Over the last two decades, we have observed a surge in support for populist parties. As populism is known to thrive on crisis, the current COVID-19 pandemic provides an interesting case to study...Show moreOver the last two decades, we have observed a surge in support for populist parties. As populism is known to thrive on crisis, the current COVID-19 pandemic provides an interesting case to study its nature. This thesis tests whether the three-folded paradox of populism observed in the U.S. by Rogers Brubaker (2020) holds for the Netherlands and Germany, by means of a comparative discourse analysis. This analysis covers the Twitter discourse of Dutch politicians Geert Wilders and Thierry Baudet, and the German populist party, Alternative für Deutschland, during the first wave of COVID-19. This thesis thereby enters the conceptual debate on populism, arguing the observed discourse to not convey a consistent ideology, but instead to adhere to certain stylistic elements that could be qualified as characteristic of a populist political style. Moreover, the comparative analysis will shed light on whether the rise of populism can be classified as a global, perhaps ideological phenomenon, or whether national characteristics also play a role. Throughout this thesis, the role and importance of the contemporary media landscape with its various online channels for the mobilisation of contemporary populists are taken into consideration. As a surge in populist rhetoric could further uproot the established global political landscape, understanding this phenomenon is of high importance for the future of international relations.Show less
The increasingly multipolar world and the effects of the climate change have significantly impacted the ever-changing international arena. In the last two decades, the Arctic has become the last...Show moreThe increasingly multipolar world and the effects of the climate change have significantly impacted the ever-changing international arena. In the last two decades, the Arctic has become the last frontier, capturing attention of the world's most prominent actors, including the United States of the America. With the expanding US Arctic interests, the region encompasses American strategic thinking and the formation of new foreign policy goals, differently approached by Presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump. While Obama swayed the attention to the Arctic governance, Trump changed its trajectory completely. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to analyze the Arctic policy under the Obama and the Trump administrations against two identity narratives - American exceptionalism and Jacksonianism, in order to delineate continuity and change of the US Arctic policy between 2009 and 2021.Show less
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 thesis investigates how the German Federal Government lives up to its normative and international commitments and initiatives to harmonize arms export controls. By analyzing existing data from...Show moreThis thesis investigates how the German Federal Government lives up to its normative and international commitments and initiatives to harmonize arms export controls. By analyzing existing data from the Federal Government’s yearly reports on its policy on exports of conventional military equipment and applying the International Relations Theories of Neorealism and Neoliberalism, it highlights the inseparability of arms export policy frameworks and foreign and security policy interests in the case of Germany. Furthermore, this thesis calls attention to the hierarchical structure that exists within this inseparability where the country’s arms export policy framework is given a secondary role to its foreign and security interests.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
