VTechWorks Repository :: Browsing by Author "Stivachtis, Yannis A."

Browsing by Author "Stivachtis, Yannis A."

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Alternative Pathways to Peace and Development in Rural Chiapas, Mexico
Hollinger, Keith H. (Virginia Tech, 2011-05-02)
The concept of peacebuilding holds enormous importance for international relations, particularly in regions facing impending violent conflict and those recovering from such conflict. However, in order for peacebuilding to be a viable alternative to traditional peace operations, scholars and practitioners need to have a shared understanding of what peacebuilding is and what goals it hopes to achieve, in addition to fluid strategies for implementation. This dissertation seeks to identify strategies for building sustainable peace through sustainable community development and democratization. Using a qualitative metasynthesis of five ethnographies conducted in Chiapas Mexico, this dissertation develops mid-range theories, or strategies, for building peace in Chiapas and in regions experiencing low-intensity conflict more generally. These strategies are based upon the development of Pluriethnic collective governance at the local level in regions that are experiencing low-intensity conflict related to indigenous communities.
An Analysis of President Trump's Afghanistan Foreign Policy: Through the Theoretical Framework of Walter Russell Mead's Four Paradigms
Santoro, Patrick Thomas (Virginia Tech, 2020-05-26)
The purpose of this thesis was to analyze President Trump's Afghanistan foreign policy and to determine if it fits the mold of one of the four historical foreign policy paradigms as described by Walter Russell Mead in his book, Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World. Mead describes four U.S. foreign policy schools of thought, in which he titles after influential statesmen who embody the specific school's core principles. These paradigms include the Hamiltonians, who believe in a strong relationship between big business and government for foreign policy success. The Wilsonians, who encourage the spread of democratic principles abroad. The Jeffersonians, who favor the protection of domestic liberal democracy over other foreign policy endeavors. Lastly, the Jacksonians, who prioritize the physical and economic security of American citizens above all else. The primary research question in this thesis states, which of the four traditions of U.S. foreign policy identified by Walter Russell Mead helps explain President Trump's Afghanistan foreign policy? President Trump's rhetoric and specific foreign policy actions were analyzed. His rhetoric was examined through his August 2017 Afghanistan Strategy speech and his specific foreign policy actions were measured through various air operation metrics, U.S. aid to Afghanistan, and U.S. troop deployment trends. Overall, this thesis gave support to my hypothesis that President Trump's Afghanistan foreign policy contains various Hamiltonian and Wilsonian principles, but it has proven to be principally Jacksonian.
Anti-Americanism, World Politics, and German-U.S. Relations
Cook, 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.
Asymmetric Strategies and Asymmetric Threats: A Structural-realist Critique of Drone Strikes in Pakistan, 2004-2014
Harris, Kathryn Elizabeth (Virginia Tech, 2016-01-28)
As a component of the overall policy to defeat global terrorism and prevent attacks against the U.S., the Bush and Obama administrations have turned to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), or drones. From 2004 to 2014, Pakistan has seen the largest volume of U.S. drone strikes targeting radical groups such as al Qaeda and the Taliban, a trend that is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. On the surface, using drones to eliminate terrorists while avoiding an official armed conflict aligns with the theory of neo- or structural realism developed by Kenneth Waltz. And yet although 9/11 served as the impetus for the U.S. to refocus attention on ameliorating the threat of terrorism and to initiate far-reaching measures to protect homeland security, there remains intense debate over whether or not the U.S. is actually more secure than it was prior to 9/11. While structural realism is still relevant to the current international system, the effects of drone strikes in Pakistan may set the U.S. on a path toward increasingly destabilizing situations that could lead to heightened insecurity and ultimately a change in power in the international system. The existing literature suggests that drone strikes in Pakistan are (1) leading to revenge-driven counter attacks, (2) intensifying radical anti-Americanism and creating more potential terrorists, (3) damaging the U.S. relationship with nuclear-armed Pakistan, (4) destabilizing the regions where drone attacks are launched, and (5) undermining American 'soft power.' The culmination of these five trends has the potential to disrupt the current balance of power in a way that is not in America's national interest. The unique security dilemma presented by the asymmetrical threat of terrorism and the asymmetrical response of drone strikes necessitates the continued evolution of neorealism as an IR theory.
Bordering the Mediterranean: Liminality and Regioncraft at the Center of the World
Georgakis Abbott, Stefanie Florence (Virginia Tech, 2014-03-11)
In this dissertation, I theorize that the Mediterranean, broadly conceived of as a geo-cultural-political entity and experience, is a locality for the investigation into the processes through which representations of continents and civilizations come into focus. A fundamental argument in this dissertation is that borders (like the Mediterranean) do not represent the limits to territorially fixed entities, but are rather continually ongoing projects that come to be negotiated and reified through political practices that are focused, in this instance, on asserting where the outside of Europe begins. The arguments of this dissertation are twofold. First, the Mediterranean is theorized as a fluid and porous space. Secondly, and more importantly, the Mediterranean is a key site for an investigation into the (re)production of politically and culturally saturated discourses of belonging and otherness. Thus, this project takes into focus three distinct, yet inextricably interrelated, processes of the borderization of the Mediterranean. These processes work to maintain the space as a global axis of sorts, upon which academic and popular discussions and representations of the East versus the West or the North versus the South emerge. It is an underlying argument of this study that links the examples of the Barcelona Process, discussions of a migration crisis, and Turkey's accession to the EU as processes of borderization of the European Union. While they are often analyzed as separate phenomena, all are indicative of these spatial and temporal borders represented by the Mediterranean, seen together they have the capability of highlighting the interconnectedness of the varying threads of Mediterraneanism. To understand how categories like European, Asian, or African come to have such salient political suggestiveness and meaning, one must bring into question how the borders that divide these imagined spaces are complex sites of the convergence of practices and discourses acquire their fortitude and who gets to tell the stories that outline their parameters.
Causes and Consequences of an American Empire
Seay, David James (Virginia Tech, 2009-04-15)
Empire is an emotionally and historically charged term. However, its usage throughout time to describe states' and peoples' behavior towards others is a display of the vitality in the term's etymological construction. Today, the United States must reexamine itself through a historically grounded imperial lens in order to create more beneficial set of policies; by refining its strengths and reforming its weaknesses; both at home and abroad. Presidential leaders and foreign policies, defined by military and ideological power in recent times have both enhanced and bucked a possible imperial American existence. Nonetheless, an imperial assessment of past and future decisions may show Americans their proximity to empire, and may provoke new elements of thought in the American psyche and practices in American politics.
Challenging Neoliberal Conditionality: Tracing IMF Lending Policies from 2007-2012
Christiansen, William Thomas (Virginia Tech, 2013-06-24)
The conditionality agreements of the International Monetary Fund have received a significant amount of criticism from the 1980s and 1990s and into the 2000s. Critics have found little reassurance from the IMF\'s attempts to reform conditionality after 2000. The 1980s marked a time where conditionality on IMF loans required structural adjustment and the imposition of austere fiscal measures. The streamlining initiative in 2000 possessed only slight quantitative modification to lending conditionality. However, recent changes in the Fund\'s lending policy occuring between 2007 and 2012 may finally display the institution\'s ability to listen, learn, and adapt policy toward a conditionality regime utilizing policy outside of the neoliberal framework. This thesis examines these new policies and their implications for neoliberalism where the term represents an approach to economic growth that demands privatization, deregulation, and weakening the role of the public sector. It provides a history of conditionality reforms and positions the most recent reforms in lending policy in the evolving neoliberal context.
China and the South China Sea: The Emergence of the Huaqing Doctrine
Durani, Luis A. (Virginia Tech, 2015-12-23)
China and the South China Sea region will play an important role in global and US strategic policy for the foreseeable future. Because China is an upcoming global economic power, the US and other nations must become cognizant of China's motivations in the South China Sea in order to avoid conflict, which seems inevitable. The purpose of this thesis is to examine China's conflicts/tensions in the South China Sea, specifically the Spratly Islands, Paracel Islands, Taiwan, ASEAN, and US Navy. Discussions on the evolution of the People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) will also provide additional insight to China's actions in the region. Understanding China's history, role, and claims in the region begins to paint a picture that the PLAN are operating under a principle very similar to the Monroe Doctrine, which allowed the US unfettered access to the Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Lastly, the thesis will demonstrate that the Chinese version of the Monroe Doctrine as well the country's desire to establish dominance in the South China Sea, which she sees as her "lost territory", is derived from the fear of an encirclement strategy implemented by the US and a nascent US-backed collective security regime, ASEAN.
Civic Culture: Scotland's Struggle for its Political Interests
McCann, Aislinn Bronwyn (Virginia Tech, 2017-06-05)
Politics today is facing a troubling trend towards the empowerment of nationalist movements. With strong historical traditions and a powerful Scottish National Party, Scotland would appear to be a prime candidate for such movements. However, this thesis argues that Scotland represents a nation with a unique civic culture. This thesis seeks to determine which elements of Scottish political and cultural history have led to its modern day civic culture, in the form of a civic nationalism, or patriotism. It asks: why is Scottish nationalism unique, and why does it matter? To answer, I have broken down the thesis into three main chapters that consider the theories of nationalism that are significant to the study of Scottish nationalism, the foundations of Scottish nationalism, and how Scottish nationalism manifests itself in civic contexts. The results reflect that Scottish civic culture deeply permeates the nation's politics. Even when given the opportunity for independence, Scotland chose to remain a part of the United Kingdom in order to maintain its interests with the European Union. And, while political cultures are subject to rapid change, the current state of Scottish culture reflects a civic manifestation.
Combat Drones and International Order: An English School Approach
Daniel, Joseph Christopher (Virginia Tech, 2016-04-15)
The purpose of this work is to examine the effect of the use of combat drones for the practice of targeted killing on international order. The understanding of these effects is critical for if the use of combat drones for targeted killing undermines critical institutions of international society, which serves as the basis for international order, then the international order itself would be undermined. It is a qualitative study of drones and their effect on select primary institutions found within the theoretical framework of the English School (ES) of International Relations. The institutions used in this work are sovereignty, territoriality, international law, great power management, and war. This work builds its case on open source primary and secondary documents from the UN and news outlets to gauge the effect and reaction of states to the use of drones over the last 15 years. It found that drones and targeted killing have indeed had a detrimental effect on the institutions of sovereignty, territoriality, and international law. However, drones have also met positive approval by great power management and have helped change the nature of the institution of war.
Conceptualizing Regional International Societies: Examining the Post-Soviet Space
Manning, Chelsea Alizabeth (Virginia Tech, 2017-06-06)
This thesis contributes to the English school's growing literature on regional level international societies. Thus far English school scholars have demonstrated the existence of a post-Soviet regional international society. However, what is lacking is a clear defining of the members and institutions of this society. This paper gives particular attention to three questions: who are the actors, what are the primary and secondary institutions, and what role do these institutions play within the post-Soviet regional international society? Doing so contributes to the growing literature on the post-Soviet sub-global international society. In addition, it may be the case that Russian dominion is reflected through the network of secondary institutions in the post-Soviet international society. This thesis further investigates how the creation of this diplomatic structure allows Russia to contest the global diplomatic structure and project its great power status.
Conditionalizing Conduct: Political Economy and the Limits to Governance in European Union Enlargement
Shelton, Joel Trent (Virginia Tech, 2012-04-23)
This dissertation argues that European Union membership conditionality operates as a modality of political-economic governance directed at securing the conditions of possibility for a harmoniously functioning political economy of Europe. I argue that conditionality can best be understood not as a series of requirements for EU membership, a set of incentives for rule adoption, or a vehicle for the transmission of European norms to candidate states, but as an ensemble of discursive and material practices – fragile, dispersed circuits of governmental activity directed at a particular strategic ambition. I argue that existing accounts of EU membership conditionality are informed by predominantly rationalist understandings of political economy which work to conceal various cultural, social, and subjective sources of disharmony in political-economic life. Thinking about the political economy of conditionality through rationalist lenses privileges the study of bargaining and negotiation and institutional reform and overlooks the ways that conditionality targets the transformation of problematic socio-cultural and subjective elements of political economy – among them particular habits of culture, patterns of sociality, and subjective qualities and capacities of the person deemed essential to securing order and abundance. Re-reading canonical works in classical and critical traditions of political economy by James Steuart, Adam Smith, and Karl Marx makes clear that political economy as a field of knowledge and practice has long been concerned with understanding the political, legislative-legal, institutional, socio-cultural, and subjective conditions of possibility for securing order and abundance and has long reflected on the potential and limits of governance to secure these conditions in a world of shifting circumstance. I argue that a political economy of EU membership conditionality concerned with disharmony should investigate the ways that particular socio-cultural and subjective features of political-economic life are problematized in the discourse of conditionality and subsequently targeted for transformation through the work of instruments and agents of conditionality operating in a variety of institutional contexts. On this basis, I analyze conditionality as practice – tracing the emergence of instruments of conditionality currently at work in the Republic of Macedonia through official documents produced by the EU and the Republic of Macedonia from 2001-2011. I then examine the ambitions and limits of the Operational Programme Human Resources Development 2007-2013 (OP-HRD) – a program tasked with translating the aims of conditionality on paper into concrete activities for implementation in the fields of employment, education and training, and social inclusion. I outline some limits to the program derived from personal interviews with officials of the EU and the Republic of Macedonia who work to implement the OP-HRD "on the ground." In reflecting on these limitations, I return to the political economy of disharmony, concluding that constraints on the operation of conditionality in practice are not merely the product of technical and political impediments but are also derived from inherent limits to the old dream of political-economic harmony to which the ambitions of conditionality are ultimately directed.
The Construction of a United Great China: A Comparative Study of the CCTV Spring Festival Galas, 1984-86 and 2004-06
Xu, Xiaoyan (Virginia Tech, 2007-06-07)
The Spring Festival, or Lunar New Year, is the most important festival in China. On every Lunar New Year's Eve since 1983, the state-run China Central TV (CCTV), the only national TV station in China, has held a celebrating gala. This thesis attempts to examine the CCTV Spring Festival Galas as a case study of China's statist nationalism. The research questions of this thesis are: what techniques and technologies have the CCTV Spring Festival Galas used to construct a Chinese national space? How have the CCTV Spring Festival Galas describe the Chinese national space? And what changes have taken place in these techniques and technologies as well as in the descriptions? To answer these questions, this thesis conducts a comparative research, comparing both the commonalities and differences between the galas of 1984-86 and those of 2004-06. Employing an interpretative textual analysis approach, it analyzes the videos of these six years' galas and explores the political meanings of words and programs in the galas. This thesis finds that in order to imagine a united Chinese national space, the galas mainly represent China in terms of classes, ethnic groups and places. With the presence of minorities and people from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, the galas focus on the boundary of the Chinese nation to construct the unity of China. Furthermore, in order to construct the greatness of this united Chinese national space, the galas use heroes and sites to symbolize China. The presence of traditional elements helps create a temporal dimension of the Chinese national space. As a result of, and in response to, the socio-economic changes in the last two decades, the techniques and technologies used by the galas have changed. Besides the great changes in stage settings and technologies, the major changes in the techniques include: in the 2004-06 galas, hosts play a much more important role in interpreting the political meanings of the programs and presenting the state's nationalist narrative to the audience, the Chinese Communist Party occupies a more central place in the galas, and home increasingly means individual family instead of the country of China. Correspondingly, the way the galas treat singers, actors, and hosts from Hong Kong and Taiwan has also changed.
Decentralization and Hospital Governance in Rural Paraguay
Erickson, Julie B. (Virginia Tech, 2012-04-27)
This study explores hospital board governance, particularly the dimensions of accountability, transparency and civic participation, within Local Health Councils (LHCs) in two locations in rural Paraguay. The democratization and decentralization efforts of the Paraguayan federal government in the last 20 years resulted in creation of the LHCs, but little research has been conducted on how these entities are now working in comparison to the expectations envisioned for them. This study examines LHC member understanding and practices by conducting semi-structured interviews with council members in two different locations. I reviewed relevant Paraguayan law and compared LHC member responses with the legal expectations of the role of the LHC and council member responsibilities. I also reviewed several health council organizational documents, such as rules and procedures, financial statements and by-laws, with the same intent. Using interpretive social science methods, I analyzed this data in conjunction with the information I gathered through participant-observation during my Peace Corps service in one of the communities examined here. This study finds that local health councils face numerous challenges to governance, including member role confusion, few implemented planning and oversight processes, weak systems of accountability and a lack of resources and support given to LHCs, creating a great challenge to meet expectations set out for them by federal law.
The Democratic Peace Theory and Biopolitics
Nagy, Michael Lewis (Virginia Tech, 2017-06-23)
The purpose of this thesis is to inquire into the hard decisions that democracies are making in the 21st century in the context of working to spreading democracy and maintaining peace through foreign policy. Ever since the American-led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq after the 9/11 terror attacks, democratic peace theorists have been pushed further to the sidelines as their theory has been put to the test and struggled to stand up to the challenges of political realities in contemporary world politics. The idea that the diffusion of democracy would help build a Kantian world peace would seem to have taken a severe blow with the rise of populist candidates and policies in the West in recent years. The democratic peace theory (DPT) is in crucial respects about the mechanisms to indirectly control other countries' economies and politics through forcibly installing democratic regimes. Though done in the name of safety and security for western nations, this foreign policy looks an awful lot like an attempt at biopolitical engineering. Has DPT morphed into a form of biopolitics? The goal of this thesis is to delve into this question and to learn what the implications are if this is the case, and what it means for the West, democracies, terrorism, and societies. For if democracies are less and less able to justify their role in driving the proper conditions for peace, we must scrutinize the role they play in international affairs in a much broader political perspective.
Democratization as a Peace Strategy
Stivachtis, Yannis A.; Georgakis, Stefanie (Canadian Center of Science and Education, 2013-07-05)
The European Union's Security Strategy views the creation of strong and stable states as a prerequisite for international peace and stability. At the same time, the establishment of democratic regimes is seen as fundamental to achieving domestic stability and, as an extension, development. Consequently, democratization and democracy promotion can been seen as strategies that the EU seek to employ in order to achieve international peace and security. The EU seeks to establish an international democratic order through the application of conditionality. The EU does not only apply conditions to states that seek membership of the Union but also to third states, such as the countries included in the European Neighborhood Policy (ENP) or countries that seek to receive financial aid and development assistance from the European Union. In so doing, the article analyzes how the policy of conditionality applies to each different case.
Demography, Migration and Security in the Middle East
Abbott, Stefanie Georgakis; Stivachtis, Yannis A. (E-International Relations, 2019-05-11)
The Discursive Construction of Taiwanese National Identity
Wu, Chengqiu (Virginia Tech, 2007-05-18)
Since the early 1990s, more and more people in Taiwan have come to view Taiwan itself as a country independent of China. They consider themselves Taiwanese rather than Chinese. Drawing on a social constructionist perspective to nationalism and Laclau and Mouffe's theory of discourse, this dissertation attempts to analyze the discursive mechanisms that have constructed this new collective imagination by many people in Taiwan that now regard themselves as members of an independent Taiwanese nation. The research questions of this dissertation are: how has the post-1949 national identity of Taiwan been discursively transformed since the early 1990s? What are the discursive and institutional mechanisms that have reproduced the Taiwanese national identity? What challenges is the Taiwanese national identity facing? To answer these questions, this dissertation outlines three nationalist discourses and five representations that have been derived from them regarding Taiwan's status, its relationship with mainland China, and the national identity of people in Taiwan. It examines the changes in Taiwan's discursive regime and symbolic economy since the early 1990s, showing how the rise of Taiwanese national identity has been closely related to political leaders' identification with Taiwanese nationalism. I argue that the rise of Taiwanese national identity in Taiwan has been an effect of a discursive contestation among the three major nationalist discourses and the polarization of the discursive field. This dissertation also explores the provincial origin issue---which has been closely related to ethnic tension in Taiwan---and the relations between the nationalist discourses and democratization. In addition, to explore the possibility for a deconstruction of the Taiwanese national identity, I examine the challenges that the Taiwanese national identity faces, focusing on democracy, the Democratic Progressive Party's performance as the ruling party, and the cross-Strait economic integration and political interactions.
Essays in International Financial Governance
Thorum, Mark Stuart (Virginia Tech, 2015-07-06)
The 2008 financial crisis revealed systemic weaknesses in the global financial architecture, gave rise to the most severe economic collapse since the Great Depression and engendered a fundamental shift in the prevailing consensus on financial governance. It reminded us of the fragility of the international financial system and the politically unacceptable costs to society when it fails. This dissertation adds to the literature on the governance of private and public sector financial institutions. It presents a conceptual framework of linkage between the governance of financial institutions, systemic risk and financial crises. It is based on a review of the empirical and theoretical literature on the influence of financial regulation and governance on the stability of the international financial system. The dissertation examines the application of financial governance in three different contexts: (i) the introduction of a common regulatory framework for the European securities industry, known as MIFID; (ii) the introduction of a risk governance framework at a US federal agency, the US Export-Import Bank, and (iii) the introduction of performance metrics among Export Credit Agencies that operate within a common governance framework known as the Arrangement on Officially Supported Export Credits. In addition, the dissertation provides specific policy recommendations designed to enhance the portfolio risk management practices of the US Export Import Bank. By extension, these recommendations are relevant to a wider audience of federal agencies with similar portfolio credit risks and may help inform the design of a robust risk management framework that is critical to the government's ability to manage its burgeoning credit portfolio.
The Ethnic Nationalist Seduction: Populist Radical Right Parties in Denmark and Sweden
Seiler, 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.

Browsing by Author "Stivachtis, Yannis A."

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