Honors Projects

The Development of a New Paradigm of Humanitarian Intervention: Assessing the Responsibility to Protect

Jayne Discenza — Thu, 06 Jun 2013 11:35:37 PDT

The Responsibility to Protect (RtoP) concept aimed to clarify the relationship between state sovereignty and humanitarian intervention, and its invocation during the recent intervention in Libya provides an opportunity to assess its impact. This project compares the events of Libya with the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina of the early 1990s, examining the framing of these conflicts as well as the perceived role of other states, the engagement of international organizations with the concept, and the effect on operations during the humanitarian interventions themselves. Providing a historical comparison more accurately situates the contributions of RtoP in the re-prioritization of human rights over states sovereignty, while also providing a chance to highlight recurring concerns with the emerging doctrine.

Responding to the Affordable Care Act: Health Insurance Exchange Policy Diffusion

Margaret Worman — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:40:58 PDT

Following the passage of the Affordable Care Act, the government of each U.S. state either adopted a state run health insurance exchange or defaulted to a federally run exchange. This study uses event history analysis to examine this decision making process and the broader diffusion of health insurance exchange policy among the states. The results of this analysis indicate that states with a government controlled by the Democratic Party, a moralistic political culture, and a large uninsured population were more likely to adopt a state run exchange at an earlier date.

“Normalizing” Japan?: Contestation, Identity Construction, and the Evolution of Security Policy

Daisuke Minami — Tue, 21 May 2013 11:37:28 PDT

In this thesis, I address two puzzles regarding Japan’s security policy: (1) its minimalist military posture despite its economic power during the Cold War and (2) the recent shift from this minimalist security policy to an assertive one marked by a strengthening of its international security role and military. I argue that although many IR scholars, mainly from the realist camp, claim that the formation of the original security policy (puzzle 1) and subsequent transformation (puzzle 2) is driven by the state’s rational response to external conditions in the international security environment, it can more adequately be explained by the complex dynamics of internal contestation among “identity groups” with different visions of Japan’s national identity and interest.

Challenges to Policy Implementation: An Examination of an Integrated Health Care Delivery System Demonstration Project

Kaitlin A. Roh — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 10:13:03 PDT

US health care costs are among the highest of all industrialized nations. In an effort to reduce costs and improve health outcomes, new delivery models – including accountable care organizations – have been developed. Yet, as revealed through interviews with key participants in Hennepin County's delivery project, significant challenges to implementing them exist. They include obstacles that inherently arise from implementing a means-tested health care policy within a competitive, federalized governing structure. Because these challenges are not unique to Hennepin County, this project can help similar projects and may push policy towards the integration of the health care and social service systems.

Whose Line is it Anyway? Examining the Media's Coverage of Cabinet Secretaries' Speeches

Matthew G. Mullarky — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:05:46 PDT

Previous research suggests that politicians and the press spin news stories through their remarks and coverage of remarks to their own benefit — but is this also true for remarks made by Cabinet Secretaries? For this project, I compared remarks given by DHS Secretaries with newspaper articles about those remarks. I find that Secretaries’ ability to shape issues is initially limited by the press; however, Secretaries succeed in conveying their message eventually. This is important because citizens should know what government officials are saying and what those statements mean; therefore, media coverage of those statements should be critical and accurate.

Deciphering a Duality: Understanding Conflicting Standards in Sex & Violence Censorship in U.S. Obscenity Law

Rushabh P. Bhakta — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:02:47 PDT

This research examines the division in US obscenity law that enables strict sex censorship while overlooking violence. By investigating the social and legal development of obscenity in US culture, I argue that the contemporary duality in obscenity censorship standards arose from a family of forces consisting of faith, economy, and identity in early American history. While sexuality ingrained itself in American culture as a commodity in need of regulation, violence was decentralized from the state and proliferated. This phenomenon led to a prioritization of suppressing sexual speech over violent speech. This paper traces the emergence this duality and its source.

Theology of Global Citizenship: Belonging Beyond Boundaries, God Within Boundaries

Jisoo Hong — Thu, 10 May 2012 09:38:30 PDT

Though creating identity and belongingness under the sovereign requires an enclosure by boundaries, the very act of drawing boundaries imposes inevitable challenges. The limitations of the Westphalian system based on territorial boundaries are becoming more tangible with transnational flows threatening individual’s sense of belonging and the state’s exercise of sovereignty. Global citizenship is suggested as a possible “solution” transcending these arbitrarily drawn boundaries. Nonetheless, my political theological examination concludes that global citizenship is yet another translation of the human beings’ old wish for belonging to, protection from, and unity under a “god,” albeit with new boundaries that differentiate us from them.

Democratization As Discursive Transformation

Vera Sidlova — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:50:07 PDT

The current literature has conceptualized democratization as a linear process of structural transformation whereby a state transitions from a repressive regime to a democracy. This thesis asserts that democratization cannot be reduced to a process of systems change. Through a rhetorical analysis of Vaclav Havel's speeches in the aftermath of the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia, I demonstrate that the experience of democratization is rooted in historical and cultural resources and that local actors can offer valuable alternative perspectives on democracy. Embracing such alternative political imaginations is a way to democratize the concept of democratization itself.

An 'Asia Model'? A Relationist View on Regionalism and China's Regional Identity

Shelle Shimizu — Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:45:00 PDT

In an increasingly interconnected global order, governments are experiencing growing pressures to engage in cooperative and integrative processes. Indeed, regionalism has become a primary objective for all regions. East Asia is no exception. Using the "European Union" as a model, scholars generally regard East Asian regionalism as a "failure." With an emphasis on 'process' over 'progress' East Asian regionalist institutions lack the institutional formality and accountability mechanisms valued by Western standards on regionalism. I do not dispute these claims about East Asian regionalism so much as to propose a different interpretation allowed by applying a different theoretical lens. I subscribe to a relationalist framework that emphasizes relations vis-a-vis networks and identity, instead of a substantialist framework (the study of physical institutional entities). This allows me to analyze the ways in which relational processes in East Asia are changing the very identities and objectives of member nations. I analyze foreign policy speeches and documents released by the People's Republic of China during the span of 3 essential time periods: the Mao Zedong era, the era of reform led by Deng Xiaoping, and the current administration of President Hu Jintao. In these documents I examine particular shifts in China's guiding foreign policy ideology in order to observe a growing Chinese 'regional identity'. Through this I defend the idea that there is a dynamic and differentiated 'East Asian' Model' of regionalism.

Building an Asia-Pacific Security Community: A Role for Australia?

Jonathan K. Chen — Tue, 03 May 2011 06:31:37 PDT

Australia’s foreign policy has recently shifted from great-power dependency towards self-reliance in the Asia-Pacific. In light of this shift, there have been calls for the creation of a regional security community. This project looks at two existing security communities, the OSCE and ASEAN, to ascertain the necessary conditions for building a security community. From there, I examine whether or not these conditions exist in the Asia-Pacific, and investigate Australia’s ability to produce the remaining conditions. I conclude that Australia does not have the diplomatic power to overcome regional competition, and that rivalries amongst regional powers mitigate against the community’s creation.

Bidding (Fair)well to Due Process: The Need for a Fairer Final Stage in Special Education Dispute Resolution

Calanthe Cope-Kasten — Mon, 02 May 2011 11:54:07 PDT

In the United States, 6.8 million children receive special education services, and disputes over their education can become highly adversarial. This thesis examines due process hearings, which are the last resort for parents in special education conflicts, and evaluates the fairness of those hearings. Using interviews with judges and data from hearings between 2000-2009 in Wisconsin and Minnesota, I find that special education due process hearings are unfair because they inconsistently provide procedural protections, damage parent-school relationships, and provide insufficient outcomes for students. I conclude that a new system should replace special education due process hearings in the future.

The Emergence of Newer Social Movements in Argentina: The Necessity of Ideological Change for Transgressive Direct Action

Eric Blom — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 11:26:01 PST

I argue that novel action occurs when people adopt new identities and reinterpret their environment. To support this, I examine participation in the recovered business and popular high school movements in Argentina. I develop and employ a dynamic cognitive model of participation in social movements and argue that it best explains participation in these movements. I find that individuals with different roles in a movement and those with similar roles in different movements follow different patterns of ideological change. I also find that ideological change can come without interacting with competing ideologies, but doing so can bring more extensive changes.

Political Process and Policy Moderation: Explaining Institutional Durability in the Norwegian Oil Sector

Paal Robson — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:14:56 PDT

This thesis analyzes the Norwegian state's persistent involvement in the oil sector despite global changes towards privatization and liberalization. Drawing on primary sources and secondary literature, I investigate two policy events in 1984 and 2001. I argue that the persistence of state involvement in the industry may be explained by the political processes that underpin the formation of state oil policy. Norwegian party politicians have to accommodate two traditional conflict-dimensions, the left-right and center-periphery, in order to create broad consensus around a unified national oil policy. Taken as a whole, these processes lend themselves more to slow policy change, than rapid shifts away from the past social democratic model of state involvement.

Constructing a Citizenry: Variance in Civic Education in Minnesota's Secondary Schools

Hopi Costello — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 08:28:49 PDT

My project has two aims. First, I seek to fill the gap in basic descriptive data about the state of civic education in Minnesota's high schools. Second, I attempt to shed light on civic education in the state by exploring influences to it. I argue that demographic characteristics of civics teachers and the communities in which they teach influence both civics curriculum and teacher's conceptions of civic education. In a nation that depends on citizen participation for the functioning of the state, it is important to understand that the ways we teach students to participate may differ across locales.

Think Outside the Cell: Are Binding Detention Standards the Most Effective Strategy to Prevent Abuses of Detained Illegal Aliens?

Federico D. Burlon — Wed, 19 May 2010 11:20:10 PDT

In the last twenty years the U.S. government has increasingly utilized detention to control illegal immigration. This practice has become controversial because it has caused numerous in-custody abuses and deaths of immigrants, asylum seekers, refugees and even citizens. Immigrant rights advocates have called for the passage of binding detention standards to prevent in-custody abuses. This thesis’s policy analysis reveals, however, that while they may finesse the practice of immigration detention, such binding standards would be ineffective in protecting immigrants’ rights. Instead this policy analysis calls for and explains the feasibility of discontinuing the practice of mass immigrant detention.

A Rock Strikes Back: Women's Struggles for Equality in the Development of the South African Constitution

Thuto Seabe Thipe — Wed, 05 May 2010 06:09:57 PDT

In 1991, South African women’s organisations formed the Women's National Coalition (WNC) to identify and advocate for women's primary needs in the post-apartheid Constitution. The outcome of this advocacy was South Africa’s adoption, in 1996, of one of the most comprehensive protections of gender and sexuality rights of any national constitution. I argue that the WNC became a key actor in the development of the Constitution by drawing from a tradition of women’s organising in South Africa that emphasised women’s legitimacy in and value to public politics. The WNC rejected masculinist framings of politics and instead demanded that political structures change to be inclusive of and sensitive to women’s needs.

Growing Change: Local Foods Movements and the Emergence of Global Social Change

Annie S. Virnig — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 06:12:42 PST

Local foods movements increasingly emerge as social movements with the power to challenge global norms. This paper develops around the question: can local foods movements create holistic sustainability at the global level? I begin by analyzing impetuses behind contemporary local foods movements. I then evaluate sustainability in three case studies – Auroville, India; the Twin Cities, United States; and Southern Africa. I ultimately argue that local foods movements can create sustainable change if they: (1) develop organically within their locale, (2) account for ecological, social, and economic implications of their actions, and (3) build translocal connections across multiple geographic scales.

Timing Justice: Lessons from the Tribunals in Yugoslavia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Cambodia

Zoe B. Whaley — Tue, 26 May 2009 07:42:11 PDT

Scholarship on tribunals for mass human rights violations overlooks how the presence or absence of conflict influences its effectiveness. I argue that implementing a tribunal during conflict undermines its ability to effectively pursue justice—as I demonstrate with a case study of the Yugoslav Tribunal. Ongoing conflict makes challenges of transitional justice more acute. The absence of conflict eases a tribunal’s ability to carry out certain necessary activities such as collecting evidence. I demonstrate this using a case study of the Rwanda Tribunal. Examining tribunals in Sierra Leone and Cambodia suggests that hybrid structures influence the effectiveness of these accountability mechanisms.

The Social Evolution of War and Transformation in Political Organization

Talon J. Powers — Thu, 21 May 2009 13:37:33 PDT

Until recently, international relations theory has treated the territorial state as a transhistorical constant. The post-positivist turn, however, revives the question of the state’s origins and future sustainability. By drawing together the contributions of historical sociologists and social theorists of war, this thesis provides a model for change in political organization stemming from foundational transformations in warfare. This model considers not only warfighting practices, but the social and broader historical context in which war is embedded. Through analysis of the feudal and modern cases, I demonstrate why warfare is the best lens through which to evaluate change in political organization.

Weak States and Political Constraints: Experiments with Truth in Liberia and Sierra Leone

Robert Collins Painter — Sat, 09 May 2009 09:11:26 PDT

Focusing on truth and reconciliation commissions in Liberia and Sierra Leone, this thesis examines which political conditions typical of weak states had the greatest impact in deciding the different levels of success between the two cases. Two conditions played a central role in determining each commission’s success: the de-legitimization of the state and political fragmentation. Their presence in Sierra Leone derailed that truth commission’s efforts to carry out its mandate. Conversely, their absence in Liberia allowed its commission to operate relatively free of political impediments, leading to greater success.