Winning Friends and Influencing People with Guns: Understanding the Growth of China's Military Diplomacy

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Selective Listening: Why U.S. Policymakers De-Securitized Colombia's Internal Displacement Crisis

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Evaluation of the Feasibility of a Yoga and Mindfulness-Based Mental Health Intervention for Latina Immigrant Mothers

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

Relocation and Resilience: Exploring Co-Benefits in Aberdeen, WA

Thesis (Master's)--University of Washington, 2016-06

The health of children in immigration detention: how does Australia compare?

We live in an age when the number of refugees worldwide is increasing. All of them have suffered physically or emotionally to a varying degree in their country of origin. The transit to a country of resettlement is fraught with further difficulties or the risk of death. This article explores the different approach taken to the management of this issue by Denmark and Iceland, in comparison to that of Australia. In particular, the different approaches to health care for children and their families are identified. The management of these issues by Denmark and Iceland would appear to be a model to follow. Outcomes of the different managements have not been assessed.

The responsibility to protect and the crisis in Darfur

Governments that have endorsed the 'sovereignty as responsibility' approach have shown little inclination to protect civilians suffering at the hands of their own government in the Sudanese province of Darfur. After providing an overview of Darfur's crisis and international society's feeble response, we explore why the strongest advocates of 'sovereignty as responsibility', the NATO and EU states, failed to seriously contemplate military intervention. We suggest that three main factors help explain the West's unwillingness to intervene in Darfur: increased scepticism about the West's humanitarian interventionism, especially after the invasion of Iraq; Western strategic interests in Sudan; and the relationship between the crisis in Darfur and Sudan's other civil wars. We conclude that the emerging norm of humanitarian intervention remains weak and strongly contested, and that advocates of the 'responsibility to protect' approach have yet to persuade their governments to help save populations in danger.

Knowledge, economy, technology and society: The politics of discourse

The WSIS is centrally interested in knowledge and has defined for itself a mission that is broadly humanitarian. Its development ‘talk’ is, rightly, replete with notions of equity, preserving culture, justice, human rights and so on. In incorporating such issues into knowledge society and economy discussions, WSIS has adopted a different posture towards knowledge than is seen in dominant discourses. This study analyses the dominant knowledge discourse using a large corpus of knowledge-related policy documents, discourse theory and an interrelational understanding of knowledge. I show that it is important to understand this dominant knowledge discourse because of its capacity to limit thought and action in relation to its central topic, knowledge. The results of this study demonstrate that the dominant knowledge discourse is technocratic, frequently insensitive to the humane mission at the core of the WSIS, and is based on a partial understanding of what knowledge is and how knowledge systems work. Moreover, I show that knowledge is inherently political, that the dominant knowledge discourse is politically oriented towards the concerns of business and technology, but that an emancipatory politics of knowledge is possible.

The Society of States under siege? An English School perspective on the emergence of global civil society

In this article I critically examine the theoretical and empirical relationship between world society, whereby global civil society is taken to be its physical or empirical counterpart, and the society of states. This relationship is typically portrayed as contradictory or confrontational, and I contend that this mainstream perspective is reliant on a superficial analysis of the relationship. If one examines the deeper dynamics, viewed in their contemporary international normative context, then one can identify the more constructive and permissive aspects of the relationship. Rather than being wholly incompatible I argue that world society and international society are mutually constitutive and mutually dependent regimes, whose relationship is more often marked by cooperation than by conflict. English School theory provides the conceptual framework for this analysis. The relationship between international and world society presents a core ontological tension within this theory, and again they tend to occupy polarised positions. A synthesis of four international theories - pluralist international society theory, solidarist international society theory, critical international theory, and the discourse of global civil society - informs the hypothesis that the relationship can be normatively and empirically reconciled. In order to empirically support this explanation I analyse two phenomena in world politics - transnational advocacy networks and humanitarian intervention - where there is an apparent tension between international and world society.

FOLKCOMUNICAÇÃO E OS ESTUDOS DA DEVOÇÃO RELIGIOSA COMO MANIFESTAÇÃO COMUNICACIONAL COM O SAGRADO

Este trabalho aborda o tema Folkcomunicação e os estudos da religiosidade popular como manifestação comunicacional com o sagrado e tem por objetivo analisar os meios de devoção popular como forma de comunicação com o sagrado, sendo o fator existencial (demandas individuais, sociais, econômicas, culturais) das classes socialmente marginalizadas como motivação dessa respectiva comunicação. Foram tomadas as ênfases da teoria da folkcomunicação como referencial para a pesquisa que fez uso, metodologicamente, de pesquisas bibliográficas e pesquisa de campo, onde se aplicou a observação participante, no intuito de perceber o imaginário operante na vida do fiel devoto presentes em suas práticas. A análise revelou que a complexidade cultural gera várias formas de comunicação, dentre elas a religiosidade popular, que é para a vida do fiel devoto, um legado cheio de espiritualidade e riqueza humanitária que se encarna na cultura do povo simples, em especial no tocante à dimensão existencial. Este resultado contribui para o enriquecimento dos estudos folkcomunicacionais, no que concerne à devoção popular como forma de comunicação com o sagrado.

AS CONTRIBUIÇÕES DOS EDUCADORES BOLCHEVIQUES NA CONCRETIZAÇÃO DE POLÍTICAS EDUCACIONAIS NA EDUCAÇÃO SOVIÉTICA

O presente trabalho, ligado à linha de Políticas e Gestão Educacional, examina o período histórico de 1917 a 1930, em que educadores bolcheviques influenciaram a educação soviética em pleno processo de construção da sociedade revolucionária. Esse importante contexto histórico gerou o interesse pelo tema remetendo este estudo a um período atravessado por discussões educacionais. Assim, procurou-se pesquisar quais foram os educadores que contribuíram para o avanço da educação soviética, o que foi pensado por eles e quais ideias sobre educação foram concretizadas por intermédio de políticas educacionais. Por meio de um estudo da época revolucionária da Rússia, buscou-se apresentar os princípios educacionais de Moisey Mikhaylovic Pistrak (1888-1940), Nadejda Konstantinovna Krupskaya (1869-1939) e Anatóli Lunatcharsky (1875-1933). Tentou-se apurar se as propostas de alguns desses educadores (ou de todos) para a época contribuíram ativamente na implantação da prática pedagógica socialista, fundada no marxismo. Cada um com suas práticas e estudos ajudou a construir o que se conhece na história como uma pedagogia socialista, baseada na ideia do coletivo vinculada ao movimento mais amplo de transformação social. A hipótese sobre a importância prática desses autores foi investigada ao longo do trabalho. A pesquisa intentou contribuir com uma reflexão acerca dos valores possíveis na educação contemporânea, que idealmente deveria valorizar o trabalho do ser humano e as relações de caráter humanitário entre os homens. Contudo, no contexto local não se conseguiu ter acesso, ainda, a uma grande quantidade de estudos relacionados ao tema. Não obstante esse fato, a pesquisa justifica-se como uma análise do período histórico conhecido por sua importância para a evolução da sociedade contemporânea. Parte-se da suposição de que no período pós-revolucionário aconteceu grande efervescência intelectual e cultural, gerando inúmeras propostas diferenciadas nos terrenos da organização escolar, da ação pedagógica, da relação escola-sociedade, da relação escola-unidades de produção, da relação entre educação e cidadania socialista etc. No decorrer da pesquisa, para estudar cada educador, foi preciso buscar em suas obras a presença de quatro temas relevantes no debate soviético daquele período: a nova sociedade soviética (papel dominante do Estado, declínio no papel da igreja e da família, reivindicação do sistema econômico de participação na educação); a organização do ensino por meio da abordagem de problemas (sistema modular); o processo de revolução cultural e a construção do novo homem; e a politecnia. Para fundamentar os temas, foi necessário caracterizar a posição do pensamento e a ação educacional de cada autor. Na abordagem dos temas, buscou-se também outros autores interessados pela educação soviética e pelas correntes doutrinárias no terreno da educação. Considera-se que a pesquisa contribuirá à academia, ao estudo da pedagogia e da política educacional, e à compreensão do pensamento dos educadores bolcheviques.

News framing in different language versions of state-sponsored international media : A case of Russian and English versions in RT and Radio Liberty

The current paper examines the dissimilarities that have occurred in news framing by state-sponsored news outlets in their different language versions. The comparative framing analysis is conducted on the news coverage of the Russian intervention in Syria (2016) in RT and Radio Liberty in Russian and English languages. The certain discrepancies in framing of this event are found in both news outlets. The strongest distinction between Russian and English versions occurred in framing of responsibility and humanitarian crisis in Syria. The study attempts to explain the identified differences in a framework of public diplomacy and propaganda studies. The existing theories explain that political ideology and foreign policy orientation influences principles of state propaganda and state-sponsored international broadcasting. However, the current findings suggest that other influence factors may exist in the field – such as the local news discourse and the journalistic principles. This conclusion is preliminary, as there are not many studies with the comparable research design, which could support the current discussion. The studies of localized strategies of the international media (whether private networks or state-funded channels) can refine the current conclusions and bring a new perspective to global media studies.

A community-based approach to supply chain design

The role of beneficiaries in the humanitarian supply chain is highlighted in the imperative to meet their needs but disputed in terms of their actual decision-making and purchasing power. This paper discusses the use of a beneficiary-focused, community-based approach in the case of a post-crisis housing reconstruction programme. In the community-based approach, beneficiaries become active members of the humanitarian supply chain. Implications of this community-based approach are discussed in the light of supply chain design and aid effectiveness. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.

The impact of coordination on the effectiveness of last mile relief distribution

Last mile relief distribution is the final stage of humanitarian logistics. It refers to the supply of relief items from local distribution centers to the disaster affected people (Balcik et al., 2008). In the last mile relief distribution literature, researchers have focused on the use of optimisation techniques for determining the exact optimal solution (Liberatore et al., 2014), but there is a need to include behavioural factors with those optimisation techniques in order to obtain better predictive results. This paper will explain how improving the coordination factor increases the effectiveness of the last mile relief distribution process. There are two stages of methodology used to achieve the goal: Interviews: The authors conducted interviews with the Indian Government and with South Asian NGOs to identify the critical factors for final relief distribution. After thematic and content analysis of the interviews and the reports, the authors found some behavioural factors which affect the final relief distribution. Model building: Last mile relief distribution in India follows a specific framework described in the Indian Government disaster management handbook. We modelled this framework using agent based simulation and investigated the impact of coordination on effectiveness. We define effectiveness as the speed and accuracy with which aid is delivered to affected people. We tested through simulation modelling whether coordination improves effectiveness.

A multi-agency perspective to disaster preparedness

The increasing number of victims from disasters in recent years results in several challenges for authorities aiming to protect and provide support to affected people. Humanitarian logistics represents one of the most important fields during preparedness and response in cases of disaster, seeking to provide relief, information and services to disaster victims. However, on top of the challenges of logistical activities, the successful completion of operations depends to a large extent on coordination. This is particularly important for developing countries, where disasters occur very often and resources are even scarcer. This paper assumes a multi-agency approach to disaster preparedness that combines geographical information systems (GIS) and multi-objective optimization. The purpose of the tool is to determine the location of emergency facilities, stock prepositioning and distribution allocation for floods. We illustrate the application and the results using a case study centred on Acapulco, México.

The principle of non-refoulement under international law: Its inception and evolution in a nutshell

The article first gives an overview of the formation and the evolution of the principle of non-refoulement under international law. The different meanings of the concept in the asylum and human rights contexts are then discussed and compared, with due regard to the convergences that arose in the course of legal developments. In doing so, this short piece also draws attention to certain controversial issues and blurred lines, which have surfaced through the practical application of the prohibition of refoulement. Identifying the contours of the concept and clarifying its content and its effects may help in appreciating the implications that stem, in the current extraordinary times of migratory movements, from the fundamental humanitarian legal principles of which the imperative of non-refoulement forms part.