Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Political Science

Liberalism has traditionally been suspicious of considering the concept of care as a political principle fit for the public realm. Against this current, I propose a Liberalism with Care (LWC) where liberalism and care ethics lie in a complementary relationship. A liberalism that ignores the place of care in political life falls victim to two immanent critiques, of liberal subjectivity and liberal understanding. I argue that liberalism can best respond to these critiques by incorporating a principle of care which is a synthesis of care ethics and Dewey's affective epistemology. To locate a latent commitment to care in the liberal canon, I present a novel reading of John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism and his collected works where I argue that a commitment to the cultivation of caring characters is a linchpin of his liberal utilitarianism. Mill's caring liberal utilitarianism also reveals the dangers of scaling up care to the public realm, and I consider reasons for why contemporary liberalism would rather prefer the concept of civic friendship than care as a political principle. I conclude that LWC dispels these concerns and better addresses the problems of liberalism than liberal skeptics often assume. Finally, I consider how our understanding of intersubjective boundaries can be reimagined into a caring view of boundaries. Considering two political events, one in South Korea and one in Nevada, I argue that the caring view of boundaries helps us avoid the unsatisfying features of existing accounts.

Committee: Eric MacGilvray (Advisor); Benjamin McKean (Committee Member); Michael Neblo (Committee Member) Subjects: Epistemology; Ethics; Philosophy; Political Science; Sociology; Theology

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2020, Political Science (Arts and Sciences)

The following reflects on the 2016 election victory of Donald Trump. Most mainstream media accounts and a number of qualitative, Americanist studies propose a working-class “resentment” narrative to explain Trump's popularity. In contrast, I suggest that political theology and understanding western notions of “sovereignty” are more important for making sense of Trump's popularity. In what follows, I first provide a theoretical critique of genealogies of sovereignty in order to claim that identifying and intervening in situations of suffering are acts endemic to western sovereignty. My theoretical account expands notions of political theology to encompass the affective and the corporeal in order to claim that masculinity and sovereignty are co-constitutive forces in western cultural history. Have illustrated this claim in our canonical sources of political theory, I then return to the theological context of political `theology' in order to locate the importance of suffering. Generally speaking, identifying situations of suffering, intervening within these situations, and causing situations of suffering are all sovereign acts. The popularity of Donald Trump and the unwavering support of his base comes not from a place of political ignorance or a need to irrationally resent others, but from the embodied notions of western politics that conceives of political order anchored on a masculine, sovereign individual who bears and distributes suffering

Committee: Julie White Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Judith Grant Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jonathan Agensky Ph.D. (Committee Member); Andrew Ross Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American Studies; Ancient Civilizations; Biblical Studies; Classical Studies; European Studies; Gender Studies; Philosophy; Political Science; Religion; Religious History; Theology

PHD, Kent State University, 2017, College of Communication and Information / School of Communication Studies

Contemporary political discourse is rife with accusations of shadowy forces operating in secret to accomplish nefarious goals. Such discourse has been a mainstay in U.S. politics, but little quantitative research has been done on the impact of government-related conspiracy theories in media and how people differ in their use of such fare. This dissertation situates conspiracy theories in a media effects framework, applying uses and gratifications theory to examine whether specific background characteristics (i.e., media skepticism, need for cognition, locus of control, and conservatism or liberalism) work in concert with individuals' motives for and exposure to government-conspiracy-theory-oriented media fare to impact individuals' trust in government as an attitudinal outcome and political participation as a behavioral outcome. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify four motives for choosing media fare related to government conspiracy theories: (1) social utility/relaxing recreation, (2) political evaluation, (3) pass time, and (4) general information seeking. Significant correlations were found between several background characteristics and use of government-conspiracy-theory-oriented media fare. Use of such fare also correlated with trust in federal government entities and with political participation. Additionally, hierarchical regression analysis revealed the relative contribution of individual differences, motives for conspiracy-theory-oriented media use, and exposure to such fare in predicting levels of trust in four entities of the federal government. Regression analysis also showed the relative contribution of individual differences, motives for conspiracy-theory-oriented media use, exposure to conspiracy-theory-oriented media fare, and trust in government in predicting four forms of political participation. This study affirmed the value of a comprehensive uses and gratifications model for studying the political impact of government conspi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Paul Haridakis Ph.D. (Advisor); Danielle Coombs Ph.D. (Committee Member); Janet Meyer Ph.D. (Committee Member); James Ponder Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Literacy; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2023, Political Science (Arts and Sciences)

This project aims to intervene into Nicos Poulantzas' Structural Marxist theoretical framework of the state. It brings the theoretical contributions of Black Marxist and Black feminist writers, scholars, and activists into conversation with Poulantzas in order to develop a dialectic between Black Marxism and Black feminism on the one hand, and Structural Marxism on the other. By intervening into Poulantzas' framework with the introduction of this dialectic, this project aims to begin working toward bringing the analytical categories of race and gender within the Structural Marxist framework of understanding the state while also highlighting some of the potential explanatory limitations of Poulantzas' approach. This should enhance and deepen the scope of his analysis to include an account of racial capitalism in the case of the United States in the first part of the twenty-first century while at the same time criticizing some of the limitations of his framework.

Committee: Judith Grant (Committee Chair); Andrew Ross (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender Studies; Political Science

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2022, Political Science

In 1967, Guy Debord, the founder of the Situationist International, released his seminal work The Society of the Spectacle, a culminating theoretical critique of the social relations that emerged under capitalism in mid-twentieth century mass consumerism. In locating the origins of spectacle in a Marxist-Hegelian construction of Subject-Object orientations under capitalism, this thesis first looks to bring to light Debord's more sweeping critique that historical agency had been lost in favor of a more “contemplative” and passive spectatorship of images, underpinning the fabric of our social relationships. Beyond highlighting this critique, this thesis will attempt to trace spectacle as a constantly evolving feature of everyday life and articulate its continuing presence in social relationships. Considering how Situationists looked to the concept of play and the collapse of art into everyday life, this thesis will also attempt to articulate the continuing spatial and aesthetic potentials of Situationist practices of detournement and derive as subversive of spectacular logics of contemporary social relations and media landscapes.

Committee: Judith Grant (Advisor) Subjects: Art History; Mass Media; Political Science

Master of Arts in Professional Communication, Youngstown State University, 2021, Department of Communicaton

This qualitative study examined political communication between marital partners through the perspectives of both male and female heterosexual spouses and whether political discussion and political persuasion was impacted by respondent gender roles. The study collected data from 21 adult participants who identified as heterosexual, married, and cisgender female or male. The study's research questions explored the respective roles of both spouses in political discussion and political persuasion, in addition to exploring factors that prompt political communication between spouses. I collected data to analyze and respond to the study's research questions through online questionnaires shared on social media. Theory-driven qualitative content analysis was used to create a coding system of concepts from three theories: social judgement theory, relational framing theory, and dyadic power theory. Study findings indicate that male and female participants identified similarities and differences regarding how they perceived their own roles and roles of their spouses in both political discussions and political persuasion, and that the primary factor that prompts political communication between spouses is “news.” This study contributes to a gap in communication literature regarding the role of persuasive political communication in heterosexual spousal relationships and provides opportunities for researchers to better understand each heterosexual spouse's perspective regarding political communication.

Committee: Adam Earnheardt PhD (Advisor); Thomas Flynn PhD (Committee Member); Bruce Keillor PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Gender; Personal Relationships; Political Science

PHD, Kent State University, 2021, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

COVID, coupled with a flurry of black deaths at the hands of policemen, has spawned a new era of social movements. As online environments have multiplied, so have people's options for civic engagement. As a result, the field of writing studies and rhetoric is full of new research that questions what a social movement is and what it can do. However, it has yielded little empirical data that details the behind-the-scenes activity of a social movement organization. How can we understand what constitutes a social movement today if we rely only on what we see happening in the streets or on the internet? Such a front stage view only allows us access to the final product of activism, and thus, obscures the complex circumstances that catalyze and shape civic engagement. This research is an attempt to understand such circumstances, especially those related to writing as a tool to gain a more powerful position within a social movement network. In addition to there being little empirical research on social movements within writing studies and social movement rhetoric, there is a scarce body of literature that addresses how conservative social movements work. For many, the election of Donald Trump on the heels of our first black president has revealed surprising facts about our culture as fears about immigration, gun control, and abortion have been inflamed. Political debates about race, climate change, voter suppression, and reproductive rights restrictions make the study of conservative rhetorical tools even more critical. Using one prominent pro-life lobbying and social movement organization as my specifying site, this dissertation study aims to understand what motivates, influences, and facilitates a social movement. What entanglement of ideology, circumstances, and personal attachments exist within an activist organization, and how do these factors influence the language and delivery methods of such defining documents as mission statements, donor letters, legislation, a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Derek Van Ittersum (Committee Chair); Sara Newman (Committee Member); Pamela Takayoshi (Committee Member); Daniel Skinner (Committee Member) Subjects: Organization Theory; Rhetoric; Social Research

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Political Science

This dissertation responds to the global ecological crisis of climate change, showing how the temporal and spatial dimensions of the crisis challenge our capacities to imagine and implement effective political solutions. Rather than being natural limits, I argue these dimensions of the crisis are inherently social and political, derived from contradictions and antagonisms of the global capitalist nation-state system. I thus take a critical approach to ecology and politics, in the tradition of Marxist political ecology. I read Antonio Gramsci's political theories of hegemony and the integral state through an ecological framework that foregrounds the distinct roles that human labor, capital, and the state system play in organizing social and environmental relations. I develop an original conception of hegemony as a fundamentally ecological process that constitutes the reproduction of human relations within nature, which I use to analyze the politics of climate governance and climate justice. Grounded in textual analysis and fieldwork observations of state and civil society relations within the UNFCCC, I show that struggles for hegemony among competing coalitions of state and non-state actors have shaped the institutional frameworks and political commitments of the Paris climate regime complex. I demonstrate how climate governance reproduces capitalist political relations predicated on formal separation of `state' and `civil society,' and the endless accumulation of capital, thereby serving to reproduce, rather than resolve, the contradictions of the crisis. I then center my focus on the global movement of movements for climate justice. Using textual analysis and qualitative fieldwork conducted as a critically-situated, participant-observer of the climate justice movement at various sites, including the COP22 and COP23 climate negotiations, I show how the climate justice movement constitutes itself as a distinctly anti-systemic and ecological historical bloc in world p (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alexander Wendt (Committee Co-Chair); Joel Wainwright (Committee Co-Chair); Jason Moore (Committee Member); Alexander Thompson (Committee Member); Inés Valdez (Committee Member) Subjects: Environmental Studies; Geography; International Relations; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2016, Theology

This dissertation examines the social magisterium of Pope Leo XIII as it is developed in the aftermath of the French Revolution and during the nationalizing process of the liberal Italian state. The thesis of the dissertation is that Leo XIII provides Catholic social teaching with a proper vision of human relationship as a mode of analogical participation in the Lord's goodness. In his own historical context, Leo's analogical vision of social relations is developed in tension with the nation-state's proposal of political citizenship as the social relation that relativizes every other relation – most especially one's ecclesial relation. In our own context, Leo's analogical vision of social relations stands in tension with the late-modern proposal of consumerism as the social reality that relativizes every other relation – including one's matrimonial, familial, social, and ecclesial relations.

Committee: Kelly Johnson Ph.D. (Advisor); Russell Hittinger Ph.D. (Committee Member); William Portier Ph.D. (Committee Member); Jana Bennett Ph.D. (Committee Member); Michael Carter Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Philosophy; Religious History; Social Structure; Theology

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2010, Sociology

Sociological and feminist studies concerning women's social movement activism are well studied; however, the intersecting effects of identity and opportunity are often treated as completely separate variables for consideration. Here, I am looking both at identity and opportunity—examining the inter-connectedness of both. Additionally, this study incorporates the activism and identity of transgender women into the analysis. Traditionally, studies of women's movements have only considered cisgendered women as participants; however, this study challenges cisgendered bias in examining women's organizations and includes transgender women in the analysis. Whereas the dominant social movement theory, political process theory (PPT) is criticized for underestimating the role of identity and culture in the sustainability and success of social movement organizations (SMOs), my study analyzes how these aspects are integral to an overall understanding of women's social movement activism.

Committee: Dwight Haase PhD (Committee Chair); Rubin Patterson PhD (Committee Member); Mark Sherry PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Latin American History; Sociology; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2008, Sociology

This thesis is a critical examination of U.S. foreign intervention from 1948 to 2008. Using a comparative/historical analysis of seven cases – Iran, Guatemala, Indonesia, Chile, Nicaragua, Panama, and Iraq – this study finds patterns of U.S. state/state-sponsored terror and intervention. Using world-system theory and G. William Domhoff's class-domination theory of power, this study explains how and why the U.S. government, the U.S. military, the CIA, and U.S. corporations participate in economically motivated terrorist acts to support the capitalist mode of production, U.S. investments, and access to markets and natural resources. Finally, this study reveals patterns (in addition to the use of terror) that the U.S. government follows while intervening in the affairs of foreign nations.

Committee: Elias Nigem (Committee Chair); Dwight Haase (Committee Member); Marietta Morrissey (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Economics; European History; History; International Law; International Relations; Labor Economics; Latin American History; Middle Eastern History; Military History; Petroleum Production; Political Science; Social Research; Social Structure; Sociology

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2008, Political Science (Arts and Sciences)

Using post-structuralist psychonanalytic theory and ludology theory, this analysis looks at the game World of Warcraft (Warcraft). It asserts that Warcrafts relationship to its players resembles society's connection to the individual: they both give a framework of myths, of unreality, from which the individual defines him/herself. Defining oneself from a constructed reality results understanding of self and others in terms of a constructed identity. This arouses a desire for a unified sense of self, a way to connect back to the real. However, this desire can turn into pathology, where players try to ascribe meaning onto others in a possessive and degrading manner. In their attempts to reconcile their disconnectedness, anxiety and melancholy, they can choose to avoid this pathology. Games can inscribe myths on players, but players can resist this through creative use of meaning, creating identity from the self rather than as myths dictate, and avoiding power relationships created from constructed identity.

Committee: Judith Grant (Advisor); Michelle Frasher-Rae (Committee Member); Mia Consalvo (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2024, Social Welfare

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients experiencing intimate partner violence (IPV) typically have adverse outcomes when they exit TANF. Much of the literature focused on the role of traditional forms of IPV; however, several studies found work interference to be a serious issue. The role of economic violence in the lives of TANF recipients is understudied. A second understudied aspect of IPV and TANF is the state's role. Some studies have charged the state with contributing to the economic uncertainty of TANF recipients with a history of IPV. The relationship between IPV and TANF was explored in this dissertation by examining (1) the theoretical and empirical literature on IPV's impact on TANF exits, (2) how economic abuse impacts TANF exits and caseworker and overall satisfaction as barriers that impact TANF exits, and (3) how TANF recipients with a history of IPV understand their relationship with the state and its actors. The major findings of the integrated review were the overwhelming lack of guiding theoretical frameworks among the research studies (61.0%), the lack of economic abuse within studies of IPV (5.0%), and the relationship between IPV and TANF exits remains ambiguous with 66.7% of the included studies alluded to a relationship, but only 16.7% of these studies asserting a significant relationship. Among the online survey findings, this study also finds a lack of a significant relationship between economic abuse and unintended TANF exits or the role of caseworker satisfaction in unintended TANF exits, but this was also not significant. The qualitative study highlighted the lived experience of former TANF recipients, noting the challenges of disclosing IPV to caseworkers, difficulty in delineating the role of the caseworker from the role of the state, consequences of punitive measures and bureaucratic violence on survivors of IPV exiting TANF. Findings from research on IPV and TANF can inform practice and policy, including recom (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Megan Holmes (Committee Chair); Peter Hovmand (Committee Member); Francisca Garcia-Cobian Richter (Committee Member); David Crampton (Committee Member) Subjects: Social Work; Welfare

MA, Kent State University, 2023, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Sociology and Criminology

Over the last two decades, there has been rapid growth of social media platforms both in availability and complexity. There is ample evidence in literature about the negative implications of social media exposure in emerging adults but there is a gap in literature about any potentially positive impacts social media exposure may have on this population of users. This paper will explore the potential for any positive impacts in the use of Facebook and increased amounts of political and civic engagement in users between 18 and 29 years of age. Using a secondary dataset of cross-sectional data (n = 1,228) collected in 2013 collected to better understand how young adults use social media to engage in community and politics, an OLS regression model will be used to test the following hypothesis: Increased time spent on Facebook is associated with increased political and civic engagement; increased number of friends on Facebook is associated with an increase in political and civic engagement; and, the more the user learns about politics on Facebook is associated with higher levels of political and civic engagement.

Committee: Richard Adams (Committee Chair) Subjects: Sociology

Honors Theses, Ohio Dominican University, 2023, Honors Theses

American Catholics were once a voting block which favored the Democratic party. However, Catholics now vote nearly the same as the general population, a contradiction when compared to other Christian denominations in the United States. This essay works to explore the political, historical, and theological elements of this division which caused the Church to fracture in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Philosophically, the core political ideals of the Catholic Church and the modern United States stand in stark contrast with one another. Presently, the foundational political theory of the United States as formulated by John Locke has become warped into a sort of hyper-individualism. This hyper-individualism emphasizes a personalization of moral truths, and thus stands against the natural law theory of the Church developed from the works of St. Thomas Aquinas. This hyper-individualism would eventually seep into the American Catholic Church, and events throughout the twentieth century would work to further this permeation. Historical events such as the Americanism controversy, the Second Vatican Council, the election of John F. Kennedy, the widespread rejection of Humanae Vitae, and the political actions before and after Roe v. Wade, would work to further divide the Church. Finally, the essay concludes with an examination of various topics prevalent in American political discourse and determines how a Catholic could respond to those issues while remaining faithful to the teachings of the Church. This examination includes consideration of teachings from the Magisterium and determines the level of authority each teaching has by utilizing the concluding paragraphs of the Profession of Faith. The conclusions of this examination show that many politicians who claim to be Catholic take up positions contrary to the faith and risk placing themselves outside of full communion with the Catholic Church. Finally, this essay raises the question as to whether American Cathol (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Ronald Carstens PhD (Advisor); Matthew Ponesse PhD (Committee Member); Leo Madden S.T.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; Political Science; Religious History; Theology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Public Policy and Management

Climate change, also referred to as global warming, is one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. Despite considerable evidence that climate change is occurring and has severe consequences, many Americans remain skeptical and are impeding efforts to address the problem. The purpose of this dissertation is to build an understanding of the determinants of climate change perceptions among climate skeptics. Specifically, this research explores the extent to which political communication affects climate skeptics' perceptions of the phenomenon. In total, three separate analyses were conducted using a national sample of climate skeptics (N = 4,001). The first analysis provides a profile of the average climate skeptic. Using descriptive data and responses from an open-ended question, the study provides a bird's-eye view of the factors that might contribute to individual perceptions of climate change. The findings confirm those of existing research; particularly that climate skepticism is more prevalent among Republicans, older populations, low-income individuals, and those who identify as evangelical. Individuals report being skeptical of climate change because they believe that the narrative around climate change only advances the interests of elites. Individuals also cite factors such as media coverage, awareness of historical data, first-hand experiences with local weather, knowledge of the phenomenon (or lack thereof), and belief in a higher power as reasons for their climate skepticism. The second analysis employs a randomized survey experiment to examine whether framing climate messages as optimistic or fatalistic (i.e., the phenomenon is unstoppable by human action) affects the perceptions of climate skeptics (N = 827). The results show that the framing of an issue does not influence climate skeptics' beliefs that (1) climate change is occurring or (2) that the phenomenon poses a risk of personal harm. Partisanship, however, does appear to moderate th (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Stéphane Lavertu (Advisor); Christopher Rea (Committee Member); Vladimir Kogan (Committee Member) Subjects: Behaviorial Sciences; Climate Change; Environmental Education; Environmental Science; Environmental Studies; Experimental Psychology; Political Science; Public Administration; Public Policy; Social Psychology; Sustainability

Bachelor of Film and Media Production, Capital University, 2022, Media

The 1960s in the United States was a time period where great hope led to great despair. The Philosophical Implications of Alternate History is a historical analysis of an alternate outcome of some of the tumultuous events of the decade, such as the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. This hypothetical timeline engages with three questions: (1) what might have happened, had these tragedies not occurred; (2) how these events contributed to our present political and cultural landscape; and (3) what we can learn by imagining alternate scenarios. My findings from analyzing these three questions resulted in Vigilant Conservation Theory (VCT), which argues that solving societal problems quickly ultimately leads to less consequences. In both historical and present-day examples, I conclude that when tangible issues aren't dealt with, culture and society come into question as well. With VCT in mind, I posit that if we solve the tangible problems of today, we will diffuse cultural flashpoints and, in doing so, build consensus instead of division. I also observe and emphasize the importance of having a unifying national myth when envisioning our future and discuss whether an alternate history can serve this function.

Committee: Andrew Carlson (Advisor) Subjects: American History; American Studies; Political Science

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Political Science

Much political science has studied how governments choose to spend money, largely through a literature on the rise of the welfare state. In turn, many study (I) how much revenue must be raised in taxes and (II) from whom, across the income spectrum, these funds must come from. In contrast, this paper studies the political determinants of tax-mix. Decisions to use some tax-instruments over others – be it the income tax or property tax, Value-Added Taxes (VATs) or corporate taxes – not only implicate vertical redistribution within society (redistribution across income-levels), but also horizontal redistribution (redistribution within income-levels) and taxation's efficiency. In turn, tax-mix decisions implicate such vitals as: whether a society raises public revenues in a manner consistent with distributive justice; how much revenue a government is able to raise; and the extent to which raising government revenues will harm the private economy. This dissertation project offers a theory and, consequently, tests by which to understand how tax-mixes are determined across societies. Central to my claim, much political science literature on taxation can be reoriented around the concept of elasticity. Implicitly, many studies argue that citizens prefer taxes that they can most easily avoid paying – either by opting for taxes they believe they can most easily cheat-on without getting caught; selecting taxes on behaviours that they do not engage-in; or pursuing taxes that implicate behaviours from which they can easily “shift away.” In all of the above cases, I make explicit the under-girding concept at play, elasticity. Elasticity informs an individual's preferences over tax policy. These preferences interact with a society's institutions, which determines who has the necessary political power in society so as to attain their (elasticity-driven) tax policy preferences in the form of tax policy outcomes. Understanding why governments pick certain tax-mixes will, then, a (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jan Pierskalla (Committee Chair); Philipp Rehm (Advisor); Sara Watson (Advisor) Subjects: Economics; Political Science; Public Policy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2021, Political Science

Serving to preserve sovereignty, guarantee survival, and facilitate freedom of action, national security is arguably the lead objective of the state. In contrast, moral norms are commonly held international rules built on morality that, among other effects, can inhibit states in their pursuit of that primary goal. The question posed here, then, is why states would willingly make national-security sacrifices for moral-normative reasons. And yet they do. In numerous wars, militaries have chosen to forego attacks on tactically and operationally valuable targets to protect civilian lives. Additionally, in militarized conflicts from World War I to the Gulf War and beyond, political and military leaders have selected their weapons not only by military value but also by categorization, what some scholars call “taboos.” These moral norms of civilian immunity and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) taboos appear to play a substantial role in state conduct, as shown by the wide-ranging statements of policymakers and commanders and real-world practical constraint. However, experimental research indicates a striking willingness among the public to both violate civilian immunity and use weapons of mass destruction if they appear militarily effective. In prior studies where participants make ex ante and post hoc evaluations of norm-violating attacks on terrorist and conventional adversaries, large numbers of participants—in some cases, well over half—endorse civilian-killing nuclear strikes. This discrepancy in findings derives in part from incomplete specification of how moral norms exist and function at the decision-making level, where adherence to, or violation of, the moral norm is determined. This dissertation uses a dual-process theory of affect and cognition to describe decision-makers' moral-normative and national-security attitudes and their effects on wartime decision-making. Moral norms appear as affect-dominant attitudes, supported overwhelmingly by feelings an (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Herrmann (Advisor); Christopher Gelpi (Committee Member); Alexander Wendt (Committee Member) Subjects: International Relations; Military Studies; Political Science

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

Do fluctuations in climate spur violence? Across a variety of stakeholders, there is an intuitive expectation that climate factors influence conflict in vulnerable areas. While existing research suggests that there might be a relationship between climate and conflict, the exact linkage between the two remains an open question. Contemporary research in this area suffers from three main gaps: it often uses incomplete measures for climate that generate unreliable results; many studies employ statistical methods that do not accurately model the underlying data structure of the conflict outcome; and most studies use theoretical models of conflict participation that cannot account for variation at the micro-level. To address these gaps, this dissertation leverages spatially disaggregated climate data, original data collected during fieldwork in Uganda, and improved modeling strategies to explore the links between climate and conflict at the macro, meso, and micro levels. I propose a coherent theoretical framework through which we can understand how climate volatility impacts individual decision-making and drive violence. I argue that climate volatility heightens feelings of uncertainty among small-holder farmers; discomfort with feelings of uncertainty pushes individuals to try and seek certainty in a variety of ways. One way to find certainty, although not the only one, is to align with social groups that can offer psycho-social and economic benefits to membership. Armed groups and micro-finance social groups are examples of social groups that benefit from this certainty seeking behavior. Individual efforts to reduce uncertainty results in a larger pool of potential supporters and recruits for social groups, which can lead to the occurrence of violence. As the pace of anthropogenic climate change accelerates and uncertainty increases, a nuanced understanding of the climate-conflict relationship is critical for protecting those most at risk. Clarifying the links between (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Philipp Rehm PhD (Committee Chair); Christopher Gelpi PhD (Committee Member); Amanda Robinson PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science