International studies

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://digital.lib.washington.edu/handle/1773/36882

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From Ankara to the Yalu: Turkey's NATO Aspirations, Religious Mobilization, and the Experience of Turkish POWs in the Korean War
(2025-10-02) Wang, Lina; Kasaba, Reşat
This dissertation examines Turkey's participation in the Korean War. The first paper analyzes the Democrat Party (DP) government's decision to send Turkish troops to Korea, from the perspective of neoclassical realism, integrating the concept of two-level diplomatic games and national narratives. Drawing on a diversified range of sources from Turkish and U.S. archives, parliamentary records, press coverage, and underutilized Turkish-language sources, it argues that the DP government framed a narrative of Turkey as a responsible United Nations member committed to collective security, deliberately avoiding overt linkage between the Korean intervention and NATO aspirations. The second paper examines how the Turkish government instrumentalized religion to justify its troop deployment and to mobilize soldiers for overseas combat. Drawing on unexamined archival materials, memoirs, oral histories, religious publications, and military documents, it argues that the Democrat Party government framed the war as a jihad to defend the Turkish homeland from atheist communism. The paper situates this framing within Şerif Mardin's center-periphery model, emphasizing Islam remained central to the social life of the rural periphery, whose members were hesitant to fight in a distant war. To overcome this reluctance, the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) played a key role to instill a sense of sacred duty. The third paper centers on Turkish prisoners of war and their resistance to Chinese indoctrination in captivity. Based on Turkish, Chinese, and English archival materials, memoirs, oral histories, and previously unexamined sources, it challenges the prevailing assumption that language barriers shielded Turks from reeducation by demonstrating that the Chinese authorities employed Turkish-speaking Uyghur interpreters and implemented a robust indoctrination campaign. This paper argues that Turkish POWs' resistance was rooted in two key factors: the strict military discipline and Islamic belief. These three papers offer a multifaceted study of Turkey's Korean War experience, contributing to the Modern Turkish Studies, International Relations, and the Cold War Studies.
Rich Nation, Restrained Army (富国慎兵): Toward Japan’s Maritime Order in the 21st Century
(2024-09-09) Kim, Seunghyun; Pekkanen, Saadia
I explore Japan’s grand strategy in the oceans, meaning its homegrown “intellectual architecture” for promoting “Open and Stable Seas (開かれ安定した海洋).” Japan has shown a resolute commitment to maintaining the connectivity of international seas that underpin the stability and prosperity of the world. Also, Japan has maintained a restrained posture regarding its military roles and presence. I define Japan’s proactive economic engagement and restrained military posture as the “Rich Nation, Restrained Army (富国慎兵).” Why does Japan’s statecraft in the oceans display economic proactiveness but military restraint? The research question highlights a substantial gap between theoretical expectations and Japan’s reality. Realism has traditionally been the dominant theory explaining Japan’s foreign policy, with a primary focus on China’s rise as a core driving force. However, these explanations failed to elucidate Japan’s restrained military stance, raising doubts about Beijing-centered realist narratives. Furthermore, Japan’s vision for the maritime order, which emphasizes connectivity and an economic security approach, has been largely overlooked as well. To provide a comprehensive understanding of Japan’s response in the 21st century, I aim to analyze Japan’s grand strategy in the oceans, bridging the gap between theoretical expectations and Japan's post-Cold War realities. To analyze Japan’s statecraft in the maritime domain, my dissertation is structured in the following five chapters. The first chapter introduces the research question, argument, literature review, and research methods. The second chapter examines the evolutionary substance of Japan’s grand strategy in the oceans, with a focus on domestic legal and institutional changes following the first Basic Act on Ocean Policy in 2007. The third chapter investigates Japan’s regional approach to Southeast Asia, highlighting its cautious but proactive involvement in multilateral security cooperation and leveraging prior economic relations. This case underscores the strategic allocation of Official Development Assistance to enhance law enforcement capabilities through collaboration with the Japan Coast Guard (JCG) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The fourth chapter assesses Japan’s global security cooperation within the Free and Open Indo-Pacific framework, with a focus on the roles of the Japan Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) and the JCG. After reviewing Japan’s contributions to the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (QUAD), the research also examines bilateral cooperation with the U.S., as well as Australia, India, South Korea, and the Pacific Island Countries.
Penitential Pilgrims: Indigenous Truth Commissions in the Northwest Coast
(2024-09-09) Olson, Lucas Kelly; Lucero, José Antonio
This dissertation identifies lessons learned from Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission for a U.S. context by focusing on the history and contemporary legacies of Indigenous boarding schools in the Northwest Coast, a region divided by two U.S.-Canadian borders. I interpret metaphors of water to explore different approaches to justice among Christian, secular, and Indigenous worldviews that are in conflict in the process of forming a U.S. Truth Commission. While reconciliation remains a highly contested approach, I find that Indigenous peoples are able to achieve some concrete benefits from Truth Commissions through raising awareness of historic injustices and asserting sovereignty and self-determination. This dissertation is divided into three stand-alone articles:• The first article analyzes trends in the funding received by church denominations from the U.S. and Canadian government to operate Indigenous mission schools in the Northwest Coast in the context of widespread official renouncements of the Doctrine of Discovery. This article provides an accounting of both money and land, identifying over $40 million in 2024 USD that the government paid church denominations for mission schools in the Northwest Coast between 1876 and 1908, as well as roughly 1,500 acres of land grants by the U.S. government to churches on Native reservations, many of which are likely to include Native cemeteries. • The second article conducts a statistical analysis of the relationship between boarding schools and logging of coastal Indian Agencies of Washington and Oregon state between 1911-1920, finding a statistically significant causal relationship between boarding school attendance and logging revenues. In doing so, this article identifies systemic government corruption in the simultaneous management of boarding schools and land. This article also traces Native logging practices in the Pacific Northwest and demonstrates how Native leaders were able to leverage these practices to promote self-determination and cultural revitalization. • The third article is an autoethnography of participating in the 2023 Tribal Canoe Journey that explores the role of Indigenous canoes as symbols for Indigenous governance in the context of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission and a pending Truth Commission in the United States. This article provides a model for non-Native allyship that support Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty throughout the region. Together, these articles provide vantage points for exploring the ways that three different discourse communities—Christian, secular, and Indigenous--understand and engage with the ongoing politics of Truth Commissions within the Northwest Coast.
Localizing the Global: Examining International Students’ Perceptions of Communication in the Classroom
(2024-09-09) Behrends, Miranda; Meyers, Stephen
International students are becoming an increasingly important population of the American institution, but support for these students’ academic experiences is still lacking despite the unique communication-related challenges many face. English language ability has been the main focus of many studies aimed at improving the experience of international students. This study instead understands English proficiency as one component of communication ability and examines how international students’ confidence in their own communication skills shapes and is shaped by their experiences in the classroom. Using semi-structured interview data from seven University of Washington students, this research finds that while English ability is an important factor in the class experience of many students, it is just one component of successful communication. Other factors, such as confidence, personality, and cultural background, may exist as additional barriers that must be acknowledged to ensure a positive learning experience for international students.
Civil Society Responses to Human Insecurity in North Korea: How Human Rights and Humanitarianism Intersect in Closed Authoritarian Contexts
(2024-09-09) Gonser, Katie; Lang, Sabine; Sorensen, Clark
This dissertation explores intersections between international human rights and humanitarian organisations working in closed authoritarian contexts. Using North Korea as a case study, it looks at South Korean and North American NGOs as well as the United Nation’s Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) and Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and explores their strategies in response to human insecurity in North Korea. Each of the three papers examines a different area of intersection: the first considers women’s rights in North Korea from a methodological perspective. It examines how a feminist lens that centres women’s voices and emphasises their diversity and intersectionality can be applied when local populations are inaccessible. The second article proposes a framework through which to evaluate human rights and humanitarian organisations’ strategies in response to human insecurity in North Korea: the engagement to accountability continuum. The third looks at the constraints imposed on humanitarian and human rights organisations by North Korean, South Korean and US governments, and examines how they adapt to these restrictions. Sources include UN and NGO reports, field work and in-depth qualitative interviews with staff members working at NGOs and IOs responding to human insecurity in North Korea, as well as policy advisors, journalists, and academic experts. The dissertation offers tools for incorporating feminist methodologies in human rights research, and its findings show that human rights and humanitarianism intersect in ways that have not previously been considered. Both groups tend to advocate for some combination of engagement and accountability, both are constrained by democratic and authoritarian governments, and both adapt to these constraints in similar ways.
A Certain Idea of Space: How Leaders Shape Military Space Posture in Europe
(2023-08-14) Kuzminski, Frank; Pekkanen, Saadia M.
Why do regional powers facing similar external constraints adopt different approaches to the military uses of space? The history of Western European space actors, from the Cold War through the present, demonstrates variation in how states and their leaders perceive the space domain and its utility for military purposes, national security, and political ends. We can expect these states to adopt similar capabilities in a tenuous regional security environment and common alliance context. However, Western European states differed in their views on space and the degree of autonomy from the United States they sought, including in terms of military space capabilities. This dissertation investigates the development of military space posture in Western Europe from the Cold War to 2000. I focus on France, Germany, and the United Kingdom because they are Europe's most powerful political, economic, and military actors and faced similar external constraints during the Cold War. I argue national leaders and heads of government refract inputs from the international system through their unique strategic outlooks to produce distinct military space posture outcomes. Domestic factors, including budget constraints and industry incentives, further shape national leaders' decisions about military space posture and affect the state's ability to implement military space programs in response to systemic shifts. Using qualitative analysis, archival documents, interviews, and process tracing, I assess my hypotheses through detailed historical case studies on the development of military space posture outcomes in France, Germany, and the United Kingdom. Understanding how leaders shape military space posture adds value to current debates about space security in the New Space Age and heightened great power competition. Additionally, this dissertation makes a modest contribution to the history of military space programs in Europe.
Indigenous Participation in the Arctic Council: An Analysis of Principle and Practice
(2023-08-14) Stevenson, Kayla; Curran, Sara
The Arctic is an ever-changing region, specifically in its environment and the increasing number of political actors interested in natural resource development in the region, which requires innovative modes of policy creation, specifically to guarantee the sovereignty and self-determination of Indigenous peoples who preside over the land. The Arctic Council is the predominant forum through which Indigenous peoples in the Arctic exercise power over decision-making. This study examines the mechanisms by which Indigenous peoples participate in the Arctic Council through comparing the Arctic Council’s Meaningful Engagement of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities in Marine Activities project documents to interviews of individuals who have worked with and on the Arctic Council. This study aims to determine how Indigenous peoples participate in Arctic Council decision-making and discover the existing successes and obstacles of participation mechanisms within the forum. This study finds differences in the rhetoric of engagement and participation in Arctic Council documents compared to the practical applications of engagement and finds that state-dominant frameworks govern the level of participation of Indigenous peoples in the Arctic Council.
Hindutva Feminism: Gender, Desire, and Politics in an Urban Indian Community
(2023-08-14) Rothenberg, Rachel; Novetzke, Christian L; Robinson, Cabeiri D
This thesis is an ethnographic study of the life-worlds of middle-class Rajput Hindu women and their families living and working in a middle-class neighbor in Jaipur, Rajasthan’s urban capital. I trace the development of a unique middle-class feminine political subjectivity in Hindu India alongside the emergence of a form of “Hindutva feminism” that marries the rhetoric of international gender development with the majoritarian, anti-Muslim, caste-ambiguous language of the historical Hindu nationalist movement. I argue that the development of a middle-class Hindu national feminist political subjectivity reflects larger patterns of self-making occurring in in the contemporary Hindu nationalist movement. This self-making blends the contemporary desires involved in developing the individual self, the self in the context of a rapidly socially and technologically changing world, and the role of women in building the modern world with Hindu nationalist rhetorics that reify Brahminical patriarchy and prioritize Hindu women as the symbolic cultural “hearts” of the imagined Hindu rashtra (state). Aswomen deploy this strategic marriage of identities, they provide the structural backbone for the legitimatized use of violence against Muslims and others who threaten Hindu homogeneity and the preservation of savarna (high-caste) patriarchy.
Who is in Charge of Making Decisions? The Competition between the Government and the Foreign Policy Bureaucracy in Turkey (1991-2014)
(2023-04-17) Gülen, Berkay; Kasaba, Reşat
This study argues that the fragmentation in foreign policymaking due to adopting different foreign policy ideas, that is, ideas of the elected leadership and the bureaucracy, is likely to generate competition between the state agencies that constitute the foreign policy bureaucracy. Turkish foreign policy between 1991 and 2014 offers an explanatory platform to understand how an anti-establishment, revisionist party demonstrates its toolbox in defining divergent foreign policy ideas, whereas the state’s foreign policy elites stood by with preestablished ideas. I suggest that the term between 1991 and 2002 was an example of the bureaucratic decision-making model. In this model, state agencies work through their internal decision-making systems and cooperate to inform the ultimate decision-maker. In this vein, Turkish foreign policy between 2002 and 2011 was a period that showed how the AKP government introduced its foreign policy agenda while working in the bureaucratic decision-making model. I also argue that Turkish foreign policy of Turkey from 2011 to 2014 introduced the governmental decision-making. In this period, the purpose of government was to formulate policies against the preestablished ideas of Turkish foreign policy bureaucracy. The anti-establishment feature of AKP’s foreign policy embodied the divergence between the elected and appointed officials. As a case study, the bilateral relations between Turkey and Israel were based on the cooperation between the armies and the MFAs between 1991 and 2002. The collaboration gave both sides the capacity to operate in Middle Eastern politics. In the term between 2002 and 2014, however, the bilateral ties were tested with multiple crises while Turkey’s decision-making system transitioned to the governmental decision-making model. The decline of the appointed bureaucrats in decision-making and the rise of elected officials ended the years based on partnership. Overall, the analysis based on a series of interviews conducted with 83 foreign policymakers in Turkey and Israel shows that the turf war in the foreign policy bureaucracy is a conceptual framework for comprehending how elected officials use bureaucratic tactics to undermine the involvement of bureaucrats in decision-making processes.
The Impact of Post-Conflict Peacebuilding Mechanisms on Reconciliation in Africa: A Case Study of CÃ´te d’Ivoire
(2023-01-21) Abugbilla, Francis Mbawini; Williams, Nathalie E.
The dissertation analyzed how adopting multiple peacebuilding mechanisms and their implementation affects national reconciliation and social cohesion in post-conflict societies in Africa, with CÃ´te d’Ivoire as a case study. In what ways do multiple peacebuilding mechanisms and their implementation affect reconciliation? First, I sought to discover how adopting liberal and indigenous peacebuilding mechanisms could impact reconciliation. My findings show that a hybrid peace-building approach would provide synergy because both mechanisms have their strengths and weaknesses. Second, CÃ´te d’Ivoire adopted both retributive and restorative justice concurrently, and I wanted to examine the impact on reconciliation and whether sequencing them would have provided a different outcome. Third, this research analyzed whether reconciliation challenges stem from the fact that the justice and amnesty processes are naturally incompatible or were due to poor implementation. Overall, there is elusive peace and reconciliation in CÃ´te d’Ivoire even though the country adopted the holistic approach of implementing trials, truth commissions, reparations, and amnesties. My findings demonstrate that the problem was due to poor implementation and not the simultaneous adoption of the mechanisms. However, some participants preferred sequencing and the political will to apply the basic tenet of each mechanism.
Technology Innovation and Digital Revolution: Adoption and Diffusion of Digital Network Platforms, 1995-2001, with Implications for Future Development
(2022-09-23) Zielonka, Ryan; Metzler, Mark
Leading digital platforms as of the early 2020s are valued in the trillions of dollars. Web-based technology pioneers such as Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, among others, have reshaped the world. The work introduces the theory of signal innovation (SI) to explain the causes and conditions behind the emergence of general-purpose technologies (GPTs), those pathbreaking technology innovations responsible for global political-economic and sociocultural transformation. It applies signal innovation theory to a narrative history of the origin moment of the twenty-first century digital platform economy, specifically the rise of the world wide web from years 1995 to 2001. Intensive primary source investigation of the Netscape and Microsoft corporations and detail on their respective Navigator and Internet Explorer web-browsing software forms the basis of this work. The theoretical concept of signal innovation is used to analyze primary source research on the rise of the world wide web. The web here is understood as the confluence of three core parallel technology development pathways in (1) personal web browsing software, (2) web-based billing, payments, and financial transaction protocols, and (3) web-based encryption methods. Empirical research is supported by a review of the multidisciplinary business and technology innovation literature, and its connections to economic growth and progress. The work concludes with extensions of the theory of signal innovation. Specific attention is given to contemporary applications such as the blockchain and other decentralized technology products and services.
How to Hide a Mushroom Cloud: An Examination and Oral History of Nuclear Hagiography in Richland, Washington.
(2022-07-14) Eaton, Christopher John; Lucero, JosÃ© A
In the waning days of World War II, two Japanese cities were annihilated. Each bombing run contained only one plane and one bomb. The names of the two Silverplate-class B-29 Superfortress bombers, and their solitary payloads, have been immortalized in American history. On August 6th, 1945, the Enola Gay unleashed Little Boy over the Shima Surgical Clinic in Hiroshima. Three days later, Bockscar disgorged Fat Man over the Urakami Tenshudo Catholic Church in Nagasaki. Combined, the blasts killed over 200,000 Japanese, the majority civilians. In the decades since this event, the United States has never apologized or had a sustained moral reckoning concerning the near-total destruction of two civilian centers. Instead, the United States has celebrated the bombings and initiated the colossal nuclear industrial complex. This celebration may be most evident in the atomic town of Richland, WA. One of the three main cities that made up the Manhattan Project, Richland is permeated with the triumphant history of America’s nuclear weapons projects. This town is also where my family hails from. The research presented here is an examination of Richland’s nuclear history and an oral account of my family’s role in it.
To Russia With Fear: American Evangelicals and the Russian Orthodox Church
(2022-07-14) Bunnell, Andy; Wellman, James K.
This dissertation argues that ambitious American Evangelical leaders built a comprehensive political and religious global vision in the early 1980s that would ultimately lead them to forge strategic transnational connections with their Russian Orthodox counterparts. The secular Soviet Union had been feared as a mortal enemy by American Evangelical leaders; their response to the religious openness that followed its 1991 dissolution was to mobilize millions of dollars and thousands of American missionaries to save the souls of Russians. Initially, this missionizing incurred significant opposition from the Russian Orthodox Church which was seeking to reestablish itself as a cultural force in society. However, key American Evangelical and Russian Orthodox leaders have now set aside theological and cultural differences to work together in response to a new shared fear: saving their respective countries and the world from secularism by defeating the progressive human rights system which underpins liberal democracy.
National Security Expertise, and Borderland Saints: Policing Religion and Police Religion
(2022-07-14) Ward, Megan Aleah; Lucero, JosÃ©
A skeletal saint graces the side of DEA collectable coin, busts of a mustachioed bandit fill sets of crime-drama television, white blocks of cocaine top shrines during police press releases. Images of borderland religion have arrived in United States popular media, the news cycle, and its defense culture and US law enforcement officers routinely profile migrants who practice these forms of Catholicism. Saints like JesÃºs Malverde and the now infamous Saint Death, Santa Muerte, have entered into the American cultural consciousness. Termed “narco saints” by law enforcement– these informal saints have been appropriated into the professional cosmologies of police and security practitioners as representations of alterity and threat, resulting in religious profiling and arrests of devotees. Through ethnographic and textual analysis of recent religious profiling incidents, police training manuals, and online culture in US security communities this project uses mixed-methods to ask why these religious communities have become visible in law enforcement spaces. This project argues that as state agents link religious beliefs to forms of crime and violence, they reflect a robust ideological defense culture that resists reform efforts and emotionally rationalizes state policing of already vulnerable individuals and communities.
“We Walk Out”: Global Discourses and Local Practices of Disability Rights in China
(2022-07-14) Huang, Shixin; Meyers, Stephen
This dissertation unravels the globalization and localization of disability rights through the lens of disability associations in China. Current studies conceptualize global rights discourses as a set of normative ideologies or politico-legal institutions and suffer from a top-down, formalist bias. In contrast, I argue that disability rights are contingent social practices that are subjected to the interpretation, negotiation, and contestation of social entrepreneurs on the ground. Based on ethnographic and documentary research, I unravel how disability associations translate the global visions of disability rights and generate claims and approaches that situate in the social, political, and economic relations in China. The dissertation accounts for the evolutions of disability associations and disability subjectivities in China as a co-construction of the global diffusion of the cultural and institutional forces of disability rights, as well as the authoritarian state’s formation of disability and social governance policies. The rights model of disability imposed a narrow envisioning of rights, focusing on affirming the civil, political rights of citizenship, targeting the state as rights violator and duty bearer, and deploying legal mobilization and civil society empowerment as the primary repertoire of strategies. The transplantation of this international model fissured from the local realities of economic precariousness and authoritarian politics, which unexpectedly silenced the voices and concerns of both people with disabilities and disability rights activists in local contexts. This dissertation presented two case studies of the diverse practices of disability rights as invented and exercised by disability rights entrepreneurs. Delving into the collective actions of two community networks in China’s COVID-19 outbreak, I argue that care and affect were turned into the site of disability rights and solidarity practices, which expanded the visions of disability rights by generating interdependent social relationship and public ethics of care. Another case study unraveled the politics of fundraising as a site of rights claiming and examine how disability associations appropriate the market mechanism to advance their social visions of disability rights. These empirical findings inform a broader understanding of the vernacularization processes of global rights discourse, disability as a comparative, cross-cultural construct, and state-society relationship in China.
Together but Alone: The Effect of Husband's Migration on Mental Health of their Wives in Rural Nepal
(2022-07-14) Rai, Sauharda; Williams, Nathalie
This dissertation aims to understand the relationship between husband's migration and the mental health of their wives who stay behind. It identifies, describes, and analyzes different pathways of this relationship, with a focus on labor migration, transnational families, Major Depressive Disorder (MDD), and South Asia, particularly Nepal. It further discusses the pattern of this association and how factors like household members and children moderates it. The findings in these papers are based on 1) qualitative data derived from a series of interviews and ethnographic observations, and 2) quantitative panel data on individual's migration and mental health history, as well as individual and household level demographic details collected rigorously over 21 years. Chapter II identifies and describes five pathways of interaction between husband's migration and their wives' mental health: communication, children as coping and stress-inducing agents, family support and difficulties, migration history in the family, and migration as a social process. It concludes that these mechanisms interact in a complex web within the individual and social domain of the migrant's wives that determines how they experience mental well-being and mental health problems. Chapter III is focused on understanding the pattern of association between husbands' time away and the onset of MDD in their wives. It concludes that the stress that comes immediately after the husband's departure significantly influences the onset of MDD among their wives. Chapter IV utilizes the theoretical framework of social ties, social support, and mental health in understanding how household members and children of wives of labor migrants can protect or increase their risk of MDD. It concludes that household members act differently in the context of migration and can reduce the risk of MDD. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the theoretical understanding of the association between migration and mental health. This knowledge can be used to guide public health policies and programs to address the mental health consequences of husband's migration on their families who stay behind.
Women’s Leadership Motivations and State-Sponsored Empowerment: The Case of Moroccan Associative Leaders
(2021-10-29) Jafari Haddadian, Afsaneh; Kasaba, Resat RK
This dissertation examines the impact of participatory development programs promoted by theInternational development banks and International NGOs (INGOs) on gender equality in Morocco. Looking at a country case study of Morocco, my research explains the motivations of women leaders who participate in development programs either as elected political representatives of their communities or as leaders of local associations/Moroccan NGOs. Through a study of official publications and interviews with women leaders, this dissertation shows how Moroccan women leaders navigate between altruistic, professional, and personal goals. Contrary to what previous studies suggest, the women leaders I interviewed exhibited much more agency as participants in different INGO and state-sponsored women’s empowerment programs. These Moroccan women leaders demonstrated self-conscious and concerted efforts to use their positions in INGO and state-sponsored programs to advance the goals of their communities, coopting corrupt male politicians in this process. Although the women leaders I interviewed cared about supporting women and advancing gender equity, their main motivations centered on broader questions of poverty in their communities. This dissertation shows that these women associative leaders constitute a bridge between the progressive feminist left and the conservative Islamist women groups. But given their community, professional, and personal intensions they tend to be pragmatic in their approach. That is, they use practical reasoning to deduce the right action and they reject ideology as a guide. In this regard, they would agree with Paul Collier who wrote, “in real communities the relative importance of values evolves” (Paul Collier, 2018). Between their interest in non-domination and gender equality, and community development, and their professional obligations, they constantly ask ‘What, here and now, is most likely to work?’ As their work and their livelihoods occur in communities that are dealing with systemic poverty, the women associative and NGO leaders might “have to join the political parties that do not have gender justice in mind,” and/or are dominated by men and a culture where “all decisions are made by men at nights in the cafes.” Therefore, this group of women leaders has to constantly satisfy multiple obligations. By trying to satisfy all these obligations, these women NGO leaders, like their counterparts in Northern ‘funding’ agencies, ‘want to do good, and do it right’ (Sarah de Jong, 2018). Their work is necessary, and in many instances, positive for the goals of gender equality.
The decline of civil nuclear power programs: Why state-owned enterprises hold the key to success in the Post-Fukushima Era.
(2021-08-26) Lambert, John; Jones, Christopher
Civil nuclear power is declining in Canada, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States, and rapidly expanding in China, France, India, Russia, and South Korea. The disaster at Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power plant changed the future of nuclear power. For some states that means drastic shifts away from nuclear, and for others it means that the future of nuclear just became more difficult and expensive. This paper seeks to examine the role that state-owned enterprises play in advancing nuclear programs, and the difficulties that states without state-owned enterprises will face in this new future. A state-owned enterprise is a corporation that conducts the business of the state that is either wholly owned by the government, or where a government owns controlling shares of a private corporation. (e.g., Amtrak, Freddie Mac, etc.) I posit that the presence of state-owned enterprises, or a government’s controlling interest in a private nuclear energy corporation, enables governments to advance their state’s civil nuclear power programs.This will be analyzed by examining nuclear power plant construction times, and completion rates for states that operate nuclear state-owned enterprises against those of private corporations. The results show that states operating state-owned enterprises have higher completion rates and quicker completion times.
Why So Little? The Curious Case of Taiwan’s Defense Spending
(2020-10-26) Li, Steven; Bachman, David
Taiwan’s defense budget continues to be a friction point in U.S.-Taiwan defense relations. Despite having adopted allocating 3 percent of its GDP towards defense as a target, Taipei continues to hover around 2 percent in annual defense spending. This dissertation examines the reasons for this shortfall and also assesses if 3 percent is an appropriate or meaningful target. It argues that Taiwan’s defense spending is constrained by a multitude of factors across political contexts, practical limitations, and procedural impediments. As such, using 3 percent of GDP as a standard for Taiwan’s defense spending or measurement of its commitment to self-defense, without adequately understanding all the factors, would be inappropriate and superficial. First and foremost, international isolation along with domestic necessities shape Taipei’s defense behavior politically. On the international level, geopolitical isolation makes Taiwan reliant on U.S. support but the fear of abandonment continues to motivate Taipei’s behavior in its relationship with Washington. At the domestic level, the lack of decision-making centrality and cohesion undermine Taipei’s ability to change. Second, financial, geospatial, and demographic realities impose practical limitations that further constrain Taiwan’s defense choices. A limited financial base forces Taipei to make investment tradeoffs in maximizing the island’s security; Taiwan’s small land mass and proximity to China makes the island prone to being saturated by defense hardware; and low birth rates and aging population negatively affect Taiwan’s defense readiness. Finally, administrative obstacles procedurally undermine the effectiveness of U.S.-Taiwan defense interactions. Washington’s restrictive approach to dealing with Taiwan and Taipei’s bureaucratic rigidity collectively undercut effective U.S.-Taiwan defense interactions.
Resisting Erasure: The Practice of Learning from Maya Mam Narratives of Survivance in Guatemala
(2020-08-14) Willard, Emily; Godoy, Angelina
Through the implementation of innovative research methods and engagement with Indigenous scholarship, scholars of transitional justice and archival studies can learn important lessons from Indigenous scholars and communities who are working to build brighter futures in the shadow of conflict, violence, and genocide. In my doctoral research, here presented in three articles, I make this argument through exploring the case studies of Rwanda and Guatemala, providing methods of analysis, and identifying opportunities for collaborative research. In part one, “New Documents Shed Light: Why did Peacekeepers Withdraw During Rwanda’s 1994 Genocide?”, an article published in 2018 in Genocide Studies and Prevention: an International Journal, I utilize the “critical oral history method” and analysis of recently declassified United States government records that shed light on the failed international response to stop the genocide in Rwanda. While methods used in this study elicit important information, the author finds that the study fails to include voices of people who suffered the consequences of these flawed polices. In part two, “Collaborative Archival Analysis & Co-Producing Knowledge,” I discuss the use of innovative archival analysis and “critical oral history” to address the flaws in the Rwanda project, drawing on important lessons from Indigenous studies and decolonizing methodologies. I apply these lessons in the case study of a collaborative project with the small town of genocide survivors in Nuevo Amanecer in western Guatemala. I argue that by broadening access to documents from the U.S.’ “colonial archive” about the Guatemalan genocide, we subvert the colonial archive in important ways. While these methods provide promise, future research needs to further develop these approaches. Finally, in part three, “Beyond Transitional Justice: Learning from Indigenous Maya Resistance in Guatemala,” I identify concrete lessons scholars and practitioners can learn from Indigenous scholarship when attempting to determine successes and shortcomings of the international community’s approach to transitional justice in the case of Guatemala. Through learning from the Indigenous studies concepts of refusal, survivance, and thrivance, as well as ideas of “damage-centered research” and “desire-centered research,” non-Native scholars can fundamentally reconfigure ideas of how to do their work by centering the voices and projects of communities who are building brighter futures. Ultimately, I conclude that non-Native scholars and practitioners can learn many lessons from Indigenous scholars and communities who are doing innovative future-building work, especially in the field of archival studies and transitional justice.

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