Political Science Commons^™

From Stadiums To Shuttle Diplomacy: Qatar’S Emergence As A Regional Diplomatic Power, Kedar Pavgi, Nakul Kadaba

Exchange: The Journal of Public Diplomacy

During the chaos of the Arab Spring, Western diplomacy was facilitated through the State of Qatar. The small country's rise into the apex of international relations did not occur immediately after the first sparks of the revolution. Rather, Qatar's leadership within the Middle East resulted from years of effort put in by their leaders into devising a foreign policy that emphasized building relationships and cooperation with Western countries and their Arab counterparts. Qatar's leaders specifically focused their efforts on enhancing their reputation within international sporting forums, and the business that resulted from it. Major athletic events like the Asian Games …

Our Wavin’ Flag: U.S. Public Diplomacy Outreach, Sharon Hudson-Dean

Exchange: The Journal of Public Diplomacy

In March 2012, U.S. President Barack Obama, an avid sports fan, sat down to talk with sports writer Bill Simmons.1 He explained why competition on the field connects radically different people to each other, "People - for all our differencespolitically,regionally,economically-mostfolksunderstandsports.Probablybecauseit'soneofthe few places where it's a true meritocracy. There's not a lot of BS. Ultimately, who's winning, who's losing, who's performing, who's not - it's all laid out there."

In many ways, sports is a perfect unifier. A fan need not be literate, educated, well-traveled, or wealthy to be personally engaged in the fate of a team or the outcome of …

Su People, Yuhan Xu, Paula Meseroll, Kathleen Haley, Jay Cox, Jim Reilly, Carol L. Boll

Syracuse University Magazine

No abstract provided.

Jury Justice From The Classic Greeks, Andrew M. Whittaker

The Corinthian

Trial by jury is a constitutionally guaranteed right, and the concept of being judged by one’s peers is a foundational principle in Western society. It is assumed that criminal cases are best and most equitably decided by juries and general consensus is that a judicial case decided by a jury is inherently more acceptable than any alternative. With that said, the foundations for the modern Western judicial practice, like most other essential practices, rests in the Golden Age of Athens and Greece. While the chain of descent is long and varied, in Greece, one can find the first trace of …

Open Secret: Why The Supreme Court Has Nothing To Fear From The Internet, Keith J. Bybee

Institute for the Study of the Judiciary, Politics, and the Media at Syracuse University

The United States Supreme Court has an uneasy relationship with openness: it complies with some calls for transparency, drags its feet in response to others, and sometimes simply refuses to go along. I argue that the Court’s position is understandable given that the internet age of fluid information and openness has often been heralded in terms that are antithetical to the Court’s operations. Even so, I also argue the Court actually has little to fear from greater transparency. The understanding of the Court with the greatest delegitimizing potential is the understanding that the justices render decisions on the basis of …

Excerpt: Heaven Cracks, Earth Shakes, James Palmer

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

When the Tangshan Earthquake hit northern China on July 28, 1976, the country was in the midst of a tumultuous year that would grow even more chaotic with Mao’s death less than two months later. In retrospect, the massive earthquake has been viewed as a sign of trouble to come and a signal that major changes were on the horizon. In his new book, Heaven Cracks, Earth Shakes: The Tangshan Earthquake and the Death of Mao’s China, James Palmer delves into the history of 1976, tracing the developments of that pivotal year for all in China, from the leaders residing …

How Chongqing People View Bo Xilai, Xujun Eberlein

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

One April day in my birth city of Chongqing, I encountered a rare quarrel in People’s Park. The park is one of several places in downtown Chongqing that offer low-cost “baba cha” (open-space tea), where retirees and others with time on their hands lounge under leafy banyan trees with their teacups and bird cages for a good part of the day. Two fiftyish men sat at a plastic table drinking tea and chatting about Bo Xilai, their city’s ousted leader. One of the men said that Bo’s promotion of “people’s livelihood” had been a fake show, because during his four-year …

Whither The "Year Of China"?, Denise Ho, Jared Flanery

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

To conclude my Chinese history lecture course at the University of Kentucky, I introduce my undergraduates to the concept of “soft power” and suggest that Confucius Institutes are emblematic of China’s cultural diplomacy, which aims to project a peaceful image abroad. Confucius Institutes are centers for teaching Chinese language and culture overseas; they are organized by an office known as Hanban in the Ministry of Education, though their funding comes directly from the Chinese government’s treasury. There are now over 350 Confucius Institutes in the world, and two of these are in the state of Kentucky.

Literacy And Development Within China’S Minorities, Alexandra Grey

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Outside of China, people are agape at the prospect of learning to write Chinese: “So hard! Too hard.” Back in Australia, I know first generation migrants who speak Chinese at home but have never learnt to write; they gape along with everyone else. But for all the jaw-dropping, these people can read and write the national language of their home (for the Aussie-Chinese, that’s English). What about the people inside China for whom ‘Chinese’ is a foreign language? They are a significant minority, and, on the Chinese scale, a minority still means millions of people. ‘Chinese’ is usually loosely used …

Justice Rehnquist’S Original Intent: His Approach 71 In Equal Protection And Church/State, Erica Kenney

The Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Religion And The Prospects For “Thin” Politics, Aaron Stuvland

Faculty Publications - Department of History and Politics

Religion is a common source of “thick” morality and therefore a common obstacle to public policy consensus in pluralistic societies. But religion also adapts its thick moral commitments to prevailing social, cultural, and procedural dispositions. Engaging the model of “thick moralities and thin politics” proposed by Benjamin Gregg (), I explore the process by which religion adapts to the demands of normatively “thin” politics. To conceptualize this, I survey how American Christianity is negotiating aspects of postmodernism and how this negotiation offers one way to understand religion’s increased engagement with politics at the level of thin normativity. Thus, I would …

Mexican Cartel Tactical Note No. 9: Decapitated Adult Male With Hands And Feet Removed: Found On Side Of A Dirt Road Near Marana (Pima County) Arizona, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Mexican Cartel Tactical Note No. 13: Man Crucified In Michoacán, Mexico, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 13: City Of Hidalgo, Texas, Fearful Of Cartel Violence Potentials—Will Not Release New Police Chief’S Photo, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Adversary Weaponry To 2025, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This chapter will provide an overview of adversary weaponry that will be utilized by criminals and opposing forces (OPFORs) which U.S. law enforcement personnel may encounter domestically. The projected time frame will cover the futures period from 2009 through 2025. Criminal weaponry use will be analyzed using a criminal threat continuum that starts with minimal threats and increases in severity. OPFOR weaponry use will be analyzed using a similar continuum. It should be noted that OPFOR threats, like criminal threats, are illicit in nature and derived from individuals and groups that can be designated as engaging in criminal behavior or …

Politics And Heidegger: Aristotle, Superman, And Žižek, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

This essay discusses Heidegger's thinking on the political and technology in the context of metaphysics in an age that is increasingly directed to both technology and the imaginary or the virtual. The context of Aristotelian phronesis is traced back to Aristotle's youth in Macedonia and the circumstance of war and world conquest, to the allure of a comic book character (that would be the Action Comic's figure of Superman) and the cinematic seduction of a pair of eyeglasses to conclude with a review of Latour's network actants and Žižek on Marxism (and Occupy Wall Street).

No. 12: The State Of Food Insecurity In Johannesburg, Michael Rudolph, Florian Kroll, Shaun Ruysenaar, Tebogo Dlamini

African Food Security Urban Network

Johannesburg is the economic hub of South Africa and the Southern African region. At the same time, it is a city of extremes which juxtaposes ostentatious wealth and conspicuous consumption with grinding poverty and food insecurity. Not enough is known about the prevalence and nature of food insecurity in the city, making it dif!cult to challenge and plan to reduce the urban food gap. This paper uses AFSUN data from three lower-income areas of the city (Alexandra, Orange Farm and the Inner City) to examine the characteristics and drivers of food insecurity in Johannesburg. Despite high overall levels of food …

Producing Edible Landscapes In Seattle's Urban Forest, Rebecca J. Mclain, Melissa R. Poe, Patrick T. Hurley, Joyce Lecompte, Marla R. Emery

Environment and Sustainability Faculty Publications

Over the next decades, green infrastructure initiatives such as tree planting campaigns, and ecological restoration will dramatically change the species composition, species distribution and structure of urban forests across the United States. These impending changes are accompanied by a demand for urban public spaces where people can engage in practices such as gleaning, gardening, and livestock production. This article analyzes the institutional framework that undergirds efforts in Seattle, Washington to normalize the production and use of edible landscapes. We focus attention on the role of grassroots fruit gleaning groups and highlight their bridging function between Seattle's agriculture and forestry policy …

A Crucible Of Conflict: Third Generation Gang Studies Revisited, John P. Sullivan, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This essay briefly recounts the evolution of the gangs that occupy failed communities and states, further discusses and updates the model of third generation street gangs discussed in an earlier Journal of Gang Research article—typically described simply as third generation gangs (3 GEN Gangs), and suggests strategies for coping with and mitigating this evolved form of gang violence. Of note is the lack of impact 3 GEN Gangs studies have had on domestically focused U.S. academic gang research while, at the same time, becoming a dominant model in use by defense analysis and scholars focusing on increasingly politicized non-state threat …

Mexican Cartel Strategic Note No. 12: The Spreading Criminal Insurgencies In Mexico: States With U.S. State Department Travel Advisories, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

No abstract provided.