International Relations Commons^™

Racist Securitization Of Refugees, Syrian Refugees In Lebanon: A Case Study, Hind Alhelou

Theses and Dissertations

With the growing rates of involuntary (forced) migration and even traditional migration (movement from one country to another in search of work opportunities, better lifestyle, study, etc.); the movement of these bodies raises their vulnerability to be constructed as threats. The same threat they are fleeing from is being attached to them as they attempt to seek security elsewhere. This intersection of migration and securitization studies especially emerged because of the interconnectedness of the world that is majorly facilitated by globalization.

Within this context, this thesis examines how Syrian refugees in Lebanon are racialized because of a securitization process perpetuated …

Weakening Of The Nation-State By Climate Change: Water Weaponization By Isil, Annika Cole

Dartmouth Undergraduate Journal of Politics, Economics and World Affairs

Climate change is quickly becoming one of the biggest threats faced by the international community and has the capacity to greatly impact global security. The relationship between climate change and conflict is still unraveling; however, worsening climatic events have contributed to political instability around the world. As climate change implications become more apparent, water is less abundant due to worsening droughts and less precipitation, allowing it to become a target for groups seeking to control territory or populations. This paper examines the impact of climate change in shifting the power dynamic between states and violent non-state actors within their borders. …

Scratch A Desert, Produce A Garden: The American Failure To Facilitate A Two-State Solution, Sophie Myers Concannon

University Honors Theses

A majority of Americans support a two-state solution with an independent Palestinian state for the first time since 2012, according to Gallup polling data from February 2020. In February 2021, Gallup found that the majority was maintained at 52%, indicating a momentous shift in American public opinion. Through careful examination of the historical precedent between the United States and Israel, culminating in a shared American-Israeli narrative that has permeated public opinion for decades, I investigate why this shift has occurred, as well as why this shift has not been reflected in foreign policy objectives and party platforms.

True Leadership Would See Trudeau Attend Nato Summit Virtually As Canadians Await Covid-19 Vaccines, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

The text provided highlights criticism of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's attendance at the NATO summit amidst ongoing domestic vaccination efforts. Drawing on the leadership example of Ernest Shackleton, it argues for prioritizing national COVID-19 vaccinations over international summitry. The piece critiques NATO's perceived symbolic nature and lack of substantive debate, contrasting it with Shackleton's leadership style during adversity. It advocates for global vaccine equity and questions the necessity of Trudeau's summit attendance amid completed negotiations.

Financial And Trade Relationships Between The Eurozone And China In The Age Of Resilience, Alessandro Del Ponte, Paolo Canofari, Audrey De Dominicis

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

How did the financial and trade ties between China and the Eurozone develop in the aftermath of the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis? We analyze these trends until the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. Using data from the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), we examine the financial and trade dynamics between the two currency areas and analyze the related risks and opportunities. The data point to several patterns. We find that financial volatility in China has been substantially greater than in the Eurozone. Even so, the largest and strongest Eurozone economies – France and Germany- …

Media Analysis Of Conflict In Chinese-Zambian Engagement: From Zaffico To The Covid-19 Discrimination Controversy, Nicole Mazurova, Pokai Tsao, Taurence Chisholm Jr.

Southern African Journal of Policy and Development

This paper examines the role media plays in polarising views and escalating tension. The cases studied reflect the competing perspectives on Chinese engagement in Zambia, from the courtship of Chinese investment to rising anti-Chinese sentiment. Based on a comparative media analysis of English and Mandarin news articles about the ZAFFICO and COVID-19 discrimination controversies, we argue that the multi-layered polarisation in Zambia’s media landscape amplifies existing identity-conflicts. Framing—the tone, word choice, and selection of detail—in articles changes with the positionality of the media outlet and shapes the discourse around the cases. Sensationalisation, misinformation, and divergent frames contribute to conflict between …

The Second Kashmir (Informational) War Of 1965, Navdip Hans

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The Second Kashmir (Informational) War of 1965 considers that Pakistan over-optimistically assessed information prior to the onset of hostilities with India. This thesis posits that information released from significant battlefield events quickly dispelled Pakistan's optimism which led to an accurate updating of beliefs and expectations. This resulted in a downward revision of demands by Pakistan to convergence with India resulting in settlement ending the war.

The Compressed Modernity Of Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage In Taiwan: Digital Activism, Human Rights Discourse, And Intertwined Sexual, Political And National Identities, Jyun-Jie Yang

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In 2019, Taiwan became the first Asian country to officially legalize same-sex marriage. Remarkably, the Taiwanese queer movement achieved the goal of marriage equality in only 30 years, with the first tongzhi (同志) activist group organized in 1990. Compared to Euro-American social movements, Taiwanese tongzhi activism has experienced a “compressed modernity” (Chang, 1999, 2010a, 2010b), which accelerates cultural and social transformations. Although Taiwanese academia has been significantly influenced by queer studies as a form of western knowledge production, local scholars and activists created a new interpretation from “queer” to “tongzhi.” Entangled with complex political identifications in post-martial-law Taiwan, …

Victims To Victors: Women Reclaiming Conflict Management In Sub-Saharan Africa, Joy N. Ballard

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Women in sub-Saharan Africa are often viewed as the victims of the conflict around them. This view discredits the hundreds of women who are serving in legislative and executive branches across the region. This research investigates if women in positions of power make more peaceful decisions in times of conflict than their male counterparts. Using negative binomial regression methods this research examines the percentages of women in legislative and executive branches to number of conflict days in a year and number of peace agreements signed. This study found that as the percentage of women in office rise the number of …

Gender Inequality And Terrorism: The Impacts Of Female Empowerment On Domestic And Transnational Terrorism, Jennifer Dumas

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

In the post-9/11 years, terrorism has emerged as an urgent issue with important national security and foreign policy ramifications. Within political science, terrorism research has likewise developed as a burgeoning subfield with the potential for significant contributions to policymaking worldwide. However, the literature has until recently generally neglected gender inequality as a structural antecedent to terrorism, despite studies which support a relationship between gender parity and conflict mitigation in other areas as well as increasing calls for the integration of gender measures into counterterrorism agendas and initiatives among scholars and policymakers. To address this gap in the literature, I introduce …

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.

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 …

Authoritarianism And The Rentier State - Venezuela And Nigeria, Victoria Zobeida Castillo

Senior Theses

The oil states scattered throughout the developing world are no more democratic or peaceful than they were at the beginning of the twentieth century's natural resource era. In fact, some countries are worse, tainted by civil unrest, plummeting per capita income, and rising inflation. These socioeconomic ailments are often referred to as the Resource Curse or Dutch Disease. Mineral wealth, however, should not be confused with the dangers of sole oil wealth. The oil states are significantly more likely to be governed by authoritarian leaders. The irony of oil's unusual properties of fluctuating prices and secretive contracts do not solely …

Bridging The Realms Between Cyber And Physical: Approaching Cyberspace With An Interdisciplinary Lens, Lena Andrea Rose

Senior Theses

This project investigates the use of cyber technology as a political tool through the investigation of the following case studies: (1) The Sony Pictures Hack in the United States in 2014, (2) The Qatari News Hack in 2017, and (3) China’s enactment of the Hong Kong National Security Law in 2020. These three case studies depict that rapid technological advancement has led to greater cyber warfare between state powers. The Sony Hack examines political coercion, the Qatari Hack examines disinformation, and the Hong Kong National Security Law examines surveillance and suppression of opposition. As a result of an increasingly complicated …

The Role Of International Factors In Electoral Volatility In Latin America: An Examination Of Structural Adjustment, Michelle Kuenzi, Hafthor Erlingsson, John P. Tuman

Political Science Faculty Research

Does structural adjustment increase party system instability in Latin America? We employ the Latin American Presidential and Legislative Elections (LAPALE) database (http://www.lapaledata.com) and our own original data set for structural adjustment to assess the effects of structural adjustment and other economic, social, and political variables on legislative volatility in 18 Latin American countries during the period of 1982 to 2016. The results of our study indicate that structural adjustment results in higher levels of within-system electoral volatility and support a broad version of economic voting theory. Extra-system electoral volatility is driven primarily by institutional and demographic factors. Our findings also …

The Effect Of International Level Covid-19 Stay-At-Home Orders On Death Rates, Valeriia Manchak, Annalisa Stoll, Kyle Conniff

Helm's School of Government Conference - 2021-2024

In this paper, we document and compare data gathered from more than 50 countries with different demographic characteristics, lockdown policies, health systems, and different varying timelines to combat COVID-19. After discussing the variables and their impact on the mortality numbers, we will make a recommendation concerning the different lockdown policies for future use. The main objective of this paper is to investigate connections between government policies, population age, age density, smoking rate, IQ air pollution, forms of greeting, death rate, obesity/health index, mean age, face coverings, contact tracing, international travel control level, etc. and how these independent variables might affect …

The Role Of Nations-State In Protecting And Supporting Internally Displaced Persons, Daisy Byers

Master's Theses

The rising increase of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) has become a global problem. There are over 40 million internally displaced people globally, and 15.9 million are displaced in Africa. These displacements come into place due to war/conflict, corruption, massive human rights violations, natural disasters, urban renewal projects (at the hands of powerful nations such as America, China, France, UK, etc.), and large-scale development projects. According to UNHCR, refugees are people who have international cross-border. In contrast, internally displaced persons must stay within their own country and stay under the protection of their government, even if the government is the reason …

The European Union: Data Protection For Economic Competition And Regional Security, Matthew D. Wurst

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

The collection and use of personal data is being increasingly scrutinized by governments and the European Union (EU) has been attempting to handle the development of data protection based progressive protections to protect its citizens data and right to privacy. With the reemergence of Russia in challenging the state of affairs within Europe, their illegal seizure of the Crimea from Ukraine demonstrated the lengths Russia will go to in order to preserve its sphere of influence. Furthermore, Russia’s use of cyber tactics and hybrid warfare has caused many in Europe to become more concerned for their security. When viewed through …

A Tale Of Two Biennales: How Contemporary Art In Italy Reflects Current European Politics, Hannah Rosabel Capucilli-Shatan

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

An Inferentially Robust Look At Two Competing Explanations For The Surge In Unauthorized Migration From Central America, Nick Santos

Dissertations

The last 8 years have seen a dramatic increase in the flow of Central American apprehensions by the U.S. Border Patrol. Explanations for this surge in apprehensions have been split between two leading hypotheses. Most academic scholars, immigrant advocates, progressive media outlets, and human rights organizations identify poverty and violence (the Poverty and Violence Hypothesis) in Central America as the primary triggers responsible. In contrast, while most government officials, conservative think tanks, and the agencies that work in the immigration and border enforcement realm admit poverty and violence may underlie some decisions to migrate, they instead blame lax U.S. immigration …