IR Honors Students

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Meghan Sullivan

Cohort: 2019

In 1971, the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) passed into law, effectively splitting the various Alaska Native groups into twelve corporate structures divided on traditional and ethnic lines, with the members of each corresponding Alaska Native group as the shareholders.  In total, the corporations were granted 45 million acres of land and $962.5 million as compensation for the extinguishment of land claims. From there, it was each Alaska Native group’s responsibility to use these resources to turn a profit for their people. ANCSA was widely regarded as a success, and has been considered one of the largest land claim victories for indigenous people to date. However, while there has been much research on the economic aspect of ANCSA, there has been little analysis about its impact on Alaska Native culture. 50 years later, my thesis seeks to explore the cultural impact of ANCSA -- a monumental act which essentially put a traditional, subsistence based community into a capitalist, Western system overnight.

Thesis:

Sullivan, Meghan Mary Fate (2019): How Capitalism Affected Alaska Native Culture: An Analysis of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

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Samuel Garcia

Cohort: 2018

What explains the re-establishment of U.S.-Cuba relations under U.S. President Barack Obama and Cuban President Raúl Castro?  Conventional wisdom points to public opinion shifts within the Cuban-American community and domestic reform within Cuba.  These two factors, while important, are insufficient to account for the re-establishment of U.S.-Cuba relations.  This thesis argues that the development of a working trust between Obama and Castro was critical to diplomatic breakthrough.  Decades of animosity fueled a deep mistrust between the United States and Cuba.  As this thesis details, Obama and Castro communicated a series of cooperative and trust-building signals – aided by Pope Francis and the Catholic Church – that allowed diplomatic breakthrough to emerge.

 

Thesis:

Garcia, Samuel (2018). Diplomatic Breakthrough: Politics, Reform, and Trust in the Restoration of US-Cuba Relations

Stanford Digital Repository. Avaliable HERE.

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Zoe Goldblum

Cohort: 2018

The state of Israel was founded on May 14, 1948.  For those who had fought for the creation of a Jewish state, 1948 represented a triumph after centuries of Jewish experiences of oppression, displacement, and most recently, genocide. However, in most Palestinian narratives, Israel’s founding is called the Nakba, or ‘catastrophe,’ due to the resulting displacement of around 700,000 Palestinians and the creation of an ongoing refugee issue.  This thesis seeks to understand how the Israeli historical and collective memory of 1948 was constructed and communicated in the early years of Israeli statehood.  In particular, the thesis examines how Israeli leaders portrayed the refugee crisis to the international community through speeches to United Nations General Assembly.  I examine the speeches of Golda Meir and Abba Eban, two important orators and politicians in Israel’s early history. In doing so, this thesis will examine the formation of narratives to describe the outset of the Palestinian refugee crisis that are still in use today. 

 

Thesis:

Goldblum, Zoe (2018). Israel's Founding in Words: Israeli Speeches at the UN and the Palestinian Refugee Crisis

Stanford Digital Repository. Available HERE.

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Keagan Hanley

Cohort: 2018

Can public policy help create the next Silicon Valley in Chile?  Policy makers frequently want to encourage the growth of high-technology sectors or “cluster formations,” which offer the promise of accelerating national growth and employment.  The Chilean government and other governments around the world have implemented various national-level public policies aimed at encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship.  Yet the efficacy of these policies is open to question.  Some expect high technology clusters to develop in areas where public policies offer targeted support to entrepreneurs, whereas others expect high technology clusters to develop in areas where the preexisting culture and framework fits the innovation-growth model.  This thesis examines policy efforts to encourage entrepreneurship in Chile by considering cluster theory, as well as diverse policy models from successful entrepreneurial ecosystems worldwide.

 

Thesis:

Hanley, Keagan (2018). Engineering a Chilaean Entrepreneurial Ecosystem: The Role of Government in Cluster 

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Campbell Howe

Cohort: 2018

Since 2003, the Sudanese government and its Arab militia proxies have conducted a genocide against Africans in Darfur, killing roughly 500,000 people and displacing 2.7 million. Public outcry compelled President George W. Bush to take diplomatic measures to end the atrocities, though they achieved little success. In 2007, then-Senator Barack Obama included Darfur on his presidential platform and denounced the genocide as a “stain on our souls.” Nevertheless, during his presidency, Obama not only failed to address the genocide, but also lifted sanctions that had been imposed on Khartoum for its criminal activities in Darfur. This thesis examines why the Obama Administration’s foreign policies in relation to Darfur were so weak. In particular, I focus on four main factors that constrained U.S. action in the region: lack of political salience, South Sudan's creation and subsequent implosion, humanitarian crises elsewhere, and China's and Russia's economic interests in Sudan. By understanding these policy constraints, we might learn how to end this long and violent genocide, as well as other humanitarian conflicts in areas with little national strategic import.

 

Thesis:

Howe, Campbell (2018). "A Stain on Our Souls": The Darfur Genocide During the Obama Presidency

Stanford Digital Repository. Available in HERE.

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Alyssa Liew

Cohort: 2018

The ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict has created one of the longest standing refugee populations in the world: Palestinian refugees.  Yet Palestinians are excluded by name from the 1951 Refugee Convention, which is responsible for outlining the international legal protections that most refugees are entitled to access.  Instead, Palestinian refugees fall under the protection of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).  Why are there two separate entities for managing Palestinian refugees and all other international refugees?   How does this system impact the protection of Palestinian refugee rights, and does it lead to variations in the treatment of Palestinian refugees by geographic location?  This thesis analyzes the international treatment of and protections granted to the Palestinian refugee population by investigating both the international institutional frameworks—in particular, through the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and UNRWA—as well as state-level responses, with a specific focus on Jordan and its policies towards Palestinian refugees. 

 

Thesis:

Liew, Alyssa (2018). Gaza Stripped: Palestinian Refugees within an International and State Context

Stanford Digital Repository. Available HERE

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Pablo Lozano

Cohort: 2018

Over the last two centuries, the United States has been involved in over 160 military interventions. More often than not, the interventions have failed, at times, catastrophically. Nevertheless, the U.S. continues to rely on military intervention as an important tool in foreign affairs. Why do American military interventions fail?  The Rise and Fall of the Human Terrain System is a thesis that focuses on the underappreciated, but increasingly important variable of local awareness. In particular, the thesis investigates the rise and fall of the Human Terrain System (HTS) in both the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. HTS, a program established in 2006 to support the U.S. military’s new population-centric counterinsurgency, explicitly attempted to address the gaps in local awareness by using small Human Terrain Teams (HTTs) of social scientists, anthropologists, and soldiers to support military operations at the Brigade and Division level. U.S. Central Command grew the program quickly in its early years, expanding from one well-supported HTT in Afghanistan to twenty-nine HTTs for each Brigade Combat Team in both Afghanistan and Iraq. However, due to inconsistency, a loss of funds, and the inability to balance critical concerns between ethics, security, and military institutions, HTS shut down in 2014. The thesis argues that since the end of HTS in 2014, the U.S. military has fallen short of successfully addressing its deficiency in local awareness. Ultimately, the thesis advocates for a reorganization of the U.S. military to equip the military with the expertise and competency in local awareness that is necessary for the type of warfare that has consumed the majority of its existence, military interventions.

 

Thesis:

Lozano, Pablo (2018). Why American Military Interventions Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Human Terrian System

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Molly Montgomery

Cohort: 2018

Recent climate change predictions have left the world to watch nervously as countries like India, the world’s third largest producer of emissions, anticipate bringing over 300 million additional people onto the electrical grid.  If India continues to build coal power plants, the effects on global climate, particularly health in India, could be catastrophic.  In the next year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi holds the fate of the country in his hands as important energy policy decisions are decided, and his role as India’s leader will either push the tide of environmentalism forward, or cause it to flounder.  The country is now poised to bring its citizens onto the electrical grid using solar energy, thus leapfrogging coal.  Will India move forward with solar power or turn back to coal? This thesis argues that the success of solar power in India rests on the maintained prioritization of renewable energy by the Modi government, the continued stability in the trade relationship with China, and manufacturing capability in India today.  In order to analyze the future of the Indian solar project, this thesis will examine the demonetization movement of 2016 (in order to assess the Modi government’s capacity to stick with policy priorities), the China-India trade relationship and a comparison of India’s most successful solar parks (in order to assess India’s manufacturing capabilities).  Each of these cases elucidate different aspects of the solar initiative, its political promises and its political limitations. 

Thesis:

Montgomery, Molly (2018). Leapfrogging Coal: An Analysis of the Future Potential of the Indian Solar Experiment

Stanford Digital Repository. Available HERE.

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Rachel Morrow

Cohort: 2018

The relationship between the United States and United Kingdom has long been referred to as “The Special Relationship,” a remarkable alliance based upon a shared language, an interwoven history, and largely homogeneous traditions. Historically, the U.S. President and the U.K. Prime Minister have enjoyed a distinctive personal relationship of their own, and the nuances of their rapport may impact how the two states interact in substantive ways.  For example, during the Iraq War, many argued that British Prime Minister Tony Blair sent British troops into Iraq largely in order to preserve Britain’s special relationship with the United States and due to Blair’s affinity for President George W. Bush.  This raises the central question of this thesis: Does the personal relationship between the U.S. President and the U.K. Prime Minister affect the likelihood of joint military intervention? To analyze that question, this thesis examines the effects of the interpersonal relationship on four cases of military interventions during the post-World War II era: Vietnam, the Falklands, Bosnia, and Iraq.

Thesis:

Morrow, Rachel (2018). The Effect of Interpersonal Relationships on Intervention: A Case Study on United Kingdom/United States Heads of State

Stanford Digital Repository. Available HERE.

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Sophie Stuber

Cohort: 2018

Is the right to a healthy environment a fundamental human right? Climate change is predicted to exacerbate negative environmental phenomena, including drought, rising sea levels, and the prevalence of severe natural disasters.  How can and should international institutions, such as the United Nations, aid persons displaced due to climate change?  First, the thesis traces how the international community’s definition of refugees has evolved in the past century, in order to argue how and on what grounds persons displaced due to climate change may considered refugees in the future.  The UN and international legal community do not yet recognize persons displaced due to climate change as refugees with rights that accompany that designation.   Second, the thesis explores international organizations’ responses to previous high magnitude natural disasters, which generate comparable population displacements as those predicted by the climate change.  Finally, this thesis investigates three case studies of regions already experiencing the effects of climate change: Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, and the Sahel region in Africa. These cases provide insights regarding how climate change could affect global migration patterns and will serve as guidance for how the international community should address the challenges of forced displacement due to climate change.  This thesis argues that the international community must design a legal framework that is flexible and adaptable. Moreover, as an international framework may take years to implement, in the interim states should form regional agreements to address the specific challenges of climate change in their respective localities. Forced displacement due to climate change is a complex and deeply rooted challenge that will need to be addressed through a combination of scientific and legal innovations.   

 

Thesis:

Stuber, Sophie. (2018). When Home Exists No Longer: Climate Change and Forced Cross-Border Migration.

Stanford Digital Repository. Available HERE.