DWA Student Scholarship Copyright (c) 2013 Occidental College All rights reserved. http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student Recent documents in DWA Student Scholarship en-us Mon, 20 May 2013 01:31:54 PDT 3600 Substantive Progress or Neoliberalism in Disguise? An Analysis of the World Bank’s Discourse on Corruption since 1995 http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/9 http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/9 Sat, 18 May 2013 11:00:20 PDT I undertake a discourse analysis of World Bank documents from 1995 to the present to explore scholarly debates surrounding the question, “To what extent are the World Bank’s efforts to combat corruption evidence of its attempts to further the neoliberal agenda, characterized by the original Washington Consensus?” Since the late 1990’s, the World Bank has been a leader in the fight against corruption, integrating anti-corruption into its operations worldwide and making it a major issue addressed in World Development Reports, Presidential speeches, and specific anti-corruption strategies. While some scholars see this as an evolutionary move away from neoliberalism, others see the focus on corruption as a way for the Bank to continue to advance and expand the neoliberal agenda after the failure of structural adjustment programs. I argue that while the World Bank’s anti-corruption strategy featured distinctly neoliberal ideals in its early years, over time it has moved away from a focus on liberalization and competition to a more holistic focus on transparency and civic participation as pillars of good governance.

]]> Megan Lang Groundbreaking Strides without Transformational Change: The Integration of Gender Perspectives into US Department of State Peacebuilding Strategy Under Secretary Clinton http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/8 http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/8 Thu, 16 May 2013 17:30:16 PDT Although peacebuilding aims to address root causes of conflict, while constructing stable institutions and social relations, conventional peacebuilding’s negligence of gender in post-conflict societies and peace processes has restricted its potential. Most actors that contribute to peacebuilding efforts have participated in this ignorance, causing an outburst of feminist literature highlighting the severe need to integrate gender perspectives into peacebuilding. However, existing literature provides few specific recommendations and insufficiently examines mechanisms for integrating gender into state-led peacebuilding. Major actors, such as the United States, have recently embarked on attempts to incorporate gender perspectives into peacebuilding, creating large scopes of policy in need of analysis. This paper investigates the integration of gender perspectives into US Department of State peacebuilding strategies under Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who significantly elevated the importance of women’s rights and brought attention to gender considerations in US foreign policy. Through the review of policy changes and the study of US peacebuilding in Afghanistan, this paper concludes that the integration of gender perspectives in Department of State peacebuilding efforts is incomplete, leaving policy altered, but not transformed, and inhibiting hopes for gender equality and inclusive, sustainable peace.

]]> Jessie M. Durrett The Road to Hell is Paved With Good Intentions: The Construction of Femininity Within and Through the Human Security Paradigm http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/7 http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/7 Mon, 13 May 2013 22:40:29 PDT This paper uses a particular form of postmodern feminism to analyze the construction of femininity within and through the human security paradigm. It explores the ways in which human security has been implicated in the power-knowledge system of patriarchy. It does so in order to investigate the human security discourse that has shaped the subject position of the individual suffering from insecurity. It establishes and interrogates the following questions: How is the power-knowledge system of patriarchy implicated in human security? Has the insecure individual’s subject position in the human security paradigm negatively affected the way that the paradigm addresses agency? This paper argues that human security is feminized and denigrated in relation to national security. Further, human security’s epistemological foundations remain in the power-knowledge system of patriarchy. These bases of power-knowledge are implicated in the feminization of human security as a concept, as well as the feminization of insecure individuals. The paper is organized into three main sections. First, it provides an overview of how traditional national security and human security are gendered concepts. Second, it analyzes the feminization of the insecure individual to demonstrate how this political action marginalizes individual agency as it paradoxically attempts to “protect” people from insecurities. Drawing upon a case study of United States anti-trafficking efforts, it examines how pre-existing humanitarian gender motifs have influenced human security, preventing effective policy from emerging in a contemporary form. Third, it outlines how a postmodern feminist approach can create a site for, and insert individual agency into the center of socio-political scholarship.

]]> Chelsea Moore Exclusive Imaginings: Nationalism and Indigenous Women in Chile and Peru http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/6 http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/6 Mon, 01 Oct 2012 13:15:25 PDT Many theorists have contended that nationalism is based on notions of exclusion and the idea of an "other" that exists outside of the nation. Perceptions of gender and racial identity greatly contribute to the way in which the nation is imagined in Andean South America, and this paper analyzes how indigenous women have been affected by the national discourses that have formed in Chile and Peru. I argue that although there has been increasing recognition at the global level of the need to expand national ideologies to include formerly marginalized groups, indigenous women in Peru and Chile continue to be prevented from participating fully as rights- holders and citizens of the state because they are marginalized by the dominant national discourses in terms of belonging and representation. In Chile, Mapuche women are left out of imaginings of the nation not only because of their status as indigenous, but also because of their gender and socioeconomic position. Chile's neighbor to the north, Peru, has also relied upon sentiments of nationalism that maintain a strict social hierarchy and relegate indigenous women to the margins of society. Despite the fact that Peru has a larger indigenous population than does Chile, the ruling elite of Peru have constructed a national community that views Quechua women as subservient due to their indigeneity, gender, and class.

]]> Rebekah Stewart Crossing the Ocean by Feeling the Stones: Relating Chinese Engagement in Africa to China’s Development Experience http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/4 http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/4 Mon, 01 Oct 2012 13:15:23 PDT Elizabeth C. Kennedy Falling apart together: State interest and domestic political structure in the case of France, Germany, and the UK’s bargaining for financial regulation http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/5 http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/5 Mon, 01 Oct 2012 13:15:23 PDT This paper explores how three major European nation-states, France, Germany, and the UK, are negotiating financial reform in the wake of the most recent financial crisis. France, Germany, and the UK were affected differently by the 2009 financial crisis, in some ways vary- ing the degrees to which they are willing to negotiate further financial regulation. Also because of these differences financial reform resonates differently with each states’ polities. Drawing on statements by finance ministers and heads of state, as well as IMF data measuring the effects of the latest crisis on each national economy, this paper seeks to identify opportunities for consen- sus amongst the three major actors. The characteristics and outcome of negotiations by these states have the potential to greatly influence the future of financial regulation not only within the EU, but also abroad. On the other hand, promising opportunities for consensus lie in potentially negotiating within the European Union and establishing methods to reduce the costs of market failure in the financial sector.

]]> David Elam Networking for Change: The Impact of ICT on the Political Organizing of Anti-Trafficking NGOs in Contemporary India http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/2 http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/2 Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:12:00 PDT This research explores how information and communication, technology (ICT) has enabled relatively resource poor actors and individuals to organize in ways that subvert traditional institutions of civil society. Through an analysis of the anti-trafficking strategies being implemented by three Indian NGOs—Apne Aap, Sanlaap, and the Durbar Mahila Samanwaya Committee (DMSC)—I suggest that formation of technology-enabled social networks (through the Internet, electronic networking, advocacy, and communication) force us to rethink the conventional socio-political hierarchy. This has supplanted traditional civil society and allowed for the emergence of NGOs as more visible, central, and globalised political actors while simultaneously bringing the disenfranchised groups they represent into both informal and formal political conversations. I examine how mechanisms utilized by the aforementioned anti- trafficking NGOs, including discussion forums, social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, and electronic forms of protest and testimony, rather than serving as tools of mediation traditionally used by civil society, can serve as tools of direct engagement and political demand.

]]> Sarah Amri The Challenges of Consent: Policy Recommendations for Maintaining Host State Consent for United Nations Peacekeeping Missions http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/1 http://scholar.oxy.edu/dwa_student/1 Sun, 14 Aug 2011 22:20:06 PDT The United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) has begun to face increasingly serious challenges to its missions in the form of withdrawn host state consent. As these situations bring to light the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of the UN’s peacekeeping structure, it has become apparent that the Department must enact changes in its policies in order to prevent withdrawal of host state consent in future missions.

Host state challenges to consent not only threaten the lives of UN peacekeepers and jeopardize the investment that Member States have chosen to make in the host state, but they also fundamentally endanger the legitimacy of United Nations peacekeeping as a security tool of the international community; without host state consent, UN missions would be engaging in peace enforcement rather than peacekeeping. This policy brief sets out the primary challenges faced in acquiring and maintaining host state consent. It is essential that the following issues be addressed by DPKO policies in order to avoid crises of consent in United Nations peacekeeping missions:

  • • The failure to translate states’ official agreements into action on the ground due to a disconnect between the UN’s operational and strategic levels of interaction with the host state government;
  • • A decrease in UN influence over the host country government as the peacekeeping operation (PKO) progresses in its mandate;
  • • The sacrifice of key aspects of UN PKOs in order to acquire consent in instances of humanitarian necessity; and
  • • The political nature of the mission’s interaction with the host state government and the subordinate position of the PKO to the host state in consent-based peacekeeping.

The above-stated obstacles are exhibited in three recent consent-based crises in the Sudan, Chad, and Eritrea. With these case studies in mind, this brief outlines the following policy recommendations that would strengthen DPKO’s capabilities for maintaining host state consent:

  • • Explicitly stated incentives for host states’ cooperation and consent;
  • • Supportive diplomatic structures to maintain the engagement and coordination of relevant actors and provide a unified front from which to demand continued consent; and
  • • Detailed, realistic contingency planning for situations where consent-based issues are likely to occur.

The United Nations and its Member States have an interest in ensuring that peacekeeping operations are not placed at the mercy of host state governments. As such DPKO must work towards ensuring that it has a range of strategies for situations where the withdrawal of host state consent is an obstacle to the successful continuation of a peacekeeping mission.

]]> Kristin Beck