Browsing by Author "Dupuy, Arnold C."

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    Female Democratic Agency: Lessons from Rural Haiti
    Simeunovic, Sara Lynn (Virginia Tech, 2019-02-07)
    Rural Haiti provides an excellent case to study the human security crisis threatening women. Haitian women are often single mothers, leading average households of 4-6. In elected positions, female leadership is seldom recognized. With only 3.5% of parliament comprised of female leaders, policies decided at the state level seldom address the challenges women face in the countryside (HDI, 2017). Haiti has the highest mortality rate for children below the age of 5 and expectant mothers in the Western Hemisphere (WHO, 2017). This crisis is a significant one. When a mother struggles, both her life and her child's are threatened. Yet the human security crisis is not all we can learn from rural Haiti. We can also examine the unique ways women have chosen to respond to this crisis and the potential for female democratic agency. There is a significant lack of elected female officials in Haiti. This fact invites us to consider the impact rural Haitian females, such as the famn chay, are potentially making in Haiti. Famn chay are traditional birth attendants who assist mothers in their home deliveries. They are also first responders in times of crisis, providing meals to hungry families and using their collective resources to benefit children in need. Some famn chay, I suggest, are promoting an innovative form of democratic agency through their local community council, konsey kominote. Such form of agency does not focus on formal mechanisms of representation. Instead, threatened by growing social and income inequalities, this particular group has chosen to organize to address the human security crisis currently threatening women in rural Haiti.
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    Patterns of Regionalism and Security: Energy as a Transformational Influence in the Black Sea Region
    Dupuy, Arnold C. (Virginia Tech, 2016-06-27)
    One of the more significant regional groupings to have emerged since the collapse of the Soviet Union is the wider Black Sea. Located at the jagged confluence of the Western, Orthodox and Muslim worlds, the region was quite frequently a violent meeting place, and thus instead of a bridge between civilizations, it has been a barrier. Even more compelling is how the presence of oil and gas has thrust the Black Sea into the world's view and contributed to the rush of external interest, and how this has helped develop a unique regional entity. Today, in an interconnected global economy, the region's position as a producer and conduit for fossil fuels makes it impossible to consider in isolation. More importantly, to succinctly define this dissertation's research question, it can be asked how does energy act as a transformational agent in the emergence of a Black Sea region?
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    The Role of Women in High Leadership Positions in Minimizing or Preventing Interstate Conflict and War
    Woods, Arthur Leo IV (Virginia Tech, 2022-10-27)
    The role of gender on international security has received a great deal of attention. In crucial political arenas, women are conspicuously absent, and this lack of representation permits male interests to take precedence. In 2017, the global average percentage of women in parliament was only 23.3%, a gain of 6.5% over the previous decade. Does the occurrence of violent conflict change when women become leaders or when their participation in parliament increases? There is a varied range of explanations that supports or contradicts the assertion that women in leadership positions lead to less conflict and war. This research aims to evaluate the conduct of female leaders during crises. It is impossible to prove that female pacifism creates a less conflicted system. However, it does contribute to the notion that a women-only leadership would be just as conflicted as the existing patriarchal institutions, albeit in a different manner. The study conducted a desk study research method. It aimed to answer specific questions related to primary research. Secondary research was conducted by looking at already existing secondary data. The obtained data were analyzed through thematic analysis. The findings suggest that women may have distinct gender values than males due to their different social positions. Women leaders must overcome sex role stereotypes. Women in influential positions may use their experiences as voters and members of society in their policy choices as leaders. The widest gender disparity occurs between men and women in the intellectual core of politics (foreign affairs). This has driven women to favor other paths over foreign policy and war, so we may anticipate female leaders in powerful positions to behave differently than males.