Slbms Vs Asw: The Race For Deterrence,
2025
Bates College
Slbms Vs Asw: The Race For Deterrence, Theodore M. Rosen
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
This paper aims to determine the balance between submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and anti-submarine warfare (ASW) in the modern day and evaluates how this balance informs the current offense and defense balance in international relations. This paper aims to determine whether SLBMs are still the great stabilizer that they have been historically described as, and if it is their efficacy that matters or merely their perception. This paper will evaluate the progression of SLBM and ASW technology over the past couple decades and where these technologies stand in relation to one another today. This exploration is grounded in two …
Trump, The Authoritarian Influencer: Brics, The Rise Of The Right, And The Fall Of Multilateralism,
2025
Bates College
Trump, The Authoritarian Influencer: Brics, The Rise Of The Right, And The Fall Of Multilateralism, Sophia Usmani
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
This paper argues that the Trump administration has been the source of an increase in far-right political regimes and ideologies in the BRICS coalition while also emphasizing the United States’ hegemonic power in the modern liberal world order, harming the goal of multilateralism that is held by the BRICS coalition. Beginning with a literature review, the existing analyses are applied to this argument and organized to specify issues with the far-right and multilateralism that appear with each BRICS country. Counterarguments and potential issues with this argument are both brought up and challenged. Following this, a section on critique and analysis …
Trump Vs. The Fourteenth Amendment,
2025
Bates College
Trump Vs. The Fourteenth Amendment, Rye Maccurtain
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
This paper argues that President Trump’s 2025 executive order to end birthright citizenship represents a major break from constitutional tradition and a clear turn toward far-right ideology. The order challenges the Fourteenth Amendment, which guarantees citizenship to anyone born on United States soil and has been upheld for more than a century, including in the Supreme Court case United States v. Wong Kim Ark. Although some conservatives may frame the action as a routine effort to strengthen immigration policy, the order moves beyond traditional conservatism. It departs from the rule of law, rejects long-standing legal precedent, and promotes an exclusionary …
Why Democracy Hasn’T “Ghanaway”: On The Persistence Of Ghanaian Democracy,
2025
Bates College
Why Democracy Hasn’T “Ghanaway”: On The Persistence Of Ghanaian Democracy, Miles Kaufman
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
In this paper, I will be arguing that the unusual development and persistence of democracy in Ghana, while unambiguously influenced by a number of variables, is predominantly the result of Ghanaian contributions to UN peacekeeping missions since the 1970s. After establishing that the persistence of democracy in Ghana is in fact puzzling by contrast to regional trends, I provide definitions and conduct a brief statistical analysis to assert and visualize Ghana’s status as a regional democratic outlier. I then weigh alternative scholarly explanations for Ghanaian democratization, and finally provide a comprehensive empirical analysis of Ghanaian military depoliticization due to UN …
On The Persistence Of Justice: Is Justice Always The Bedrock Of A Political Constitution?,
2025
Bates College
On The Persistence Of Justice: Is Justice Always The Bedrock Of A Political Constitution?, Miles Kaufman
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
This paper seeks to determine the extent to which justice is required in premodern political constitutional thought. For coherence, I have calibrated this paper’s focus to the works of Plato, Augustine, and Machiavelli. Plato embodies the foundation of justice in Western political theory; Augustine, its early Christianization; and Machiavelli, removed by the better part of a millennium as he is from the two former, represents the later progression of justice as a concept. All develop political constitutions reliant upon some form of justice. I begin with a summary of the coherence of justice despite significant evolution over time, establishing three …
Spirituality Activism And Identity As A Site Of Transformation Based On Gloria Anzaldùa’S Vision Of Resistance,
2025
Bates College
Spirituality Activism And Identity As A Site Of Transformation Based On Gloria Anzaldùa’S Vision Of Resistance, Maria Torres Rey
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
This paper examines Gloria Anzaldùa’s conceptualization of identity as a dynamic site of resistance and healing within Chicana feminist thought. Through frameworks such as mestiza consciousness, Nepantla and spiritual activism, Anzaldùa challenges Western dualisms and reimagines identity as a fluid and political space shaped by personal and collective experience. Her theories provide a powerful lens for understanding the intersections of race, gender, sexuality and spirituality. This paper also argues that her emphasis on inner transformation risks under-engaging material structures such as capitalism, state violence and environmental degradation. By situating Anzaldùa alongside key Chicana feminist scholars, the paper highlights both the …
Patenting Health: How Intellectual Property Rights Jeopardise Medical Research,
2025
Bates College
Patenting Health: How Intellectual Property Rights Jeopardise Medical Research, Lorenz N. Soukup
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
Recent health crises have taught us that proper resource allocation is an important tool in the fight against e.g., pandemics and endemics. This concerns medical care on the one side, but also medical research as a precursor and catalyst for successful implementation of interventions, on the other side. James R. Brown argues that the most effective way to make use of medical research is to make the funding a public affair, removing private stakeholders from the equation. Concretely, he proposes to remove intellectual property rights in medicine as a whole. This paper evaluates his thesis.
Rethinking Coercion: Moving Beyond Moralized Accounts Of Coercion,
2025
Bates College
Rethinking Coercion: Moving Beyond Moralized Accounts Of Coercion, Lorenz N. Soukup
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
Coercion is often portrayed as a vile act, which is inherently immoral. Typical examples include blackmail or receiving an offer at gunpoint. Most contemporary theories centre around this characteristic immorality of coercion. In the following paper I will argue that coercion need not involve an immoral act. I will look at two distinctly different theories of coercion. On the one hand, a moralised account proposed by Jennifer Lackey and on the other hand, an account refraining from moralising coercion brought forward by Scott Anderson. The aim of this paper is not to define coercion but to motivate a shift in …
Recurring Patterns In Democratic Backsliding: The United States, Hungary, And Israel,
2025
Bates College
Recurring Patterns In Democratic Backsliding: The United States, Hungary, And Israel, Leah Brouda
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
Utilizing a three-pronged analysis method, this article argues that not only is democratic backsliding – the degrading quality of democratic institutions in a state – on the rise but that it has frequent recurring themes. These themes are consolidation of executive authority, changes in court power and judicial independence, and election manipulation. Utilizing a combination of public opinion research and indexes such as Freedom House and the Global State of Democracy Index (GSDI), these themes emerge as patterns that are both understood and misconstrued by citizens in each country and of the world. The analysis is based on themes in …
Reshaping Globalization From Within: China’S Vision Through Brics And Beyond,
2025
Bates College
Reshaping Globalization From Within: China’S Vision Through Brics And Beyond, Kyra Friederich
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
This paper examines how China reshapes globalization through its engagement in BRICS and its broader strategic vision. I am looking beyond Western-centric interpretations of China’s rise as this analysis centers on China’s historical foreign policy traditions, its controlled integration into global capitalism, and its moral developmental discourse under Xi Jinping. This paper draws on Fairbank’s framework of hierarchical order and frontier defense, alongside contemporary theories of neoliberal adaptation. China’s approach to multilateralism blends market liberalization with strong state authority. Through BRICS, the Belt and Road Initiative, and Xi’s six global initiatives, China positions itself as both a beneficiary and reformer …
Institutionalizing (?) The South: The New Development Bank,
2025
Bates College
Institutionalizing (?) The South: The New Development Bank, Kyra Friederich
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
Over the past two decades, the Global South has undergone a significant shift from loose political coordination to more formalized institutional structures. The New Development Bank (NDB) was founded by the BRICS in 2015 and embodies this transition by combining the egalitarian ethos of earlier South-South initiatives such as the India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Forum. This paper argues that the NDB represents a distinctive and paradoxical form of Global South institutionalization. It advances principles of equality, sovereignty, and mutual benefit while also adopting bureaucratic and geopolitical practices. Through an analysis of the Bank’s governance design, operational innovations, and evolving development philosophy, …
Combating Human Rights Abuses In The Democratic Republic Of Congo,
2025
Bates College
Combating Human Rights Abuses In The Democratic Republic Of Congo, Karan Kuppa-Apte
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
This article focuses on human rights abuses stemming from the mining industry of the Democratic Republic of Congo, particularly in the country's eastern region. It argues that the United States (US), European Union (EU), and China should strive to uphold human rights in DRC because of their significant global presence and involvement in the country's mining industry. It begins with an overview of the conflict, including its historical origins, relevant actors, and current status quo. It continues by describing two unsuccessful strategies that have been tried to protect human rights. It concludes with a recommendation to the US, EU, and …
Conflating Disease, Morality, And Sex: Regulating Military Fitness In The War Years,
2025
Bates College
Conflating Disease, Morality, And Sex: Regulating Military Fitness In The War Years, Hanna Ranis
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
The United States military worried about the impact of venereal diseases on the ability of soldiers to fight in both World War 1 and 2. The war years thus resulted in an increase in regulations that sought to curb the spread of venereal diseases. Much of this regulatory shift has focused on how police targeted women who were suspected of spreading venereal diseases to American soldiers. Women were profiled as promiscuous and possible sex workers, with the lines between the two categories becoming increasingly blurred. Policing was viewed as a public health regulatory mechanism that needed to be carried out …
Bates College Journal Of Political Studies: Volume Ii, Issue 1, Fall 2025,
2025
Bates College
Bates College Journal Of Political Studies: Volume Ii, Issue 1, Fall 2025, Bates Initiative For Government Studies
Bates College Journal of Political Studies
No abstract provided.
Pronatalism In The United States: How Political Ideals Surrounding Family And Reproductive Health Care Contribute To Neglect In The Foster Care System,
2025
University of San Diego
Pronatalism In The United States: How Political Ideals Surrounding Family And Reproductive Health Care Contribute To Neglect In The Foster Care System, Carson Sebree
Undergraduate Honors Theses
Within the past decade, conservative reproductive politics in the United States have experienced an ideological shift from pro-life toward pronatalism. This has been intensified through the rollback of reproductive rights and the rise of Christian nationalism. However, there has been no commensurate additional funding for the foster care system. This project asks the interrelated questions of: “how is pronatalism linked to neglect within the foster care system?; and, how do theories of democratic care highlight the necessity to rethink support for the foster care system and create policies that will address its shortcomings, given the rise of pronatalist aw and …
A Shattered World: Jews And Israel After October 7,
2025
American Jewish University
A Shattered World: Jews And Israel After October 7, Michael Berenbaum, Gilbert N. Kahn
The Jewish Role in American Life: An Annual Review
October 7, 2023, was a watershed event in contemporary Jewish history. What took place on that date challenged the two most basic assumptions of post-Holocaust Jewish life: that the future security of the Jewish people would be assured by an independent Jewish state backed by an army, and that the freedom for Jews in the Diaspora to live as Jews would be secured by democratic rights and liberties. The pogroms of October 7 and the worldwide explosion of antisemitism that followed—even preceding Israel taking military action against Hamas—challenged both assumptions. The Israel Defense Forces could not prevent a slaughter from …
From Energy Abundance To Blackouts: Political Explanations For Ecuador’S 2024 Electricity Crisis,
2025
University of New Mexico - Main Campus
From Energy Abundance To Blackouts: Political Explanations For Ecuador’S 2024 Electricity Crisis, Selene V. E. Diaz Martinez
Political Science ETDs
Ecuador’s growing reliance on hydropower has positioned it as a regional leader in renewable energy development. However, recent droughts have exposed the vulnerability of this energy model in the face of climate change. In 2024, widespread blackouts underscored the risks of overdependence on hydroelectricity in the country. The media suggested that the cause of the blackouts was due to an abnormal drought that year. However, climate change alone cannot explain the lack of use of other generation sources to meet demand. suggesting that a review of political choices could provide insight into the sector's failure. This research examines the political …
Testing Tocqueville’S Troops: American Democracy At War In Mexico,
2025
University of Texas at Tyler
Testing Tocqueville’S Troops: American Democracy At War In Mexico, Corbin V. Cali
History Theses
This thesis explores Alexis de Tocqueville's theory of democratic armies through the lens of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), testing his predictions about how democratic social conditions influence military institutions and performance. Tocqueville argued that armies in democratic societies would face tensions between egalitarian ideals and military discipline, with citizen-soldiers resisting hierarchy while professional officers, often isolated from civil society, grew dangerously ambitious for war. He predicted that democratic armies would show energetic initiative but struggle with weak formal discipline, and that equality would fundamentally change the relationship between the military and the broader society. The Mexican-American War serves as an …
How Armenia And Azerbaijan Are Lobbying For Influence In D.C.,
2025
Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY
How Armenia And Azerbaijan Are Lobbying For Influence In D.C., Gibran C. Boyce, Dawn Kikel
Capstones
In the wake of President Trump taking office, foreign government agencies and U.S.-based non-profits serving Armenian and Azerbaijani interests have been hiring lobbyists in Washington, D.C. as part of their concerted efforts to curry favor, gain influence, and seek policy changes that would benefit the rival post-Soviet nations.
Loneliness And Support For Political Violence Within The United States,
2025
Chapman University
Loneliness And Support For Political Violence Within The United States, Kellen Downey
Political Science Student Papers and Posters
Although loneliness is a growing public health issue in the United States, its political effects remain understudied. This paper seeks to understand the relationship between loneliness and the support of political violence by utilizing the Chapman Survey of American Fears (CSAF Wave 11). This survey, which is a component of the 2025 Chapman Survey of American Fears, includes the three-item UCLA Loneliness Scale, as well as two separate items specifically measuring political violence. Using a national survey (N=1,015), I address the following questions: (1) Are lonely individuals more likely to support violence on political grounds? (2) Does strongly identifying with …
