Browsing by Author "Koch, Bettina"
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- An Analysis of the Supreme Court's Holdings in Establishment Clause Cases: Comparing Holdings to Measure Consistency Across VariablesHelms, Mark Daniel (Virginia Tech, 2013-11-18)Literature regarding the Supreme Court's holdings in Establishment Clause cases suggests the Court's jurisprudence has been inconsistent. Because the Court had both upheld and invalidated challenged governmental actions that relate to religious practices or institutions, a broad overview of the Court's holdings in Establishment Clause cases seems to support that notion. But where does the inconsistency lie: in the tests and criteria used by court members or in the holdings themselves? This thesis suggests that when comparing categories and subsets of the Court's holdings in Establishment Clause cases to one another, the jurisprudence is in fact consistent. This thesis demonstrates where the consistency can be identified and measured in the Court's jurisprudence by analyzing the holdings. The thesis employs three models, Strict-Separationism, Non-Preferentialism, and Accommodationism, to create standardized categories of Supreme Court's holdings, as independent as possible of the reasoning, criteria, or tests applied to the case by the Court members. I grouped the cases included in this study into one or more categories based on which model(s) the Court's actual holding matched. Then I compared cases within each category of holdings to one another across variables (such as actual holding and case types) to measure consistency between the cases. I conclude with an examination of the measured consistency and explanation of identified patterns in the Supreme Court's Establishment Clause holdings. The data indicated that the Court's actual holdings matched the same projected holdings consistently when compared to cases with similar variables.
- Anti-Americanism, World Politics, and German-U.S. RelationsCook, Cecil (Virginia Tech, 2007-05-04)This study examines German-U.S. relations during the George W. Bush administration. It utilizes Peter J. Katzenstein and Robert O. Keohane's theoretical framework of anti-Americanism to examine German perceptions of U.S. foreign policy. Katzenstein and Keohane distinguish four distinctive types of anti-Americanism. Liberal anti-Americanism is a reaction to unpopular U.S. foreign policies. Social anti-Americanism occurs in response to U.S. style capitalism and U.S. society. Sovereign-nationalist anti-American is a nationalistic response to the superpower's perceived intrusion on state sovereignty. Radical anti-Americanism is a Leninist or radical Islamic response to U.S. power. I hypothesize that anti-Americanism in German is primarily a political reaction to the policies of the Bush administration. However the negative attitudes towards U.S. foreign policy also manifest themselves in the form of the social and sovereign types of anti-Americanism.
- Disciplining Religious Bodies, Forming Secular Bodies: Atatürk, Modern Power and Secular AffectPervaiz, Mohammed Naeem (Virginia Tech, 2020-07-07)This work is an investigation into secular and religious male embodiment in Turkey. The explorations in this work are interdisciplinary showing how the European body became coded and formed onto the archetype of a universal secular male body. In particular, I show how the secular male body formed during the rupture between empire (Ottoman) and nation-state (Turkey). I focus in particular how the body of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (d. 1938) became the way in which the secular body was disciplined, taught and performed. I explore the enigmatic indeterminacy of the secular male body by showing how the secular functions as a separating power, partitioning men into public (secular) and private (religious) persons. I try and capture how secular life was coherently and discursively constructed in the early Turkish Republic through brute force, humiliation and acquiescence. Thinking with Wittgenstein and Foucault, I do not theorize the secular, nor do I employ special critical theoretical strategies such as archeology or deconstruction to unsettle the secular. Such theoretical strategies may themselves be an expression of secular power. Instead, I follow how secular power works in the utterances, institutions (horizontal power in ordinary life as well as vertical state power) and bodily practices of subjects through what anthropologists influenced by the seminal work of Talal Asad call a "discursive-embodied" tradition. Here, I comment on several Kemalist sources of inspiration such as the journal La Turquie Kemaliste, Atatürk's Anıtkabir Mausoleum, bodies memorialized in Kemalist museums and early Republican newspapers. I go on to examine ethnographically how a contemporary Nekşibendi sufi community in Istanbul practice embodiment and view secular life. For them and many other of my interlocutors, the partitioning of men into public and private persons constituted a separation of a "form" from its "life", what was called to me a "hypocrite" body (munafiq). The munafiq body does not so easily live well with views of embodiment that coalesce "inner" and "outer" life in sufism, thus reifying in some sufi circles in Istanbul the problem of religious and secular embodiment in Turkey today.
- Discourses and Notions of Identity in United States Foreign Policy: Israel and the 2014 Gaza WarJohnson, Elizabeth Anne (Virginia Tech, 2019-06-21)This paper examines U.S. political and social discourse on the 2014 Gaza-Israel conflict and attempts to better understand U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, specifically on Israel. By examining official U.S. government documents, media articles, and pop culture platforms, this project identifies dominant narratives within the United States on Israel and the Palestinian territories. The complicated notions of identity that were discursively expressed within the United States on the 2014 Gaza-Israel conflict are deconstructed and discussed to further the academic discussion on U.S. relations in the Middle East.
- The Ethnic Nationalist Seduction: Populist Radical Right Parties in Denmark and SwedenSeiler, Christopher Davis (Virginia Tech, 2020-03-25)Populist radical right (PRR) political parties have become important players in many European countries. These parties generally have a core ideology of ethnic nationalism supported by antiestablishment populism and sociocultural authoritarianism. PRR parties have managed to find electoral success in many European countries over the last few decades, usually at the expense of more established mainstream parties. The success of PRR parties is dependent on both voters and the parties themselves. In other words, parties must frame issues in a way that appeals to at least some voters while voters must have some reason for supporting these parties. This thesis looks at Denmark and Sweden, two countries with relatively similar cultures, political systems, and economies that have had different experiences with PRR parties. An analysis of socioeconomic factors highlights certain traits that makes voters more likely to vote for PRR parties, namely education and unemployment. Additionally, PRR party rhetoric likely appeals to socioeconomically disadvantaged voters by promising improved welfare and shifting the blame for their troubles to immigrants. In sum, this thesis suggests that PRR parties will continue to find electoral success as long as immigration maintains a high level of political salience, as PRR parties can use anti-immigration rhetoric to attract the socioeconomically disadvantaged.
- Explanation and Critique of the Iranian Reform Movement: Alternative Discourses for a Conservative RegimeNamatpour, Ali (Virginia Tech, 2016-06-29)This thesis analyzes the failures, achievements, and some of the possible political ramifications of the reform movement in Iran since the Islamic Revolution. It focuses on religious intellectual discourses in the context of the intellectual trajectory of Islamic thought from the revolutionary period to the post-revolutionary reformist phase. This thesis examines the role of the post-revolutionary intellectuals after the death of Ayatollah Khomeini. For reaching this goal, this research presents an analysis of the historical processes which resulted in the formation and growth of the religious intellectuals in Iran. The thesis begins by explaining the basis of Shia political thought and its growth trend which leads to the theory of velayate faqih as the main response to the question of the political legitimacy in Shia doctrine. I argue that the emergence of the reformist ideas related to the decline of the revolutionary model of the Islamic government, which dominated the decade after the revolution. I discuss how the reformists and the religious intellectuals challenge the socio-economic and the political hegemony of the Islamic government. Finally, I explore the politics of the reform movement after the election of President Khatami in 1997, and consider the failures and achievements of the reformist government in the socio-political sphere. The thesis explores the reformists victory was the first step for reforming the power structure which might lead to the transformation of the socio-political and economic liberalization, and which combines modern political thought with a religious framework in the power structure in Iran.
- Exploring Legal Multiculturalism in the Irish Sea: Multiculturalism, Proto-Democracy, and State Formation on the Isle of Man from 900-1300Wolf, Michael Joseph (Virginia Tech, 2014-06-02)This thesis explores the relationship between proto-democracy, multiculturalism, and state formation. In the introduction, I express the desire to ascertain how legal multiculturalism on the Isle of Man could be viewed as a product of the shared proto-democratic character of the Irish and the Norse legal traditions. Further, I wish to explore how this multiculturalism influenced the development of the state on the island and, coming full circle, what multiculturalism and state formation meant for the future of proto-democracy on the island. In this thesis, I conclude that many of the institutions that played a role in fostering state formation on Man, such as the keys, coroners, and parishes, were themselves a product of legal multiculturalism. Further, I argue that this legal multiculturalism and state formation in turn results in a loss of institutions on Man that characterized the separate legal traditions as proto-democracies.
- Ideological Foundations of Jihadist Organizations: Hizbullah, al-Qaeda, and ISHodges, Robert Andrew (Virginia Tech, 2017-07-18)This thesis explores the ideological foundations of three jihadist organizations, Hizbullah, al-Qaeda, and Islamic State (IS). All three are categorized as international terrorist organizations but their goals differ. Hizbullah seeks to alter the government within Lebanon, al-Qaeda seeks to eliminate Western influences in Muslim inhabited territories, and IS seeks to create a caliphate within a large portion of the Middle East. The similarities and differences of these three organizations will be illuminated through this examination. The primary focus of the examination focuses on their religious teachings and discourse, as this is a critical aspect of their ideologies. Through this examination, the differences in discourse coinciding with the differing goals of each organization is presented. The discourse of each organization facilitates their goals, recruitment of fighters, and explanation of their actions. Self/other identification is a commonality of all three ideologies but the identification of the other is different according to each organizations goals. This thesis will highlight this aspect and allow for further discussion of the three organizations in future research. The conclusion will allow for discussion as to who gains and maintains power and whether religion is a base or merely a tool for this power.
- Introduction: Regional Security in the Middle East: Sectors, Variables and IssuesKoch, Bettina; Stivachtis, Yannis A. (E-International Relations, 2019-05-11)
- Iraqi Shi'ites and Identity Conflict: A Study in the Developments of their Religious-Political Identities From 1920-2003Almasaedi, Waleed K. (Virginia Tech, 2021-01-27)The Iraqi Shi'ites' revival post-2003 and the rise of communal identity make an increasing need to study the roots of their political identities. This study surveys literature written about the political behavior of Shi'ites at different historical eras in the 20th century (to be specific, from the 1920s to 2003). In this study, my aim is to evaluate, based on the collected evidence, the Shi'ites' sense of identity during these historical eras, how they viewed themselves, and with whom they affiliated? Particularly, I delve into these research questions: Did the Shi'ites behave as a homogenous group? Did they have a single dominant identity that defines them as Shi'ite political identity? Did the political behavior of different Shi'ite Islamic groups originate from their religious and communal identities, or did it come from their national aspiration as Iraqis? I apply a history of political thought/ ideology approach, implementing critical historical hermeneutics. The analysis of the evidence indicates that Shi'ites show different senses of belonging at different historical eras and political events. The findings suggest that the communal and political identity was developed at a later stage of Iraq's 20th-century history. It also shows the diverse identities Shi'ites have and how their political behavior differs according to these diverse identities.
- Islamic Authority and the Articulation of Jihad: Approaching Jihadist Authority through the Islamist Magazine InspireLaChette, Aleisha (Virginia Tech, 2015-06-15)This thesis examines the impact of changing views of legitimate Islamic authority on conceptions of jihad. Spearheaded by militant Sunni movements, jihad in the modern era has taken on new purposes and practices that more closely resemble general understandings of terrorism than the regulated forms of warfare cemented during the classical period of Islam. Contrasting the historical authority of the caliph or political leader and the ulama over the concept of jihad with the modern state and ulama's lack of control over the concept offers a partial explanation of the divergence of contemporary jihad from the classical or traditional views. This thesis uses the concept of individual jihad as communicated through the jihadist magazine Inspire, to counter the dismissal of radical articulations of jihad as un-Islamic and therefore illegitimate, and to demonstrate how such forms instead reflect the opportunistic replacement of traditional political and religious authority by the jihadist as the true defender of Islam and consequently the rightful interpreter of Islamic law.
- Sevres Syndrome: Constructing the populist us versus them through fear in TurkeyMatthews, Ryan John (Virginia Tech, 2021-01-29)This thesis explores the role of the phenomenon of Sevres Syndrome in the construction of the populist antagonistic relation of "us" versus "them" in Turkey. Not only does it look at its role in populist discourse, but it also highlights how it has been used throughout Turkish history by different hegemonic entities to exclude groups from the Turkish nation. It begins by briefly looking at the origins of Sevres Syndrome in the Treaty of Sevres and its manifestations throughout the history of the Turkish Republic as a fear of outside powers and their domestic collaborators intent on dividing and destroying the Turkish nation. It continues by providing an in-depth analysis of the populist discourse regarding the specific events of the July 2016 coup attempt and the April 2017 constitutional referendum to explore how Sevres Syndrome informs the development of the populist relation of "us" and "them". The thesis argues that the Sevres Syndrome fear narrative acts as a historic background narrative, which informs the discursive categorization of which groups belong to the populist "us" of the Turkish nation as opposed to the populist "them" of foreign powers and their domestic collaborators.
- Unmasking ‘Religious’ Conflicts and Religious Radicalisation in the Middle EastKoch, Bettina (E-International Relations, 2019-05-11)