This thesis researches the actions and motivations of the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW), a human rights organization that protests the existence of the U.S. Army institution the School of the...Show moreThis thesis researches the actions and motivations of the School of the Americas Watch (SOAW), a human rights organization that protests the existence of the U.S. Army institution the School of the Americas (SOA), from 1990 until 2001 in the context of human rights scholarship on the 1970s and the 1980s. The SOAW believed the U.S. was directly culpable in the human rights violations committed by graduates of the SOA. The SOAW’s definition of human rights was that of bodily integrity. The SOAW was successful in lobbying Congress to such an extent that the SOA closed in December 2000, however a replacement institute opened just a month later.Show less
When Jimmy Carter was inaugurated in 1977, he promised to make his commitment to human rights absolute. The deeply torn and racially divided region of Southern Africa would become his...Show moreWhen Jimmy Carter was inaugurated in 1977, he promised to make his commitment to human rights absolute. The deeply torn and racially divided region of Southern Africa would become his administration’s stage to illustrate their moralistic foreign policy which was based on the promotion of human rights. Whereas Carter’s commitment to human rights was motivated by his personal experiences during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, his National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, was led by strategic considerations which could advance the American position in the Cold War. These conflicting approaches to a human rights policy resulted in a vague, often hypocritical, and quickly shifting policy, which started with a strong moral undertone and focus on human rights, yet ended with economic and strategic considerations as the top priorities of the administration. Through its in-depth analysis of primary sources, this study has sought to research the change in the Carter administration’s human rights policy towards South Africa, thereby also discussing the general changes within the foundations of the administration’s foreign policy.Show less
This thesis focuses on Native Americans who voluntary enlisted end served in the European and African theaters of operations only. The Pacific theater of operations has received much more attention...Show moreThis thesis focuses on Native Americans who voluntary enlisted end served in the European and African theaters of operations only. The Pacific theater of operations has received much more attention than the other two because of the well documented service of the Code Talker Units, and will therefore not be included in this thesis. Holm, Bernstein, Franco, Townsend, and Sheffield and Riseman all examined motives behind the Native American voluntary enlistment, some more thorough than others. They also analyze whether Native Americans experienced racial prejudice or discrimination. This thesis adds and examines two other motives behind Native American voluntary enlistment, and incorporates them within the existing narrative. Incorporating those two new motives behind Native American voluntary enlistment in the existing narrative provides for a more comprehensive account than is known today. This thesis further and more thoroughly analyzes to what extent Native Americans experienced racial prejudice or discrimination, and therefore may depict a more detailed picture than heretofore known in the existing narrative.Show less
This thesis investigates the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry as an organization advocating for Soviet Jewish emigration and as an interreligious cooperative. It asks how the Task...Show moreThis thesis investigates the National Interreligious Task Force on Soviet Jewry as an organization advocating for Soviet Jewish emigration and as an interreligious cooperative. It asks how the Task Force, under the supervision of the American Jewish Committee, contributed to the Soviet Jewry movement and how the organization’s efforts differed from those of the leading Soviet Jewry organizations. As an interpretive framework, the tension between particularism and universalism is used. The thesis argues that the Task Force universalized the base and the agenda of the Soviet Jewry movement. By mobilizing Christians on a local, national and international level, the Task Force broadened the base, often using human rights and human rights instruments such as the Helsinki Final Act as a means to universalize the struggle. Furthermore, the Task Force universalized the agenda by including Soviet Christians in their advocacy, thus taking a universalistic approach to linkage. As an interreligious cooperative, the Task Force advanced interreligious dialogue in the United States and helped promote the particularistic American Jewish agenda. Consequently, the American Jewish Committee allowed the Task Force flexibility regarding linkage, although they preferred a particularistic approach themselves.Show less
