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
Master thesis | Crisis and Security Management (MSc)
open access
This thesis examines the specific mechanisms through which non-state actors involved in the civil wars in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen have purposely targeted, employed, or manipulated water resources...Show moreThis thesis examines the specific mechanisms through which non-state actors involved in the civil wars in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen have purposely targeted, employed, or manipulated water resources and infrastructures as instruments and tools during conflict. The presence of violent non-state actors seeking military expansion, combined with prevailing dire water situations, underline the importance of examining and clarifying the intersection between water and conflict in these countries. To critically examine how violent non-state actors can actively instrumentalize water-related resources and infrastructures to form part of warfare tactics and strategies, this thesis will focus on two specific non-state actors operating in episodes of conflict and analyse the following research question: How have the Islamic State and the Houthis instrumentalized water resources and infrastructures as a part of military tactics and strategies in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen?. To study this phenomenon, this research applies the categories proposed by the conceptual model from Gleick who argued that water can become a target or a weapon during episodes of conflict. Chapter 2 provides a critical discussion of the existing academic body of knowledge on the connections between water and conflict before focusing on the literature theorizing the instrumentalization of water during episodes of conflict more particularly. The review of existing relevant literature leads to the theoretical approach employed for the current research project. Next, chapter 3 specifies the research design, including a justification of the adoption of a descriptive comparative case study model, as well as its operationalization. Chapter 4 and 5 apply the theoretical framework on the instrumentalization of water during conflict to the case studies of IS in Iraq and Syria between 2013-2020 and the Houthis in Yemen between 2014-2020. Based on the comparative analysis of the water-related military tactics and strategies of these two non-state actors, chapter 6 provides an answer to the research question and discusses the limitations to these findings. Chapter 7 discusses the conclusions of this study in relation to its academic and practical relevance.Show less
