politics masters dissertation ideas

Research Topics & Ideas: Politics

100+ Politics-Related Research Ideas To Fast-Track Your Project

Finding and choosing a strong research topic is the critical first step when it comes to crafting a high-quality dissertation or thesis. If you’ve landed on this post, chances are you’re looking for a politics-related research topic , but aren’t sure where to start. Here, we’ll explore a variety of politically-related research ideas across a range of disciplines, including political theory and philosophy, comparative politics, international relations, public administration and policy.

NB – This is just the start…

The topic ideation and evaluation process has multiple steps . In this post, we’ll kickstart the process by sharing some research topic ideas. This is the starting point, but to develop a well-defined research topic, you’ll need to identify a clear and convincing research gap , along with a well-justified plan of action to fill that gap.

If you’re new to the oftentimes perplexing world of research, or if this is your first time undertaking a formal academic research project, be sure to check out our free dissertation mini-course. Also, be sure to sign up for our free webinar that explores how to find a high-quality research topic from scratch.

Overview: Politics-Related Topics

• Political theory and philosophy
• Comparative politics
• International relations
• Public administration
• Public policy
• Examples of politics-related dissertations

Topics & Ideas: Political Theory

• An analysis of the impact of feminism on political theory and the concept of citizenship in Saudi Arabia in the context of Vision 2030
• A comparative study of the political philosophies of Marxism and liberalism and their influence on modern politics
• An examination of how the Covid-19 pandemic affected the relationship between individual freedom and collective responsibility in political philosophy
• A study of the impact of race and ethnicity on French political philosophy and the concept of justice
• An exploration of the role of religion in political theory and its impact on secular democracy in the Middle East
• A Review of Social contract theory, comparative analysis of the political philosophies of Hobbes, Locke, and Rousseau
• A study of the concept of the common good in political philosophy and its relevance to the ongoing refugee crisis in Europe
• An examination of the relationship between political power and the rule of law in developing African countries
• A study of the impact of postmodernism on political theory and the concept of truth, a case study of the US
• An exploration of the role of virtue in political philosophy and its impact on the assessment of moral character in political leaders

Topics & Ideas: Comparative Politics

• A comparative study of different models of federalism and their impact on democratic governance: A case Study of South American federalist states
• The impact of ethnic and religious diversity on political stability and democracy in developing countries, a review of literature from Africa
• An analysis of the role of civil society in promoting democratic change in autocratic regimes: A case study in Sweden
• A comparative examination of the impact of globalization on political institutions and processes in South America and Africa.
• A study of the factors that contribute to successful democratization in authoritarian regimes, a review of the role of Elite-driven democratization
• A comparison of the political and economic systems of China and India and their impact on social development
• The impact of corruption on political institutions and democracy in South East Asia, a critical review
• A comparative examination of the impact of majoritarian representation (winner-take-all) vs proportional representation on political representation and governance
• An exploration of Multi-party systems in democratic countries and their impact on minority representation and policy-making.
• A study of the factors that contribute to successful decentralization and regional autonomy, a case study of Spain

Topics & Ideas: International Relations

• A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of diplomacy and military force in resolving international conflicts in Central Africa.
• The impact of globalization on the sovereignty of nation-states and the changing nature of international politics, a review of the role of Multinational Corporations
• An examination of the role of international aid organizations in promoting peace, security, and development in the Middle East.
• A study of the impact of economic interdependence on the likelihood of conflict in international relations: A critical review of weaponized interdependence
• A comparative analysis of the foreign policies of the EU and the US and their impact on international stability in Africa
• An exploration of the relationship between international human rights and national sovereignty during the Covid 19 pandemic
• A study of the role of decentralized autonomous organizations (DAO)s in international politics and their impact on state behaviour
• A comparative analysis of the effectiveness of international regimes in addressing global challenges such as climate change, arms control, and terrorism in Brazil
• An examination of the impact of the rise of BRICS on the international system and global governance
• A study of the role of ideology in shaping the foreign policies of states and the dynamics of international relations in the US

Tops & Ideas: Public Administration

• An analysis of the impact of digital technology on public administration and the delivery of public services in Estonia
• A review of models of public-private partnerships and their impact on the delivery of public services in Ghana
• An examination of the role of civil society organizations in monitoring and accountability of public administration in Papua New Guinea
• A study of the impact of environmentalism as a political ideology on public administration and policy implementation in Germany
• An exploration of the relationship between public administration and citizen engagement in the policy-making process, an exploration of gender identity concerns in schools
• A comparative analysis of the efficiency and effectiveness of public administration, decentralisation and pay and employment reform in developing countries
• A study of the role of collaborative leadership in public administration and its impact on organizational performance
• A systematic review of the challenges and opportunities related to diversity and inclusion in police services
• A study of the impact of corrupt public administration on economic development and regional growth in Eastern Europe
• An exploration of the relationship between public administration and civil rights and liberties, including issues related to privacy and surveillance, a case study in South Korea

Topics & Ideas: Public Policy

• An analysis of the impacts of public policy on income inequality and poverty reduction in South Sudan
• A comparative study of the effectiveness of legal and regulatory, economic and financial, and social and cultural instruments for addressing climate change in South Korea
• An examination of the role of interest groups in shaping public policy and the policy-making process regarding land-use claims
• A study of the impact of globalization on the development of public policies and programs for mitigating climate change in Singapore
• An exploration of the relationship between public policy and social justice in tertiary education in the UAE
• A comparative analysis of the impact of health policies for the management of diabetes on access to healthcare and health outcomes in developing countries
• Exploring the role of evidence-based policymaking in the design and implementation of public policies for the management of invasive invertebrates in Australia
• An examination of the challenges and opportunities of implementing educational dietary public policies in developing multicultural countries
• A study of the impact of public policies on urbanization and urban development in rural Indonesia
• An exploration of the role of media and public opinion in shaping public policy and the policy-making process in the transport industry of Malaysia

Examples: Politics Dissertations & Theses

While the ideas we’ve presented above are a decent starting point for finding a politics-related research topic, they are fairly generic and non-specific. So, it helps to look at actual dissertations and theses to see how this all comes together.

Below, we’ve included a selection of research projects from various politics-related degree programs to help refine your thinking. These are actual dissertations and theses, written as part of Master’s and PhD-level programs, so they can provide some useful insight as to what a research topic looks like in practice.

• We, the Righteous Few: Immoral Actions of Fellow Partisans are Judged as Less Possible (Varnam, 2020)
• Civilizing the State: Civil Society and the Politics of Primary Public Health Care Provision in Urban Brazil (Gibson, 2012)
• Political regimes and minority language policies: evidence from Taiwan and southeast Asia (Wu, 2021)
• The Feminist Third Wave: Social Reproduction, Feminism as Class Struggle, and Contemporary Women’s Movements (Angulo, 2019)
• The Politics of Immigration under Authoritarianism (Joo, 2019)
• The politics of digital platforms: Sour Dictionary, activist subjectivities, and contemporary cultures of resistance (Okten, 2019)
• Vote choice and support for diverse candidates on the Boston City Council At-Large (Dolcimascolo, 2022)
• The city agenda: local governance and national influence in the policy agenda, 1900-2020 (Shannon, 2022)
• Turf wars: who supported measures to criminalize homelessness in Austin, Texas? (Bompiedi, 2021)
• Do BITs Cause Opposition Between Investor Rights and Environmental Protection? (Xiong, 2022)
• Revealed corruption and electoral accountability in Brazil: How politicians anticipate voting behavior (Diaz, 2021)
• Intersectional Solidarity: The Political Consequences of a Consciousness of Race, Gender and Sexuality (Crowder, 2020)
• The Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Coalitional Representation of Latinxs in the U.S. House of Representatives (Munoz, 2019)

Looking at these titles, you can probably pick up that the research topics here are quite specific and narrowly-focused , compared to the generic ones presented earlier. In other words, to create a top-notch research topic, you must be precise and target a specific context with specific variables of interest . In other words, you need to identify a clear, well-justified research gap.

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Politics Dissertation Topics

Published by Carmen Troy at January 9th, 2023 , Revised On August 16, 2023

Introduction

Politics is such a vast phenomenon that several dissertation topics can be selected from political issues. However, that selection must have some strong basis and importance in the practical field. Another fact to be kept in mind when choosing a dissertation topic is that some political issues are highly controversial, and they may not be of much value in terms of research and writing.

It should be noted that it is important that the researcher thoroughly enjoys the dissertation topic they are working on.  A boring and dry topic can later trouble them, and they might feel like regretting their selection. The following description enlists some of the dissertation topics that the researcher can select as their politics dissertation topic.

PhD qualified writers of our team have developed these topics, so you can trust to use these topics for drafting your dissertation.

You may also want to start your dissertation by requesting  a brief research proposal  from our writers on any of these topics, which includes an  introduction  to the problem,  research questions , aim and objectives ,  literature review  along with the proposed  methodology  of research to be conducted.  Let us know  if you need any help in getting started.

Check our  example dissertations  to get an idea of  how to structure your dissertation .

You can review step by step guide on how to write your dissertation  here.

View our free dissertation topics database.

2022 Politics Dissertation Topics

Topic 1: politics in a digital age- assessing the impact of social media on public participation and political campaigns..

Research Aim: This study aims to find how the public has utilised social media during elections or political campaigns. This study will also focus on the impact of social networking sites on popular participation in the electoral vote and political debate. This research study will also investigate the effects of new technologies and the digital era on media and political party campaigns and media activities during elections.

Topic 2: Investigating the reasons for the Central African Republic's Rebellion.

Research Aim: This study aims to find the reasons for the central African republic conflicts and different historical factors involved in this conflict. Furthermore, it will also focus on the dynamics of the conflict and how it has resulted in violent clashes between different religious parties. This study will conduct an in-depth analysis of this conflict to give a better understanding.

Topic 3: Investigating the influence of politics on Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality.

Research Aim: This study will provide us with a detailed evaluation of the present state of gender equality and women empowerment in developing nations and the influence of politics. It will also provide an understanding of how men, women, politicians, and other powerful individuals view gender equality and women empowerment.

Topic 4: Investigating the Impact of Neo-Fascism on Twentieth-century Europe.

Research Aim: The present study will analyse the impact of neo-fascism on twentieth-century Europe. We will also focus on the history, crisis, various proposals, and methods. We will also analyse how it has helped reproduced their ideologies and formed different legislation in Europe.

Topic 5: Assessing the change in Americans Political perspectives from Trump to Biden Eras.

Research Aim: The election of Joe Biden as a president of the US has resulted in a drastic shift in US’s foreign image. This study aims to investigate the change in the political perspective of people from the Trump to Biden eras. This study will focus on many things, including social, political, and economic factors, to help understand the perspectives of people, and will also look into the country’s situations during these both eras.

Covid-19 Politics Research Topics

Topic 1: impacts of covid-19 on global politics.

Research Aim: This study will highlight the impacts of Coronavirus on international politics.

Topic 2: Politics during Coronavirus pandemic

Research Aim: This study will focus on providing a deep insight into the political agendas during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Topic 3: Indian religious politics during Coronavirus pandemic

Research Aim: The research aims to analyse how the Indian media provoked a religious conflict amid the Coronavirus pandemic and the role of the government in overcoming it.

Topic 4: The role of the UK government or any country of your choice during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Research Aim: This study will identify the contributions of government across the world in combatting COVID-19.

Politics Research Topics 2021

Topic:1: evaluating outcomes of the 2007 procurement act transparency of officers in public service of state (abc).

Research Aim: This research will explore the connection between corporate governance and business efficiency. The dynamic collection of relationships between a business and its Board of Directors, managers, owners, employees, customers, creditors is analysed through analysis processes and how effective corporate management can benefit an organisation.

Topic 2: Management intergovernmental ties on local governance in country ABC

Research Aim: This research aims to analyse corporate governance’s compatibility in the state’s local government tiers.

Topic 3: Financing problems and opportunities in the delta state (a case study of ABC local government areas)

Research Aim: this project aims to explore the challenges and opportunities in the funding of Delta State Local government accounts, cost management, and income problems of local governments.

Topic 4: The effect of corporate governance on the competitiveness of a business of corporate management

Research Aim: This study is intended to examine corporate governance compatibility at the state’s local government levels.

Topic 5: Analysis of youth service corps (NYSC) United States effective leadership and success organisational

Research Aim: The research will assess successful leadership’s influence on organizational success in Nigeria through the Kogi State Office of the National Youth Service Corps.

Topic 6: The introduction of e-governance in country ABC

Research Aim: This research aims to introduce E-governance in not only the pandemic conditions but also in the daily governance operation to ease the system of governance of Country ABC.

Dissertation Topics: Impacts of 9/11 on World Politics

The 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center are an unforgettable phenomenon in the history of politics. It contributed immensely to strengthening relationships between some countries and making bonds weaker between the others.

Dissertation topics can be based on the events related to these attacks because this discussion has always been influential and surely can provide a sound basis for your research. Some of the dissertation topics that can be extracted out of the 9/11 terrorism catastrophe are listed as follows:

• Analysis and significance of the most catastrophic event – The terrorist attacks of 9/11
• In what ways the international relations between the Middle East and the West were affected after 9/11. A critical analysis.
• Lessons learnt on political grounds after the terrorist attacks of 9/11—a debate on the positive and negative impacts.
• 9/11 and its linkages to the world of trade. Critically analyze.
• The actual events that led to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Critical analysis.
• Development of strategies and improvements in the political system after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Review Our Best Dissertation Topics complete list.

Dissertation Topics: Problems Related to Africa

Contradictions in the policies and politics of Africa can be subjected to various dissertation topics. The researcher can find a focus point on which the dissertation can be based. Some dissertation topics related to the politics of Africa are listed below:

• Reasons for Western contradictions with African policies and politics.
• Traditional beliefs and old rituals of African nations cause their problems with other countries—analysis of the past and future trends.
• Colonial rule and political issues in Africa. Critical Analysis.
• Contributions from the rest of the world in resolving problems between African nations.
• Future trends and projections regarding the relationship of Africa with the rest of the world.
• Forces stopping the West to snatch African weapons. Critical analysis.

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China Politics Dissertation Topics

It is a known fact that China’s laws and policies are quite different from the rest of the world. Still, this fact twisted later in the 21st century when China started incorporating Western thoughts and views in technology and other areas related to economic development and increasing urbanization.

Some dissertation topics with regards to the incorporation of Western ideas into Chinese politics are listed as follows:

• Incorporation of Western ideas into the Chinese political system. Critical analysis.
• Reasons why China has opted to “open” its economy, which previously was closed in its own distinctive way. A debate on the major reasons.
• Is China a threat to Western ethics? Critical analysis.
• How is the West being affected by Chinese expeditious economic expansion? A detailed analysis.
• The impact of Chinese political principles on Western Politics. A debate on the positive and negative outcomes.
• Human rights and the complexity in the Chinese and the Western political system.

Also Read: Project Management Dissertation Topics

Relationship between the Arabs and the Israelis: Dissertation Topics

The Arabs and the Israelis have such complexity and problems in their relationship, primarily focused upon the Palestinian state. Their journey over the last sixty years also paved difficulties in relationships with other countries.

So, in this context, a researcher can find various issues to investigate in detail as a research topic. Following is the list of some of the suggestions for dissertation topics regarding this phenomenon of politics.

• Reasons behind making the recognition of the Palestinian state so complex. Discuss
• Relationship between the Arabs and the Israelis in accordance with Western politics.
• Long term rivalry between the Arabs and the Israelis. Discuss the reasons.
• Role of the West in resolving the Arab-Israeli issues. Critical analysis.
• Strategies to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. Critical analysis.
• Considering the events of the past how the UN can be utilized to resolve the Arab-Israeli dispute.

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“British Foreign Policy”: Dissertation Topics

The image of a country in different parts of the world is also dependent on its foreign policy and how efficiently it is maintained. There are many issues from British foreign policy that can make for an interesting topic for your politics dissertation.

• What are the basics of Britain’s foreign policy and how can it be justified. Reasons and critical analysis.
• Is Britain’s foreign policy successful? Reasons, cause and critical analysis.
• In what way Britain’s foreign policy is in close affiliation with the US. Critically analyze.
• Justifications showing the US strong impact on Britain’s foreign policy.
• Britain’s foreign policy in relation to its impact on Europe. Critically analyze.
• In what ways the creation of a “single European Entity” has influenced Britain’s foreign policy principles and goals.
• Britain’s foreign policy goals and principles are usually stern and limited. Give reasons to justify and discuss.
• Is Europe the reason behind Britain’s economic and social disputes? Discuss.

Relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan: Dissertation Topics

Pakistan and Afghanistan share so much in common based on their history, faith, and heritage. In the war against Soviet occupation, Pakistan supported 3.5 million Afghans because it shared certain interests with Afghanistan, but recently the settlement of Afghan refugees in various parts of Pakistan has been considered an undesirable phenomenon due to the increasing threat of terrorism and crime.

In Islamabad, actions are being taken to demolish the illegal Afghan settlements in response to the increasing threat of violence, crime, and terrorism. It is believed that the people involved in various illegal acts settle in these areas and carry out their violent acts from safe heavens. So, this phenomenon has a strong political basis, and certain dissertations can be based on it. Here’s a list of some of the dissertation topics in this regard:

• Strategies are being adopted to demolish the illegal Afghan resettlements in Pakistan. Critical analysis.
• Reasons for the development of hurdles between Pak-Afghan friendly relationships. Discuss.
• To what extent violence and terrorism can be linked to Afghanistan. Discuss and analyze.
• Strategies to resolve Pak-Afghan disputes. Discuss.
• Political history of Pak-Afghan relationships from 1947 till current scenario. Discuss major events and their flaws.
• Demolishing the illegal slums of Islamabad occupied by Afghan refugees. Reasons and justifications.
• “War of independence against Soviet occupation.” Discussion of the major events and the impacts.
• 9/11 terrorist attacks and the Pak-Afghan relationships till then. Discuss
• Pakhtoonistan issue and the challenges faced by Pakistan. Critical analysis.
• Educational opportunities for the Afghan refugees. Discuss the positive and negative impacts.

Politics and Media Dissertation Topics

Modern media is a powerful weapon in communicating what is happening throughout the world to people around the globe. Media has a strong influence on people perceiving different scenarios, which might actually not even be true.

There are certain politics involved in what media has to show and deliver to the people behind the screens. Depending on various external factors, media can either positively or negatively portray different scenarios and facts. Below is the list of some of the suggested dissertation topics if you would like to base your dissertation on media and politics.

• Can media be held responsible for the change in politics? Discuss.
• Politics, media and the ways they affect public opinions and thoughts.Critical analysis.
• The linkage between media and democracy. Discuss.
• Can media be held responsible for the spread of terror among people regarding various threats and crimes? Critical analysis.
• Long term politics is involved behind media impacting youth and children. Critically analyze based on justifications.
• Competition between different news channels and political support behind them. Discuss and critically analyze.
• The US politics behind various features of social media. Critical analysis.
• Politics affecting media in Indonesia. Discuss.
• TV commercials and politics. Critical analysis.
• The role media plays during elections. Discuss.
• Social media and its role in politics. Discuss
• Political debates and social media. Discuss
• Media as a carrier of perceptions. Critical analysis.
• Fundraising by different political parties and support of media.
• Politics and media as a source of exploitation of moral values. Critical analysis.
• Limitations politics impose on media. Critical analysis

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Political Parties Dissertation Topics

Political parties have always been one of the major elements of the development of politics. Any comparison between two or more parties can be worked upon by the researcher, or any other issue in this regard can be studied. Political parties of any country can be selected, and a dissertation can be based on their differences and similarities.

For instance, the two famous political parties of the UK- the Labor Party and the Conservative Party can be compared or individually studied by the researcher. The following are some interesting dissertation topics from this area of politics.

• Which party (Labour Party and the Conservative Party) is working dedicatedly? Critical analysis.
• Reasons that favour the Conservative Party in terms of its dedication towards the betterment of the country. Discuss.
• Which party is better in terms of public acceptance? Discuss
• Role of media in supporting the Labour Party and the Conservative Party. Critical analysis.
• In the future, which of the UK’s political parties will come into power, or which political parties will collapse? Discuss.

US Foreign Policy Dissertation Topics

The US is the most powerful country globally and has a considerable influence on the world’s politics. The following are some of the dissertation topics related to US foreign policy.

• With other nations, are the principles and goals of the US foreign policy justified? Discuss.
• China is developing at a rapid rate in terms of economic growth. Is there any threat to the US regarding Chinese economic development?
• The biggest threat to US foreign policy. Discuss.
• Development of nuclear power in the Middle East with US foreign policy. Discuss.
• US foreign policy aims at policing other parts of the world. Can this approach be termed as “bullying”? Critical analysis.
• Who is the mastermind and behind the control of US foreign policy? Critical analysis.
• What are the current goals of US foreign policy? Are they justified?
• How influential is US foreign policy on various other nations of the world? Discuss.
• What are the similarities and differences between the US foreign policy and the British foreign policy? Discuss and critically analyze.

Also Read: History Dissertation Topics

Politics and Religion: Dissertation Topics

Religion and politics are two separate entities, but they also impact each other, especially in today’s world. Below is a list of the topics related to politics and religion that the researcher can opt to aim his or her dissertation on:

• Religious beliefs and politics must be treated as separate entities. Discuss
• Is religion being used as a weapon on political grounds? Critical analysis
• Terrorism, politics and religion. Discuss the linkage between the three.

Important Notes:

As a student of politics looking to get good grades, it is essential to develop new ideas and experiment on existing politics theories – i.e., to add value and interest in your research topic.

The field of politics is vast and interrelated to so many other academic disciplines like civil engineering ,  construction ,  law , engineering management , healthcare , mental health , artificial intelligence , tourism , physiotherapy , sociology , management , marketing and nursing . That is why it is imperative to create a project management dissertation topic that is articular, sound, and actually solves a practical problem that may be rampant in the field.

We can’t stress how important it is to develop a logical research topic; it is the basis of your entire research. There are several significant downfalls to getting your topic wrong; your supervisor may not be interested in working on it, the topic has no academic creditability, the research may not make logical sense, there is a possibility that the study is not viable.

This impacts your time and efforts in writing your dissertation as you may end up in the cycle of rejection at the very initial stage of the dissertation. That is why we recommend reviewing existing research to develop a topic, taking advice from your supervisor, and even asking for help in this particular stage of your dissertation.

While developing a research topic, keeping our advice in mind will allow you to pick one of the best politics dissertation topics that fulfil your requirement of writing a research paper and add to the body of knowledge.

Therefore, it is recommended that when finalizing your dissertation topic, you read recently published literature to identify gaps in the research that you may help fill.

Remember- dissertation topics need to be unique, solve an identified problem, be logical, and can also be practically implemented. Take a look at some of our sample politics dissertation topics to get an idea for your own dissertation.

How to Structure your Politics Dissertation

A well-structured dissertation can help students to achieve a high overall academic grade.

• A Title Page
• Acknowledgements
• Declaration
• Abstract: A summary of the research completed
• Table of Contents
• Introduction : This chapter includes the project rationale, research background, key research aims and objectives, and the research problems. An outline of the structure of a dissertation can also be added to this chapter.
• Literature Review : This chapter presents relevant theories and frameworks by analyzing published and unpublished literature on the chosen research topic to address research questions . The purpose is to highlight and discuss the selected research area’s relative weaknesses and strengths while identifying any research gaps. Break down the topic and key terms can positively impact your dissertation and your tutor.
• Methodology : The data collection and analysis methods and techniques employed by the researcher are presented in the Methodology chapter, which usually includes research design , research philosophy, research limitations, code of conduct, ethical consideration, data collection methods and data analysis strategy .
• Findings and Analysis : Findings of the research are analyzed in detail under the Findings and Analysis chapter. All key findings/results are outlined in this chapter without interpreting the data or drawing any conclusions. It can be useful to include graphs, charts and tables in this chapter to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
• Discussion and Conclusion : The researcher presents his interpretation of the results in this chapter and states whether the research hypothesis has been verified or not. An essential aspect of this section is establishing the link between the results and evidence from the literature. Recommendations with regards to the implications of the findings and directions for the future may also be provided. Finally, a summary of the overall research, along with final judgments, opinions, and comments, must be included in the form of suggestions for improvement.
• References : Make sure to complete this following your University’s requirements
• Bibliography
• Appendices : Any additional information, diagrams, and graphs used to complete the dissertation but not part of the dissertation should be included in the Appendices chapter. Essentially, the purpose is to expand the information/data.

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Home > USC Columbia > Arts and Sciences > Political Science > Political Science Theses and Dissertations

Political Science Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

A Comparative Measure Of Judicial Legitimacy , Rahul Hemrajani

Where the Constitution Is Silent: Indigenous Rights Jurisprudence in the United States , Anthony Wayne Hobert Jr.

Prosecutorial Discretion: District Attorneys, Public Opinion,and the Localized Rule of Law , Yu-Hsien Sung

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Changing Environment. Changing Attitudes? , Lindsey Brooke Hendren

Interstate Rivalry, Domestic Politics, and Economic Coercion , Shaoshuang Wen

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

International Conflict, Political Leaders, and Accountability , William Thomas Christiansen

Liberalization First, Democratization Later: The Linkage Between Income Inequality, Economic Development, and Democratization , Yi-Tzu Lin

Social Trust and Soft Power: The Role of Social Trust in Democratic Countries’ Soft Power Use , Judit Trunkos

Economic Interdependence, Power, and Peace: A Rationalist Study of Commercial Liberalism , Yuleng Zeng

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

Essays on the Political Economy of International Trade and Coups , William Akoto

Judicial Legitimacy and the Dearth of State Supreme Court Knowledge , TJ Kimel

Women in the Governor's Mansion: Breaking the Barrier to Competition , Helen Adair King

Causes and Consequences of Police Militarization , Edward Eugene Lawson, Jr.

Dynamic Environments and Judicial Power , Monica Lineberger

The Dynamics of Vote Buying in Developing Democracies: Party Attachment and Party Competition in Southeast Asia , Matthew Louis Wagner

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Deepening Democracy: Inclusion, Deliberation, And Voice In The Grassroots South , Annie L. Boiter-Jolley

Evangelicals, Perceived Marginalization and Expressive Mobilization , Christin E. McMasters

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

The Economic Foundations of Authoritarian Rule , Clay Robert Fuller

Partisan Polarization, Social Identity, and Deliberative Democracy in the United States , Ryan Strickler

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Being Strategic: Black Legislative Representation In The Republican-Controlled South Carolina House of Representatives , Willie James Black

Leaders in Search of the Bomb: Institutional Incentives for Nuclear Decisions , Paige Price Cone

The Three Dimensionality Model Of State Security And Armed Conflict: Internal And External Dimensions And Lessons From The Middle East , Juri Kim

The Impact of Supreme Court Precedent in a Judicial Hierarchy , Ali Masood

How The European Union’s Criteria For Membership Move Public Opinion , Douglas Page

Information Heterogeneity and Economic Voting: A Cross-National Analysis , Chia-yin Wei

Nothing is the Matter with Kansas: White Southern Exceptionalism in American Politics , Paul White Jr.

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

The Turkish Foreign Policy Under The Justice And Development Party (AKP): A Paradigm Shift? , Ali Demirdas

The Liberal Commercial Peace, Regional Considerations: International Relations of Southeast Asia, Latin America, and the European Union Countries , Chienwu Hsueh

The Political Economy of Property Rights In China: Local Officials, Incentive Structure, And Private Enterprises , Ingrid Yingxia Li

The Domestic Adoption of International Human Rights Law: the Roles of Regional and National High Courts in Latin America , Rebecca Ann Reid

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

TOWARDS COMMON EUROPEAN ENERGY POLICY , Mariam Dekanozishvili

Essays on Battle Clusters in Internal Armed Conflicts and Insurgencies: Concept, Causes and Consequences , Chifeng Liu

The Effects of Political Control and Institutional Structure on State Ethics Commissions , William Jonathan Rauh

Do Americans’ Perceptions of the Prevalence of Prejudice Impact Their Racial Policy Preferences? Investigating Meta-Stereotypes as a Potential Causal Mechanism , Alexandra Reckendorf

How Much Do Groups Still Matter to Politics? An Examination of Group Influences on Public Opinion , Lauren E. Smith

Microfinance and Poverty Reduction: How Risks Associated With Government Policies Affect Whether Microfinance Alleviates Poverty in Latin-America , Brian Warby

Taking Interests and International Conflict More Seriously , Chong-Han Wu

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Protracted Social Conflict: A Reconceptualization and Case Analysis , Melissa M. C. Beaudoin

Race, Class, Gender, and Linked Fate: A Cross-Sectional Analysis of African American Political Partisanship, 1996 and 2004 , Sherral Yolanda Brown-Guinyard

Holding International Public-Private Partnership Accountable: An Analysis of Sensitivity and Vulnerability Dynamics In Ghana'S Water Sector Reform and Its Impact On the Target Population , Xi Chen

The Impact of Ideology and Attorneys On Precedent Usage: An Analysis of State High Courts , Benjamin Kassow

Environmental Footprints of Violent Conflict , Swapna Pathak

Economic Agreements and Interstate Conflict: A Policy Substitution Model of Coercion , Matthew Daniel-Marion Shaffer

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Religion, Electoral Rules and Women's Representation: A Cross National Examination , Wafaa Adnan Alaradi

Postcolonial and Constructivist Theoretical Explanations of Women'S Traditional Agency In Sociopolitical Participation and Reproductive Rights In Present Day Mali and the Pilipinas , Jennifer Almeda

South Africa In Southern Africa: A Comparative Analysis of Economic Integration In the Southern African Development Community Using Hegemonic Stability Theory , William Andrew Jennings

The Relationship Between State Dissatisfaction and the Level of Conflict In State Dyads: the Revised Power Transition Theory , Hsiao-chuan Liao

Fighting In Space: Understanding the Opportunity and Willingness to Pursue Space Weapons , Michael James Martindale

Capital offenses, Non-Capital offenses, and Party Capability: Habeas Corpus Litigation in U.S. District Courts , Nicholas A. Mostardo

How Rivalries End: Understanding Dynamics of the Rivalry Termination Process , Soonkun Oh

State Implementation of the Children's Health Insurance Program: Analyses of Variation In Policy Adoption , Rebecca Layne Russ-Sellers

Female Legislators and the Power of the Purse: Does Gender Affect Government Spending? A Cross-National Analysis , Jennifer Suzanne Tison

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

Judging the Bureaucrats: Understanding the Dynamics of Court-Agency Interaction , Michael P. Fix

La Ruta Maya: The Effects of tourism and the State On the Political Behavior Choices of the Maya , Heather Lea Hawn

Presidents and Terminal Logic Behavior: Term Limits and Executive Action In the United States, Brazil, and Argentina , Genevieve M. Kehoe

The Questions of Compliance With the NPT Regime and Complex Multilateral Nuclear Negotiations: A Comparative Analysis of North Korea and Iran As Defector States , Jihyun Kim

The Rule of Law In Times of War: A Comparative Analysis of the Effect of War On High Court Decision-Making , Susanne Schorpp

Between and Beyond Borders: Conflict, International Response, and Forced Migration , Young Hoon Song

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

The War On Terrorism In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. An Academic Analysis of the Growing Phenomenon of Political Violence In the Kingdom. , Faisal M. Al-Madhi

Re-Defining Public Service In An Era of Networked Governance: An Examination of the Influence of Public Service Motivation On Contractors In Homeland Security , Alexa Haddock Bigwarfe

The Power and Authority of the Committee On the Rights of the Child , Aleksandra Chauhan

Does Foreign Direct Investment (Fdi) Affect Conflict? theIntertwined Relationship Between Multinational Corporations (Mncs) and Nation-States , Yi-Hung Chiou

Counterinsurgency Colonels: The Role of the Practitioner In the Evolution of Modern Counterinsurgency , Garrett Scott DeWitt

The Geometry of Racial Politics: The Role of Policy Entrepreneurs In Fostering Triangulation Among U.S. Racial and Ethnic Groups, 1800-1964 , Athena M. King

Passionate Political Talk: Social Networks and the Emotional Impact of Political Discussion , Bryan Michael Parsons

Judges and Their Loyalties: A Comparative Study Focused On the Venezuelan Supreme Court , Raul A. Sanchez Urribarri

International Law In the Supreme Court of the United States: An Empirical Analysis , Alan Michael Tauber

Theses/Dissertations from 2009 2009

Wolves In Chic Clothing: Gender, Media and the Securitization of Female Suicide Bombers , Mekell Mikell

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Home > School, College, or Department > CUPA > Political Science > Theses

Political Science Masters Theses

Theses/dissertations from 2024 2024.

Artificial Intelligence as the Next Front in the Class War , Christopher Hill

Corporatizing Violence: Targeted Repression of Indigenous Dissent in Democratic States , Laikaika Layne Rivera

The Arab Spring Uprisings in Geopolitical Context , Jake Alan Rutledge

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

The New Profits of Pleasure: Reality Television and Affective Exploitation in Post-Pandemic Neoliberalism , Sophia Aepfelbacher

Committees in the Oregon State Legislature: Partisan, Distributive, or Informational , Woodrow C. Moore

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

Gender Equity and State-Mosque Relations in Middle East North Africa: A Case Study of Tunisia , Joy Amarachi Agbugba

Comparative Foreign Aid Analysis: Replacing the Competition Between Donors with Complementary Aid Policies , Emily Melinda Baker

Legislative Procedures and Perceptions of Legitimacy , Megan Elizabeth Cox

The Meaning and Measure of Deliberative Systems , Darren Michael McCormick

Same Game, Different Rules: Pointillist Imperialism and the New Cartography of Great Power Competition , Andrew Jesse Shaughnessy

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Trump's Legacy in the Middle East: Strategic Shift and the Geopolitics of American Foreign Policy in the Region , Bilel Kriaa

Freedom vs. Security: Analyzing the Connection between States' Prioritization of Security over Civil Liberties and Citizen Support for Democratic Norms , Carlyn Trumbull Madden

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Follow the (Electronic) Money: How Bitcoin and Blockchain Technology Are "Shaking the System" , Jim Robert Mignano

The Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) Debate: Do Savings Provisions Influence Arbitration Outcomes? , Ryan Manning Moore

Understanding Evangelical Support for, and Opposition to Donald Trump in the 2016 Presidential Election , Joseph Thomas Zichterman

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

How Does Wasta Bolster Regimes? The Case of Tunisia , Issrar Chamekh

Indigenous Party Formation and Success: the Strategic Roles of Reserved Seats, Parties, and Horizontal Accountability , Michael FitzGerald

Arctic Security: the Race for the Arctic through the Prism of International Relations Theory , Michael Gregory Morgan Trujillo

Grappling with the African E-Waste Pandemic: Contributing Factors and Future Deterrence , Brittany Nicole Wideman

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

Using the Syrian Civil War to Measure Hierarchy: Regional Power Transition in the Middle East , Eric Michael Clary

Understanding ASEAN : An Alternative Approach to International Relations Theory in Asia , Ryan Grimstad Driver

Evaluating the Impact of Oregon's Citizen Initiative Review (CIR) on Voter Decisions , Ari Joaquin Wubbold

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

The 2016 Presidential Election: Demographic Transformation and Racial Backlash , Skyler Lillian Brocker-Knapp

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Manufacturing Consent in the Maghreb: How Mohammed VI of Morocco Survived the Arab Spring , David Michael Duke II

Substantive Representation by the Unelected: The Role of Staff Gender on Mayoral Priorities in U.S. Cities , Sara M. Hottman

BEE CAUSE: Is Legislative Action Protecting Bees from Neonicotinoids Justified? , Ursula A. Squire

Democratization, Political Performance, and Income Distribution in Argentina and Brazil , Nicholas Paul Stowell

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

The Europeanization of Political Parties: A Study of Political Parties in Poland 2009-2014 , Dennis Jan Blew

An Examination of Factors that Catalyze LGBTQ Movements in Middle Eastern and North African Authoritarian Regimes , Michael Anthony Figueredo

Liberalization, Contention, and Threat: Institutional Determinates of Societal Preferences and the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Morocco , Matthew Thomas Lacouture

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

The Responsibility to Protect and International Law: Moral, Legal and Practical Perspectives on Kosovo, Libya, and Syria , William R. Blackford

Synthesizing the Vertical and the Horizontal: A World-Ecological Analysis of 'the Industrial Revolution', Part I , Christopher R. Cox

Exploring Connections Between Efforts to Restrict Same-Sex Marriage and Surging Public Opinion Support for Same-Sex Marriage Rights: Could Efforts to Restrict Gay Rights Help to Explain Increases in Public Opinion Support for Same-Sex Marriage? , Samuel Everett Christian Dunlop

Moving Beyond Regulatory Mechanisms: A Typology of Internet Control Regimes , Richard Reid Hunt

The Effect of Social Media on Public Awareness and Extra-Judicial Effects: The Gay Marriage Cases and Litigating for New Rights , Sarahfina Aubrey Peterson

Explaining Ballot Initiative Contest Outcomes in California, Oregon, and Washington , Hans Daniel Stroo

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

Macroeconomic and Political Determinants of Foreign Direct Investment in the Middle East , Robin Barnaby Calver

The Strategic Effects of Counterinsurgency Operations at Religious Sites: Lessons from India, Thailand, and Israel , Timothy L. Christopher

Fated to Pretend?: Culture Crisis and the Fate of the Individual , Rebecca Jade Ok

Economic Inequality's Correlation with Political Inequality and Inequality of Opportunity and the Implications for Social Justice Theory , Staci Leigh Schoff

A Dissatisfied Partner: A Conflict - Integration Analysis of Britain's Membership in the European Union , Osman Goktug Tanrikulu

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Supranationalism in the Fight Against Transnational Threats: A Comparative Study of ASEAN and EU Policy Responses to Human Trafficking , Nicholas M. Klynn

The Crisis of Cooperation: A Critical Analysis of Russian-Iranian Relations in the Post-Soviet Era , Eric D. Moore

Public Participation in Emergency Management , Jason Alexander Rood

A Strategic Model for INGO Accountability Systems , Sarah Elizabeth Wardwell

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

The Fourth Amendment and Cyberspace: Conflict or Cohesion? , Federico Alberto Cantón

The Institutional Development of the American Vice Presidency , James Emory Hite

African Regime Types and International Humanitarian Non-Governmental Organizations: A Comparative Study of the Relationships of Friends and Enemies. , Krista Noel Lane

From Blooming Judicial Philosophies to Castrated Legislation: Sexuality, Desire, and Nominations to the Supreme Court of the United States , Adam Michael McMahon

The Expressive Goals of Bias Crime Legislation and the Media , Louis Panush

In or Out: Interpretation of European Union Membership Criteria and its Effect on the EU Accession Process for Candidate and Potential Member States of Southeastern Europe , Ashley Marie Rasmussen

Citizenship, Duty and Virtue: A Vision of Jefferson's America , Anthony Philip Stine

Diminished Democracy? Portland Radio News/Public Affairs After the Telecom Act of 1996 , Rebecca Webb

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

Northeast Asia and the Avoidance of a Nuclear Arms Race , Samuel Fogleman

Regional Integration in East Asia , Amaleia E. Kolovos

Rashomon Comes to the Courtroom: the Adoption of the Lay Judge System in Japan, Its Impact on Jurisprudence, and the Implications for Civic Engagement , Bryan Matthew Thompson

Limitation Riders in the Postreform House: A Test of Procedural Cartel and Conditional Party Government Theories , Jessica Scott Tollestrup

Nihilism Unbound: Strauss, Nietzsche and Foucault as Nihilist Thinkers , Jeffrey Jacob Wade

Theses/Dissertations from 2007 2007

Radicalism in American Political Thought : Black Power, the Black Panthers, and the American Creed , Christopher Thomas Cooney

Theses/Dissertations from 2006 2006

Social Regulatory Policy : A Challenge to Federalism , Kimberly Janet Russell

Theses/Dissertations from 2004 2004

Prospect Theory and the Cyprus Conflict: Analyzing Decisionmaking in the Turkish Cypriot President , Tarah Marie Wheeler

Theses/Dissertations from 2002 2002

Presidential Domain: An Exploratory Study of Prospect Theory and US Climate Policy Since 1998 , Hal T. Nelson

Theses/Dissertations from 2000 2000

International Environmental Regimes and Latin America : The Role of Environmental Non-governmental Organizations , Jennifer T. Eller

Theses/Dissertations from 1998 1998

An Analysis of the Principal Arguments in Support of a Congressional Term Limit , Paul William Cadero-Smith

The Impact of Relative Gains on Interstate Cooperation in the Areas of Security and International Economy , Renato Corbetta

Free Trade, Regionalism, and the Democratic Peace Theory , Julia B. Johnson

Tocqueville’s Civic Republicanism : The Balance Between Equality and Liberty in American Democracy , Clifford Brantley Smith

Theses/Dissertations from 1997 1997

The Minimal Role of Legal Traditions at the International Court of Justice , Kalley Rae Aman

Virtue, Liberty, and the Good : A Critical Analysis of Civic Republicanism , Nathan Douglas Austin

Collective Intervention in Internal Conflicts : An Examination of Why States Participate , Andrew L. Blum

Public Interest Group Politics and American Political Culture , Patrick Henry Brennan

The Reemergence of Kantian Ethics: Have We Adequately Responded to Hegel's Objections? , Gwen C. Thompson

Theses/Dissertations from 1996 1996

Oregon's Carry Concealed Weapon Laws: A Historical Review of the Right to Personal Protection , Richard Meek Bash

Neorealism and Environmental Cooperation: Towards a Structural Explanation of International Environmental Matters , Anthony David Lott

The Dangers of Nuclear Proliferation: Five Reasons More May Not Be Better , Matthew MacArthur

Theses/Dissertations from 1995 1995

Gaining State Response on Global Environmental Problem-Solving: Developing a State-centric Approach , Heather MacGregor Bothwell

Liberalism, Community, and the Context of Choice , Marta R. Colburn

Sustainable Development in the Third World: A New Paradigm? , Terry A. Gentry

Communicative Action as Feminist Epistemology , Todd Nathaniel Gilman

John Rawls, Feminism, and the Gendered Self , Lori Kinder MacArthur

Sustainable Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: Strategies for Self-help in Food Production, Case Study of Kenya , Dieudonne Mayi

State Cooperation on Regulatory Policies for Transboundary Environmental Issues , Jennifer Lyn Pennell

North vs. South: Sovereign Equality and the Environment in the Twentieth Century , Thomas Schlesinger

Theses/Dissertations from 1994 1994

A Study of Japan's Foreign Policy Behavior: The Discrepancy between Japan's Foreign Policy and Its Voting Behavior in the United Nations General Assembly , Atsuko Sato

Theses/Dissertations from 1993 1993

The Liberal-Communitarian Debate and the Development of a Political Conception of the Person , Kenneth Howard Biggs

Common Security: a Conceptual Blueprint for an Israeli-Palestinian Political Settlement , Robert Arthur Horenstein

The United States-Japan Security Treaty of 1951: An Essay on the Origins of Postwar Japanese-American Relation , Christopher S. Johnson

Theses/Dissertations from 1991 1991

A Comparative Analysis of U.S. Foreign Policy in Iran and the Philippines , Christina M. Blumel

Chinese Intellectual Dissidents , Meiru Liu

Theses/Dissertations from 1990 1990

John Rawls, the conception of a liberal self, and the communitarian critique , Johnathan Edward Mansfield

Politics and Education: The Nicaraguan Literacy Crusade , Teresa Squires Osborne

Theses/Dissertations from 1989 1989

An Analysis of US/Soviet Arms Control: Adding a Subsystem Perspective , Peter Millard Olson

Theses/Dissertations from 1987 1987

Hugo Grotius and the liberal tradition , Karen Diane Csajko

American Foreign Policy: The Utility of Force as an Influence, Bargaining, or Coercive Force in the Caribbean Basin , Susan M. Marandas

Theses/Dissertations from 1986 1986

Manipulation or education? : symbolic language, belief system and the Truman Doctrine , John Gunn Tilson

Theses/Dissertations from 1985 1985

Formulation of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act of 1973 , Gary G. Skalangya

Theses/Dissertations from 1984 1984

Integration in West Africa : an empirical examination of ECOWAS , Stephen C. Adkisson

Theses/Dissertations from 1983 1983

Polish foreign policy and the development of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe , Keijiro Yasui

Theses/Dissertations from 1982 1982

Congressional Power and Presidential Prerogative: The War Powers Question , Gerald Michael Worley

Theses/Dissertations from 1979 1979

The political integration of the Kurds in Turkey , Kathleen Palmer Ertur

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UKnowledge > College of Arts & Sciences > Political Science > Theses & Dissertations

Theses and Dissertations--Political Science

Theses/dissertations from 2024 2024.

Ruling in the Shadows: Analysis of the Supreme Court’s Use of the ‘Shadow Docket’ and its Effects , EmiLee Smart

Public Justice: Analyzing the Interactions of Supreme Court Justices with the American Public , Abbie Wood

Theses/Dissertations from 2023 2023

Welcome Visitor or Nosy Neighbor: Executive Branch Presence in Federal and State Judicial Affairs , Audrey Baricovich

The Spread of Nuclear Technology: The Difficulty of Arms Control and the Consequences of Nuclear Proliferation , Bryce Allen Beschorner

Home Is Where the Heart Is: Rural Residents, Deprivation, and the Impact of PRD on Governmental Representation , Mary Rachael Blandau

Citizen Demand for Cultural Censorship: A Mixed Methods Study , Kelly Grenier

Damsels in Defense: Exploring the Relationship Between Women and Violence Against Civilians During Armed Conflict , Baylee Harrell

Circumvention Theory: Rethinking Gray Zones, Understanding Bounded Competition, and Examining State Response to Unipolar Structure in the Twenty-First Century. , Damian M. Jones

COALITION OF THE ENDING: WHY STATES WITHDRAW FROM INTERNATIONAL MILITARY COALITIONS , Weiss Mehrabi

The UN-Intended Effects of Risky Mandates , Robert Wood

Theses/Dissertations from 2022 2022

NEWS TREATMENT OF THE SUPREME COURT: LANGUAGE SELECTION, IDEOLOGICAL DIRECTIONS, AND PUBLIC SUPPORT , Alexander Denison

STAYING COMPLIANT OR STAYING IN OFFICE? INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, POST-COUP SIGNALS, AND COUP-BORN REGIMES , Jennifer Flinchum

THE INFLUENCE OF THE FEDERALIST SOCIETY ON JUDICAL POLITICS AND LAW IN THE UNITED STATES , Peter S. K. Lynch

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

The Transnational Diffusion of Human Trafficking Policy , Glenn M. Harden

THE POLITICAL CONSEQUENCES OF STATE ACTION ON VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN: HOW VICTIMS AND NON-VICTIMS FORM OPINIONS ABOUT GOVERNMENT , Helen Rabello Kras

International Cooperation Networks and Economic Sanction Effectiveness , Gargi Vyas

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Piecing Together Coalition War: Threat, Politics, and Coalition Structure , Stephen Joiner

BETTER DEVILS OF OUR NATURE: THE ROLE OF VIOLENCE-JUSTIFYING IDEOLOGIES IN OPINION FORMATION , Steven Kaiser

FROM HOBBES TO HABERMAS: THE ANTI-CULTURAL TURN IN WESTERN POLITICAL THOUGHT , Ralph Gert Schoellhammer

Predicting Positive Attitudes toward Immigrants with Altruism , Kati Elizabeth Stafford

Judicial Elections, Public Opinion, and their Impact on State Criminal Justice Policy , Travis N. Taylor

Why Weak States Balance: National Mobilization and the Security Strategies of Post-Soviet States , Eteri Tsintsadze-Maass

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

SEEDS OF SUSPICION: THE PERPETUAL CYCLE OF ANTI-MUSLIM STEREOTYPES, MIDDLE EAST INTERVENTION, AND TERRORISM , Christopher Ledford

PERCEPTIONS OF FAIRNESS AND POLITICAL SUPPORT IN THE FACE OF ECONOMIC INEQUALITY , Gregory W. Saxton

THE EFFECT OF STATES OF EMERGENCY ON GUBERNATORIAL APPROVAL RATINGS , Meghan Steinbeiss

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Government and International Affairs Theses and Dissertations

Theses/dissertations from 2023 2023.

Standing Her Ground: Legal Constraints on Women Who have been Victims of Violence , Janae E. Thomas

Theses/Dissertations from 2021 2021

Struggling Against the Odds: Social Movements in Pakistan During Authoritarian Regimes , Sajjad Hussain

The Domestic Reality of Foreign Policy: The 1994 Clinton Administration Response to the Crises in Rwanda and Haiti , Camara Kemanini Silver

American Military Service and Identity: From the Militia to the All-Volunteer Force , Andrew C. Sparks

Theses/Dissertations from 2020 2020

Decolonizing Human Trafficking: A Case Study of Human Trafficking in Edo State Nigeria , Oyinkansola Adepitan

Borges, el Escritor Italiano: Precursores Italianos en/desde Borges , Sara Boscagli

A Dangerous New Era: Analyzing the Impact of Cyber Technology on International Conflict , Kenneth Brown

Networks in the Norm Life Cycle and the Diffusion of Environmental Norms , James E. Fry

Power, Property Rights, and Political Development: A property rights theory of political development and its application to the study of development in Honduras and Costa Rica , Ricardo R. Noé

Bodily Harm: An Analysis of the Phenomenological and Linguistic Aspects of Harm and Trauma , Grant Samuel Peeler

Mystic Medicine: Afro-Jamaican Religio-Cultural Epistemology and the Decolonization of Health , Jake Wumkes

Theses/Dissertations from 2019 2019

The Humanitarian Gaze and the Spectatorial Nature of Sympathy , Michelle Assaad

The Progressive Transformation of Medellín- Colombia: A Successful Case of Women's Political Agency , María Auxiliadora González-Malabet

Restoring International Justice: Exposing the Limitations of Retributive Justice and Proposing a Restorative Dimension , Nazek Jawad

Human Rights, Emotion, and Critical Realism: Proposing an Emotional Ontology of International Human Rights , Ben Luongo

When Faced with a Democracy: political socialization of first-generation ethnic Russian immigrants in Central and South Florida , Marina Seraphine Mendez

Structure of Turkey-USA Bilateral Relations and Analysis of Factors Affecting Bilateral Relations , Hanifi Ozkarakaya

Soviet Nationality Policy: Impact on Ethnic Conflict in Abkhazia and South Ossetia , Nevzat Torun

Theses/Dissertations from 2018 2018

The Influence of The Armenian Diaspora on The American Foreign Policy , Fatih Aydogan

Discourse, Affinity and Attraction: A Case Study of Iran's Soft Power Strategy in Afghanistan , Hiva Feizi

Becoming Legitimate: How PMSCs are Seeking Legitimacy in the International System , Sommer Mitchell

De Mestizas a Indígenas: Reindigenization as a Political Strategy in Ecuador , Pamela X. Pareja

Star Power, Pandemics, and Politics: The Role of Cultural Elites in Global Health Security , Holly Lynne Swayne

Strategic Negligence: Why the United States Failed to Provide Military Support to the Syrian Resistance in 2011-2014 , Konrad J. Trautman

The Viability of Democratic Governance in De Facto States: A Comparative Case Study of Iraqi Kurdistan and Syria Rojava , Chelsea Vogel

Theses/Dissertations from 2017 2017

Cyber Deterrence against Cyberwar between the United States and China: A Power Transition Theory Perspective , Yavuz Akdag

The Role of Elites in the Formation of National Identities: The Case of Montenegro , Muhammed F. Erdem

Measuring Trust in Post-Communist States: Making the Case for Particularized Trust. , Nicole M. Ford

Hidden: A Case Study on Human Trafficking in Costa Rica , Timothy Adam Golob

Latino Subgroups Political Participation in American Politics: The Other Latinos’ Electoral Behavior , Angelica Maria Leon Velez

Re-ethnicization of Second Generation Non-Muslim Asian Indians in the U.S. , Radha Moorthy

Structural Racism: Racists without Racism in Liberal Institutions within Colorblind States , Alexis Nicole Mootoo

Theses/Dissertations from 2016 2016

Venezuela, from Charisma to Mimicry: The Rise and Fall of a Televised Political Drama , Rebecca Blackwell

Containment: A Failed American Foreign Policy and How the Truman Doctrine Led to the Rise in Islamic Extremism in the Muslim World , Christopher Jonathan Gerber

The Role of Religion in Mitigating Cancer Disparities Among Black Americans , Samar Hennawi

Where is the Survivor’s Voice? An Examination of the Individual and Structural Challenges to the Reintegration of Immigrant Human Trafficking Survivors , Michelle Cristina Angelo Dantas Rocha

Changes and Challenges in Diplomacy: An Evaluation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the Dominican Republic , Yudelka Santana

How Presidents Can Become "Hip" by Using High Definition Metaphors Strategic Communication of Leadership in a Digital Age , Mirela Camelia Stimus

Theses/Dissertations from 2015 2015

At the Intersection of Human Agency and Technology: Genetically Modified Organisms , James Libengood

The Triumvirate of Intersectionality: a Case Study on the Mobilization of Domésticas in Brazil , Kristen Lei Nash

Strategic Missile Defense: Russian and U.S. Policies and Their Effects on Future Weapons Proliferation , Diana Marie Nesbitt

Staring Down the Mukhabarat: Rhizomatic Social Movements and the Egyptian and Syrian Arab Spring , Stephen Michael Strenges

The Effect of Neoliberalism on Capabilities: Evaluating the Case of Mexico , James Paul Walker

Theses/Dissertations from 2014 2014

Human Trafficking from Southern Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala: Why These Victims are Trafficked into Modern Day Florida , Timothy Adam Golob

The Effects of U.S. Middle East Foreign Policy on American Muslims: A Case Study of Muslims in Tampa Bay , Mark G. Grzegorzewski

Does Revolution Breed Radicalism? An Analysis of the Stalled Revolution in Syria and the Radical Forces Since Unleashed , Ryan King Little

The United States Prison System: A Comparative Analysis , Rachel O'connor

Fair Trade in Transition: Evolution, Popular Discourse, and the Case of the CADO Cooperative in Cotopaxi, Ecuador , Robyn Michelle Odegard

Challenging the Democratic Peace Theory - The Role of US-China Relationship , Toni Ann Pazienza

Continuation in US Foreign Policy: An Offensive Realist Perspective , Bledar Prifti

The Syrian Civil War: Four Concentric Forces of Tensions , Majid Rafizadeh

Key Ingredients in the Rule of Law Recipe: The Role of Judicial Independence in the Effective Establishment of the Rule of Law , Lauren A. Shumate

Leges, Plebiscita, et Rogationes: Democratization and Legislative Action, 494 - 88 BC , Eric Wolters

An Analysis of State Building: The Relationship between Pashtun 'Para-State' Institutions and Political Instability in Afghanistan , Rebecca Young Greven

Accessibility's Influence on Population Location near Light Rail in the Denver Region , Christophe Michael Zuppa

Theses/Dissertations from 2013 2013

A Comparative Study: How Educational and Healthcare Preparedness Affected Marketization of the Chinese and Indian Economies , Cindy Arjoon

Accidental Detention: A Threat to the Legitimacy of Venezuelan Democracy , Mabel Gabriela Durán-Sánchez

European Union Institutions, Democratic Discourse, and the Color Revolutions , Lizette G. Howard

The End of Anarchy: Weapons of Mass Destruction and the States System , Gregory Edward Johnson

Trends in the Contracting out of Local Government Services , Cristiane Carvalho Keetch

Framing Colombian Women's Beliefs, Values and Attitude Towards Sex and Sexual High-Risk Behaviors , Rosa Ore

Impacts of U.S. Foreign Policy and Intervention on Guatemala: Mid-20th Century , Patricia M. Plantamura

Maximizing Citizenship with Minimal Representation: An Analysis of Afro-Argentine Civil Society Organizing Strategies , Prisca Suarez

From Zaire to the DRC: A Case Study of State Failure , Adam Zachariah Trautman

Guanxi, Networks and Economic Development: The Impact of Cultural Connections , Patricia Anne Weeks

Comparative Political Corruption in the United States: The Florida Perspective , Andrew Jonathon Wilson

Theses/Dissertations from 2012 2012

Modernization From Above: Social Mobilization, Political Institutionalization and Instability: A Case Study of Iran (1953-1979) , Jeffrey Robert Cobb

The Relationship between the Social Construction of Race and the Black/White Test Score Gap in , Toriano M. Dempsey

The Causes and Effects of Get Tough: A Look at How Tough-on-Crime Policies Rose to the Agenda and an Examination of Their Effects on Prison Populations and Crime , Cheyenne Morales Harty

Hegemonic Rivalry in the Maghreb: Algeria and Morocco in the Western Sahara Conflict , Michael D. Jacobs

The Politics of Pentecostalism; Does it Help or Hinder Democratic Consolidation in Brazil? , Amber S. Johansen

Women's Political Representation in Europe: An Analysis of Structural and Attitudinal Factors , Jenna Elaine Mcculloch

Examining the Relationship between Participatory Democracy and Nonwhite Domestic Workers in Porto Alegre, Brazil: Issues of Race, Class and Privilege , Alexis Nicole Mootoo

The Indigenous Movement and the Struggle for Political Representation in Bolivia , Angelica T. Nieves

MAS and the Indigenous People of Bolivia , Maral Shoaei

Cyberwar and International Law: An English School Perspective , Anthony F. Sinopoli

The Homegrown Jihad: A Comparative Study of Youth Radicalization in the United States and Europe , William Wolfberg

Theses/Dissertations from 2011 2011

The State and the Legalization of Dual Citizenship/Dual Nationality: A Case Study of Mexico and the Philippines , Pamela Kim Anderson

The Integration of African Muslim Minority: A Critique of French Philosophy and Policy , Amber Nichole Dillender

Elections and Tensions and Constitutions! Oh, My! A Process-Oriented Analysis of Bolivian Democratization from 1993 to 2009 , Laurel Kristin Dwyer

Cuban Medical Internationalism: A Case for International Solidarity in Foreign Policy Decision Making , Eric James Fiske

The Threat to Democracy in Brazil's Public Sphere , Daniel Nettuno

Prospects for Political Reform in China , Jody Lee Tomlin

Theses/Dissertations from 2010 2010

The Positive- and Negative-Right Conceptions of Freedom of Speech and the Specter of Reimposing the Broadcast Fairness Doctrine ... or Something Like It , Adam Fowler

The Christian Zionist Lobby and U.S.-Israel Policy , Mark G. Grzegorzewski

An Analysis of U.S. Policies Targeting the Iranian Nuclear Program , Bryan T. Hamilton

Religion and Resistance: The Role of Islamic Doctrine in Hamas and Hezbollah , Matthew Lawson

Prospects for Nuclear Non-Proliferation: An Actor-Oriented Case Study of Iran’s Future , James Martin Lockwood

Impact of Globalization on Socio-Economic and Political Development of the Central Asian Countries , Karina Orozalieva

Mubarak’s Machine: The Durability of the Authoritarian Regime in Egypt , Andrea M. Perkins

International Society Cosmopolitan Politics and World Society , Kimberly Weaver

Theses/Dissertations from 2009 2009

From China to Cuba: Guerilla Warfare as a Mechanism for Mobilizing Resources , Jorge Barrera

Neoliberalism and Dependence: A Case Study of The Orphan Care Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa , Christine Concetta Gibson

City Level Development New Key to Successful Development , Gina Herron

The neoconservative war on modernity: The Bush Doctrine and its resistance to legitimation , Ben Luongo

The Security and Foreign Policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran: An Offensive Realism Perspective , Bledar Prifti

Transdiscursive cosmopolitanism: Foucauldian freedom, subjectivity, and the power of resistance , Joanna Rozpedowski

Making and Keeping the Peace: An Analysis of African Union Efficacy , Nicholas Temple

Social Implications of Fair Trade Coffee in Chiapas, Mexico: Toward Alternative Economic Integration , Joseph J. Torok

Theses/Dissertations from 2008 2008

Role of Culture in Economic Development: China Study of China and Latin America , Amira Fellner

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Master in Political Philosophy

Theses from previous years.

• Topolski’s Relationality and Pragmatic Feminist Possibilities for Political Ethics: Arendt, Levinas, Rorty and Cavarero in Conversation
• How can participatory democracy technology facilitate a greater sense of freedom amongst workers?
• Is it permissible to pay refugees to leave? An analysis of the voluntariness and discrimination and how they impact the permissibility to pay refugees to leave
• How to give life to AI politicians? Can Dreyfus’s critic of AI, and Haraway’s concept of situated knowledge open a path for politically active artificial beings?
• Zarathustra wants to become human again.The Nietzschean political criterion between Vattimo and Deleuze.
• Happiness research in politics: should we really apply it?
• Pakistani Migrants in Barcelona: A Critical Discourse Analysis of the Community’s Political Participation in Catalonia
• Inheritance as a Legitimate Form of Sacrifice
• Resistance and the Human-Animal Distinction Through Derrida and Foucault
• Modern problems require modern ideas Why responsibility does not end at territorial borders
• Asphyxiation and capitalism: Berardi, Lazzarato and the articulation of asphyxiation in higher education
• Should they be considered as opposed sides of the same phenomenon?
• Love for the Left. Feminist Hermeneutics and Populism
• Why marriage? In praise of caring beyond nuclear family
• Social Science and Moral Philosophy: Disagreement, Debunking, Calibration.
• Nili’s deep public ownership view: implausible and unhelpful?
• The political feasability of a social minimum: assessing the cross-ideological support for a Universal Basic Income
• The intersectional nation: building the country from the left 
• Confronting climate change the gentle way: On the moral advantages of consumption taxes
• The Legitimacy of Disobedience and Political Violence in Territorial Conflicts
• Critical Art and Social Changes in Naples: The Politics of Aesthetics in Jorit's Work
• The psychology of political propaganda: the psychological mechanisms motivating the politics of Us and Them.
• Political Anger and its Control
• Politics of mental illness in the age of late cognitive capitalism; challenging the hegemony of the biological model for mental illness 
• The Peter Singer Controversy: A Discussion about Disability and Quality of Life
• How Israel perpetuates a structure of settler colonialism: an analysis of the relationship between settler colonialism, Orientalism and genocide
• Articulating Insecurity under Neoliberalism: Agamben, Klein, Brown and the Case of France
• Striking a balance between resource sovereignty and resource cosmopolitanism. An analysis of Anna Stilz: Territorial Sovereignty
• Schizo-Analysis and Netflix: Data-Entertainment and the Phenomenon of Netflix 'Originals'
• "We are just laughing". A modest proposal for the debate on the limits of humour
• Can European Union's Identity be based on Constitutional Patriotism?
• Tryptich of Experience. Crisis, Expropriation and Survival
• Non-Parental Family Umpires. The Case for a Limitation of Patria Potestas
• Revisiting the Theory of Participatory Democracy. Strengthening citizenry through the institucionalization of mini-publics
• Moral does not mean legal. A defence of the morality and illegality of commercial surrogacy 
• Why Do Theories of Justice Need an Idea of Human Nature? The 'Capabilities Approach' and the Idea of 'Human Nature'
• “A Community of Interruptions”: Thinking Postcoloniality Through Fanon and Rancière’s Notions of Race and Violence
• On Democratic Participation: An Analysis of the Role of Participation in the Crisis of Liberal Democracy in Contrast with the Inclusive Democracy Model
• Examining Truth and Hope In Transitional Justice, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) of South Africa
• A Libertarian Defense of Gun Control
• “No Hate, No Fear, Immigrants are Welcome Here!”: Exclusion and The Construction of Citizenship in the United States
• Arts Against God: Bataille and How Literature can Change Stablished Notions
• An Approach to Degrowth: Philosophy, Political Theory and Political Practice
• The Lessons of Historical Materialism for Intergenerational Justice
• The Universal Educational Basic Income: A Defence Driven Towards a Moral Crash
• Working Hours and the Basic Structure: On the Injustice of the Spanish Split Shift
• Eichmann in Langley: A Report on the Radical and Banal Evil of U.S. Covert Drone Warfare
• Community and Counterhegemony. Reconciling Difference and the Left
• Does The Value of People’s Opportunities, as Opposed to the Quality of their Choices, Affect their Liability?
• Could an Asymmetrical Regime for Catalonia within the Spanish State Prevent its Secession?
• The Merits of Trade Protectionism
• Addressing Justice and Legitimacy Concerns of Solar Geoengineering
• Climate Justice and the Obligations of Procreators and Parents
• On The Double Standard: The Linguistic Rights of Minority Nations And Migrants
• The Social Contract as a Source of Hope:  Richard Rorty vs Martha Nussbaum
• Barred From the Ballot: A Defense of Prisoner Voting Rights in the United States
• Why we ought not to colonize Mars yet: The role of the precautionary principle in space ethics
• Walling In, Walling Out: Citizenship Revocation and the Subject Walled in
• German National Identity, East-West Inequality and the Politics of Recognition
• Unmasking Speciesism: an (Animal) Ethics
• A Critique Phenomenon of Cultural Resistance in “On the post-colony” of Achille Mbembé
• A Rortyan Reading of Mohsin Hamid
• Contingency, Weak Thought and Revolutionary Action
• Agonistic pragmatism on conflict and persuasion in the post-foundational political thought of Richard Rorty, Ernesto Laclau, and Chantal Mouffe
• Cultural Otherness Rejuvenates Philosophy
• Levels of Democracy: Gearing procedures towards sound actions
• Is Moral Bioenhancement Limiting Freedom?
• Stasis/Civil War in Foucault and Agamben
• Data and Democracy – Challenges and Opportunities
• The Power of Redescription. On the liberating potential of Richard Rorty’s postmetaphysical liberal utopia
• A Radical Weapon: An Analysis of Feminist Consciousness-Raising from the Perspective of Rorty’s Thought
• Against the Mind's Terror: Philosophy of the Body as a Central Theme of D.H. Lawrence Political Thought. A Spinozist Analysis
• Rorty, la izquierda estadounidense y el pluralismo político
• Why Sexual Consent Matters. An assessment of Catherine MacKinnon’s feminist critique of consent
• A pragmatic approach of distributive justice
• Weak Nationalism In Defence of the Political
• Sufficiency: Distributive or Contributive?
• Distributive Justice for Mice and Men
• Occupational Choice and the Incentive Problem
• Philosophy of Freedom:  Imagining Karl Marx’s Idea of Human Emancipation
• Liberalism, inequality and the decay of western socities
• Regulations Up in Smoke. Spain’s Medical Cannabis Law as a Social Justice Failure
• Saving 5000 Rupees Today, Harming Society Tomorrow against Nonmedical Sex Selective Abortion in Sexist Societies
• Responsibility to Alter the Means of Development  for Climate Change Mitigation
• Derrida’s deconstruction of hospitality. A way for understanding the case of closed borders in Europe and the current crisis of refugees
• An analysis and assessment of the political criticisms of the linguistic normalisation in Navarre. A deference of normalisation from the standpoint of liberal principles.
• Gone with the waves: responding to small island developing states’ existential threat
• Law and space in Kafka
• Can re-education ever be justified in a free society?
• The case for cultural accommodation: four relevant factors
• Worker cooperatives in liberal Democracies - a Philosophical Deference
• If you're an egalitarian, how come you eat meat?
• Towards a responsible Ethics: Derrida and Levinas on Hospitality
• The autonomy-based argument for a shorter working week
• What do news have to do with legitimacy?
• Towards a human-rights criterion of ligitimacy for international institutions: an analysis on the role of humans rights in assessing legitimacy in theories of global order
• Mexican imagined communities: the unexpected result of national education
• Tension or limitation? The problem of the body in Simone Weil anthropological thesis
• Rawls, intergenerational justice, and the positive savings principle
• "Children of men": what we owe domesticated animals
• Revisiting the fanon-srtre dialogues: on Sartre´s methodology employed in an existential-marxist narrative of decolonization
• Hannah Arendt an the right to have rights
• Work Ethic.  A Common Cause Defied
• Justice, Hauntology and the Political Space.  A Derridean lecture on Judith Butler.
• Benefitting from Independent Campaign Spending: The Case for Maximin Reform and Campaign Expenditure Taxes
• Who Can Save Western Society? 
• Religion, Women, and Societal Decay in Houellebecq’s Novels
• Fair Play and Political Obligation
• In Defence of the Union: Discussing Federalism and Devolution in the UK
• Is There Room for Communitarianism in Political Liberalism?
• Justifying Reasons for Action
• Under what conditions should nations undertake reparations for historical injustices?
• Reclaiming the Right to Freedom of Conscience from the European Court of Human Rights: The Case Against the Campbell Threshold
• Collective Responsibility as the Ethical Approach to Affluent Citizens’ Role towards Global Poverty
• Anonymous within the multitude
• Rational Believers. How economic modeling of equilibrium relies on theological concepts
• True Commitment and Hand-Tied Policy Makers: the Case of Equal Pay Audits
• Rawls and Opportunities for Meaningful Work
• How should International Humanitarian Law treat transnational conflicts involving non-state groups?
• The Implications of the Ideal of Public Reason for Multiculturalism and Liberal Nationalism
• The Muslim veil and women's rights: autonomy-promoting education as a possible solution
• Freedom of Political Speech: Far-Right Parties, a Slippery Slope
• Right of Admittance Reserved: Obligations and the Right to Exclude
• The Global Distribution of Education: Its Value and Practical Implications
• Should states ensure media diversity?
• Education and a Maximinimizing Principle
• Do our Obligations to Future Generations require a Steady State Economy?
• Does the non-identity problem challenge the view that we have moral obligations to prevent climate change?
• Should they stay of may they go? On the permissibility of retaining skilled workers in some cases of brain drain
• Basis for a Code of Ethics for Professional Politicians
• The Moral Wrong of HIV Transmission
• The Challenges to Indigenous Self-Determination within the Colonial Framework of the BC Treaty Process
• The Individual, Economic Freedom, Society
• Unilateral Secession in Liberal Democracies: The Case of Catalonia
• Equality and Difference? Can Sharia marriage and divorce laws be compatible with the requirements of a democratic society?
• Analysis of "A New Beginning" based on the theory of judgment
• The Distributive Justice of Waves for Surfing
• Is a permanent prohibition on the use of Lethal Autonomous Weapons justified?
• The Humanitarian Intervention in Lybia between Legitimacy and Legality
• Marketing to children: a neo-Republican perspective
• Political Legitimacy and Institutional Innovation
• "Practicing Utopian Wonder as a Technique of the Self" with the Music of Steven "Flying Lotus" Ellison.
• John Gray's Myth of Progress: Science, Ethics and Politics.
• Debating indirect discrimination: the case of Roma in the recent European jurisprudence.
• Entrenchment of Democratic Rights. A review of three cases.
• The case for including resource allocation in the debate on legalising euthanasia.
• An evolutionary debunking explanation of nationalism. On error theory, cosmopolitan chimps and nationalistic bees.
• Equality through effort? Possibilities and limitations of an effort-based egalitarian model of distribution.
• Equality in innovation: women in STEM careers
• The fictional dichotomy of inequality
• "Untargeted" killing in targeted killing: problems of justification and their implications
• The broken social contract. A case for violent civil disobedience.
• Republicanism, radical democracy and the participatory demands of the 15-M movement.
• Can nationalism be justified as a means to democratic ends? In Giuseppe Massini's A Cosmopolitan of Nations
• Legitimacy of executive power on foreign policy - Rethinking of Lockean approach of federative power -
• Flexicurity in the European Union: can social justice still be achieved without protecting labor?
• The structural impossibility between Justice and Culture: Justice as sublimation and projection
• Authentic love as the mutual recognition of two liberties and the revelation of self
• Judicial review and democracy: the ideal or the inevitable?
• The human right to a safe environment: proposal for the future
• Social Justice and the Family
• Equal and Sufficient Education. Justice in the Distribution of Positional and Non-Positional Educational Goods
• Is it illegitimate the interference with the applicant's private life in Peck v. the United Kingdom case?
• Egalitarianism, Efficiency and Occupational Choice
• Justice in health care under resource constraints. Ageing and technological change
• Authority and Power in the Narrative of Military Disobedience
• Richard Rorty's "Liberal Utopia": Ethics without Foundations? An Interpretation of Rorty's Metaethical Assumptions
• Nationalist Thought and Immigration. An analysis of Catalan Nationalist Formulations of Nationhood and Immigration
• The Blurring of the Civilian Combatant Dichotomy: A Film Analysis
• "Squaring the Circle": The Paradox of Foundations
• Purifying and repressing: pushing aside the filth in Wallace's Infinite Jest
• Dog Ethics. A Recognition of Duties Towards our Canine Companions
• Biological Interpretation of Mental Illness excludes external causes of depression and thus enables social control
• Can Rawlsians Deliver Gender Equality?
• Two readings of the Service Conception. A Critical Approach
• Rescuing Promises from Conventionalism
• Revising Hayek in light of the financial crisis: evolutionary changes in markets and the role of individual liberty in securing human progress
• Who should be granted asylum? In search of a normative justification of the duty to grant asylum, and of the current regime's restricted recognition of "the persecuted"
• Uncertainty, Risk and Luck Egalitarianism
• Legitimate Political Authority and International Institutions: towards Human Rights
• Concepto de autodeterminación en Will Kymlicka y en Michel Seymour: una aproximación analítica
• Independent Financial Institutions and Democracy
• How to Solve Consequential and Deontological Arguments
• Why do EU symbols fail in "constructing" a European Collective Identity?
• Moral Autonomy and the Egalitarian Ethos

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Dissertations

The dv410 dissertation is a major component of the msc programme and an important part of the learning and development process involved in postgraduate education., research design and dissertation in international development.

The DV410 dissertation is a major component of the MSc programme and an important part of the learning and development process involved in postgraduate education. The objective of DV410  is to provide students with an overview of the resources available to them to research and write a 10,000 dissertation that is topical, original, scholarly, and substantial. DV410 will provide curated dissertation pathways through LSE LIFE and Methods courses, information sessions, ID-specific disciplinary teaching, topical seminars and dissertation worksops in ST. With this in mind, students will be able to design their own training pathway and set their own learning objectives in relation to their specific needs for their dissertation. From the Autumn Term (AT) through to Summer Term (ST), students will discuss and develop their ideas in consultation with their mentor or other members of the ID department staff and have access to a range of learning resources (via DV410 Moodle page) to support and develop their individual projects from within the department and across the LSE. 

Prizewinning dissertations

The archive of prizewinning dissertations showcases the best MSc dissertations from previous years. These offer a useful guide to current students on how to prepare and write a high calibre dissertation.

2023-GA (PDF) The Impact of "Beca 18" on Secondary Educational Attainment: Experimental Evidence from a Peruvian Scholarship Program Alexandra Gutiérrez Traverso Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Joint Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Management   

2023-WB (PDF) Democracy Aid Effectiveness and Authoritarian Survival: Democracy Protests as Windows of Opportunity Ben Wolfrum Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Management 

2023-ML (PDF) The Gendered Impact of Educational Devolution: Evidence from India’s Panchayat System Luke Martens Joint Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Management 

2023-MC (PDF) From Chains to Change: Gendered Problems and Blockchain Solutions in Jordan’s Refugee Camps Carys Milbourn Winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2023-ZF (PDF) Transit Migration and Biopolitics of Movement: How Italy Uses Mobility as a Biopolitical Technology of Control to Reproduce Its Position of Transit Country Francesco Zinni Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2023-BR (PDF) A scoping review of the implementation of infectious disease early warning systems (IDEWS) for building health system climate change resilience Rachael Barrett Winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development

2023-RC (PDF) Caring for Asylum Seekers with Chronic Conditions: A Case Study in New Mexico’s Borderlands Caylyn Rich Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Health and International Development

Flushing Out Barriers: Identigying the Relationship Between School Sanitation and School Enrolment Jorin Wolff Winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Studies

2023-BL (PDF) Competing for Land: A Spatial Investigation of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions, Their Target Context, and the Dynamics of Deforestation in Africa Luc Bitterli Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Studies

2022-OW (PDF) The Politics of Political Conditionality: How theEU Is Failing the Western Balkans Pim W.R.Oudejans Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Management 

2022-GN (PDF) An Empirical Study of the Impact of Kenya’sFree Secondary Education Policy on Women’sEducation Nora Geiszl Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Management 

2022-JC  (PDF) Giving with one hand, taking with the other:the contradictory political economy of socialgrants in South Africa Jack Calland Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Studies

2022-GL (PDF) State Versus Market: The Case of Tobacco Consumption in Eastern European and Former Soviet Transition Economies Letizia Gazzaniga Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development

2022-ER (PDF) Reproductive injustice across forced migration trajectories: Evidence from female asylum-seekers fleeing Central America’s Northern Triangle Emily Rice Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development

2022-LICB  (PDF) The effects of Conditional Cash Transfer (CCT) on child nutrition following an adverseweather shock: the case of Indonesia Liliana Itamar Carillo Barba Winner Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Health and International Development 2022-SC (PDF) Fiscal Responses to Conditional Debt Relief:the impact of multilateral debt cancellation on taxation patterns Sara Cucaro  Joint winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2022-RM  (PDF) Navigating humanitarian space(s) to provideprotection and assistance to internally displacedpersons: applying the concept of ahumanitarian ‘micro-space’ to the caseof Rukban in Syria Miranda Russell  Joint winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-CC  (PDF) International Remittances and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Investigating Resilient Remittance Flows from Italy during 2020 Carla Curreli Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance and Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Management 

2021-NB  (PDF) Reluctant respondents: Early settlement by developing countries during WTO disputes Nicholas Baxtar Joint winner of Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Management (Specialism: Applied Development)

2021-CD  (PDF) One Belt, Many Roads? A Comparison of Power Dynamics in Chinese Infrastructure Financing of Kenya and Angola Conor Dunwoody  Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Development Studies

2021-NN  (PDF) Tool for peace or tool for power? Interrogating Turkish ‘water diplomacy’ in the case of Northern Cyprus Nina Newhouse Winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Development Studies

2021-CW  (PDF) Exploring Legal Aid Provision for LGBTIQ+Asylum Seekers in the American Southwest from 2012-2021 Claire Wever Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-BP  (PDF) Instrumentalising Threat; An Expansion of Biopolitical Control Over Exiles in Calais During the COVID-19 Pandemic Bethany Plant Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-HS  (PDF) A New “Green Grab”? A Multi-Scalar Analysis of Exclusion in the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) Project, Kenya Helen Sticklet Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2021-GM  (PDF) Fuelling policy: The Role of Public Health Policy-Support Tools in Reducing Household Air Pollution as a Risk-Factor for Non-Communicable Diseases in LMICs Georgina Morris Winner of Prize for Best Dissertation MSc Health and International Development 

2021-LC  (PDF) How do women garment workers employ practices of everyday resistance to challenge the patriarchal gender order of Sri Lankan society? Lois Cooper Joint winner of Prize for Best Overall Performance MSc Health and International Development 

2020-LK  (PDF) Can international remittances mitigate negative effects of economic shocks on education? – The case of Nigeria Lara Kasperkovitz Best Overall Performance Best Dissertation Prize International Development and Humanitarian Emergengies 

“Fallen through the Cracks” The Network for Childhood Pneumonia and Challenges in Global Health Governance  Eva Sigel Best Overall Performance Health and International Development 

2020-AB  (PDF) Fighting the ‘Forgotten’ Disease: LiST-Based Analysis of Pneumonia Prevention Interventions to Reduce Under-Five Mortality in High-Burden Countries Alexandra Bland Best Dissertation Prize  Health and International Development   

2020-TP  (PDF) Techno-optimism and misalignment: Investigating national policy discourses on the impact of ICT in educational settings in Sub-Saharan Africa Tao Platt Best Overall Performance Development Studies 

2020-HS  (PDF)  “We want land, all the rest is humbug”: land inheritance reform and intrahousehold dynamics in India Holly Scott Best Dissertation Prize Development Studies   

2020-PE  (PDF)  Decent Work for All? Waste Pickers’ Collective Action Frames after Formalisation in Bogotá, Colombia  Philip Edge Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management

2020-LC  (PDF)  Variation in Bilateral Investment Treaties: What Leads to More ‘Flexibility for Development’? Lindsey Cox Best Dissertation Prize Development Management

2019-GR (PDF) Political Economy of Industrial Policy: Analysinglongitudinal and crossnationalvariations in industrial policy in Brazil andArgentina Grace Reeve Best Overall Performance Development Studies 

2019-MM (PDF) The Securitisation of Development Projects: The Indian State’s Response to the Maoist Insurgency Monica Moses Best Dissertation Prize Development Studies 

2019-KM (PDF) At the End of Emergency: An Exploration of Factors Influencing Decision-making Surrounding Medical Humanitarian Exit Kaitlyn Macneil Best Overall Performance Prize Health and International Development

2019-KA (PDF) The Haitian Nutritional Paradox: Driving factors of the Double Burden of Malnutrition Khandys Agnant Best Dissertation Prize Health and International Development   

2019-NL (PDF) Women in the Rwandan Parliament: Exploring Descriptive and Substantive Representation Nicole London Best Dissertation Prize Development Management 

2019-CB (PDF) Post-conflict reintegration: the long-termeffects of abduction and displacement on theAcholi population of northern Uganda Charlotte Brown Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2019-NLeo (PDF) Making Fashion Sense: Can InternationalLabour Standards Improve Accountabilityin Globalised Fast Fashion? Nicole Leo Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2019-AS (PDF) Who Controls Whom? Evaluating theinvolvement of Development FinanceInstitutions (DFIs) in Build Own-Operate (BOO)Energy Projects in relation to Market Structures& Accountability Chains: The case of theBujagali Hydropower Project (BHPP) in Uganda Aya Salah Mostafa Ali Best Dissertation Prize African Development 

2019-NG (PDF) Addressing barriers to treatment-seekingbehaviour during the Ebola outbreak in SierraLeone: An International Response Perspective Natasha Glendening India Best Overall Performance Prize African Development 

2019-SYJ (PDF) The Traditional Global Care Chain and the Global Refugee Care Chain: A Comparative Analysis Sana Yasmine Johnson Best Dissertation Prize Best Overall Performance Prize International Development and Humanitarian Emergengies 

2018-JR (PDF) Nudging, Teaching, or Coercing?: A Review of Conditionality Compliance Mechanisms on School Attendance Under Conditional Cash Transfer Programs Jonathan Rothwell Best Dissertation Prize African Development 

2018-LD (PDF) A Feminist Perspective On Burundi's Land Reform Ladd Serwat Best Overall Performance African Development 

2018-KL (PDF) Decentralisation: Road to Development or Bridge to Nowhere? Estimating the Effect of Devolution on Infrastructure Spending in Kenya Kurtis Lockhart  Best Dissertation Prize and Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2018-OS (PDF) From Accountability to Quality: Evaluating the Role of the State in Monitoring Low-Cost Private Schools in Uganda and Kenya Oceane Suquet Mayling Birney Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Management 

2018-LN (PDF) Water to War: An Analysis of Drought, Water Scarcity and Social Mobilization in Syria Lian Najjar Best Dissertation Prize International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2018-IS  (PDF) “As devastating as any war”?: Discursive trends and policy-making in aid to Central America’s Northern Triangle Isabella Shraiman  Best Overall Performance  International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies

2017-AR (PDF) Humanitarian Reform and the Localisation Agenda:Insights from Social Movement and Organisational Theory Alice Robinson Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies (IDHE)

2017-ACY (PDF) The Hidden Costs of a SuccessfulDevelopmental State:Prosperity and Paucity in Singapore Agnes Chew Yunquian Winner of the Prize for Best Overall Performance Development Managament 

2017-HK  (PDF) Premature Deindustrialization and Stalled Development, the Fate of Countries Failing Structural Transformation? Helen Kirsch Winner of the Best Dissertation in Programme Development Studies

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Graduate programmes

Political Science

Graduate dissertation.

• Graduate Program

The dissertation is a substantial work of original scholarship usually ranging in length from 200 to 450 double-spaced pages.

Once coursework and both preliminary examinations are passed, the student is considered to have Advanced to Candidacy and is officially a Ph.D. candidate.

Before commencing work on the dissertation, the Department requires you to write and defend a dissertation proposal, known as the prospectus. The prospectus is written and defended during the third year in the Ph.D. program. Further information pertaining to the prospectus will be disseminated in the prospectus writing seminar (POLS2050 and POLS2051). Students are required to pass at least one preliminary exam before registering for the prospectus course.  

Selection of the Dissertation Committee

Before beginning work on the prospectus, you should select a principal dissertation advisor to chair your committee. Oftentimes, students begin lining up their principal advisors during their second year in the program; in any event, you should wait no longer than the middle of your fifth semester to have yours in place. Prior to the prospectus defense (see no. 3 below), you must select two additional advisors to serve on your dissertation committee, for a minimum of three committee members. The principal advisor must be tenured and a second committee member must be tenured or tenure-track faculty in the Department of Political Science at Brown unless you obtain an exception from the DGS. One committee member may be from outside the Department of Political Science or outside Brown University.

Drafting of the Prospectus

In consultation with members of the dissertation committee, you must draft a prospectus that is consistent with the spirit if not the letter of the specifications outlined below ("Contents of the Prospectus"). Prospectus drafts (and later dissertation chapters) should be shared with the entire dissertation committee for consistent feedback and communication. The prospectus course (POLS 2050 and POLS2051) is designed to further explain the components of a prospectus and guide students through the creation of a prospectus. Students should be prepared to read and provide constructive feedback on each other's work in the class.

Defense of the Prospectus

Formal approval of the prospectus follows after a successful oral defense of the proposal, which shall be advertised in advance and open to Political Science Department faculty and graduate students.

In consultation with the three committee members and the DGS, you are responsible for scheduling the oral defense well in advance (a minimum of ten days beforehand); please do not forget to inform the DGS well in advance, so that the event can be publicized. Normally, the defense will proceed with the participation of all three committee members. In extraordinary circumstances, the defense may proceed with two examination committee members. If fewer than two committee members are able to attend, the defense must be rescheduled. Prospectus defenses are open to Political Science Department faculty and graduate students only.

The format of a typical oral defense is as follows: (1) introductory remarks by the principal advisor; (2) a brief overview of the proposed thesis project by you; (3) questions from the dissertation committee members; (4) questions from the general public, time permitting. The student will make a 10-15 minute presentation of the prospectus and then will be asked questions by any faculty members first and, time permitting, fellow graduate students in the room.

Immediately following the question session, the dissertation committee shall meet in executive session to determine whether the prospectus should be approved. There are three options available to the committee:

Once the committee has reached a decision in executive session, you will be called back into the room and informed immediately. The principal advisor will also inform the DGS of the committee's decision.

The purpose of what follows is to create a set of shared expectations among both students and faculty about the contents and organization of the prospectus. This statement is not meant to be compulsory, but it should work to the advantage of most students and their advisors.

The prospectus is typically 10-20 pages in length; indeed, the shorter the better, since it is then more easily converted into a formal proposal for external funding. The purpose of the prospectus is to pose a precise question, to set the proposed dissertation topic in an appropriate theoretical context, to allude to the relevant literature, and to describe the proposed research methods. The prospectus is not a legal contract, but a proposal. It is a beginning, the first step in a long journey. As your research progresses, you are almost certain to depart from your prospectus blueprint. Knowledge of this fact should make the exercise a less imposing hurdle. The goal of the prospectus is not to demonstrate that you know all the answers in advance. Rather, it is to establish that the question you intend to address is worth asking, and that your proposed course of action is feasible and potentially valuable in terms of its contribution to knowledge.

A satisfactory prospectus contains four basic components: a question; a statement of theoretical context; a research design; and a working bibliography.

The Question

"What is the dissertation about?" The prospectus should begin by stating the central question or puzzle that is to be addressed in the dissertation. The question should be phrased precisely, since it will determine what is or is not germane to the dissertation. Whether the puzzle is "Does Marx have a political theory?", "Why are some American regulatory agencies more effective than others?", or "What are the effects of the organization of worker training programs in Sweden, Germany, Japan, and the United States?", it should be stated within the first or second paragraph, and as clearly and succinctly as possible. This is also the appropriate place to identify the general approach adopted in the dissertation: historical, interpretive, quantitative, etc. It is also important to qualify the question in terms of geographical, temporal, and/or substantive scope: What country or countries will be examined, and over what time period? What range of an author's works will be evaluated? What kinds of bureaucratic agencies will be studied? What kinds of effects are at issue (social, economic, political)?

Treat this as an opportunity to state with clarity and conviction exactly what the core of the dissertation will be. Do not get carried away with the need to qualify here; there is plenty of time for that in Part C. This section should be no longer than two pages in length. If it feels like writing an abstract, then it's probably coming out right.

Statement of Theoretical Context

This part of the prospectus addresses the frustrating but important question, "so what?" In other words, why should one devote a thesis to the question set out in the preceding section? An effective answer requires two distinct arguments. First, you should provide a well-focused summary of the current debate(s) in your chosen subfield. This will allow your committee to see how you situate your project in the existing theoretical literature. Second, you should outline in precise terms the specific contribution(s) your dissertation will make to the subfield. If you believe you are studying a neglected yet significant subject, specify what of substance has been missed, and how your study will fill the gap. If you are building on an important literature in the field, say what has been achieved, and how your proposal adds to it. If your proposal is a case study or a comparison of multiple cases (countries, policy areas, etc.), this is an appropriate place to justify your selection of cases with reference to theory.

Five or six pages should suffice for this part of the prospectus, although in cases where the resolution of contending interpretations is an especially important part of the thesis, a bit more detail is appropriate. Whatever you do, do not set out to review the literature in depth here. Instead, write this part on the assumption that both you and your committee are familiar with the field.

Research Design

This part answers the question, "How will you answer the question set out in Part A?" Part B showed that the game is worth the candle; Part C must show that you will, in fact, finish the contest with some answers in hand. Depending on the field, this part will cover different elements, but all will need to address the following: What do you intend to do, and what does each step contribute to the project as a whole? In what order do you intend to proceed? If your investigation is empirical, what sort of evidence will you consider? If theoretical, what material will you cover and what will you do with it? Are you planning to do library work, field work, and/or quantitative analysis?

Obviously, you will not know everything you would like about this part at the time you have to defend your prospectus. But you should be able to provide your best, educated guess. In the end, your committee will be looking for evidence that (1) if everything goes according to plan, you will be able to complete a satisfactory dissertation, and (2) there is a reasonable chance that everything will in fact go well.

Six to ten pages should be enough to cover this material. You should try to provide the following sorts of information:

Working Bibliography

This is self-explanatory, but essential.

Extension of Candidacy

It is University policy that the dissertation should be completed within five years of advancing to candidacy. Since students often require more time, candidacy may be extended in cases where the faculty believes the student will finish and accepts the reasons for delay.

Annually the Graduate School will remind active students whose candidacy is about to expire that they must write to the DGS, explain why they are taking so long, and request an extension if they intend to finish. If the DGS, after consulting with the principal dissertation advisor, believes an extension is justified, s/he will make a formal request to the Graduate School. Extensions to seven years may be granted by the Graduate School; extensions longer than seven years require a vote of the Graduate Council.

Dissertation Defense and Submission

Graduate students are eligible to have degrees conferred, and to receive their diploma, at three different times over the course of the academic year. All deadlines are firm. Please review the Graduate School's Dissertation Guidelines for the most up-to-date information.

Students are required to submit a full draft of the dissertation to their dissertation committee four weeks prior to the expected defense date. If you anticipate problems meeting any of these deadlines, consult the Director of Graduate Studies or the Graduate School .

A complete description of the format of the dissertation can be found on the  Graduate School website . All directions from the Graduate School must be followed exactly.

In special cases and with the permission of the dissertation committee, students may submit a dissertation consisting of three or more individual papers instead of a single book-length project.

PhDs are generally presumed to be single-authored. No more than one-third of the substantive material of a student’s Ph.D. dissertation may be co-authored (that is, one paper of a three paper dissertation, or one-third of the substantive chapters of a monograph dissertation).  

Co-authorship must have the consent of all members of the dissertation committee. Students must obtain that consent via email. Faculty members may choose not to serve on committees that include co-authorship.

If multiple students co-author a chapter or paper, it may be included in each dissertation.

Students are generally advised against co-authoring with a member of the dissertation committee, as it can lead to confusion or misattribution of responsibility. All committee members are encouraged to be attentive to the importance of the student making a unique individual contribution to scholarship within the dissertation.

Any co-authored chapter or paper must be accompanied by a disclosure statement that clearly notes the student’s contribution. This statement must be signed by all co-authors (including any faculty) and forms part of the deposited dissertation. It is the student’s responsibility to let all co-authors know this statement will be required.

In the year the student plans to graduate, students are required to submit a full draft of the dissertation four weeks prior to the expected defense date.

Students should plan to defend at the latest a few days to a couple weeks before the final submission deadline to allow for final edits. Graduate students are eligible to have degrees conferred, and to receive their diploma, at three different times over the course of the academic year.

Once your dissertation committee has approved your thesis-in-draft in principle, you should agree on a date for the defense well in advance (a minimum of ten days beforehand) with your committee members and also inform the Graduate Program Coordinator so that the event can be publicized. You are responsible for scheduling the oral defense. You must complete a  Dissertation Defense Information Form  which must be submitted to the Graduate School at least 2 weeks prior to the defense. Normally, the defense will proceed with the participation of all three committee members in the room. In extraordinary circumstances, the defense may proceed with two examination committee members. If fewer than two committee members are able to attend, the defense must be rescheduled.

The defense is open to the public, which typically includes faculty members and other graduate students. The format of a typical oral defense is as follows:

• introductory remarks by the principal advisor;
• a brief overview of the dissertation by you;
• questions from the dissertation committee members;
• questions from the general public, time permitting.

Immediately following the question session, the dissertation committee shall meet in executive session to determine whether the dissertation should be approved. You will be called back in to hear the decision privately, as well as any further recommendations from the dissertation committee. The committee members may address the strengths and weaknesses of your dissertation, your future plans for it, and the direction you expect your work to take in the next few years.

Politics Dissertation Topics and International Relations Dissertation Topics

It is absolutely vital to choose the right topic for your dissertation. The correct choice will give you the best opportunity of achieving a high grade. Essentially, you are looking to pick a topic and a question that serves to facilitate an effective critical discussion of the issues at hand, demonstrating original insight and also analysing and evaluating the significance of the literature that has already been produced in your chosen area.

Politics is an interesting area for academic research, especially with the significant political changes happening in 2020-2021, from Brexit to the coronavirus crisis and associated geopolitical changes, to the rise of China, and ongoing tensions in Eastern Europe.

To help you prepare for your politics dissertation, this article discusses international relations and politics dissertation topics related to: the post 9/11 world and terrorism, US foreign policy, British foreign policy, Africa, Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Israel, India, the Middle East, the European Union and international law. The most recent and pertinent geopolitical developments are discussed in the form of questions, to help you formulate your preferred choices.

• The world since 9/11 Dissertation Topics
• US Foreign Policy Dissertation Topics
• British Foreign Policy Dissertation Topics
• Africa Dissertation Topics
• Russia and Eastern Europe Dissertation Topics

Chinese Politics Dissertation Topics

Israel and the middle east politics dissertation topics, india dissertation topics.

• European Union Dissertation Topics
• International relations after the Second World War Dissertation Topics
• International law Dissertation Topics

The world since 9/11 Dissertation Topics

The terrorist attacks of 9/11 on the World Trade Centre almost 20 years ago resulted in the creation of new coalitions between Western democracies, while pushing other countries further apart. The resulting ‘war on terror’ has been ongoing ever since, albeit more quietly in recent years and has resulted in a number of complicated geopolitical shifts. This is still a very relevant area that would be ideal to base your politics dissertation topics on. Suggested international relations & politics dissertation topics include:

• To what extent do the events of 9/11 support the ideas of Samuel Huntingdon’s ‘clash of civilisations’?
• Was enough done in the immediate wake of 9/11 to prevent further similar acts of terrorism in the West?
• Were the actions of the United States in the wake of 9/11 legitimate and proportionate?
• In what ways could the events of 9/11 be said to have impacted on international relations?
• How were international relations between the West and the Arab world influenced by 9/11?
• What are the key political lessons learnt by the West since 9/11 and the ensuing war on terror?
• How has trade between nations developed within the overshadowing context of the continuing war on terror?
• What is the definition of terrorism? Is the use of force, such as targeted killings and drone attacks, a legitimate response to terrorist attacks?
• How has the domestic security legislation of Western countries been impacted by the fear of terrorism since 9/11?
• How have countries used the war on terror, ongoing since 9/11, to justify their own security measures?
• Did 9/11 act as a catalyst for the political upheaval of the Arab Spring?
• To what extent has the ongoing war on terror been used to suppress civil liberties?
• Does the spread of terror attacks in multiple countries in recent years mean that the war on terror has failed?
• Has Western security policy begun to move on from the post-9/11 terrorism threat, to more conventional state-based challenges such as Russia and China?

US Foreign Policy Dissertation Topics

In the latter half of the last century, US foreign policy has evolved, with the US electing to involve itself in events far across the world as a means of maintaining its position as one of the key ‘superpowers’ in the world. To discuss US foreign policy in your dissertation, you could research one of the following politics dissertation topics.

• The US has often talked about as the ‘global policeman’ however could such terminology be construed as a cover for mere bullying?
• Are the actions of the US in the pursuit of its national interest always legitimate under international law?
• How, could the US be said to have overstepped its boundaries in intervening in other countries’ internal affairs?
• The relationship between the United Nations and the US is ambivalent: to what extent do the actions of the US undermine the role of the United Nations?
• How does the development of nuclear power in China and other Asian countries serve to reflect the negative aspects of US foreign policy?
• In what ways does the growth of China as an economic and military superpower serve to threaten the US?
• Twenty years of a war on terror, plus tensions with Russia and China have created a militarized US foreign policy that greatly benefits the military industrial complex, which frequently lobbies for foreign interventions. Who actually controls US foreign policy?
• What is the most significant potential external threat to the US? How is this likely to change US foreign policy going forward?
• US foreign policy has traditionally been one of liberal internationalism. In an unstable world where democracy and liberalism are being challenged by the growing power of China, how can liberal internationalism continue to guide US foreign policy?
• Will the current building of the wall on the border of the US with Mexico have detrimental consequences for the global economy?
• What does the increasing geopolitical power and influence of Russia mean for the future direction of US foreign policy?
• How is the US likely to approach Brexit, the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union?
• With competing priorities in the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe, and the Indo-Pacific, does US foreign policy suffer from a lack of strategic focus, and if so, how?
• What are the long-term consequences of the rise of ‘Trumpism’ for the United States’ foreign policy? How will the US deal with the growing isolationist and anti-war trend among its own public?
• To what extent will the Trump policy of economically decoupling from China be continued or reversed by future Administrations?

British Foreign Policy Dissertation Topics

The United Kingdom remains an influential global power, even as its role in the world is in a state of great change due to the challenges of Brexit.  The topics below will help you research further into British foreign policy for your politics dissertation.

• How will Brexit impact the security co-operation between the United Kingdom and Europe, particularly with reference to data sharing on criminal and terrorist suspects?
• To what extent was the free movement of people a driver of the UK’s decision to leave the European Union?
• With the US increasingly focused on the Indo-Pacific, what significance does the UK-US ‘special relationship’ have today?
• On the basis of Britain’s foreign policy, is Britain little more than the “pet” of the US?
• How influential is Britain’s foreign policy on the rest of Europe?
• How can Britain utilise its economic, military, and diplomatic power to improve its position in the global sphere in the wake of Brexit?
• What would be the implications of a Labour government for British foreign policy in the Middle East?
• Is Brexit likely to reduce the influence that Britain still wields in global affairs, and in what ways?
• Post-Covid, is a close UK relationship with China still practical and viable?
• Is the previous interventionist approach of Britain to foreign policy politically and economically sustainable with significant post-Covid economic constraints on the horizon?
• How can the United Kingdom keep itself together in the wake of challenges to the Union from Northern Irish and Scottish independence movements?
• What strategic security approaches should the UK take to minimize the risk of instability in Northern Ireland post-Brexit?
• Does the UK still hold relevance and significance for the US as an ally, with major budgetary cuts to the British Armed Forces coming in the aftermath of the Covid crisis?
• How can Britain’s foreign policy be revitalised through the linking of trade and economic priorities to diplomacy and security?

Africa Dissertation Topics

• Africa’s relations with the rest of the world have historically often been problematic because of the prevalence of state and ethnic conflict, as well as the autocratic nature of many African governments. Growing Chinese involvement in Africa is also a concern. Together with significant developmental challenges, Africa is a rich area for discussion and analysis of many facets of international relations from war to economic growth and the aftermath of colonialism. Have Western interventions only served to make matters worse in Africa?
• To what extent could the political tensions between communities and ethnic groups in Africa today have been affected by colonial rule?
• To what extent could ancient tribal traditions and religious beliefs hold some responsibility for the problems between African nations?
• What are the key causes of problems between African nations and how do they affect their relationships with the West?
• What efforts have been made by the rest of the world to resolve the tensions between warring African nations? How successful have they been?
• How are relations between African nations likely to develop in the future?
• How successful has the African Union been in resolving Africa’s challenges and providing a voice for Africa on the global stage?
• How effective have efforts at negotiation and conciliation between warring African ethnic groups been? How relevant are Western political ideals in an African setting?
• In what ways is Africa a destabilising regional force in global politics?
• In what ways is the rise of an African middle class changing its politics?
• How are Islamist terror organisations exploiting local African conflicts?
• How effective have African counterterrorism efforts been in recent years?
• How has Africa been politically excluded by the international community, and to what extent can this be rectified?

Russia and Eastern Europe Dissertation Topics

Russia remains a critical swing power, as a military peer of the US and a large economy, however the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union has seen some significant changes in Eastern Europe. Countries in Eastern Europe are looking to align more with the West, potentially increasing mutual enmity between Russia and the West. To base your dissertation in this area, you could use one of the following topics.

• How has the collapse of the Soviet Union served to influence international relations between Eastern Europe and the West?
• With the formation of a ‘Single Europe’, has the opening up of the EU to Eastern European countries served to hinder or help this ideal?
• Why were Eastern European countries so susceptible to Soviet rule? What changed?
• How successfully have Eastern European countries been integrated into the EU?
• How will the rise of China impact on Russia’s relationship with the West?
• What are the most significant problems for the EU caused by the entry of Eastern European States?
• Why is Russia still considered to be such a threat to Western ideals?
• Has the Cold War ever really stopped?
• How did Russia’s annexation of the Crimea and support for rebel forces in Ukraine cause a break in relations with the West?
• In the aftermath of the war in Crimea, will ‘hybrid war’ be part of a renewed Russian threat to the West?
• On the basis of past relations, why does Russia still look to distance itself from the West?
• On the basis of relations between Russia and the US, why have they never actually declared war?
• Has the threat posed by Russia to the countries of Eastern Europe been neglected?
• To what extent does Russian influence impact upon an increasingly fragmented European Union?
• In the light of China’s growing power, is Russia’s preeminent role in Eurasian politics and security likely to continue?
• Is a Sino-Russian military alliance feasible, and what are the implications for European security?
• How will Russian hacker attacks on US elections impact on Russia’s relationship with the West? Are such attacks a new method of external political influencing, or merely an extension of Cold War era sabotage?
• Nord Stream 2 is a highly controversial energy project. Does it increase Russian-German mutual interdependence, or does it only serve to enhance Russian leverage as alleged by the US?

In the latter part of the 20th century, whilst the Chinese government still maintained its distinctly communist ideals, the country became increasingly open to Western views on economic growth and technology, blended together with a view to rapid growth. Starting with Deng Xiaoping’s reforms in the 1980s, to the current President Xi Jinping, Chinese economic and political approaches are the subject of much speculation. There is a lot to be discussed here, and below are some suggested topics for your politics dissertation.

• To what extent have Western politics and ideals influenced China?
• Why did China elect to ‘open’ what had previously been a distinctly closed economy?
• In what way can Deng Xiaoping’s reforms be seen to have moved the Chinese economy towards Western capitalism?
• Is China is considered a threat to Western ideals? Discuss.
• How could China’s rapid economic growth be considered a good thing for the West?
• Why have greater efforts not been made by the West to forge closer relations with the Chinese?
• How could Chinese political ideals be said to have influenced Western politics? Has this been for the better?
• Why, when the power of the Soviet Union was considered such a threat, were greater efforts not made to overthrow China’s communist rule?
• How can China be viewed with such suspicion, when the West is largely responsible for its growth? Discuss.
• What impact will the Covid crisis have on the Western relationship with China going forward? How will China’s crackdown in Xinjiang impact relations with the West?
• What are the potential gains and losses for China in trying to take Taiwan by military force?
• How will the growing hostility between China and India shape the global economic, security and political environment?
• To what extent does China’s human rights record make relations with the West complex?
• Is growing Chinese military power a threat to Russia in Siberia?
• In what ways has President Xi Jinping reversed the policies of predecessors such as Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Xemin?
• What impact does Xi Jinping’s appointment to rule ‘indefinitely’ have on the potential for democracy in China?
• Does the Chinese model of state capitalism undermine the western view that capitalism and democracy ‘go hand in hand’?

There have long been significant difficulties in the relationship between the Arabs and the Israelis, mainly centered upon the recognition of a Palestinian State, which has led to many armed conflicts and complications in relationships with other countries. The Middle East also features tensions involving Iran, as well as controversy over the lack of regional democracy. If you are stuck for ideas for your politics on a Middle East centered dissertation, the following topics may be useful for you to research.

• What have been the main difficulties blocking the creation of a Palestinian State?
• How have relations between the Arabs and the Israelis served to influence their relationships with Western States?
• Why has the Arab-Israeli conflict gone on for so long?
• What is the most significant event that most effectively symbolises the breakdown of relations between the Arabs and the Israelis?
• How successful have Western attempts proved to be in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict?
• To what extent can a two state solution be implemented in Israel and Palestine while settlements are still being built on Palestinian territory?
• With the expansion of Israeli settlements, are the prospects of a two-state solution dead?
• Can a Palestinian State ever be recognised?
• Compare and contrast the recognition sought for a Palestinian State with that of Tibet – which is more likely?
• Why were events not resolved when the Arab-Israeli conflict descended into war?
• What role should the United Nations play in resolving the Arab/Israeli conflict?
• To what extent has former President Trump’s announcement to move the US Israeli embassy to Jerusalem impacted on Israeli/Palestinian relations?
• What impact has the Arab Spring had on Arab/Israeli relations?
• To what extent can the Palestinian Authority be seen as an autonomous state government?
• Is there potential for an Israeli-Palestinian deal, now that many Arabs states such as the UAE have recognized Israel?
• How will the Israeli-Russian relationship impact on Syria and the wider Middle East?
• How has the Arab Spring failed to deliver on its early promise?
• In what ways will ongoing Arab-Iranian antagonism impact on the Middle East?
• Is the Arab world well positioned for a post-oil future?

India is widely regarded as a rising superpower, and a potential democratic counterbalance to China, in the West. The recent Coronavirus crisis, where Indian manufactured vaccines proved pivotal, underscore how Indian capabilities and confrontation with China will play a role in international relations going forward. Check out some useful ideas for India-related dissertation topics below for international relations and politics.

• What learnings are there for the rest of the world from Indian experience of counterterrorism?
• What are the possible gains for the UK in pursuing a close post-Brexit partnership with India?
• How can India contribute to the ‘Quad’ of Japan, Australia, India and the US in balancing China?
• How has the export of Covid vaccines altered global perceptions of India?
• What is the impact of India-Pakistan tensions on UK security?
• Why has democracy succeeded in India?
• How has colonialism shaped Indian attitudes to the West?
• How can India balance development and poverty alleviation with the security challenges in its neighbourhood?
• What contribution could India make to stabilizing Afghanistan?
• How will growing Russian-Chinese relations impact on Indian security?

European Union Dissertation Topics

The EU served to cement relations between the countries that were party to the Union with a view to establishing closer ties between the nations on all social, political and economic matters, for the good of the EU and its many member states. Recent political dissatisfaction with the European Union has caused members to think again about the role and the purpose of the institution, not least with the UK referendum vote to leave. There are many subjects to be discussed and researched for your politics dissertation regarding the European Union.  Some of these are suggested below.

• How could the EU be considered flawed in forming closer political relations between member states?
• Why could the EU be considered discriminatory to the formation of relations with nations beyond it? How could it be considered little more than a ‘boys club’?
• How has rapidly increasing the number of member countries in the EU impacted on previous ideals and relationships between existing EU members?
• To what extent has the EU’s formation been influenced by the historical understanding of the formation of the US?
• What aspect of the EU could be considered most detrimental to international relations? Why? What does this mean for the political standing of the Union?
• Can the EU’s move towards ‘shared security’ be seen as a threat to the existence of NATO?
• Is the EU capable of being a single actor in the defense and security sphere?
• Are the symbols and tools of statehood, such as flag, anthem and legislature justified for the EU?
• To what extent has a ‘Single European Entity’ been achieved? In the context of international relations, is this a good thing?
• Why was a ‘Single European Entity’ not possible sooner? Why were international relations not previously conductive to it?
• To what extent could the EU be said to be similar to the Soviet Union? Does this mean the Soviet Union was a good thing?
• What impact has the UK vote to leave the EU had on how other member states view the Union?
• How important is the EU in keeping the peace in Northern Ireland? Compare and contrast with the role of NATO in Europe?
• How have far right movements across Europe impacted on the stability of the European Union?
• What role has large scale migration from the Middle East played on satisfaction with EU membership across Europe?
• Is EU foreign policy too heavily weighted towards the interests of Germany and France, at the expense of smaller member states?
• Do energy projects such as Nord Stream 2, and continued scrambles for Middle East oil underscore the need for a renewed sustainable energy policy for Europe?
• How has the flawed Covid response by the EU, especially for the procurement of vaccines, impacted on public perceptions of the EU?
• Has the distribution of Coronavirus vaccines in Europe been equitable, with each member country getting a fair share? What will be the political impact of the delays in vaccine deployment and distribution?
• Can the EU survive the Coronavirus crisis? Has a perceived slow response to Coronavirus damaged the EU?

International relations after the Second World War Dissertation Topics

In the immediate aftermath of World War II, in Europe in particular, many countries faced a great deal of problems as they sought to rebuild. Social unrest and economic instability were particularly prominent, as people struggled to justify their identity and actions, whilst many in authority took advantage of this instability. This was an important time in politics, and a topic relating to international relations after the Second World War would make for an interesting politics dissertation.

• How could the role played by the US in the immediate aftermath of the War be said to be illustrative of the position they took on in international relations and politics?
• To what extent did the US ‘take advantage’ of Europe’s decreased position after the war to increase its own power?
• Was the Marshall Plan ultimately beneficial or detrimental to Europe’s economic recovery?
• To what extent was Germany’s division illustrative of the state of international relations at this time? Would a ‘united’ Germany have led to closer international relations?
• How did the state of Europe in the wake of war make many countries susceptible to the Soviet Union and their communist ideals?
• What was the aim of the Allied Powers in WWII? Did they achieve them?
• How were European relations effectively structured for the next fifty years by the immediate aftermath of the war? Is this still the case?
• How did the ‘Cold War’ start? What were its most significant influences on international relations?
• How did the effects of the ‘Cold War’ spread so quickly? How was it resolved?
• What was the biggest achievement in international relations in the aftermath of War?
• How successful were the reparations provided by the US in securing countries against the threat provided by the Soviet Union?
• Why were nuclear weapons developed? How did they affect international relations?
• To what extent did World War II directly lead to the creation of the EU?

International law Dissertation Topics

International law provides the framework for international relations to function. However it is adhered to only selectively by Great Powers, and sometimes by smaller countries too.  When and where is the application of international law ideal? Here are some great suggestions on international law for your politics dissertation.

• In what ways has the law of the EU served to influence relations between the member states? Has this always been a good thing?
• Why does the law punish some countries when they break it, whilst others are left to their own devices? Discuss.
• How successful has the United Nations proved to be as a law enforcement agency?
• Is the US above the law? Discuss with examples.
• Why are countries like China and Russia allowed to get away with breaches of the law as it stands internationally, whilst Iraq and Afghanistan are punished?
• Were the actions of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan legitimate?
• Is the use of force ever justified by international law?
• What reforms are needed by international law to improve international relations? Are such reforms likely?
• In the face of complex politics, can international law ever be universally applicable?
• To what extent are all countries ‘equal in the eyes of the law’?
• What role does international law have to play in the use of drone strikes?
• Can international law be effective in a digital age?
• Why has international law proven unable to find a resolution to the Syrian conflict?
• How can international law be enforced against Great Powers, many of whom routinely flout it in pursuit of their interests?

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UCL European & International Social & Political Studies

Past Dissertations

Below are the titles of dissertations completed by last year's finalists. For older examples, please click on the appropriate year in the list at the end of the page.

Dissertations of Finalists 2020

• Memes + urban planning
• A response to #takebackcontrol: is increased national parliamentary involvement the answer to the democratic deficit in the EU? The case of the Bundestag and EU affairs.
• Refugee law
• Richard Arkwright, Early Industrialists, and the Changing Relations between State and Economic Regulation in the Long Eighteenth Century.
• Environmental Human Rights: the emergence, evolution and diffusion of a new norm.
• Applying deterrence theory to economic cyber conflict: Evaluating the strengths and limitations of a deterrence framework for mitigating conflict in economic cyberspace
• Economic insecurity, cultural clash, or politics of disillusionment? Explaining the success of the AfD in Germany.
• Humanitarianism and the case of Venezuela
• The Spanish and German transitions to democracy.
• Critical aspects of the EU asylum policy
• L'écriture inclusive: Gender neutrality in a gendered language
• Climate Security
• Democratic theory
• Something is Rotten in the State of Denmark: The 2015 Refugee Crisis and it’s Role in the Neo-Liberalisation of the Danish Welfare State
• Visible vexation: charting the evolution of the Yellow Vest movement through visual data (working title)
• The response of the EU to populism
• The relationship between autocratic repression and education development in Africa
• Foreign Policy of the European Union
• The evolution of France and China diplomatic relations: the EU as a mediator?
• Music in society, and how music is used as a tool of social change
• The failed democratization of the DRC (Congo)
• How do gendered assumptions affect discourses about global citizenship, and what implications does this have for the roles envisaged for women and girls within it?
• Does the domestic Euroskeptic narrative of populist parties carry through into a  coherent voting behaviour in the European Parliament?
• A comparative approach to the High Representatives of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
• Human rights in post-conflict situations
• German immigration policies from a socio-economic and demographic approach.

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Political Science and International Relations Dissertation Topics

Academic interest in politics is high right now, particularly in light of the significant political changes coming in 2020 and 2021, including Brexit, the covid19 crisis, China’s rise, and the lingering tensions in Eastern Europe. To get you started, here are some international relations and politics dissertation topics: The post-9/11 world and terrorism; the US foreign policy; the British foreign policy; and Africa’s role in international affairs and international law. Current geopolitical events are presented as questions to assist you in making informed choices.

Editingarsenal  has compiled a list of some of the most popular and common dissertation topics from a variety of academic disciplines, so you can pick and choose what to write about. If you need  dissertation editing assistance  , don’t hesitate to contact one of our qualified and experienced editors and proofreaders.

US Foreign Policy Topics

• Although the US frequently refers to itself as the ‘global policeman,’ could such language be interpreted as a cover for simple bullying?
• Is the US always justified under international law in pursuing its national interests?
• Thus, how can the US be said to have crossed its boundaries by interfering in the internal affairs of other countries?
• The UN’s relationship with the US is ambiguous: to what extent do the US’ actions undermine the UN’s role?
• How does the development of nuclear energy by China and other Asian countries reflect the negative aspects of US foreign policy?
• In what ways does China’s ascension to economic and military superpower status endanger the US?
• The war on terror’s twenty-year duration, combined with tensions with Russia and China, has resulted in a militarised US foreign policy that benefits the military industrial complex, which frequently advocates for foreign intervention. Who, after all, is in charge of the United States’ foreign policy?
• What is the United States’ greatest external threat? How is this likely to affect US foreign policy in the future?
• Throughout history, the US foreign policy has been defined by liberal internationalism. How can liberal internationalism remain the guiding principle of US foreign policy in an unstable world where democracy and liberalism are threatened by China’s growing power?
• Will the US-Mexico border wall’s current construction have a negative effect on the global economy?
• What implications does Russia’s growing geopolitical power and influence have for the future direction of US foreign policy?
• How is the US likely to react to the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, or Brexit?
• With competing interests in the Middle East, Western and Eastern Europe, and the Indo-Pacific, does the United States’ foreign policy lack strategic focus, and if so, how?
• What are the long-term implications for US foreign policy of Trumpism’s rise? How will the United States respond to its own population’s growing isolationist and anti-war sentiments?
• To what extent will succeeding Administrations maintain or reverse Trump’s economic decoupling from China?

Africa in Global Politics Topics

• Has the West’s involvement in Africa exacerbated the problem?
• How much of today’s political strife in Africa between communities and ethnic groups is a result of colonial rule?
• How much of Africa’s conflict is attributable to ancient tribal traditions and religious beliefs?
• How do African countries’ conflicts affect their ties to the West?
• Attempts have been made by countries throughout the world to resolve tensions between warring African nations. How successful have they been thus far?
• What is the future outlook for African countries’ relations?
• Is the African Union effectively resolving Africa’s issues and providing Africa with a global voice?
• How successful have negotiations and reconciliation efforts been in resolving conflicts between African ethnic groups? How relevant are Western political ideals in an African context?
• Africa has the potential to be a destabilising force in global politics in a variety of ways.
• African politics are undergoing transformation as a result of the emergence of a middle class.
• How important are Islamist terrorist groups in Africa’s current conflicts?
• After a decade, is Africa’s counterterrorism effort still effective?
• What has been the international community’s political treatment of Africa, and what can be done about it?

British Foreign Policy Topics

• How will Brexit affect UK-European security cooperation when it comes to sharing data on criminals and terrorists?
• To what extent was free movement of people a factor in the UK’s decision to leave the EU?
• Why is the’special relationship’ between the UK and the US still relevant in today’s world, given the US’ growing interest in the Indo-Pacific?
• Is the United Kingdom, based on its foreign policy, a mere “pawn” of the United States?
• How much influence does British foreign policy have on the rest of Europe?
• How can the UK use its economic, military, and diplomatic might to bolster its global standing following Brexit?
• What would a Labour-led government mean for British foreign policy in the Middle East?
• Is it likely that Brexit will diminish the United Kingdom’s global influence, and if so, how?
• Is a close relationship between the UK and China still possible after Copid?
• Is the previous interventionist approach to British foreign policy politically and economically sustainable in the face of significant post-Covid economic constraints?
• How can the United Kingdom remain united in the face of threats to its unity from Northern Irish and Scottish independence movements?
• What strategic security measures can the UK take following Brexit to maintain Northern Ireland’s stability?
• Is the United Kingdom still a vital and relevant ally for the United States, despite significant reductions in the British Armed Forces in the aftermath of the Covid crisis?
• How can the UK’s foreign policy be revitalised if trade and economic priorities are linked to diplomatic and security objectives?

9/11 and Global Politics Topics

• To what extent do the 9/11 events corroborate Samuel Huntingdon’s theory of the ‘clash of civilisations’?
• Was immediate action taken in the aftermath of 9/11 sufficient to avert future acts of terrorism in the West?
• Were the US’s actions following 9/11 justified and proportionate?
• In what ways can we assert that the 9/11 events influenced international relations?
• How did 9/11 affect the West’s international relations with the Arab world?
• What are the critical political lessons that the West has learned in the aftermath of 9/11 and the war on terror that followed?
• What has been the impact of the ongoing war on terror on international trade?
• What is the definition of terrorism? Is the use of lethal force against terrorists, such as targeted killings and drone strikes, a justifiable response?
• How has the fear of terrorism influenced the domestic security legislation of Western countries in the aftermath of 9/11?
• How have countries justified their own security measures in the aftermath of 9/11 by citing the ongoing war on terror?
• 9/11: Was it the impetus for the Arab Spring’s political upheaval?
• How far has the current anti-terrorist campaign been used to repress civil liberties?
• Is the spread of terror attacks across multiple countries in recent years indicative of a failure of the war on terror?
• Is Western security policy beginning to shift away from the post-9/11 threat of terrorism and toward more conventional state-based adversaries such as Russia and China?

Second World War and Its Impact on Global Politics

• In the immediate aftermath of World War II, what role did the United States play in international relations and politics?
• To what extent did the United States “advantage” of Europe’s diminished position following the war in order to increase its own power?
• In the long run, the Marshall Plan benefited or harmed Europe’s economic recovery.
• To what extent did Germany’s division reflect the state of international relations at the time? Would it have resulted in improved international relations had Germany remained “united”?
• How did Europe’s postwar state render numerous countries susceptible to Soviet communist ideals and the Soviet Union?
• What were the Allies’ objectives during World War II? Were their objectives met?
• What effect did the immediate postwar period have on the subsequent half-century of European relations? What is the current status of this?
• What precipitated the ‘Cold War’? Which facets of international relations did it most significantly affect?
• How did the consequences of the ‘Cold War’ spread so quickly? How was the situation resolved?
• Which development was the most significant in postwar international relations?
• How effective were US reparations in protecting countries from the threat posed by the Soviet Union?
• What was the rationale behind the development of nuclear weapons? What impact did their actions have on global relations?
• How much of a contribution did World War II make to the formation of the European Union?

Russia and International Topics

• What effect has the collapse of the Soviet Union had on relations between Eastern Europe and the West?
• Has the EU’s expansion into Eastern Europe harmed or aided the formation of a “Single Europe”?
• What made Eastern Europe’s countries so susceptible to Soviet rule? What has changed now?
• How well integrated are Eastern Europe’s countries into the EU?
• What impact will China’s rise have on Russian-Western relations?
• What are the EU’s primary concerns in light of the accession of Eastern European countries?
• Why is Russia still viewed as a threat to Western values in today’s world?
• Is it true that the Cold War has ended?
• How did Russia’s annexation of Crimea and support for Ukrainian rebel forces cause a schism with the West?
• What role will ‘hybrid war’ play in Russia’s threat to the West now that Russia has reclaimed Crimea?
• Why is Russia attempting to maintain a strategic distance from the West based on historical ties?
• Why have Russia and the US never declared war on each other based on their current relationship?
• Has Russia’s threat to Eastern European nations gone unnoticed?
• How much of a role does Russia play in an increasingly fractious European Union?
• Russia’s hegemonic position in Eurasian politics and security is threatened by China’s rise. Is this going to continue?
• To what extent is it reasonable to anticipate the success of a Sino-Russian military alliance, and how would this impact European security?
• Are there any long-term ramifications of Russian hacker attacks on the US presidential election? Sabotage was a frequent occurrence during the Cold War. Are these attacks a novel form of external political influence?
• Nord Stream 2 is a contentious energy project. Increased reliance on Russia-Germany or simply increased Russian leverage, as the US asserts?

China and International Relations Topics

• How much has Western politics and ideals influenced China?
• Who knows why the Chinese government chose to ‘open’ an economy that had been extremely closed previously.
• The Chinese economy has shifted toward capitalism as a result of Deng Xiaoping’s reforms.
• What do Westerners think of China? Discuss.
• What possible benefit could China’s rapid economic development bring to the West?
• The West has not made a concerted effort to strengthen ties with China, which begs the question: why?
• How strong is the evidence that Chinese political ideals influenced Western policy? Is it improving or has it deteriorated?
• Why weren’t more efforts made to destabilise China’s communist government when the Soviet Union was viewed as a potential threat?
• Given how much the West has contributed to China’s rise, how can it be viewed with such suspicion? Discuss.
• What long-term consequences will the Covid crisis have on the US-China relationship?
• What will be the long-term consequences of China’s repression in Xinjiang for US-China relations?
• What are the benefits and drawbacks of China’s military attempt to retake Taiwan?
• What will be the global economic, security, and political landscape if China and India continue to clash?
• How complicated are China’s relations with the West as a result of the country’s record on human rights?
• Is Russia’s presence in Siberia threatened by China’s growing military might?
• President Xi Jinping has reversed which policies of Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Xemin?
• Has Xi Jinping’s appointment to rule ‘indefinitely’ had an effect on China’s democratic prospects?
• The western view that “capitalism and democracy go hand in hand” is refuted by China’s state capitalism model.

Israel Palestine and Middle East Conflict Topics

• What impediments have prevented the establishment of a Palestinian state?
• Who is more influenced by US-Arab relations than by US-Israeli relations?
• How did the Arab-Israeli conflict begin?
• Which single event epitomises the deterioration of Arab-Israeli relations?
• The West’s efforts to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict have largely been unsuccessful.
• How far can Israel and Palestine progress toward a two-state solution while settlements continue to be built on Palestinian territory?
• Are the prospects for a two-state solution dwindling as Israeli settlements expand?
• Is it possible that a Palestinian state will one day be recognised?
• In comparison to Tibet, what do you believe the chances are of establishing a Palestinian state?
• What transpired when the Arab-Israeli conflict spiralled out of control?
• How far should the United Nations attempt to resolve the Israeli-Arab conflict?
• How far-reaching was former President Trump’s announcement that the US Embassy in Israel would be relocated to Jerusalem?
• What effect has the Arab Spring had on Arab-Israeli relations?
• Is it possible to regard the Palestinian Authority as a self-governing sovereign state?
• Does the UAE’s recognition of Israel mean that an Israeli-Palestinian agreement is now possible?
• Israel’s relationship with Russia and the ramifications for Syria and the rest of the Middle East
• What became of the Arab Spring’s early promises?
• What will be the long-term consequences of the Arab-Iranian conflict for the Middle East?
• Is the Arab world adequately prepared for a world without oil?

International Law Topics

• What impact has EU law had on the relationships between its members? Is this something that’s always been good?
• Because some countries are punished for breaking the law, but others aren’t. Discuss.
• How effective has the United Nations been in enforcing the law?
• Is the United States exempt from international law? Give examples to back up your claims.
• China and Russia have gotten away with breaking international law, but Iraq and Afghanistan are held accountable.
• Do you think the United States’ actions in Iraq and Afghanistan were justified?
• Is international law ever justified in using force?
• What international law reforms are required to enhance international relations? Are such alterations likely to take place?
• Is it possible for international law to be universally applicable in the face of such complex politics?
• Exactly how equal are all countries under the law?
• Does international law play a role when it comes to the use of drones?
• How effective is international law in the digital age?
• When it comes to the Syrian conflict, why has international law failed to provide a viable solution?
• With so many Great Powers routinely flouting international law, how can it be enforced against them?

India and Global Politics

• What lessons can the rest of the world draw from India’s experience combating terrorism?
• What are the UK’s advantages in maintaining a close relationship with India following Brexit?
• What role can India play in ensuring the ‘Quad’ is effective at balancing China?
• What effect has the export of Covid vaccines had on the international perception of India?
• Is the conflict between India and Pakistan having an effect on the United Kingdom’s security?
• What factors contributed to India’s democratic success?
• What effect did colonialism have on post-1945 Indian perceptions of the West?
• To what extent is it possible for India to grow economically while also addressing security concerns in its immediate neighbourhood?
• What role might India play in assisting Afghanistan’s stability?
• Does the growing Russian-Chinese relationship have any implications for Indian security?

European Union Topics

• What are the EU’s shortcomings when it comes to strengthening political ties between its members?
• What would make the EU an unsuitable location for developing relations with nations outside of it? I’m not sure how it qualifies as a ‘boys club.’
• How has the EU’s recent rapid expansion impacted pre-existing ideals and relationships among EU members?
• How much has our historical understanding of the United States’ formation influenced the formation of the European Union?
• Which aspect of the EU is the most detrimental to international relations? Why? What does this mean for the political future of the Union?
• Is NATO at risk as a result of the EU’s transition to “shared security”?
• What role, as a single actor, can the EU play in defence and security?
• Is it necessary for the EU to have state symbols and instruments such as a flag, an anthem, and a legislature?
• Is the concept of a “Single European Entity” a reality? Is this a good sign for international relations?
• What became of the earlier proposal for a “Single European Entity”? What was it about international relations that prevented this from occurring previously?
• To what extent is the EU structurally and functionally similar to the Soviet Union? Was the Soviet Union, then, a good thing?
• Was the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the European Union a watershed moment for other countries?
• What role does the EU play in maintaining peace in Northern Ireland? How does this compare to NATO’s role in Europe?
• How has the rise of populist movements on the far right in Europe impacted the Union’s stability?
• What effect has Middle Eastern mass migration had on Europeans’ overall satisfaction with the EU?
• Is the EU’s foreign policy, in comparison to other member states, excessively favourable to Germany and France?
• How much do energy projects such as Nord Stream 2 and the ongoing race for Middle Eastern oil serve as a reminder that Europe’s energy strategy needs to be rethought?
• How has the EU’s erroneous response to the Covid scandal impacted public perceptions of the EU more broadly?
• If this is the case, did each European country receive an equal share of the Coronavirus vaccines distributed across the continent? Delays in vaccine deployment and distribution are almost certain to have a political impact.
• Will the European Union be able to withstand the current outbreak of Coronavirus? Has the EU been harmed as a result of public perceptions of a slow response to the Coronavirus?

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Dissertations on Politics

Politics refers to the way in which decisions are made on behalf of groups of people. A politician will use their position to suggest and support the creation of new policies and laws, before a group of politicians will come together to debate the creation of such policies and laws.

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Would it be in the UK’s best interest for health care to be privatized?

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Olympic Breakdancer Raygun Has PhD in Breakdancing?

Rachael gunn earned a zero in breakdancing at the paris 2024 olympic games., aleksandra wrona, published aug. 13, 2024.

About this rating

Gunn's Ph.D. thesis, titled "Deterritorializing Gender in Sydney's Breakdancing Scene: a B-girl's Experience of B-boying," did cover the topic of breakdancing. However ...

... Gunn earned her Ph.D. in cultural studies. Moreover, a "PhD in breakdancing" does not exist as an academic discipline.

On Aug. 10, 2024, a rumor spread on social media that Rachael Gunn (also known as "Raygun"), an Australian breakdancer who competed in the 2024 Paris Olympics, had a Ph.D. in breakdancing. "This australian breakdancer has a PhD in breakdancing and dance culture and was a ballroom dancer before taking up breaking. I don't even know what to say," one X post on the topic read .

"Australian Olympic breakdancer Rachael Gunn has a PhD in breakdancing and dance culture," one X user wrote , while another asked, "Who did we send? Raygun, a 36-year-old full-time lecturer at Sydney's Macquarie University, completed a PhD in breaking culture and is a lecturer in media, creative arts, literature and language," another X user wrote .

The claim also spread on other social media platforms, such as Reddit and Instagram . 

"Is she the best break dancer? No. But I have so much respect for going on an international stage to do something you love even if you're not very skilled at it," one Instagram user commented , adding that, "And, I'm pretty sure she's using this as a research endeavor and will be writing about all our reactions to her performance. Can't wait to read it!"

In short, Gunn's Ph.D. thesis, titled "Deterritorializing Gender in Sydney's Breakdancing Scene: A B-girl's Experience of B-boying," indeed focused on the topic of breakdancing. However, Gunn earned her Ph.D. in cultural studies, not in breakdancing. Furthermore, it's important to note that a "PhD in breakdancing" does not exist as an academic discipline. 

Since Gunn's research focused on the breakdancing community, but her degree is actually in the broader field of cultural studies, we have rated this claim as a "Mixture" of truths.

Gunn "secured Australia's first ever Olympic spot in the B-Girl competition at Paris 2024 by winning the QMS Oceania Championships in Sydney, NSW, Australia," the Olympics official website informed . 

Gunn earned a zero in breakdancing at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and clips of her routine went viral on social media, with numerous users creating memes or mocking dancer's moves. "As well as criticising her attire, social media users mocked the Australian's routine as she bounced around on stage like a kangaroo and stood on her head at times," BBC article on the topic read . 

The website of the Macquarie University informed Gunn "is an interdisciplinary and practice-based researcher interested in the cultural politics of breaking" and holds a Ph.D. in cultural studies, as well as a bachelor of arts degree (Hons) in contemporary music: 

Rachael Gunn is an interdisciplinary and practice-based researcher interested in the cultural politics of breaking. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies (2017) and a BA (Hons) in Contemporary Music (2009) from Macquarie University. Her work draws on cultural theory, dance studies, popular music studies, media, and ethnography. Rachael is a practising breaker and goes by the name of 'Raygun'. She was the Australian Breaking Association top ranked bgirl in 2020 and 2021, and represented Australia at the World Breaking Championships in Paris in 2021, in Seoul in 2022, and in Leuven (Belgium) in 2023. She won the Oceania Breaking Championships in 2023.

Gunn's biography further revealed that she is a member of the Macquarie University Performance and Expertise Reasearch Centre, and has a range of teaching experience at undergraduate and postgraduate levels "across the areas of media, creative industries, music, dance, cultural studies, and work-integrated learning." 

Moreover, it informed her research interests included, "Breaking, street dance, and hip-hop culture; youth cultures/scenes; constructions of the dancing body; politics of gender and gender performance; ethnography; the methodological dynamics between theory and practice."

Gunn earned her Ph.D. from the Department of Media, Music, Communications, and Cultural Studies within the Faculty of Arts at Macquarie University. Below, you can find the abstract of her paper, shared by the official website of Macquarie University:

This thesis critically interrogates how masculinist practices of breakdancing offers a site for the transgression of gendered norms. Drawing on my own experiences as a female within the male-dominated breakdancing scene in Sydney, first as a spectator, then as an active crew member, this thesis questions why so few female participants engage in this creative space, and how breakdancing might be the space to displace and deterritorialise gender. I use analytic autoetthnography and interviews with scene members in collaboration with theoretical frameworks offered by Deleuze and Guttari, Butler, Bourdieu and other feminist and post-structuralist philosophers, to critically examine how the capacities of bodies are constituted and shaped in Sydney's breakdancing scene, and to also locate the potentiality for moments of transgression. In other words, I conceptualize the breaking body as not a 'body' constituted through regulations and assumptions, but as an assemblage open to new rhizomatic connections. Breaking is a space that embraces difference, whereby the rituals of the dance not only augment its capacity to deterritorialize the body, but also facilitate new possibilities for performativities beyond the confines of dominant modes of thought and normative gender construction. Consequently, this thesis attempts to contribute to what I perceive as a significant gap in scholarship on hip-hop, breakdancing, and autoethnographic explorations of Deleuze-Guattarian theory.

In a response to online criticism of her Olympics performance, Gunn wrote on her Instagram profile: "Don't be afraid to be different, go out there and represent yourself, you never know where that's gonna take you":

We have recently investigated other 2024 Paris Olympics' -related rumors, such as:

• Lifeguards Are Present at Olympic Swimming Competitions?
• Hobby Lobby Pulled $50M in Ads from 2024 Paris Olympics?
• 2024 Paris Olympics Are 'Lowest-Rated' Games in Modern History?

Gunn, Rachael Louise. Deterritorializing Gender in Sydney's Breakdancing Scene: A B-Girl's Experience of B-Boying. 2022. Macquarie University, thesis. figshare.mq.edu.au, https://doi.org/10.25949/19433291.v1.

---. Deterritorializing Gender in Sydney's Breakdancing Scene: A B-Girl's Experience of B-Boying. 2022. Macquarie University, thesis. figshare.mq.edu.au, https://doi.org/10.25949/19433291.v1.

Ibrahim, Nur. "Lifeguards Are Present at Olympic Swimming Competitions?" Snopes, 8 Aug. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/lifeguards-paris-olympics-swimming/.

"Olympic Breaking: Criticism of Viral Breakdancer Rachael Gunn - Raygun - Condemned by Australia Team." BBC Sport, 10 Aug. 2024, https://www.bbc.com/sport/olympics/articles/c2dgxp5n3rlo.

ORCID. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1069-4021. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.

Paris 2024. https://olympics.com/en/paris-2024/athlete/-raygun_1940107. Accessed 12 Aug. 2024.

Saunders, Grant Leigh, and Rachael Gunn. "Australia." Global Hip Hop Studies, vol. 3, no. 1–2, Dec. 2023, pp. 23–32. Macquarie University, https://doi.org/10.1386/ghhs_00060_1.

Wazer, Caroline. "2024 Paris Olympics Are 'Lowest-Rated' Games in Modern History?" Snopes, 1 Aug. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/paris-olympics-lowest-rated-games/.

---. "Hobby Lobby Pulled $50M in Ads from 2024 Paris Olympics?" Snopes, 8 Aug. 2024, https://www.snopes.com//fact-check/olympics-hobby-lobby-ads/.

By Aleksandra Wrona

Aleksandra Wrona is a reporting fellow for Snopes, based in the Warsaw, Poland, area.

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Tim Walz wrote a master’s thesis on Holocaust education, just as his own school’s approach drew criticism

In Judi Agustin’s freshman year at Mankato West High School, her teacher instructed her to wear a yellow star.

It was part of a Holocaust curriculum at the school, located in a remote area of Minnesota with barely any Jews. For a week, freshmen were asked to wear the yellow stars, which were reminiscent of the ones the Nazis made the Jews wear. Seniors played the part of the Gestapo, charged with persecuting the “Jews.”

Unlike everyone else in her class in the 2001-2002 school year, Agustin was Jewish. The experience “was incredibly hurtful and offensive and scary,” she recalled on Tuesday. Her father complained to the district, and wrote a letter to the local paper decrying the lesson.

In response, she recalled, a teacher intervened. That teacher, according to her recollection: current vice presidential nominee Tim Walz.

“When Tim Walz found out about it, he squashed it real quick, and as far as I understand they never did it again,” Agustin told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “So he was an advocate for my experience, as one of four Jewish kids in the entire school district. And I always felt like he had our back.”

A progressive favorite in Minnesota, where he is now governor, Walz is also heralded for his background as a public school educator. Lesser known is the fact that, while teaching in rural, largely white Midwestern school districts, Walz developed a particular interest in Holocaust and genocide education.

Walz is on the campaign trail this week with Vice President Kamala Harris, his running mate, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. JTA could not independently verify that he was the teacher who stopped the Mankato West lesson.

But it’s clear that how to teach the Holocaust well has occupied Walz for decades. In 1993, while teaching in Nebraska, he was part of an inaugural conference of U.S. educators convened by the soon-to-open U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. Eight years later, after moving to Minnesota, he wrote a thesis arguing for changes in Holocaust education. And as governor, he backed a push to mandate teaching about the Holocaust in Minnesota schools.

Through it all, Walz modeled and argued for careful instruction that treated the Holocaust as one of multiple genocides worth understanding.

“Schools are teaching about the Jewish Holocaust, but the way it is traditionally being taught is not leading to increased knowledge of the causes of genocide in all parts of the world,” Walz wrote in his thesis, submitted in 2001.

The thesis was the culmination of Walz’s master’s degree focused on Holocaust and genocide education at Minnesota State University, Mankato, which he earned while teaching at Mankato West. His 27-page thesis, which JTA obtained, is titled “Improving Human Rights and Genocide Studies in the American High School Classroom.”

In it, Walz argues that the lessons of the “Jewish Holocaust” should be taught “in the greater context of human rights abuses,” rather than as a unique historical anomaly or as part of a larger unit on World War II. “To exclude other acts of genocide severely limited students’ ability to synthesize the lessons of the Holocaust and the ability to apply them elsewhere,” he wrote.

He then took a position that he noted was “controversial” among Holocaust scholars: that the Holocaust should not be taught as unique, but used to help students identify “clear patterns” with other historical genocides like the Armenian and Rwandan genocides.

Walz was describing, in effect, his own approach to teaching the Holocaust that he implemented in Alliance, Nebraska, years earlier. In the state’s remote northwest region, Walz asked his global geography class to study the common factors that linked the Holocaust to other historical genocides , including economic strife, totalitarian ideology and colonialism. The year was 1993. At year’s end, Walz and his class correctly predicted that Rwanda was most at risk of sliding into genocide.

“The Holocaust is taught too often purely as a historical event, an anomaly, a moment in time,” Walz Told the New York Times in 2008, reflecting on those Alliance lessons. “That relieves us of responsibility. Obviously, the mastermind was sociopathic, but on the scale for it to happen, there had to be a lot of people in the country who chose to go down that path.”

In his thesis, he noted that he intended to bring this curriculum to the Mankato school district as a “sample unit.” But another kind of lesson was unfolding there at the same time.

For years at Mankato West, high school students had been engaged in a peculiar lesson that was, all the same, not unusual for its time: In an effort to teach students who had never met a Jewish person what it might have been like to live under the Nazis, teachers had them role play.

For a week, freshmen wore the yellow stars, and seniors playing the Gestapo were given permission to torment them.

Such lessons had been going on since at least the 1990s, recalled Leah Solo, a Jewish student who graduated from Mankato West in 1998. For Solo, these lessons weren’t so bad.

“People knew I was Jewish, people knew to be sensitive around me,” Solo told JTA. Her teacher, who was not Walz and whom she liked, “was doing his best to try to teach a really hard subject to folks who had no idea. Most of these kids had never met a Jew before.” In her senior year she was given the choice of whether she wanted to play a Nazi or another kind of role, and chose the latter.

Things were different by the time Agustin took the class several years later. By then, the Holocaust role-playing wasn’t just limited to the confines of the classroom.

“They could come up to you in the lunchroom,” recalled Anne Heintz, a fellow student at the time. Local students whispered about the lesson before they got to high school, she said.

One senior, in Agustin’s recollection, got violent and started shoving the “Jewish” freshmen into lockers.

Outraged, her father wrote a letter to the local newspaper, and some parents complained to the school district. Agustin left the high school after her sophomore year. None of this happened in Walz’s classroom, according to the students, and Heintz recalled that the lessons had ended by the time she graduated in 2004.

“I’m not sure what his involvement was. I know it just ended,” Heintz, who is not Jewish, told JTA. “He was teaching at the time it ended.”

JTA could not verify whether Walz knew about the lessons, which had been going on for years, before they were stopped. A spokesperson for the high school told JTA they “don’t have any information” on the details of the lessons, but noted, “When Governor Walz was at Mankato West High School he was primarily a Global Geography Teacher and Football Coach. Subjects such as the Holocaust were taught in history courses.”

Agustin’s father, Stewart Ross, told JTA that he did not recall Walz being involved. Neither did Bob Ihrig, one of the teachers who taught the lesson as part of a World War II unit. He said it continued in a limited, classroom-only version until his retirement in 2014.

Ross, Ihrig and all three Mankato West High students spoke highly of Walz as a teacher and community leader, though only one, Heintz, actually had him in the classroom.

“What I remember most is, he always made all the subjects that we talked about super engaging,” she said. “It always seemed like he was able to make a subject really exciting for folks and really engage everyone in class. And I think that is part of how he speaks now that he’s on a national stage as well.”

Solo, who had Walz’s wife Gwen for a different class, took a student trip led by the couple to China, where Tim Walz taught for a year early in his career. She recalled how, in 2004, Walz stood up for her when she was working with John Kerry’s presidential campaign and security for a George W. Bush rally tried to boot them from the premises.

“When security also tried to kick him out, he was like, ‘I am a former Teacher of the Year who just returned from being deployed. I don’t think you want to kick me out,’” Solo recalled, describing an incident that made local news at the time. “And then after the rally, he came and signed up to volunteer with the Kerry campaign, because he did not appreciate that.”

Volunteering with Kerry’s campaign led directly to Walz’s entrance into politics . Solo would go on to work for Walz’s congressional campaigns.

Walz stuck with teaching as he began his political career; when he was elected to represent Mankato in 2006, he was the only active educator in Congress.

Last year, as Minnesota’s governor, Walz returned to Holocaust education, and supported and signed a law requiring the state’s middle and high schools to teach about the Holocaust. The law, initiated and championed by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota and the Dakotas, also encourages schools to teach about other genocides. A working group for the curriculum hit snags earlier this summer when a pro-Palestinian activist was removed from the committee amid debates on whether Israel’s conduct in Gaza constitutes genocide.

The mandate is still anticipated to go into effect in the 2025-2026 school year. “This is going to work out, this is going to be good, because the governor and his staff are highly attuned to the concerns and sensitivities of the Jewish community,” Ethan Roberts, the JCRC’s deputy executive director, told JTA.

Speaking at a JCRC event in June, Walz said he had been “privileged and proud” to have participated in the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum training early in his career. But he said more needed to be done, and he emphasized that the curriculum chosen to accomplish the requirement would determine its success.

“We need to do better on Holocaust education. We need to do better on ethnic studies,” he told the crowd. “And I tell you this as a teacher and as governor, too, we don’t need test scores or anything to tell us that we’re failing.”

It was the kind of message that former Mankato West students said they came to expect from him.

“He is what you hope a great teacher is,” said Solo, “which is someone who’s not only teaching, but also learning at all times.”

With additional reporting by Jackie Hajdenberg. 

Correction and updates (Aug. 8): This story has been corrected to remove a reference to Tim Walz as department chair. It has also been updated to reflect additional sources about Holocaust instruction at Mankato West High School.

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Tim Walz’s Class Project on the Holocaust Draws New Attention Online

Mr. Walz, now the Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee, asked his high school students in 1993 which country was most at risk for genocide. Their prediction came to pass: Rwanda.

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By Neil Vigdor

• Aug. 9, 2024

The prediction was spot on: Rwanda was barreling toward a devastating genocide.

It did not emanate from a think tank, but from a high school geography class in western Nebraska. The year was 1993. The teacher? Tim Walz, now the Democratic vice-presidential candidate and Minnesota governor.

Thirty-one years later, the class project is drawing new attention. Mr. Walz, a geography teacher at the time, had asked his students to take what they had learned about the Holocaust to predict which nation was most at risk for genocide.

“They came up with Rwanda,” Mr. Walz said, talking about the project at a conference last month . “Twelve months later, the world witnessed the horrific genocide in Rwanda.”

The project was reported on in a 2008 On Education column for The New York Times that has been widely shared in recent days. Mr. Walz had drawn the attention of the reporter, Samuel G. Freedman, for an earlier column because Mr. Walz was the only K-12 teacher serving in Congress at the time, Mr. Freedman said.

“While I was interviewing Walz for the initial column, he told me how the genocide project was one of his proudest moments as an educator,” said Mr. Freedman, who is now a journalism professor at Columbia University . That sparked Mr. Freedman to revisit the story later.

Mr. Walz, when he delivered the lesson plan, had been teaching global geography in Alliance, Neb., and had been chosen for a Belfer fellowship to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that was opening. Speaking at the conference last month, held by Esri, a company that makes G.I.S. software widely used in mapping, he said the project had a profound effect on his students and bred some cynicism.

“How could a bunch of students in western Nebraska, in Alliance, use a computer program and some past historical knowledge to come up with this?” he said. “Why was nobody doing anything about that?”

Several years later, when he was studying for his master’s degree in experiential education at Minnesota State University, Mankato, Mr. Walz wrote his thesis on Holocaust education, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported .

As governor, Mr. Walz signed a bill last year that requires high schools and middle schools to teach about the Holocaust, along with other genocides.

Neil Vigdor covers politics for The Times, focusing on voting rights issues and election disinformation. More about Neil Vigdor

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Presentation Master's thesis - Yasmijn Spoelman - Work & Organisational Psychology

Roeterseilandcampus - Building B, Street: Roetersstraat 11, Room: B2.05

The present study adopted a followership approach to explore the role of strategic renewal behavior in the leader-follower relationship. Based on social exchange theory, it is hypothesized that transformational leadership moderated the indirect effect of co-production role orientation on LMX through strategic renewal behavior. Using data from 110 employees, the results showed that the main relationship between strategic renewal behavior and LMX was non-significant. Moreover, the mediation effect of strategic renewal behavior between co-production role orientation and LMX and the moderation of this indirect effect by transformational leadership was also not significant. However, co-production role orientation positively predicted strategic renewal behavior and LMX. With this finding, the study provides a novel insight into followership literature by exploring the role of co-production orientation and strategic renewal behavior on LMX.