International Relations Commons^™

Cacophony Or Empowerment? : Analyzing The Impact Of New Information Communication Technologies And New Social Media In Southeast Asia., Jason P. Abbott

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

The capabilities, tools and websites we associate with new information communication technologies and social media are now ubiquitous. Moreover tools that were designed to facilitate innocuous conversation and social interaction have had unforeseen political impacts. Nowhere was this more visible than during the 2011 uprisings across the Arab World. From Tunis to Cairo, and Tripoli to Damascus protest movements against authoritarian rule openly utilized social networking and file sharing tools to publicize and organize demonstrations and to catalogue human rights abuses. The Arab Spring, or Jasmine Revolution, was an event that was both witnessed and played out in real time …

An Interactive Assessment Of Democracy: Economic And Cultural Determinants Of Democratic Development, Won Ha Reyes Gonzalez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

As democracy has become a popular form of governance, questions as to how to best develop democracies have been raised. Theories based on economic and cultural development have separately provided the academic community with interesting findings. However, theories based on economic determinants and cultural determinants give results that do not answer the question of how to develop democracies in a thoroughly satisfying manner, when approaching the question separately. This thesis tests the two methods separately and then integrates the two methods using interaction terms. By doing this we can see if economic development leads to democratic development, if cultural development …

The Impact Of Development On Terrorist Activity: Does Development Decrease Terrorism?, Mark Daube

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examines the relationship between the level of development in a country and the likelihood of terrorism incidents occurring in that country. The central argument of this paper is that the level of development of a country has a curvilinear impact in the shape of an inverted-U on the likelihood of terrorist activity. This paper used a negative binomial regression in order to analyze 119 countries from 1675 to 2000. The empirical results indicate that there is support for the hypotheses of this thesis and that there is a statistically significant relationship in the shape of an inverted-U between …

Indigenous Political Participation: The Key To Rights Realization In The Andes, Stephanie Selekman

Human Rights & Human Welfare

"There is no way back, this is our time, the awakening of the indigenous people. We'll keep fighting till the end. Brother Evo Morales still has lots to do, one cannot think that four years are enough after 500 years of submission and oppression,” said Fidel Surco, a prominent indigenous leader, reflecting on Bolivia’s first indigenous president entering his second term (Carroll & Schipani 2009).

The Andean region is particularly appropriate for examining indigenous political rights because 34-40 million indigenous people reside mostly in this region. The actualization of human rights for Andean indigenous groups is an inherently complex issue, …

Kimberly Lanegran On Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone’S Revolutionary United Front. By Myriam Denov. Cambridge, Uk: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 234 Pp., Kimberly Lanegran

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Child Soldiers: Sierra Leone’s Revolutionary United Front. By Myriam Denov. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. 2010. 234 pp.

Steven M. Schneebaum On The Death Penalty And Human Rights. By Sir Fred Phillips. Q.C. Kingston, Jamaica: Caribbean Law Publishing Company. 2009. 101pp., Steven M. Schneebaum

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Death Penalty and Human Rights. By Sir Fred Phillips. Q.C. Kingston, Jamaica: Caribbean Law Publishing Company. 2009. 101pp.

Donald W. Jackson On Prisoners Of America’S Wars: From The Early Republic To Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp., Donald W. Jackson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Prisoners of America’s Wars: From the Early Republic to Guantanamo. By Stephanie Carvin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. 336pp.

David P. Forsythe And Charles J. Mach On Empire Of Humanity: A History Of Humanitarianism. By Michael Barnett. Ithaca, Ny: Cornell University Press, 2011. 312pp., David P. Forsythe, Charles J. Mach

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Empire of Humanity: A History of Humanitarianism. By Michael Barnett. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011. 312pp.

Introduction: Minority Rights, Joel R. Pruce

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The central thread woven through this Digest is the concept of vulnerability. Minority status, broadly construed, represents a core characteristic that carries with it particular human rights implications. Historically, minorities are frequently targeted for exploitation and scapegoated when things go badly. Without the capacity to protect themselves and without spokespersons to stand with them in solidarity, minority groups are specifically susceptible to gross exercises of power and abuse and too often denied access to channels through which to make claims and demand redress. Violations of minority rights are commonly structural in nature, as discriminatory practices are built into political and …

Human Trafficking And Minorities: Vulnerability Compounded By Discrimination, Heidi Box

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Human trafficking is an extreme human rights violation that impacts all populations across the globe and is characterized by force, fraud, and coercion intended for exploitation (Palermo Protocol 2000). Currently, human trafficking research is particularly limited by non-standard terminology and a clandestine research population. While estimates of the number of trafficked persons vary widely and are notoriously unsubstantiated, we can still arrive at some conclusions regarding the overall number of trafficked persons. One low estimate suggests that in 2005, at least 2.4 million people had been trafficked into forced labor situations and approximately 12.3 million people were victims of forced …

Lost In Translation: Linguistic Minorities In The European Union, Nirvana Bhatia

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“A nation without a language is a nation without a soul,” declares a Gaelic proverb. Indubitably, language is a product of national identity; it preserves heritage, reflects societal beliefs and values, and expresses a cultural spirit. The current international human rights regime, however, does not recognize an individual’s right to language choice; instead, it promises freedom from linguistic discrimination. The implications are not quite the same and, as a result, states have successfully repressed minority populations by controlling their language options. The European Union in particular—with its panoply of languages—demonstrates an inconsistent approach toward linguistic minorities; it attempts to promote …

Tibetan Refugees' Rights And Services In India, Claudia Artiles

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The Chinese invasion of Tibet, and the Dalai Lama’s subsequent decision to flee in 1959, resulted in the mass influx of Tibetan refugees into India that continues today. It has become clear to the Indian government, as well as to the Tibetan community in exile, that repatriation is unlikely in the near future. Consequently, an evaluation of India’s protection of, and assistance for Tibetan refugees is necessary to ensure their treatment is in accordance with international standards. Unfortunately, such an assessment shows that there is a lack of proper protections and services; this ought to be of particular concern to …

Untouchability Today: The Rise Of Dalit Activism, Christine Hart

Human Rights & Human Welfare

On July 19, 2010, the Hindustan Times reported that a Dalit (“untouchable”) woman was gang-raped and murdered in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The crime was an act of revenge perpetrated by members of the Sharma family, incensed over the recent elopement of their daughter with a man from the lower-caste Singh family. Seeking retributive justice for the disgrace of the marriage, men from the Sharma family targeted a Dalit woman who, with her husband, worked in the Singh family fields. Her death was the result of her sub-caste status; while the crime cost the Singh family a valuable …

Combating Discrimination Against The Roma In Europe: Why Current Strategies Aren’T Working And What Can Be Done, Erica Rosenfield

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In the summer of 2010, the forced expulsion of many Roma from Western to Eastern Europe captured headlines and world attention, yet this practice simply represented the latest manifestation of anti-Roma sentiment in Europe. Indeed, the Roma—numbering over ten million across Europe, making them the continent’s largest minority—face discrimination in housing, education, healthcare, employment, and law enforcement; widespread prejudice against this group shows no evidence of receding. There is, however, certainly no shortage of national and supranational policies aiming to promote inclusion and equality for the Roma.

January Roundtable: The Haiti Earthquake, One Year Later, Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“Haiti's Blame Game” by Poooja Bhatia. Foreign Policy. November 23 2010.

The Scourge Of Occupation, Christina Cerna

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“Haiti’s Blame Game” suggests that Haitians are wondering why they should bother voting when it is unclear that their government is running the country. The anger of the Haitians, according to the author, is focused on MINUSTAH, the UN mission that was created in 2004 to stabilize Haiti and to coordinate the work of the different UN agencies active in the country.¹ Some Haitians perceive MINUSTAH to be an occupying force, but is it really, and who is running the country?

Bring Back Aristide, Louis Edgar Esparza

Human Rights & Human Welfare

My friend Annie recently had her trip to Haiti postponed because of the political instability surrounding the November elections. Annie totes modest sums of cash, medicine, and clothing collected from sympathetic friends and has a resolute willingness to help. Together with the partner organizations she is working with, she is hiring Haitians to build an orphanage. Another colleague of mine, Tonya, traveled to the country very soon after the earthquake. She described her experience in The Nation, lamenting that the major US airlines, which had agreed to waive baggage fees for relief aid to Haiti, did not do so for …

The State And The Legalization Of Dual Citizenship/Dual Nationality: A Case Study Of Mexico And The Philippines, Pamela Kim Anderson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this paper is to address the question of how does the inclusion or exclusion of political participation with dual citizenship or dual nationality impact the Philippines' and Mexico's efforts to achieve the economic and political benefits of dual citizenship from their citizens?

The hypothesis of the paper states that that if a sending state offers legal dual citizenship/nationality with political participation, then it will be successful at increasing the economic and political benefits provided by its emigrants; but if a sending state only offers legal dual citizenship/nationality without political participation than it will not be successful at …

The Integration Of African Muslim Minority: A Critique Of French Philosophy And Policy, Amber Nichole Dillender

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The numerous images of violence perpetrated by radicalized followers of Islam, has highlighted the complexities surrounding assimilation and integration of Muslims in Western society. Since the guest worker recruitment from French African colonies initiated after World War II, France has been witness to the unanticipated development of permanent communities of African laborers, many of whom are Muslim. Despite consistent promotion of French monoculture and specifically the use of the assimilation model for integration, segregation of African Muslims has occurred. Through the construction of a single country case study, I explore integration issues surrounding the French Muslim minority communities. I seek …

E Pluribus Plurum, Or, How To Fail To Back Into A State In Spite Of Really Trying, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

“The framework for utopia,” Robert Nozick tells us at the beginning of the fi nal section of Part iiiof Anarchy, State, and Utopia( ASU), “is equivalent to the minimal state” (p. 333). The rich andcomplex body of argumentation of Parts iand iihad produced theconclusion that the minimal, and no more than a minimal, statewas legitimate or morally justifi ed. What Part iiireveals is that theminimal state “is the one that best realizes the utopian aspirationsof untold dreamers and visionaries” (p. 333). Although this happyconvergence is surely no accident, neither, Nozick insists, is it contrived, for it is the conclusion reached …