Contrary to the predictions set out in traditional realist literature, small European states have made sizeable military contributions and demonstrated significant risk-willingness in US- and NATO...Show moreContrary to the predictions set out in traditional realist literature, small European states have made sizeable military contributions and demonstrated significant risk-willingness in US- and NATO-led missions in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. The small state literature has cautiously recognized status as an important explanatory factor of such disproportionate contributions. So far, however, it has hardly been explored how status motivations lead to contribution outcomes. Building on these recent advances, this thesis aims to deepen the understanding of the drivers behind status-seeking. Using the case of the Netherlands’ contribution to ISAF, Task Force Uruzgan (2006-2010), this research demonstrates how small state contributions can be the result of an assessment of potential non-material gains in the form of reputation and status, as well as concerns surrounding the loss of these benefits. This differs from current knowledge, as it suggests that small states are driven by more than just ‘positive’ status incitements.Show less
How women of color in American politics are represented by the media can influence their political career. This study therefore analyzed how Vice President Kamala Harris and Congresswoman...Show moreHow women of color in American politics are represented by the media can influence their political career. This study therefore analyzed how Vice President Kamala Harris and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are portrayed by right wing news websites Foxnews.com and Breitbart.com. The study used Critical Discourse Analysis to analyze 20 news articles written by both websites, to see what kind of language is used to portray both female politicians. The results show that gender and racial stereotypes were found in the majority of the news articles, but that gender stereotypes were more prevalent than racial stereotypes. A possible explanation for this could be that racism is less socially acceptable than sexism nowadays, and is therefore less prevalent in news articles written on women of color in American politics.Show less
Immigration is a central topic in the public discourse in the United States, even more during the Trump presidency. Mass media (re)produces this discourse and, as a result, play a crucial part in...Show moreImmigration is a central topic in the public discourse in the United States, even more during the Trump presidency. Mass media (re)produces this discourse and, as a result, play a crucial part in the construction of social realities. Media outlets use framing to shape immigration discourse and public opinion. In immigration discourse there are three frames widely employed: immigration/the immigrant as 1) threat, 2) victim, or as 3) hero. This study analyzed articles by conservative (Republican) leaning news outlet Fox News. Focusing on how self-other communication is presented in each of these frames to shape how Fox News audience perceive immigrants and immigration. Negative-other perception and positive self-perception are highly visible in articles employing the threat frame, whereas in articles employing a hero frame positive- other perception is only clearly visible. There was also a large imbalance in what frames are employed by Fox News, a large majority of articles employ the threat frame.Show less
This thesis asks why Canada became a global leader in peacekeeping in the 1960s and 1970s. The thesis is conducted through an analysis of both domestic and international causes that played a role...Show moreThis thesis asks why Canada became a global leader in peacekeeping in the 1960s and 1970s. The thesis is conducted through an analysis of both domestic and international causes that played a role in Canada's acquisition of a disproportionally large role within global peacekeeping. These causes are extensively researched using two case studies, being the United Nations' peacekeeping mission in Congo in the 1960s as well as the mission in Cyprus in the 1960s and 1970s. Furthermore, the thesis analyses the link between the United Nations and Canada on the peacekeeping front and discusses why it is that the UN came to rely on Canada so heavily for global peacekeeping efforts in the time period of the 1960s and 1970s.Show less
In the past decade, the relationship between the United States and Iran has been through significant changes, particularly playing out in the realm of nuclear proliferation. The establishment of...Show moreIn the past decade, the relationship between the United States and Iran has been through significant changes, particularly playing out in the realm of nuclear proliferation. The establishment of the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) under the Obama administration, thought to be the start of a new chapter of US-Iran relations, was uprooted by the Trump administration almost immediately after the change in leadership. In order to understand how this radical policy shift is possible, this thesis analyses and compares the policy discourses on Iran of the Obama and Trump administration in terms of Self-Other identity construction. Taking a poststructuralist approach to policy discourse analysis, the ontological link between discursive identity and policy decision making is the central subject of study. The thesis concludes that the decisions to establish and withdraw from the JCPOA are constituted by discourses which in fact construct a highly similar radical Self-Other relationship between the US and Iran, within which the US is positioned as having to change the behaviour of the Iranian regime as arbiter of the Middle East and ally of the Iranian people. Crucially, they differ when it comes to the use of orientalist binaries, the capacity for change attributed to the Iranian regime (temporal identity) and the position of the US vis-a-vis the international community (ethical-spatial identity), which is congruent with the diverging policy decisions on the JCPOA.Show less
