International Relations Commons^™

More Lessons Learned From The Holocaust - Towards A Complexity-Embracing Approach To Why Genocide Occurs, Timothy Williams

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Why do genocides occur? This paper applies qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) to revisit this question, and analyses 139 cases of genocide and non-genocide. The paper demonstrates the importance of both priming, contextual conditions which provide a political opportunity structure conducive to genocide, as well as triggering, more proximate conditions which constitute immanent motivations. Most centrally, sufficiency is demonstrated for genocide occurrence when an autocratic regime and the salience of an elite's ethnicity are present, and are combined with either an exclusionary ideology or political upheaval. As such, the autocratic nature of the state provides an opportunity structure allowing genocide to …

Book Review: The Structural Prevention Of Mass Atrocities: Understanding Risk And Resilience, Rhiannon S. Neilsen

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Scholarship on the structural prevention of genocide and mass atrocities is, for the most part, saturated with identifying the ‘root causes’ of deadly violence. Conversely, the causes of peace and the processes that de-escalate tensions – in effect, “what goes right” – remain comparatively under researched. In his book The Structural Prevention of Mass Atrocities, Stephen McLoughlin contends that positioning prevention simply on identifying and ameliorating risk factors erroneously assumes a linear inevitability between cause and outcome, and thus “fails to explain why some at-risk countries experience mass atrocities, yet others do not” (3). McLoughlin convincingly advocates an …

The Mysterious Case Of The Islamic State Organization (Iso) Smiling Martyr--Solved, Paul Kamolnick

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: For a mere Muslim mortal, Allah’s granting of martyrdom (Shahada) is the pinnacle of spiritual achievement. The martyr (Shahid) is granted unique privileges among which are the right to bypass the moral interrogation meted out to determine after death whether one is spiritually fit; the complete freedom from all anguish, pain, and suffering caused by one’s wounds as one immediately traverses into the highest of seven heavens; the right to intercede and request divine favors on behalf of seventy of one’s loved one’s; the enjoyment of exclusive sexual privileges with seventy-two virgins; and finally, …

Ong Keng Yong [Singapore, Ministry Of Foreign Affairs, Civil Service], Keng Yong Ong

Digital Narratives of Asia

Ong Keng Yong, a law graduate who worked in MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) specialising in Middle East, recalls his initial years working under S. Rajaratnam, and SR Nathan. Having served as the Secretary General of ASEAN, he shares with DNA the strategic contributions of ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) and AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) to Singapore, highlighting the uniqueness of ASEAN socialisation at the leadership level.

The Prospect Of Democracy: China’S Possibility Of Political Reform, Chase Thomas

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

What factors help or hinder democratization in China? Democracy in China is not an unknown term, but the difficulty of making “democratic” reforms in China has raised the question of if China will democratize. This literature review and analysis will examine the factors, which help or hinder democratization in China through economic and cultural means. By using a literature review as well as reviewing the concepts of democracy and prerequisites thereof, three scenarios for democratization will be determined. Through the use of the information provided in the latter, I predict that while democracy is possible in China, the state will …

Civil Liberties And Rights, Equality And The Quality Of Democracy In Greece, Constantine Danopoulos

Faculty Publications

Good quality democracy is considered one that provides its citizens with a high degree of personal freedom, political equality, and popular control over policies and public officials through the legitimate and lawful functioning of stable institutions. It is assessed through an interrelated and interconnected three dimensional scheme: procedure, content, and result. Procedure refers to the quality of governance and is assessed through the rule of law, participation, competition, and government accountability. Result involves citizen satisfaction with the quality of governance. Content is concerned with two key components: individual liberties and political and social equality. This paper will assess the quality …

The Fallacy Of Nonviolent Economic Sanctions, Andrew Kovach

The Downtown Review: An Interdisciplinary Journal Written and Peer-Reviewed by Mandel Honors College Students at Cleveland State University

The object of this paper is to provide a critical analysis of economic sanctions as weapons which tend to cause violence without effectively providing national defense or regime change. First, by describing the use of sanctions as a tactic of nonviolence and through a brief description of their historical use, it may be determined that sanctions are not as harmless as it may seem. Furthermore, this paper provides greater detail of two important instances of sanctions in U.S. foreign policy involving Iran and Cuba. Finally, through a synthesis of more modern research on the subject, the misperception of effective economic …

On Self-Declared Caliph Ibrahim’S December 2015 Speech: Further Evidence For Critical Vulnerabilities In The Crumbling Caliphate, Paul Kamolnick

ETSU Faculty Works

Excerpt: On December 26, 2015 a 24-minute audio message was released by the Islamic State Organization’s (ISO) official media arm al-Furqan.

Taiwan And Southeast Asia: Opportunities And Constraints Of Continued Engagement, Bo-Jiun Jing

Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies

Over the past three decades, Taiwan has seen continued and expanded engagement with Southeast Asia. In the late 1980s and the early 1990s, under LEE Teng-hui’s presidency, the Republic of China (hereafter, R.O.C. or Taiwan) started to pursue a set of “Go South” policy initiatives to deepen its ties with the member countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), aimed at securing the island’s political and economic interests in the region.

This monograph attempts to analyze Taiwan-ASEAN relations from a variety of perspectives: political development, economic cooperation, and cultural engagement, as well as the related dynamics with mainland …

Externalities Of Capitalism, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Capitalism produces consequences – both good and bad – that are not intended. Strong states are needed to manage them

The Common Discourse Of Islam In America, John J.R. Burger

Op-Ed Pieces

Op Eds, or opinion editorials, are typically published in daily newspapers and can raise awareness about a particular topic or aim to persuade others. For this project each student wrote an op-ed in which they presented their opinion or thoughts about the issue of islamophobic discourse coming from Republican candidates, especially Donald Trump.

If We Have To Wake Up (Would You Stop The Rain?), Dylan C. James

Op-Ed Pieces

Op Eds, or opinion editorials, are typically published in daily newspapers and can raise awareness about a particular topic or aim to persuade others. For this project each student wrote an op-ed in which they presented their opinion or thoughts about the issue of islamophobic discourse coming from Republican candidates, especially Donald Trump.

Leading Trump: Why The United States Shouldn’T Accept The Hand That Has Been Dealt, Dorothy M. Mutum

Op-Ed Pieces

Op Eds, or opinion editorials, are typically published in daily newspapers and can raise awareness about a particular topic or aim to persuade others. For this project each student wrote an op-ed in which they presented their opinion or thoughts about the issue of islamophobic discourse coming from Republican candidates, especially Donald Trump.

All For One And One For All: When We Target Muslims, We All Lose, Samantha G. De Forest-Davis

Op-Ed Pieces

Op Eds, or opinion editorials, are typically published in daily newspapers and can raise awareness about a particular topic or aim to persuade others. For this project each student wrote an op-ed in which they presented their opinion or thoughts about the issue of islamophobic discourse coming from Republican candidates, especially Donald Trump.

Ilhan, Nura, Radwa, Ziagull And Children, Ilhan, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

Ilhan, his wife Nura, and their children resided near Kabul, in a region where both the Taliban and ISIS were active. As Shias, Ilhan’s family faced numerous menaces, including threats from ISIS that they would be beheaded if they did not display ISIS flags. Ilhan’s sister Radwa, who is deaf and mute, was forced to marry a regional leader. In addition to being threatened on religious grounds, Ilhan’s family was also threatened by an elder of their town. Out of desperation, Ilhan’s family sold their house appliances, escaped Afghanistan, and arrived at the …

The Varying Degrees Of Liberalism In Migration And Immigration Policy Within The European Union: Causes, Consequences And Clashes, Paula Hafner

Conspectus Borealis

No abstract provided.

Feminist Theory And The European Refugee Crisis, Maggie Rose

Conspectus Borealis

No abstract provided.

Chinese Soft Power Promotion In The United States: 2005-2014, Martin Daniel Kalfas

Browse all Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on two research questions regarding the impact of economic crises on states' soft power strategies. Specifically, can economic crises lead states to abandon generating soft power within countries affected by the resulting economic changes? And, does a shift away from soft power promotion policies represent a change in a state's foreign policy strategy? To answer these questions, this thesis utilizes a case study focusing on the People's Republic of China (PRC) from 2005 to January 1, 2015, investigating soft power generating efforts by China in the United States before and after the 2007 Financial Crisis. Research into …

Cuba After Fidel: Economic Reform, Political Liberalization And Foreign Policy (2006–2014), Arturo Lopez-Levy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation discussed Cuba's processes of economic reform and political liberalization, and their impact on Cuba's foreign policy's adaptation to the post-Cold War. The first part of the dissertation explains economic reform and political liberalization from the perspective of partial reform equilibrium as a result of the Cuban Communist Party's focus on domestic stability and international legitimacy. The second part of the dissertation focused on Cuba's foreign policy dynamics associated to the domestic reform, the changes in the international system after the end of the Cold War and the asymmetric conflict between Cuba and the United States.

Strange Fruit: Race, Terror, And The War On Terror, Lisa M. Tillmann Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

This poem examines drone warfare as a form of lynching. “Strange Fruit” links the deaths of Pakistani children Zeerak and Maria Khan to the murders of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith, documented in the most infamous lynching photograph in U.S. history.