International Relations Commons^™

The Messy Nuclear Landscape: Using Fuzzy Cognitive Mapping To Explore Plausible Nuclear Disarmament Scenarios, Ryan M. Nixon

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Nuclear weapons are seemingly permanent fixtures in international relations. Although nuclear abolitionists and actors within the Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) have taken significant steps towards designing a world without nuclear weapons, the longstanding realist logic that suggests nuclear disarmament is nonviable has born more fruit. On the other hand, some proponents of realism have suggested global nuclear disarmament is feasible, given that certain international instabilities are stabilized and that special care is taken during diplomatic negotiations. This presents an opportunity to test these predictions using fuzzy cognitive mapping, a computational modeling technique that identifies …

Deterrence Under Nuclear Asymmetry: Thaad And The Prospects For Missile Defense On The Korean Peninsula, Inwook Kim, Soul Park

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The 2016 decision to deploy Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) to South Korea has generated multitude of intensely politicized issues and has proved highly controversial. This has made it challenging to alleviate, let alone clarify, points of analytical and policy tensions. We instead disaggregate and revisit two fundamental questions. One is whether THAAD could really defend South Korea from North Korean missiles. We challenge the conventional “qualified optimism” by giving analytical primacy to three countermeasures available to defeat THAAD–use of decoys, tumbling and spiral motion, and outnumbering. These countermeasures are relatively inexpensive to create but exceedingly difficult to offset. …

The Political Psychology Of Crossroads, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article elaborates on how the construct of crossroads has situated within political psychological discourse.

Syrian Refugee Camps In Jordan: An Assessment, Athena-Rose Jennings

Seaver College Research And Scholarly Achievement Symposium

Syrian Refugee Camps in Jordan: An Assessment explores how and why the Government of Jordan created camps to house its 670,000 Syrian refugees. Examining Jordan’s four Syrian refugee camps, Jennings considers to what extent their different operating models are effective and why. Metrics of camp effectiveness include degree and type of support from non-Government of Jordan humanitarian actors, the availability of education and medical care in the camps, and the degree to which camp residents themselves engage in the camp communities. She posits that using the camp model affords Jordan greater internal security, and influence over refugee matters internationally by …

Arctic Security: The Race For The Arctic Through The Prism Of International Relations Theory, Michael Gregory Morgan Trujillo

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the thesis is to examine future international relations in the Arctic as a theoretical exercise based on realism and liberalism. As the ice cap shrinks, and the region's environment changes, developing costs will decrease allowing for resource-extraction while new transit routes emerge. The opportunities to develop resources and ship via the Arctic are economic and strategically valuable, altering the geopolitics of the region. This thesis seeks to explore how resource development and new transit routes will affect regional politics through the lens of two theories. The two theoretical approaches will examine states and actors' interests and possible …

Redline Erased: U.S. Foreign Policy In Syria And The Criteria For Humanitarian Intervention, Caroline A. Kernan

Theses and Dissertations

The United States’ involvement in the Syrian conflict remains rather contentious and unclear. The world is currently experiencing the worst refugee crisis since World War II due to the ongoing Syrian conflict which has produced approximately 6 million refugees. The United States’ actions in the Syrian conflict may have prolonged this refugee crisis by refusing to take a more hardline stance in the conflict against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime. While the United States has acted in Syria, it is much more limited in comparison to that of the recent Libyan intervention. The Libyan intervention serves as a basis for …

China’S Quantum Quandary, Elsa B. Kania

Military Cyber Affairs

No abstract provided.

A Political Psychology Of Obituary, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article ascribes political psychological relevance to the recent death of Russian critic and documentarian Maya Turovskaya.

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 …

New Terrorism In New Zealand? The Psychology Of Censorship, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article describes the essentialness of information transmission for terrorism and some psychological findings on related censorship.

Coming And Going: Identity, Institutions, And The United Kingdom's Resistance To The European Union, Lauren Bruning

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In 2016, the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, a decision widely known as ‘Brexit’. This analysis compares two competing theories – institution and identity – to explain why. Four historical events, chronologically ordered from 1945 to 2016, are examined with both identity and institution analysis to explain British integration and its subsequent withdrawal from the European Union. Through this analysis, one can conclude the United Kingdom’s decision to withdraw in 2016 stemmed from a variety of reasons, but each of these can be explained by identity (a sense of nationalism), or institution (EU relationships).

Nationalism around …

Games, Movies, And Zombies: Making Ir Fun For Everyone, Shawna M. Brandle

Publications and Research

Throwing as much fun and pop culture into an international relations class as possible, with the goal of improving student learning (and the likelihood of the course running again). Games proved most effective, while movies were less useful in increasing student learning on international relations.

Popular Culture And The Psychology Of The Insider Threat, Ibpp Editor

International Bulletin of Political Psychology

This article illustrates an identification between pop culture and an important intelligence, law enforcement, and security issue.

Shamshur, Shamshur, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Shamshur has been in Cox’s Bazaar for 8 months and works in Hope Hospital (the camp hospital) as a traditional birth attendant. In addition, she makes house calls to pregnant women throughout the camp who are fearful of hospitals due to past trauma and sexual torture. Shamshur has nine children and a husband who is in prison.

Modina, Modina, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Modina fled Myanmar after experiencing and witnessing extreme violence, including the destruction of her village and the violent murder of her uncle by soldiers. She arrived in Bangladesh by boat after paying smugglers a large sum.

Nidar, Nidar, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Nidar has been in Cox’s Bazaar for 8 months and works in Hope Hospital (the camp hospital) as a traditional birth attendant. In addition, she makes house calls to pregnant women throughout the camp who are fearful of hospitals due to past trauma and sexual torture. Nidar has two children and a husband who fell victim to war.

Asma, Asma, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Asma is a teenager who fled from Myanmar after the army killed her uncle and her village was destroyed. She is now living in Cox’s Bazaar, married, pregnant, and trying to cope in a world where violence and rape are all too common.

An Exploration Of Iranian Use Of Gray Zones And Their Deterrence, Lauren Zimmerman, Amanda Urick

UNO Student Research and Creative Activity Fair

Iran, being the religious minority in the Middle East, has begun to extend its reach outside of its borders by influencing the stability of other states within the region. They have been utilizing their economic revenue to fund terrorist organizations and cyber capabilities to threaten free use of the internet in the Middle East. Iran is the world's most active state sponsor of terrorism, but how do we deter them? Our paper will explore the history of deterring Iran and future possibilities.

Shobika, Shobika, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Shobika escaped Myanmar amid widespread chaos. After being separated from her husband and experiencing the kidnap of her two children, she was raped by soldiers and became pregnant. Her husband now rejects this child.

Public Interest Litigation & Women’S Rights: Cases From Nepal & India, Jordan E. Stevenson

2019 Symposium

As a complex, diverse and dynamic region with diverging, constantly changing constitutional and jurisprudential contexts as well as lasting legacies of patriarchy, South Asia’s traditions of public interest litigation are one of the most well-studied institutions by Western audiences due to their contradictory progressive and innovative nature. Particularly in India, where public interest litigation gives ordinary citizens extraordinary access to the highest courts of justice, questions have been raised as to the effectiveness of public interest litigation as a tool to address gender disparities across the region. Although Supreme Court justices have been a key ally in eliminating legal barriers …