2010), Margaret Chan, Victor Yue

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

On 27 January 2010 Tan Ah CHOON died at the age of 82. Born in the year of the dragon (1928), Tan was the most respected spirit-medium among his peers. He became a tangki (童乩 tongji ‘child diviner’ or Chinese spirit-medium) just before the 1950s, and by the 1960s was regarded as the wisest, most powerful spirit-medium in the Singapore tangki community so that he was nicknamed “Tangki Ong” (童乩王), the “Tangki King”.Mr Tan was “caught” by deities to become a spirit medium when he was aged about 21 years. This was just after the Second World War, but Tan’s …

Nationalizing International Theory: Race, Class And The English School, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Much work has been done to deconstruct the links between knowledge and power in IR as "an American Social Science". This topic has arisen again with the re- launching of the English School of IR Theory in 2001. This essay argues that although the English School is critical of the power-knowledge dynamic, it actually exacerbates the problem by deliberately "nationalising" international theory. The essay traces the emergence and logic of the English School and its key concept "International Society". It argues that the English School is tied not only to national identity but to the rules of European Empire. Using …

China's Grand Strategy In A Post-Western World, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A number of different visions of China’s future as a leading world power are competing for public attention and influence. Among them are populist ideas that challenge Beijing’s official rhetoric about “building a harmonious world”, says William A Callahan.

Reforming China's State-Owned Farms: State Farms In Agrarian Transition, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

China’s 2000 strong state-owned farms are experiencing a dual transition in the country’s economic reforms: the market transition (from state-owned enterprises embedded in the redistributive system to independent enterprises in the new market economy) and agrarian transition (from small-scale, household-based agriculture to large-scale, capitalist forms of agriculture that rely on market exchanges of land, labor and products). This paper highlights the results of a comparative analysis of the state farms and rural farming households in the agrarian transition to address the theoretical debate about agrarian transition. Using field research data from state farms in HeilongJIANG Province and drawing extensively from …

Mir Talks To Vinita Bali, Managing Director And Ceo Of Britannia Industries, Srinivas K. Reddy

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Today we live in a truly global economy, no matter whether we talk about goods, services or manpower. Whereas economic growth rates in Europe and North America remain moderate, many Asian countries are booming despite last year´s economic downturn. This is reason enough for MIR to take a closer look at one of the rising stars: India. In June 2010, MIR talked to Vinita Bali, one of the few female CEOs of leading companies, who has worked in influential marketing positions on five continents. In describing how Britannia, one of the most famous Indian brands, handles everyday business and marketing …

How Predictable Is The Chinese Stock Market?, Fuwei Jiang, David E. Rapach, Jack K. Strauss, Jun Tu

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We analyze return predictability for the Chinese stock market, including the aggregate market portfolio and the components of the aggregate market, such as portfolios sorted on industry, size, book-to-market and ownership concentration. Considering a variety of economic variables as predictors, both in-sample and out-of-sample tests highlight significant predictability in the aggregate market portfolio of the Chinese stock market and substantial differences in return predictability across components. Among industry portfolios, Finance and insurance, Real estate, and Service exhibit the most predictability, while portfolios of small-cap and low ownership concentration firms also display considerable predictability. Two key findings provide economic explanations for …

Report Of The Law Reform Committee On Online Gaming And Singapore, Joyce A. Tan, Aqbal Singh, Yee Fen Lim, Wai Yee Wan, Warren B. Chik,

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The terms “gaming” and “gambling” are fairly wide and they refer to a wide range of activities. Traditionally, the term “gambling” has been used to cover lotteries, wagers and casino-style games. “Gaming” has also been used traditionally in some literature to cover not only activities involving gambling but also games of skill or games predominantly of skill. However, in recent times, certain jurisdictions such as the United States (“US”) and Australia have drawn a distinction between “online gaming” and “online gambling”. The former is used to refer to games played in an online environment which do not have the elements …

The Challenges For Asian Jurisdictions In The Development Of International Criminal Justice, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The paper reviews the different frameworks for international criminal justice in which China’s influence can be measured, or should be present, looking specifically at procedural traditions on which international criminal law and its jurisprudence are said to be based. Understanding China as a transitional hybrid criminal justice model undergoing radical transformation in its justice delivery and discourse, it is argued, assists significantly in forecasting where the synthesis of international criminal procedure may be heading. Attached to a re-interpretation and critique of individualised liability is the unpacking of China’s in principle commitment to communitarian rights and social protection as a foundation …

Cooperative Strategies On Parallel Tracks: The Nepad And Agoa Initiatives, Guelmbaye Ngarsandje

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

In July 2001, at the 37th of the former Organization of African Unity, African heads of states launched the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), a combination of the Omega Plan from Abdoulaye Wade and The Millennium African Renaissance Partnership initiated by Thabo Mbeki, respectively presidents of Senegal and South Africa. This was an achievement of tasks given by their peers in Algiers in 1999. Previously to that, the Clinton administration initiated the African Growth and Opportunity Act passed in law in 1998. Though the two programs aim at African development, they did not take in account each other.

This …

Labor Force And Economic Changes In Cuba, Pavel Vidal Alejandro, Omar Everleny Perez Villanueva, Mario A. Gonzalez-Corzo

Publications and Research

In November 2010, the Cuban government published a 32-page document called “Lineamientos De La Política Económica y Social” [“Guidelines of Economic and Social Policies], which outlines the economic transformations approved in the Sixth Communist Party Congress last April 2011. The guidelines presented in this document expand the economic changes initiated by Raúl Castro in 2008. One of the major changes that already began is the transfer of State workers to the (emerging) private sector. This is the most transformative labor oriented economic adjustment implemented in Cuba so far and is a clear indicator of Cuba’s movement towards a …

Aiding And Abetting: Human Rights Ingos And Domestic Protest, Amanda Murdie, Tavishi Bhasin

Faculty Articles

This article studies the effects of human rights international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) on domestic antigovernment protest. Unlike mainstream scholarship, the authors argue that human rights INGOs are not simply the magic bullet in orchestrating nonviolent protests; different types of human rights INGO activity have varying effects on protest. Moreover, some human rights INGO activities may lead to higher levels of violent protest. The empirical tests use new data on the activities of over 400 human rights INGOs and domestic nonviolent and violent protest globally from 1991 to 2004. The authors find that increases in human rights INGO activities reflecting a …

Oral History Interview With Roberto Mariano: Conceptualising Smu, Roberto S. Mariano

Oral History Collection

The interview covered: first involvement with SMU, founding dean for School of Economics, vision, curriculum, faculty development, faculty recruitment, research, pioneer students, postgraduate programmes, challenges.

Biography:

Dean, SMU School of Economics, 2007–2010
Founding Dean, School of Economics and Social Science, SMU, 2002–2007

Professor Roberto S Mariano was appointed as dean of the new School of Economics and Social Sciences in 2002. He oversaw the intake of the inaugural classes of the economics and social science bachelors programmes in 2002 and 2004 respectively, and also served as the vice provost of research and deputy director of the Wharton-SMU Research Centre. His …