Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2020, International and Comparative Politics

This research develops a novel theory for domestic diversionary violence, contending that the main drivers for this type of conflict are the specific characteristics of state-targeted domestic minority groups. Seven new variables measuring minority group characteristics are identified through a case study of the Kurdish minority in the Turkish Republic, then applied to a quantitative analysis of domestic diversionary violence in a dataset of 284 observations across 117 countries during the years 2004-2005, utilizing data from the University of Maryland's Minorities at Risk Project, the University of Illinois Cline Center SPEED Database, and World Bank. A proportional odds logistic regression model shows that the minority group's recent grievances with the base population and its geographic concentration have statistically significant positive correlations to the likelihood of targeting for diversionary violence, while the protest level of the minority group achieves a statistically significant negative correlation.

Committee: Liam Anderson Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Vaughn Shannon Ph.D. (Committee Member); Carlos Costa Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: International Relations; Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2019, History

United States foreign policies on Iran and Iraq, during the later Cold War period, led to devastating consequences to Iraqi Kurdish aspirations for autonomy and a separate nation-state. By employing the Shah of Iran as one pillar of America's proxy in the Persian Gulf, and after the Iranian Revolution, to then begin collaborating with Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War, U.S. policies marginalized and negatively impacted Iraqi Kurds' goal of independence.

Committee: Awad Halabi Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Jonathan R. Winkler Ph.D. (Committee Member); Liam Anderson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2016, History

My dissertation is a world history project that offers an historical perspective for understanding the existence and meaning of honor crimes. I focus on the history of honor-related violence in Turkey, which I contend can only be understood within the international context of twentieth-century modernization, state-formation, and nationalist projects. The Turkish nationalist state initiated an intensive process of modernization beginning in the late 1920s and lasting through the majority of the 20th century. My project examines the impact the nationalist modernization project had on the culture of honor and the existence of honor-related gendered violence, and argues against the ahistorical portrayal of Middle Eastern societies as “backward” bastions of patriarchy. Instead, I propose that honor-related violence has a very specific, yet complex recent history that has as much to do with “modernization” as it does with tradition. Although my project focuses on Turkey, I include a case study of honor crimes as discussed in Brazilian legal codes that were created or preserved by nationalist “modernizing” regimes. This study offers a nuanced historical explanation, on the one hand, of the ways in which the culture of honor and the nationalist state overlapped and often supported one another, and on the other hand, of how nationalist modernizing projects created the environments in which honor crimes tended to proliferate, such as during periods of civil war and in communities that are marginalized due to institutionalized racial, gendered, and ethno-nationalist discrimination.

Committee: Janet Klein Dr. (Advisor); Tracey Jean Boisseau Dr. (Committee Member); Martha Santos Dr. (Committee Member); Richard Steigmann-Gall Dr. (Committee Member); Maria Alejandra Zanetta Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Comparative; Gender Studies; History; Latin American History; Latin American Studies; Middle Eastern History; Middle Eastern Studies; World History

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2008, Arts and Sciences : Political Science

This dissertation explores the links between modernization and nationalism, and the question of why economic, political and socio-cultural processes of modernization have not led to the elimination of separatist nationalist movements. It tests hypotheses concerning modernization and nationalism on two prominent cases: the Scottish and Kurdish separatist movements in the United Kingdom and Turkey. Analyzing the relationship between economic modernization and nationalism, the economic modernization account is supported in both the Scottish and Kurdish cases for the period until the 1960s. However, it is discredited and found reductionist in the latter part of the twentieth century. Analyzing arguments that political modernization reduces separatist nationalism, this study found support for the political modernist account in both cases until the 1960s. However, the political modernist accounts failed to give a satisfactory picture of why Scottish and Kurdish nationalisms took a separatist turn since the 1960s. Finally, analyzing the socio-cultural links between modernization and nationalism, this project finds that these socio-cultural arguments are supported in the period prior to the 1960s in both cases. Although a significant causality between socio-cultural factors and nationalism could not established for the period after 1960, this study concludes that socio-cultural modernization tends to create conflict rather than reconcile differences in the period since the 1960s. In light of these findings, this study criticizes modernist accounts. It suggests that, along the lines of ethno-symbolist perspective, while nationalism is modern, it is constructed around a particular ethnic tradition that modern nations have to be explained and “contextualized” with reference to their ethnic forbearers. Accordingly, the following suggestions are made: first, nationalism should be examined in a larger time span, which will cover pre- modern attachments. Second, notions such as re (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dr. Joel Wolfe (Committee Chair); Dr. Laura Jenkins (Committee Member); Dr. Dinshaw Mistry (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2004, Interdisciplinary Programs

This dissertation studies the observance of the solar new year marked by the spring equinox in Turkey. It looks at two contested versions of this celebration and their cultural and political effects in the Turkish political scene. Through a comparison of the developments of the solar new year celebrations, this dissertation seeks to identify and analyze the relationship between the sphere of culture – specifically, traditional culture - and the political decision-making processes. This study may best be described as the mapping of a specific domain of culture that also seeks to analyze political ramifications. Using this approach, performance is viewed as crucial to the process of identity creation and collective communication. The consciously repeated modes of behaviors stand as testament to the cultural outcome of the constructed power relations and provide multi-layered frames in which various readings of reality are possible. This research proposes that by studying the difference between actual and ideal, we would be able to create a new series of lenses to observe the deeper layers of socio-political reality. In this sense, this is primarily a work seeking a deeper understanding of the cultural operations that correspond to the political sphere. By highlighting the impacts of folklore on the political process, this work participates in a long overdue search for fresh and alternative approaches to studying insufficiently-represented issues. This project claims that under specific circumstances, ethnography appears as an innovative tool and methodology for opening up inquiry and enriching other methodologies. Thus, this work explores the application of an already well-developed political ethnography in this type of research, and provides an argument that the method not only provides cross-cultural readings of the political, but also suggests grounds on which to assess existing scholarship.

Committee: Margaret Mills (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2010, History (Arts and Sciences)

Selling the Gulf War required the George H. W. Bush administration to depart from its ineffective approach to public communications. The American people initially supported the President‘s response to the invasion of Kuwait, but over time the administration‘s inconsistent arguments caused the case for intervention to be increasingly called into question. By late November the administration perceived a looming crisis in support and moved to solidify domestic approval. Public opinion research informed them that the memory of the Vietnam War was the greatest threat to public support of an American war in the Persian Gulf. Consequently the administration simplified the justifications for war and argued that challenging Saddam Hussein was a moral imperative. After an initial swell of support in the aftermath of victory, the administration became less able to publically justify the war and unable to use it for political ends. The cultural and political consequences of the administration‘s decisions contributed to Bush‘s defeat in the 1992 presidential election.

Committee: Chester Pach (Advisor); Chester Pach (Committee Chair); Paul Milazzo (Committee Member); John Brobst (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History; International Relations