The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as an international development incentive has raised critiques of hidden agenda power politics in many regions around the world. Although research indicates...Show moreThe Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as an international development incentive has raised critiques of hidden agenda power politics in many regions around the world. Although research indicates possible positive consequences of the BRI, criticists believe the development initiative shows characteristics of economic and political dependence through power politics. Some even argue the BRI shows neo-colonial characteristics. However, as China is not a former European colonial power, nor a developed nation, the assumption of classical neo-colonialism is inconvenient. This research argues that China is using the BRI as a new form of neo-colonialism in the 21st century. By holding the classical interpretations of neo-colonialism in the light of the 21st century, this research developed a broader conceptualisation of modern-day neo-colonialism. By means of an operationalisation framework using four neo-colonial characteristics (import and export dominance, dominance in crucial industries, fields and companies, backwardness and debt-obligations), this research found that China in some cases used neo-colonialism as an instrument to obtain economic and political dependence over Hungary, Serbia and Poland.Show less
This research attempts to connect the relationship between Chinese online disinformation and the Taiwanese’s perception of China through the framework of social identity theory. The research will...Show moreThis research attempts to connect the relationship between Chinese online disinformation and the Taiwanese’s perception of China through the framework of social identity theory. The research will examine how the PRC is affecting the public opinion in ROC and whether they are successful. The research adopted a two-prone approach that includes the usage of both case studies and discourse analysis. The result of the research suggests that the PRC disinformation indeed affects ROC’s citizen’s perception of the PRC. However, the effect leads to the opposite outcome under different circumstances. PRC disinformation generates favourable opinions for the PRC among the Taiwanese population when fact-checking mechanisms do not exist. On the other hand, disinformation generates negative opinions for PRC on the island when fact-checking mechanisms are in place.Show less
What are different ideas, perceptions, or historical processes that are involved in North Korean human rights discourses produced by U.S. organizations? Is there a certain reason why American...Show moreWhat are different ideas, perceptions, or historical processes that are involved in North Korean human rights discourses produced by U.S. organizations? Is there a certain reason why American organizations express particular interest in the ‘human rights’ of North Korea? Based on a historical analysis of Western human rights and its recent development towards a form of post-humanitarianism, this thesis analyzes how the ideas of both conservative evangelicals and liberal democrats coincide to frame North Korean human rights discourses in ways that are agreeable to Western audiences. Although the organizations come from opposite stances in domestic politics, the commonalities underlying both stances are expected to reflect deep-rooted national identities that developed throughout the history of the American human rights regime. The thesis claims that a historical entanglement between decolonization, Cold War tensions, foreign policy strategies, and deeply ingrained national identities create an ‘American’ version of human rights. Moreover, although the evangelicals and the democrats differ on the extent or way of identifying the distance between ‘us the observers’ and ‘them the sufferers’, both sectors presume a selective and self-serving post-humanitarian distance that does not contemplate the structural circumstances of the sufferers. Instead, the organizations reflect on the observer’s own sense of morality, either religious duties or international security concerns, at the expense of morally essentializing or victimizing the sufferers based on Western liberal assumptions about human nature. Without trying to discount the importance of religion or security issues in U.S. international relations, this thesis aims to raise the awareness of deeply embedded power relations, both historically inherent and currently reenacted by human rights discourses, that can be easily mystified in the name of ‘universal human rights’.Show less
In theories of armed conflict in international relations and security studies, human psychology, namely the concept of collective trauma, is very little taken into account. However, considering...Show moreIn theories of armed conflict in international relations and security studies, human psychology, namely the concept of collective trauma, is very little taken into account. However, considering that states and armed groups consist of individuals, their collective traumas might play a role in the outbreak of armed conflict. This paper articulates theoretical elements from IR, memory studies, and psychoanalysis allowing to better grasp how and why collective traumas generated by large-scale violent events may in turn engender armed conflict if they remain unhealed. This articulation leads to a refined theory and mechanism of ‘cycles of violence’, which is then qualitatively tested in two empirical cases: The United States, with 9/11 and the following invasion of Afghanistan; and Afghanistan, with the US intervention and the following insurgency. In both cases it is possible to establish with a high degree of certainty that the respective large-scale violent events caused a collective trauma which, for different reasons, remained unaddressed and participated in the outbreak of further violence. Each case thus represents a cycle of violence itself, and they represent a larger one together. Furthermore, the analysis highlights the power dynamics sometimes preventing proper healing, and sheds light on the case of Afghanistan, in which Western versions of events often dominate.Show less
This thesis will examine the link between women’s civil society organizations (CSOs) and women at the negotiation table in the Havana Peace Process between the Colombian government and the FARC...Show moreThis thesis will examine the link between women’s civil society organizations (CSOs) and women at the negotiation table in the Havana Peace Process between the Colombian government and the FARC guerilla group. Although women are often ignored in peace processes, previous studies have shown a positive relation between the inclusion of women and the outcome of these negotiations. Jana Krause theorizes that female participation in peace negotiations is linked to the durability of peace because female negotiators sustain linkages with women’s CSOs. Through process tracing, this thesis will test whether Krause’s theory can be used to explain the outcome of the Havana Peace Negotiations between the Colombian government and the FARC, taking place from 2012 until 2016. The results will show that women’s organizations were instrumental in getting women in the negotiating teams, and in turn, these women with formal power in the negotiations ensured the participation of women’s CSOs through consultations. This has contributed to the inclusivity of the content of the peace accord but has not necessarily produced any positive effect on the implementation of the agreement, thereby partially supporting Krause’s theory.Show less
This thesis has investigated the role of the American private space industry in the ongoing securitization of outer space within the United States context. Whereas scholars have thoroughly examined...Show moreThis thesis has investigated the role of the American private space industry in the ongoing securitization of outer space within the United States context. Whereas scholars have thoroughly examined the role of the state in the securitization of outer space, it has thus far predominantly overlooked possible securitizing moves performed by the private space industry, as well as the role of the novel NewSpace industry within that process. Therefore, this investigation aims to examine the private space companies SpaceX, Virgin Galactic, and United Launch Alliance (ULA) building upon securitization theory. Specifically, it will provide a discourse analysis on those companies’ webpages, uncovering four discourses possessing either or both securitizing speech acts and performative securitization. This thesis finds that the private space industry took on a facilitating role regarding the securitization of outer space by proliferating and enhancing space launching capabilities and engaging with the U.S. military and national security services. Furthermore, it might have contributed to the securitization of outer space by performing speech acts, but this investigation refrains from drawing that conclusion, as it has not investigated the audience involved and thus cannot estimate whether the speech acts were performed successfully. Nevertheless, these findings combined with the academic literature on PMSCs, suggest that private space companies sometimes can look and act like PMSCs, explaining why private space companies might be incentivized to contribute to outer space securitization.Show less
Current academic literature falsely assumes that an authoritarian regime can solely transition into a democracy, other type of autocracy or a similar autocracy. This paper shows that there can be a...Show moreCurrent academic literature falsely assumes that an authoritarian regime can solely transition into a democracy, other type of autocracy or a similar autocracy. This paper shows that there can be a fourth alternative: state failure. This paper conceptualises state failure in Westphalian terms, namely when there is an absence of internal and external sovereignty and the state apparatus fails to provide essential services. The paper hence focuses on possible explanations of state failure in autocratic regimes. Specifically, the paper focuses on personalism as a predictor for state failure, which must be understood as the degree to which an autocratic leader forms the regime to their personal demands. The argument of this paper, consequently, follows that personalism is detrimental to the state’s institutions, as these institutions are formed to solely function under the regime’s current leader. Additionally, the paper theorised that this effect would be stronger in regimes where regime change was imposed, as these regimes would be especially ill prepared for the sudden change in regime. Through a binomial logistic regression, this paper has found evidence that higher personalism indeed does lead to a higher probability of state failure, but has found no evidence to support the second claim, as the size of the effect of personalism on state failure seems to decrease when only analysing those regimes which experienced imposed regime change.Show less
