Matching Items (6)
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Description
The international disaster-relief organization Doctors without Borders (MSF) is a dynamic geopolitical actor. Using a systematic literature review of academic journal articles and first person accounts by doctors from the field, the geopolitical role of MSF was analyzed. This search returned a wide range of articles many of which referenced

The international disaster-relief organization Doctors without Borders (MSF) is a dynamic geopolitical actor. Using a systematic literature review of academic journal articles and first person accounts by doctors from the field, the geopolitical role of MSF was analyzed. This search returned a wide range of articles many of which referenced the term “humanitarian space”. MSF utilizes humanitarian space to accomplish their medical work and witnessing actions in disaster areas. MSF’s geopolitical role stems from many of the central characteristics of the organization, but the process of creating humanitarian space engages them differently at both a global and a local level. Case studies of MSF’s work in Haiti and Rwanda reveal the interplay between global and local levels. Humanitarian space at the global level is a more imagined space. At this level, MSF relies on their practice of “témoignage” or testifying as their primary method for creating this space. At the local level, MSF focuses on their humanitarian patient-care to earn themselves space uninhibited by other power-wielding groups. These two levels work as a see-saw so that when the humanitarian space occupied by MSF is threatened at one level they can lean on their space at other in order to continue providing the best services possible. During the Rwandan genocide, MSF’s on the ground was work was limited to a single hospital in a single city and to compensate, they worked hard at the global level to bring attention to the violent situation in the country. This balance switched in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake of 2010 during which massive space for humanitarian action on the ground, made advocating at a local level unnecessary. Analysis of MSF from a political geography perspective opens up new avenues of examining the many interdisciplinary characteristics of an organization as wide-reaching as Doctors without Borders.
ContributorsGunderson, Emily Joy (Author) / Director, Henry (Thesis director) / Larson, Elizabeth (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
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Description
The disputes in the South China Sea involve overlapping territorial claims from multiple nations and have grown increasingly contentious over the past decade. The area is rich in natural resources and is strategically significant regarding international trade and military capabilities. Due to the significance of the area, the competing claims

The disputes in the South China Sea involve overlapping territorial claims from multiple nations and have grown increasingly contentious over the past decade. The area is rich in natural resources and is strategically significant regarding international trade and military capabilities. Due to the significance of the area, the competing claims have global ramifications and the conflict involves actors beyond the region. This paper examines the geopolitical factors involved in the disputes and how they shape states' actions in relation to the South China Sea. Specifically, this paper will show how China's actions in the South China Sea reflect both the geography of the region, and also its political ambitions in the region and international community. The states' claims contend the territory, territoriality, and sovereignty of islands in the South China Sea, and are based on both international law and historical evidence illustrated in the case between the Philippines and China in the Scarborough Shoal. It demonstrates China's tactics for managing competing claims, its increasing military capabilities, and the uncertainty of resolutions to the conflict. The mechanisms for the resolution of the territorial disputes in the South China Sea are shown to be largely ineffective given the differing basis of claims over the South China Sea states have. International institutions, such as United Nations tribunals, and other nations without direct claims in the South China Sea, such as the United States, have interests in the conflict related to the peaceful resolution of disputes between nations, while also influencing states' actions. This paper reviews the concepts of geopolitics and how China's strategy in the South China Sea reflects both critical and classical geopolitics and its objective of regional hegemony.
ContributorsKelly, Megan Jean (Author) / Sivak, Henry (Thesis director) / Lundry, Chris (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
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In this thesis I use reliable economic data and political reasoning to unravel the motive behind the collapse in oil and natural gas prices, which began in the summer of 2014. In the first two sections of this paper, I use economic data to disclose that the success and failure

In this thesis I use reliable economic data and political reasoning to unravel the motive behind the collapse in oil and natural gas prices, which began in the summer of 2014. In the first two sections of this paper, I use economic data to disclose that the success and failure of the Russian economy has invariably depended on oil and natural gas prices. With this fact in mind, I go on to elucidate that high oil and gas prices from 1998-2008 attributed to Russia's robust economic growth during this period. I then assert that Russia's strong economy enabled Moscow to politically and/or military intervene in countries such as Georgia, Syria and Ukraine. With rising Russian aggression threatening the world and America's interests, I then claim that the significant increase in the production of U.S. oil and natural gas is probably prompted by the U.S. government, which is looking to debilitate the Russian economy by suppressing prices, and U.S. firms that want to maximize profits. Finally in section six, I assert that Russia's economy will eventually collapse as long as oil and gas prices remain below Russia's breakeven price. With Russia's economy in shambles, I then deduce that Moscow's power and global influence will also subside.
ContributorsShawil, Banipal (Author) / Gallais, Sylvain (Thesis director) / McDaniel, Cara (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description

The United States and China have entered a geopolitical competition for power and influence unseen since the Cold War. By examining the nature of this contest through the lens of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War and Graham Allison's Thucydides' Trap theory, it is possible to analyze the nature of

The United States and China have entered a geopolitical competition for power and influence unseen since the Cold War. By examining the nature of this contest through the lens of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War and Graham Allison's Thucydides' Trap theory, it is possible to analyze the nature of this relationship, and make predictions as to where it may lead.

ContributorsKolesar, Spencer Owen (Author) / Lynch, John (Thesis director) / Voorhees, Matthew (Committee member) / Del E. Webb Construction (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2021-05
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Description

As China is using its Belt and Road Initiative to solidify strategic partnerships, which China is consciously forming with the intention of engineering shifts in the regional balance of power, it strengthens its hegemony and therefore raises the significance of the BRI and CPEC as an instrument to position itself

As China is using its Belt and Road Initiative to solidify strategic partnerships, which China is consciously forming with the intention of engineering shifts in the regional balance of power, it strengthens its hegemony and therefore raises the significance of the BRI and CPEC as an instrument to position itself as an emerging global power. I will explore this thesis statement by using the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor as a case study.

ContributorsKhwaja, Aaliyah (Author) / Iheduru, Okechukwu (Thesis director) / Haines, Chad (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Historical, Philosophical & Religious Studies, Sch (Contributor)
Created2022-05
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Description
This thesis approaches the concept of nationalism within the context of post-Soviet Estonian and Georgian state-building from a sociological perspective, building upon the work of Émile Durkheim, Bernard Yack, Anthony Smith, and Rogers Brubaker. Taking such a stance identifies nationalism as a social concept whose relationship with geopolitics and political

This thesis approaches the concept of nationalism within the context of post-Soviet Estonian and Georgian state-building from a sociological perspective, building upon the work of Émile Durkheim, Bernard Yack, Anthony Smith, and Rogers Brubaker. Taking such a stance identifies nationalism as a social concept whose relationship with geopolitics and political integration comments on the merits of post-Soviet Estonian and Georgian geopolitical conditions and their respective state-building processes, specifically regarding ethnic minority and international integration. I argue that the cases of Estonia and Georgia demonstrate that social solidarity institutionalized in states and expressed through nationalism has significant effects on geopolitics and the integration of ethnic minorities into a broader multi-ethnic state as well as on the integration of a broader multi-ethnic state into the international community. This thesis demonstrates that the different paths that Estonia and Georgia took towards this integration indicate the significance not only of domestic nationalistic circumstances, but also of the larger geopolitical realities and underlying historic foundations in which and from which state-building must occur.
ContributorsLepley, Karissa Renee (Author) / Sivak, Henry (Thesis director) / Pout, Daniel (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2020-12