Executive master thesis | International Relations and Diplomacy (MSc)
open access
Following the controversy surrounding Qatar’s winning bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, this thesis sets out to investigate the extent to which Qatar was able to harness soft power through its...Show moreFollowing the controversy surrounding Qatar’s winning bid to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup, this thesis sets out to investigate the extent to which Qatar was able to harness soft power through its hosting of this global competition. The research gap from which this research stems is that of authoritarians’ struggle in wielding soft power. Sports, being a field that is frequently instrumentalized for political purposes, is argued to be an attractive venue for authoritarians to overcome this struggle. Taking the fields of soft power, sports diplomacy, and Sports Mega-Event hosting as its theoretical foundations and the Sports Diplomacy Model by Abdi et al. (2018) as its design, this research uncovers observable implications of successful soft power wielding by Qatar. These implications are linked to state visits undertaken and received by Qatar, bilateral investment treaties Qatar has signed, and Qatari participation in international fora. The timeline spans from 2012 to 2022 and within the relatively small sample yielded by this research, slight increases in all three variables indicate that some degree of soft power was successfully harnessed by Qatar through its hosting of the World Cup.Show less
The Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine led to protests, violence, violations of human rights, and more than a hundred people lost their life. During the three months of protest (2013-2014), multiple...Show moreThe Euromaidan revolution in Ukraine led to protests, violence, violations of human rights, and more than a hundred people lost their life. During the three months of protest (2013-2014), multiple intergovernmental organisations made statements regarding the violence and called for action against the Ukrainian government. This paper investigates how much influence those intergovernmental organisations have on the decision-making of the Ukrainian government regarding the protests by using press releases. This paper finds that intergovernmental organisations have indeed influence while limited in the decision-making. This is seen due to the use of discourse analysis.Show less
How do post-Soviet authoritarian states make use of repression? Mass protests and the increasingly repressive responses from former Soviet states have been more prevalent over the last several...Show moreHow do post-Soviet authoritarian states make use of repression? Mass protests and the increasingly repressive responses from former Soviet states have been more prevalent over the last several years. This article studies the 2020-2021 Belarusian protests and the 2022 Kazakh protests to better understand how both states differ in their use of repression against mass protests. To this end, The Threat Perception Theory and the Action-Reaction theory are combined with a historical perspective of both countries’ authoritarian rule to better understand why repression is seen as successful tool for post-Soviet authoritarian states dealing with mass protests. The findings show that both states perceived the protests as direct threats and used violent and non-violent repression to try and stop it from escalating, additionally, the actions and reactions between the protesters and the state show that both states use repression regardless if the protesters’ response is violent or not and this cycle becomes more deadly the moment protesters start using violent means. This study adds a theoretical perspective on the post-Soviet authoritarian use of repression while simultaneously providing historical context in order to give insight on the potential causes and effects of these state using repression.Show less
This study analyzes how Dutch far-right and anti-Covid groups use Telegram. To answer this, a thematic analysis is done on textual posts to discover prominent themes among the discourses of the...Show moreThis study analyzes how Dutch far-right and anti-Covid groups use Telegram. To answer this, a thematic analysis is done on textual posts to discover prominent themes among the discourses of the groups. Eventually, to explore how the groups express themselves online. Moreover, the comparative case study focuses on the relations between the discursive strategies to investigate the overlap between the groups. To do this, the paper uses social mobilization and repression-dissident theories. These explain how the characteristics of online groups translate to discourse as well as the implications of online dissident methods on repression-dissident dynamics. The results show that all groups employ Telegram for the creation of a collective identity, activation and mobilization of rebellion, and the expression of ideology. Collective identity explains the mobilization efforts of the groups and anti-establishment sentiment raises the potential for event coalitions. However, differences between the methods of the far-right and anti-Covid groups can be found in the context in which they use discursive strategies. The former primarily focuses on constructing a homogeneous network of followers, while the latter requires large event-based attraction to achieve its goal. These findings are essential for understanding the state threat perception and the decision-making process of targeted government policies on dissident groups. Ultimately, these findings add to the understanding of the repression-dissident nexus and how dissimilar groups use social media platforms.Show less
This thesis investigates the economic consequences of military coups. The sample consists of five case studies, namely: Gambia (1994), Cambodia (1997), Côte d’Ivoire (1999), Mali (1991), and...Show moreThis thesis investigates the economic consequences of military coups. The sample consists of five case studies, namely: Gambia (1994), Cambodia (1997), Côte d’Ivoire (1999), Mali (1991), and Pakistan (1999). The synthetic control method (SCM) is employed, which constructs a weighted combination of control countries that did not experience a successful coup to best represent the treated state had it not experienced a military overthrow. The results indicate that coup d’états do not necessarily bring economic consequences forth. Those that do are negative and take place on the African continent. Côte d’Ivoire presented the only significant and robust findings. The presence of an ‘Africa-effect’ could therefore not be statistically verified.Show less
The relationship between state behaviour and protests has been vastly investigated after the event of the Arab Spring in 2011. However, the political discourses of state leaders have oftentimes...Show moreThe relationship between state behaviour and protests has been vastly investigated after the event of the Arab Spring in 2011. However, the political discourses of state leaders have oftentimes been excluded from the research. Language and discourse have been determined in other fields to be powerful political tools. This research study aims to integrate the study of linguistics into the speeches given by state leaders while civil unrests were happening in their countries. The study of how leaders are depicting the protesters will give insights into the decision on the use of repression and the extent of the repression. By following the structure of a comparative case study, a thematic analysis was conducted to obtain the data necessary to answer the research question. The cases used were the Civil Uprising in Syria in 2011 and the 2022 Kazakh unrest. The findings demonstrated that the discourses created by the two presidents had effects on the reaction of protesters and the measures taken by security forces. The research provides significant details on the relationship between the use of language and the government’s responses to protests.Show less
This thesis addresses the research question, how does a United States (U.S.) state’s history of race and racism shape its modern-day protest response to Black Lives Matter (BLM)? Specifically,...Show moreThis thesis addresses the research question, how does a United States (U.S.) state’s history of race and racism shape its modern-day protest response to Black Lives Matter (BLM)? Specifically, Kansas and Missouri were analyzed using a comparative case study. The agency-loss and historical organizational behavior model were applied to analyze the cases. Overall, patterns in the states’ histories were identified, suggesting that historical racism can shape protest responses to a significant degree. Missouri exhibited a more violent and racist approach to policing across its history, including its modern response to BLM. In contrast, Kansas had a more moderate history regarding racism and displayed less violence in both general policing and concerning BLM.Show less
Social media is impossible to imagine in the current society and with almost five billion active users globally, the influence of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is huge. Since the Arab...Show moreSocial media is impossible to imagine in the current society and with almost five billion active users globally, the influence of platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is huge. Since the Arab Spring in 2011, social media has been used for multiple social movements and protests. Social movements have shaped human history. However, social movements and protests in this day and age have different characteristics than before the social media era. Classical theorists state that protests are stemming from grievances and frustration, this is still the case. However, technology develops, and new problems arise. Nowadays, the collective online identity is of huge importance for social moments which creates new ways and characteristics of protests. The precise role of social media in this process is yet to be discovered. This research tries to contribute to previous research, in finding patterns and overlapping themes in regards to the research question: how has social media changed protests in Western-Europe? This research uses a mixed-methods research, where ten news articles are coded and analyzed via a qualitative research tool, ATLAS.ti. Plus, databases with relevant statistics and data are used in order to strengthen the argument. The findings from the thematic discourse analysis showed three main themes namely: mobilization via social media; far right-wing and violence; misinformation, trust in the government and Covid-19. This study found that there is a strong link between the far right-wing and their social media usage, resulting in more violent protests. Plus, the Covid-19 pandemic has fueled the distrust in governments, especially for the right-wing. Another important characteristic of participants recruited via social media in protests, is that they tend to be younger and have a lower socioeconomic status. A relatively small group of right-wing social media users are responsible for a major part of social media posts on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter. Their social media behavior helped amplify their beliefs with regards to Covid-19 or anti-establishment beliefs, which created a huge following and forced them into the mainstream debate, which has visible offline effects.Show less
Leaders can repress people in different ways. It is well-established that dangerous speech can increase the risk that violence is committed or condoned. This study aims to address how dangerous...Show moreLeaders can repress people in different ways. It is well-established that dangerous speech can increase the risk that violence is committed or condoned. This study aims to address how dangerous speech can be used as a tool of repression. Specifically, it focuses on President Bolsonaro’s dangerous speech made against four groups: LGBTQ people, criminals, protesters and journalists. In this context, dangerous speech is defined as any form of expression that can increase the risk that its audience will condone or commit violence against members of another group. The ACLED database is used to compare the number of murders, violent events and protests in Brazil before and after dangerous speech was made. The results show that in all four cases, the number of murders and violent attacks increased after dangerous speech was made, ranging from an increase of 17% to 250%. These results suggest that dangerous speech by Bolsonaro likely increased the risk that its audience committed violence. Dangerous speech was used to indirectly repress four different groups in society. Thus, dangerous speech is a tool of repression, but it differs from the existing tools of repression. Therefore, verbal repression should be taken into account when different tools of repression are mentioned by scholars.Show less
Diasporas are traditionally an understudied actor in protests, both in home and host country. Nevertheless, they play an ever-increasing role within such situations, especially considering the...Show moreDiasporas are traditionally an understudied actor in protests, both in home and host country. Nevertheless, they play an ever-increasing role within such situations, especially considering the effect that globalisation has both on diaspora formation and on transnational activism dynamics and global movements. According to Bercovitch (2007), diasporas can interfere in a conflict through four arenas of influence: political, economic, military, and socio-cultural. This framework is applied to the case of the Lebanese diaspora and its recent involvement in the revolution that is occurring in its home country, in an effort to answer the following research question: how does diaspora play a role in protests in their home country? A content analysis of relevant sources reveals the diaspora’s involvement in these arenas of influence. The main activity that can be observed is the mobilisation of support and resources. Through, inter alia, media campaigns, financial donations, and political support, the Lebanese people living abroad stay up-to-date and involved in the public affairs of its homeland.Show less
This research examined the factors that influence the public perception of government response towards protests. A survey with a small sample size (N = 135) was used to acquire the data. The...Show moreThis research examined the factors that influence the public perception of government response towards protests. A survey with a small sample size (N = 135) was used to acquire the data. The results show that threat perception matters for the public’s preferred government response towards protests. The research found that policing measures were preferred more when people protesting against a new government policy began using violence against the police and destroyed public property. Additionally, the results showed that the subject of the protest matters for the threat perception. Policing measures were preferred more when people were protesting against the coronavirus lockdown than when they were protesting against a new government policy. Anti-lockdown protestors were thus deemed more threatening than people protesting against a new government policy. This was the case in a normal protesting situation and when people protested in an unauthorized location.Show less
In an unprecedented era of rebellion, social mobilisation, repression and state terror, regime leaders have found themselves challenged by citizens to step–down from the political sphere. Often,...Show moreIn an unprecedented era of rebellion, social mobilisation, repression and state terror, regime leaders have found themselves challenged by citizens to step–down from the political sphere. Often, the response to these challenges is to repress citizens into political quiescence. However, just as much as protests can be unsuccessful, as can the tools used to suppress them. This thesis will evaluate the effects of repression on protests demands through a quantitative, large–N study of the repressiveness of a regime (on a scale of 1–5), and the demands of protests (regime change or not) in the Middle East and North Africa countries. This was done by combining the Political Terror Scale, and Chenoweth & Shay’s NAVCO1.3. Furthermore, by exploring the threat perception theory, the backlash hypothesis, and conducting a Chi–Square test of the above variables, the thesis came to the conclusion that there is a positive, moderate correlation between repressiveness of regime and protest demands, as well as being statistically significant.Show less
This paper will cover a part of the protest-repression nexus, more specifically it will cover the relationship between costs of protests on the government and the government response to the...Show moreThis paper will cover a part of the protest-repression nexus, more specifically it will cover the relationship between costs of protests on the government and the government response to the protests that generate these costs. The following research question will be answered: How do disruption and concession costs effect government response to protests in the United States? This research question will be answered by using a modified data set of 9138 US protests in the time period from January 1st 2020 until March 26th 2021. Quantitative methods will be used, more specifically a multinomial logistic regression and of its output a predictive probability formula will be constructed which can predict the probability of the US government response to protest. These methods will be used to answer three hypotheses, which can in turn answer the research question. The findings of this paper include an unusual relationship between concession costs and the government response of coercion. In addition the government response of coercion seems to be favored over the less repressive response of crowd control.Show less
