Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2015, Political Science

How can the power of religion be used for political ends? In this project, I explore how US presidential use of divine election cues activates the otherwise latent power of religion to mobilize greater foreign policy support in domestic audiences. Combining insights from religious studies, presidential communication studies, and political science, I argue that presidents' use of religious rhetorics are foreign policy cues that shape how publics understand and construct attitudes about foreign policy. However not all types of religious rhetorics are effective foreign policy cues. I focus on divine election rhetoric that claims God is on America's side, God has uniquely blessed America to be His agent in the world, and America has a religious obligation to bring about God's will in the world. When presidents use these types of divine election cues, they increase the geostrategic salience of the crisis and expectations of success. These framing effects then produce mobilization effects and higher public support for the president's foreign policy agenda. Divine election cues use religious framing and are thus more effective among religious Americans. Since there are religious Americans across the partisan spectrum, I expect the use of divine election cues can mobilize both co-partisans from the President's party and contra-partisans otherwise opposed to the President. Using an original dataset on presidential religious rhetoric and an original compilation of all foreign policy polls fielded during US foreign policy crises from 1946 to 2006, I find robust historical evidence that presidential use of divine election cues do mobilize co-partisans and contra-partisans. These findings are corroborated by a survey experiment that identify the framing effects of the divine election mechanism and further evidence of the co-partisan and contra-partisan mobilization effects of divine election cues. Finally, I conclude by discussing how my empirical findings can inform a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Christopher Gelpi (Committee Chair); Bear Braumoeller (Committee Member); Paul Djupe (Committee Member); William Minozzi (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Political Science

Despite the persistence of change within the international system, academic work meant to inform policymakers frequently presupposes that coercive policies have constant effects over time. Absent from most debates is the awareness that causal relationships vary in response to changes in context and in the actors themselves. The possibility that causal relationships change over time poses a vexing problem for policymakers: policies that initially appear to be ineffective may be prematurely discarded while policies that have an immediate but quickly ebbing effect on an outcome of interest may be erroneously repeated. To systematize the study of change, I identify three novel mechanisms to predict the conditions under which causal relationships will vary over time. These mechanisms include the obsolescence of information revealed from costly signals, perceptual changes due to behavioral tendencies such as habituation and hedonic adaptation, and circumvention strategies that actors employ to mitigate the effects of coercive policies. To measure how the effect of coercive policies change over time, I conduct two large-n empirical analyses that assess how the effect of bombing on local territorial control during the Vietnam War and the effect of interstate border fences on the frequency of terrorist attacks and the volume of trade flows, changed over time. Bombing worked immediately to reduce territorial control, but that effectiveness attenuated quickly. Moreover, the results suggest that North Vietnamese insurgents moved into the areas surrounding hamlets to avoid U.S. bombing campaigns. Similarly, boarder fences temporarily reduce trade flows, but simultaneously increase trade volumes via alternate routes. Likewise, there is no clear relationship between the creation of fences and the frequency of terrorist attacks, though, a case study of Israeli counter-terrorist policies demonstrates that the creation of a fence was instrumental to Palestinian's decision to b (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Christopher Gelpi PhD (Committee Co-Chair); William Minozzi PhD (Committee Co-Chair); Bear Braumoeller PhD (Committee Member); Randall Schweller PhD (Committee Member); Alexander Wendt PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: International Relations; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, American Culture Studies

This dissertation explores the role of democracy promotion in US foreign intervention with a particular focus on the weaponization of media and civil society by two important US democracy promotion institutions, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and US Agency for International Development (USAID). Focusing on these two institutions and building on scholarship that takes a critical Gramscian Marxist perspective on US democracy promotion, this study brings media imperialism and deep political scholarship into the conversation. Delimiting the study to focus on US activities, I trace historical patterns of intellectual warfare and exceptional states of violence and lawlessness pursued by the US government in case studies of foreign intervention in which democracy promotion has played an important part since 1983. I survey the evolution of elite US Cold War conceptions of managed democracy as well as transformations of covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) media and civil society operations into institutionalized, pseudo-overt US democracy promotion that became a foundational pretext and method for US interventionism post-Cold War. Case studies include the Contra War in 1980s Nicaragua, Operation Cyclone in 1980s Afghanistan, the 2000 overthrow of Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic, the 2002 military coup against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the 2004 coup against Haitian president Bertrand Aristide, and the 2014 Euromaidan Coup against Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. I dedicate the penultimate chapter to US-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011, demonstrating how USAID provided instrumental monetary, media, and civil society support to primarily sectarian, theocratic, Salafi rebels against the Ba'athist government. Throughout the dissertation, I argue that the NED and USAID represent important engines of intellectual warfare in US foreign intervention, mobilizing communications and organizational resources to reinf (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Cynthia Baron Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Oliver Boyd-Barrett Ph.D. (Committee Member); Radhika Gajjala Ph.D. (Committee Member); Alexis Ostrowski Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: American History; American Studies; East European Studies; History; International Relations; Journalism; Latin American History; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Middle Eastern History; Military History; Military Studies; Modern History; Peace Studies; Political Science; Public Policy; Regional Studies; World History

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2018, International and Comparative Politics

The Asia Pacific power structure is facing numerous challenges. Scholarship demonstrates Japan has encountered arduous obstacles as it balances Chinese and North Korean activity. As Japan attempts to expand its military capabilities, polling data shows that defense policy has conflicted with Japan's citizens and neighboring countries. The focal point of these contentions is Article 9 of the Japanese constitution which restrains the Japanese military to self-defense purposes. Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has vowed to revise Article 9 by 2020. However, revising Article 9 is no simple task. Research demonstrates that for decades Japanese public opinion has been opposed to the revision of Article 9. This research examines trends in Japanese public opinion and its influence over Japanese defense policy. The research additionally suggests possible outcomes of the public referendum required before revising Article 9. Finally, this analysis provides implications for the Asia Pacific's security environment if Article 9 is revised.

Committee: Laura Luehrmann Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Kathryn Meyer Ph.D. (Committee Member); December Green Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Armed Forces; Asian Studies; History; International Relations; Military History; Military Studies; Pacific Rim Studies; Political Science; Regional Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2016, History (Arts and Sciences)

This dissertation explores the involvement of the United States in Chilean politics between the presidential campaign of 1964 and Salvador Allende's accession to the presidency in 1970. The main argument of this work is that the partnership between the Christian Democratic Party of Chile (PDC) and the United States in this period played a significant role in shaping Chilean politics and thus contributed to its growing polarization. The alliance between the PDC and the United States was based as much on their common views on communism as on their shared ideas about modernization and economic development. Furthermore, the U.S. Embassy in Santiago, headed by men strongly committed to the success of the Christian Democratic project, involved itself heavily in the inner workings of Chilean politics as an informal actor, unable to dictate terms but capable of exerting influence on local actors whose interests converged with those of the United States. By the end of the Frei administration, partly as a result of the close relationship between the PDC and the United States, the Chilean political spectrum had become highly polarized. The victory of Marxist leader Salvador Allende in the presidential election of 1970 caused strong reactions in Chile and abroad, including a failed putsch sponsored by the CIA and unconsummated attempts by President Eduardo Frei to provoke a coup before Allende's official election as president by the Congress. The events surrounding the presidential election of 1970 furthered the process of polarization that took over Chile since the end of the 1960s and foretold the story of the erosion and destruction of Chilean democracy that unfolded between 1970 and 1973.

Committee: Patrick Barr-Melej Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: History; International Relations; Latin American History

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2015, East Asian Languages and Literatures

In the wake of Goudao, the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands Dispute sparked a series of protests in both China and Japan during the summer of 2012, followed by many maritime skirmishes and even threats of war breaking out between China and Japan. While this sovereignty dispute is primarily between China and Japan, due the Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security between the United States and Japan, the US finds itself in a difficult position caught between its security ally it must defend per treaty stipulations (Japan) and one of its greatest economic partners (China). This U.S. policy on the US-Japan Security Alliance impacts Sino-U.S. relations in a variety of ways and will continue to affect the Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands dispute. Understanding this security relationship and its impact on US China relations can help both Chinese and US policy makers make better policy choices. The author surveyed Chinese students at Peking University to understand current Chinese opinions regarding how US-China bilateral relations have been affected by the US-Japan Security Alliance in the wake of Goudao and the 2012 escalation of the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands dispute. While students in general felt that US-Japan Security Relations and Obama's Pivot to Asia Strategy both negatively impacted US-China relations, Chinese students were nevertheless hopeful about the future of US-China relations. In response to the survey results, the author also poses several policy alternatives, such as improving people-to-people interactions, improving media perceptions and biases, as well as using economic organizations as a foundation for communication and mutually beneficial economic cooperation.

Committee: Galal Walker (Advisor); Xiaobin Jian (Committee Member) Subjects: Asian Studies

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2015, History (Arts and Sciences)

In January 1959 Fidel Castro took power in Cuba and soon proved to be a perplexing opponent for the United States. The island nation did not have to commit soldiers or weaponry to advance its revolutionary agenda in Latin America. The ideas and romanticism associated with the Cuban Revolution were enough to foster anti-U.S. and pro-Cuban sentiment in the region. Historian Thomas Wright wrote that the Cuban Revolution “embodied the aspirations and captured the imagination of Latin America's masses as no other political movement had ever done.” Castro declared during the “Second Declaration of Havana” in 1962 that “it is the duty of every revolutionary to make the revolution. In America and the world, it is known that the revolution will be victorious, but it is improper revolutionary behavior to sit at one's doorstep waiting for the corpse of imperialism to pass by.” For U.S. policymakers, confronting Castro and his revolutionary agenda became a top priority during the 1960s. Adolf Berle, a veteran U.S. foreign policymaker with experience dating back to the Franklin Roosevelt administration, headed John Kennedy's task force on Latin America and offered the president counsel on how best to confront the growing unrest in the region. While Berle noted the positive effects that a focus on democracy, economic development, and social reform could have, he also called on the administration to launch a “psychological offensive.” In an attempt to co-opt the energies of the Cuban revolution and impede Fidel Castro's influence in Latin America, the United States waged an extensive public diplomacy campaign against the revolutionary fervor emanating from Havana. This international history, based on research in the United States, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, tells the story of Washington's attempt to discredit the Cuban Revolution, while simultaneously cultivating public opinion in Latin America during the 1960s. Central to (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Chester Pach (Committee Chair); Kenneth Osgood (Committee Member); Patrick Barr-Melej (Committee Member); Kevin Mattson (Committee Member); Brad Jokisch (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History; International Relations; Latin American History

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2014, International and Comparative Politics

This study assesses the impact of changing narratives on public opinion toward the Palestine-Israel conflict. In contrast to other U.S.-Israel relations studies, but in accordance with some media influence and public opinion research, this study emphasizes the potential role of American public opinion in shaping U.S.-Israel relations. Furthermore, this study attempts to attribute the pro-Israel American attitude shown in Gallup polls to the lack of information about the Palestine-Israel conflict in American mainstream media. This study tests whether public opinion will shift after being exposed to different narratives that falls under one of three major perceptions reported in the current rhetoric regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict: 1) Israelis are the victims of Palestinian aggression 2) Israel is a geo-strategic ally of the U.S. in a hostile region, 3) Israel, like the United States, is a liberal democracy. This research includes three primary source surveys to test the impact of biased narratives and unconventional information about Palestine and Israel on public opinion toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Committee: Vaughn Shannon Ph.D. (Committee Chair); R. William Ayers Ph.D. (Committee Member); Karen Lahm Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; International Relations; Middle Eastern Studies; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2013, Political Science

This research contributes to the current scholarship regarding the influence of domestic interest groups on United States (U.S.) foreign trade policy and it is unique in that it specifically considers the likelihood for approval of protectionist trade policy by an executive administration. It investigates this question: What is the relationship of influence between domestic interest groups and presidential trade policy protection? Research that considers this research question may have important policy implications in that it allows scholars, citizens, and state officials to better understand how interest groups influence foreign trade policy. Specifically, one may find the following contributions from this work: scrutiny of the relationship between interest groups and presidential foreign trade policy output, unique interest group operationalization, specific case study analysis of the Bush Administration's aberrant favor toward protectionist trade policy during the World Trade Organization (WTO) Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) case of United States--Countervailing duty measures concerning certain products from the European Communities (WT/DS212)_2002, and insight into the influence of interest groups of various kinds as I apply my theory in a time series analysis of administrations from 1964-1992 in order to observe the accuracy of my theory across time and when considering various administrations and industries of trade.

Committee: John Rothgeb Jr. (Advisor); Augustus Jones (Committee Member); Abdoulaye Saine (Committee Member); Andrew Cayton (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2002, Political Science

“China threat” has been one of hotly debated topics since the early 1990s. But there have been very few systematic attempts to test the relevant propositions in this debate. This dissertation is an effort to test the China threat thesis. The author argues that a test of the China threat thesis requires addressing two fundamental questions: whether China has the capabilities to challenge the international system and whether China has the motivations to do so. As there has been an abundance of scholarly works focusing on the subject of China's capabilities, and hardly any systematic efforts to address the subject of China's motivations, this dissertation will offer a systematic study of China's motivations, i.e. to see whether China is a status quo or a revisionist country. For this purpose, this dissertation resorts to an image approach. The author argues that the formulation of a state's foreign policy is affected basically by two considerations: the national interest involved in bilateral relations and key characters of a target state. Consequently, image study as an approach to study a state's foreign policy should include these two parts. In terms of the interests involved in the bilateral relations, this project will explore the Chinese perception of threat from the US, namely how interactions with the US are perceived as harming China's national interests, the Chinese perception of opportunity from the US, namely how relations with the US are perceived as serving China's national interests, and the Chinese perception of American power/capabilities, namely how Chinese perceive the US as superior, similar, or inferior to China and other countries in various major dimensions of national power. In terms of key characters of the US, this project will explore China's perceptions of American politics and economy. In doing so, the author will try not only to update the description in the existing literature, which usually focus on the Chinese perceptions before and aro (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Herrmann (Advisor) Subjects:

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2007, Political Science (Arts and Sciences)

I describe a change in Indian public images of the United States. Using Indian newspaper editorials as my medium, I perform a qualitative analysis of Indian popular discourse on the United States.I hypothesize that changes in Indian foreign policy towards the United States occurred due more to changes in hegemonic ideas in Indian society than any changes in the international distribution of capabilities or regional balance of power concerns.I problematize the existing arguments within their own logic and then describe a constructivist account of this Realist international system.

Committee: Maria Fanis (Advisor) Subjects:

BA, Oberlin College, 2010, Politics

The arguments presented in this paper attempt to fill particular gaps in the scholarly knowledge of the transnational solidarity movement for Palestine. Chapter One is a descriptive history of transnational solidarity for the Palestinians since the beginning of the second intifada (fall 2000). The next chapter puts the US based component of the Palestine solidarity movement in a comparison with recent US solidarity movements for East Timor and Central America. Chapter Three connects the subjective transnational framing tactics of the movement to the objective, structural conditions of the international system. Chapter Four extends the analysis in Chapter Three by examining the role of new media such as viral videos and low-budget documentaries in the construction of the solidarity movement.

Committee: Stephen Crowley (Advisor); Benjamin Schiff (Other) Subjects: Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2013, Political Science

Why do some leaders and publics display remarkable persistence in war, while others "cut and run" at the first sign of trouble? Why did the French remain in the First World War despite having suffered nearly a third of a million soldiers killed, missing, or wounded in the Battle of Verdun alone, while the United States immediately halted its military operations in Somalia after 18 of its soldiers were killed during the Battle of Mogadishu? Although resolve is one of the most frequently used independent variables in International Relations, used to explain everything from developments on the battlefield to deliberations at the bargaining table to decisions at the ballot box, we have very little sense of why some actors are more resolved than others. I argue that resolve is an interaction between situational stakes and dispositional traits; by pointing to a series of dispositional characteristics frequently studied in a growing body of research on willpower in behavioral economics and social psychology (time and risk preferences, honor orientations, and trait self-control), I disaggregate the costs of war and explain why certain types of actors are more sensitive to the costs of fighting, while others are more sensitive to the costs of backing down. I test this argument at the micro-level with laboratory and survey experiments, and at the macro-level with Boolean statistical analyses of great power military interventions from 1946-2003. The macro-level analyses suggest that resolve indeed boosts the probability of victory, finding evidence in favor of country-level situational and leader-level dispositional sources of resolve.

Committee: Richard Herrmann (Committee Chair); Bear Braumoeller (Committee Member); Kathleen McGraw (Committee Member); Christopher Gelpi (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2012, International and Comparative Politics

The literature on anti-Americanism in the Middle East suggests that there is a strong relationship between US foreign policy and public attitudes of the United States in the region. This study analyzes Middle Eastern public opinion of the United States from 2002 until 2011, while using quantitative and qualitative analysis to determine whether US foreign policy in the Middle East correlates with approval levels of the United States. The purpose of this study was to determine if US foreign policy measures such as US support for oppressive regimes, US support for Israel, and US intervention in domestic affairs affects the way in which the average Middle Eastern publics view the United States. This study finds that there were quantitative and qualitative correlations between the three independent variables and anti-Americanism levels in the Middle East with the largest drop in approval of the US coming in 2003 after the US invasion of Iraq. The case of Lebanon's Cedar Revolution also shows an effective policy that can be applied to the regime changes caused by the “Arab Spring”.

Committee: Vaughn Shannon Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Donna Schlagheck Ph.D. (Committee Member); Awad Halabi Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: International Relations; Middle Eastern Studies