This thesis conducts a comparative study of international organizations in regard to their effectiveness towards addressing humanitarian concerns in Haiti. The three case studies are the operations of the United Nations, Catholic Relief Services, and REBUILD Globally, predominantly after the January 2010 quake. The hypothesis supported in this study is that the services of smaller organizations prove to be more successful than larger NGOs, although they do not have the immense resources of organizations such as the United Nations. The independent variables are type and quantity of funding, form of humanitarian work, and duration of support. All three variables establish the degree of overall effectiveness of the organization. This topic is significant because NGOs are rising in importance and influence in the international community as the average individual can now be involved in the foreign arena. It is important to study what is truly effective in humanitarian aid rather than assuming 'the bigger the better.'

As nations economically prosper, do future generations undergo a steady shift in values? This thesis seeks to analyze the Post-World War II intergenerational shift in Japanese attitudes toward Japanese women and the LGBT, multiethnic, and indigenous communities. Centered around Ronald Inglehart's "Materialist" and "Post-Materialist" theories, this research seeks to contribute to current literature surrounding the development of contemporary Japanese values. Inglehart's "Materialist" theory consists of the idea that individuals pursued various goals in hierarchical order with their base necessities such as sustenance and safety gaining priority. After their base necessities are satisfied, Inglehart believed that people's values shifted, emphasizing belonging, self-expression, and quality of life, all considered "Post-Materialist" values. This thesis utilizes empirical data and qualitative materials to analyze the shift in Japanese views surrounding gender, sexual, and ethnic minorities. This thesis found that Inglehart’s Post-Materialist value change and intergenerational shift were present in views toward women and the LGBT community while views toward the Hafu and Ainu may be backsliding.

In Jordan, a woman is often murdered by members of her own family if she is found to have tainted the family's honor in any way. Refusing to enter into an arranged marriage, being seen alone with a male stranger or even wearing makeup have all been cited as incidents that shame the family and result in what are called "honor killings". These honor killings have continued to plague Jordan, and other countries in the Middle East, well into the 21st century, despite the country's progress towards modernization. The dominance of the patriarchal family and the inability of the country to experience economic growth are strong contributors to the perpetuation of these horrible crimes in a country that is considered to be relatively modern in this day and age.

My argument about NATO’s future is a combination of both neo-realist and constructivist thought, an adaptation of both neo-realist power struggles and constructivist institutional structures. Due to a lack of a significant threat, NATO will collapse as a military alliance. However, due to the longevity of the Trans-Atlantic Relationship, the similarities in the governmental structure of its members and the history of peaceful interactions between the allies on both sides of the Atlantic, the current “security community” will remain despite the collapse of the military aspects of the Alliance. NATO has been held together through organizational inertia and shifting the unifying threat to a variety of lesser threats. Nevertheless, the weakness of the new threat will be insufficient in maintaining the Alliance. This argument is supported through three different period analyses of NATO. The first is an analysis of NATO in the Cold War and an overview of its creation as an answer to the threat of the Soviet Union. The second delves into the Alliance after the Cold War and the reasons for NATO’s continuation. The third section outlines NATO’s current missions, issues, and tensions within the Alliance. The paper concludes that NATO will fall apart in the future, with a slow but sure break down of the military structures of the Alliance. It will, however, remain a political entity due to the strength of the security community created between the allies.

<p>Many Caribbean international students travel to Canada to complete their post-secondary education. Upon graduation, these students often remain in Canada to work as opposed to returning home. This study identifies the factors that influenced Caribbean international students’ decisions of whether to remain in Canada or to return home and evaluates the relative importance of their labour market perceptions in light of all of the factors influencing their decisions. Factors such as easy labour market entry, high wages, less stringent immigration policies, careers relevant to the students’ degrees, family ties and relationships with loved ones, discrimination in the labour market, lifestyle and attitudes of governing bodies and prominent community members can all act as push or pull factors in Canada, the host country, or the students’ countries of origin. These factors influence the students’ decisions of whether they should remain in Canada to work or return home. However, results support the conclusion that labour market perceptions are the most significant factors in students’ decision making.</p> / Master of Arts (MA)

This thesis explores how cultural differences manifest themselves in computermediated intercultural communication (CoMIC). This study particularly looks at the role and use of digital nonverbals (DNVs) and their regulatory functions. The data analyzed is from a global virtual team working together for a period of three months. The grounded theory method has been employed to code the electronic transcript of the team's communication. Furthermore, the participants were surveyed regarding their personal backgrounds, their work, and their perception of the communication processes that took place. The study shows that in an intercultural communication process DNVs are used to avoid intercultural misunderstandings and to underline the various communication styles. The different styles, hand in hand with the DNVs used, vary depending on the team's overall situation. However, the absence of DNVs can be an indicator for a state of crisis.

This in-country grounded theory study examined the lived experiences of 24 Chinese returnees who completed advanced degrees in the United States. The study found that the four types of organizations in mainland China determine the social context of the application of Western education of the Chinese returnees. Returnees working in multinational corporations apply their Western education more than the returnees working in the other types of organizations. Themes that revolved around the international educational experiences of the Chinese students, including the development of cultural intelligence and new understanding of the ‘other’, and their realization of the differences between their home and host cultures, are included in the findings of this study. The relationship between these themes has led to the construction of a new concept concerning their self-cultivation that, in the Chinese perspective, is integral to Chinese leadership. This study introduces the concept of the bridger as a role that some Chinese returnees take on within their Chinese organizations and the third space that bridgers occupy.

Human trafficking is the world’s fastest growing global crime, which finally gained its due attention in the late 1990s. This thesis provides a critique of governmental anti-human trafficking efforts, in particular the U.S. Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons Report. Additionally, this thesis focuses on Argentina and its federal capital, as a case study of the effectiveness and ineffectiveness of governmental reports on human trafficking, as well as the contributions made by non-governmental anti-human trafficking efforts. This thesis argues that due to many factors, government corruption being one of the main ones, it is important to be critical of state power and the knowledge it produces surrounding the issue of human trafficking. It is also crucial that governmental anti-human trafficking efforts strengthen coordination and increase collaboration with regional and local NGOs and other non-governmental anti-human trafficking efforts, in order to more effectively fight to eliminate this transnational and international crime.

The United States, the number one consumer of drugs in the world, since 1969, has made it their goal to decrease the supply of drugs to a global zero. However, the vast supply of US drugs consumed do not originate in the US. To understand the impact of US anti-drug policy, mainly interdiction, eradication, and the targeting of DTO’s abroad, I conducted three case studies of three states with which the US has participated with in the drug war: Colombia, Honduras, and Mexico. What I found is that in each situation, each state approaches their own domestic drug war (with US support) as a COIN. However, given the unique nature of DTOs, this COIN strategy has failed, weakening the state institutions of the countries.

This research examines the political geographies of Palestinian children, and the ways in which their everyday spaces and practices are shaped by broader social and political processes. This research begins with an investigation into the role of the child in the moral geopolitics of humanitarianism and the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. From here, the research explores how the competing discourses of Palestinian nationalism and international humanitarianism, and the legacy of forced migration, have shaped the subjectivity of Palestinian children and the spaces of childhood in a West Bank refugee camp, from homes, to schools, streets, and youth centers. Finally, using participant observation, visual methods and guided tours, this research explores how children reshape the discursive spaces of childhood and child subjectivity through their everyday practices.