This dissertation examines the effect of environmental discourse and disaster risk reduction mapping in the favela Santa Marta, an urban informal settlement in the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. With the world’s largest urban forest within the metro area, Rio de Janeiro is unusual for a metropolis of more than ten million people in the rapidly urbanizing country of Brazil. The government of Rio de Janeiro has attempted to control favela settlements since the early 20th century, but beginning in the 1990s the prefecture began delimiting favela settlements with environmentally protected areas called ecolimits. According to the state’s calculations, in the 2000s favelas began to rapidly expand into the urban forest, which is protected by the ecolimits and national parks. In 2009, the state built a wall around Santa Marta, justified by concerns about expansion into the adjacent forest. The state then labeled Santa Marta the model favela after infrastructure improvements there and the installation of the first Pacification Police Unit, a new form of community policing begun in 2008 for favelas. The focus of my study is the particular ways that the government has framed its resettlement efforts in Santa Marta and how favela residents responded. I employ the concept of biopolitics assemblage to critically investigate the state’s and international institutions’ discursive and material practices of disaster risk management in Santa Marta. I collected data using a mixed methods approach during 15 months of fieldwork. Through archival research, I document the history of favela control tactics and trace the roots of disaster risk management in Rio de Janeiro to a World Bank financed disaster response project initiated in 1988. Using ethnographic methods, I documented residents’ responses to and understandings of the government’s resettlement project for Santa Marta. My results indicate that the state has discursively shifted the problem of favelas from a social question to an environmental one, while residents continue to frame favela conditions as a social justice issue and challenge the state’s assessment of environmental risk.

The United Nations (UN) has invested increasing levels of effort in recent decades to cultivate a more effective, diverse and democratic institutional culture via the inclusion of and interaction among international civil society organizations (CSOs) and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to supplement the traditional role of states as the primary transnational actors. The principle vehicle for the UN-civil society dynamic is the consultative status (CS) program within the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC), wherein a diverse range of nearly 5,000 transnational organizations ostensibly participate. This research examined patterns of participation and the nature/level of CSO/NGO involvement within the UN, with particular focus upon ECOSOC. In examining participation patterns, the research identified patterns related to geographical/proportional representation among developed and developing regions and world regions in general and also as related to policy/issue areas represented. In terms of involvement, the research sought to assess the types and degree of contributions being made by CSOs/NGOs in association with the UN. To address both areas, the research employed a two-prong methodology including (1) a detailed analysis of the UN’s online integrated Civil Society Organizations (iCSO) database and (2) a comprehensive survey questionnaire mailed to a randomly-selected sample of 10% of all organizations holding consultative status with UN-ECOSOC. The findings challenge the assumption that UN association with international civil society has realized pluralist ideals in that substantial variations were found to exist in the representation of policy/issue areas, with some areas far better represented than others. Perhaps more importantly, the research revealed that only a minority of organizations in the ECOSOC-CS program appear to be actively/regularly engaged with the UN, with a large minority of CS-accredited organizations engaged only periodically or to a more limited extent, and a substantial minority not participating/interacting in any way. Rather than exemplifying pluralism within the constructivist tradition, findings imply support for liberal institutionalist theories in that decades-long expansion of IGO influence has facilitated a corollary expectation of expanding international civil society and an associated expectation of linkages between transnational governance and democratic institutions on the one hand and transnational civil society on the other as a standardized norm.

This dissertation analyzed the internal incoherence of China’s grand strategy. To do so, it used the cultural driver of honor to explain the contradictory behavior of China, which ranges from peaceful, responsible international actor to assertive, revisionist rising power with hegemonic ambitions. The central research question asked why China often diverges from Peaceful Development, thus leading to major contradictions as well as possible misperceptions on the part of other nations. Honor was the standard of reference that was utilized and examined in order to establish congruence and coherence between deed and praxis. Accordingly, the first hypothesis of this study posited that if policy diverges from or is incongruent with China’s standard of national honor, then the grand strategy is internally incoherent. Second, two further hypotheses posited that China will tend to use peaceful means if its goal is to enhance external legitimacy, whereas it will tend to use assertive means if its goal is to enhance internal legitimacy. This dissertation began by broadly tracing the cultural driver of honor and the link between honor and legitimacy in Chinese history. The second part of the dissertation looked at the six most salient events within a six-year timeframe (2009-2015) by way of the focused, comparative single-case-study method. For each grand strategy policy input (military strategy, economic policy, and diplomatic policy), the two most salient events were carefully chosen. A fourth grand strategy input, legitimacy (both internal and external), was evaluated for each of these events as well. Methodologically speaking, this study used process tracing in these within-case studies of the single case of China’s grand strategy. Results showed that China’s grand strategy manifestations are by and large legitimacy-driven and that, therefore, peaceful or assertive actions may be differentiated in terms of relation to external or internal legitimacy. In sum, this dissertation advanced an innovative means of inquiry into the grand strategy of a non-Western country, contributed valuable information for the policy community, and offered results that enable a re-evaluation of the debate on the peaceful or violent rise of China.

Since the end of the Cold War, Japan’s defense policy and politics has gone through significant changes. Throughout the post cold war period, US-Japan alliance managers, politicians with differing visions and preferences, scholars, think tanks, and the actions of foreign governments have all played significant roles in influencing these changes. Along with these actors, the Japanese prime minister has played an important, if sometimes subtle, role in the realm of defense policy and politics. Japanese prime ministers, though significantly weaker than many heads of state, nevertheless play an important role in policy by empowering different actors (bureaucratic actors, independent commissions, or civil actors), through personal diplomacy, through agenda-setting, and through symbolic acts of state. The power of the prime minister to influence policy processes, however, has frequently varied by prime minister. My dissertation investigates how different political strategies and entrepreneurial insights by the prime minister have influenced defense policy and politics since the end of the Cold War. In addition, it seeks to explain how the quality of political strategy and entrepreneurial insight employed by different prime ministers was important in the success of different approaches to defense. My dissertation employs a comparative case study approach to examine how different prime ministerial strategies have mattered in the realm of Japanese defense policy and politics. Three prime ministers have been chosen: Prime Minister Hashimoto Ryutaro (1996-1998); Prime Minister Koizumi Junichiro (2001-2006); and Prime Minister Hatoyama Yukio (2009-2010). These prime ministers have been chosen to provide maximum contrast on issues of policy preference, cabinet management, choice of partners, and overall strategy. As my dissertation finds, the quality of political strategy has been an important aspect of Japan’s defense transformation. Successful strategies have frequently used the knowledge and accumulated personal networks of bureaucrats, supplemented bureaucratic initiatives with top-down personal diplomacy, and used a revitalized US-Japan strategic relationship as a political resource for a stronger prime ministership. Though alternative approaches, such as those that have looked to displace the influence of bureaucrats and the US in defense policy, have been less successful, this dissertation also finds theoretical evidence that alternatives may exist.

Recent studies on the economic status of women in Miami-Dade County (MDC) reveal an alarming rate of economic insecurity and significant obstacles for women to achieve economic security. Consistent barriers to women’s economic security affect not only the health and wellbeing of women and their families, but also economic prospects for the community. A key study reveals in Miami-Dade County, “Thirty-nine percent of single female-headed families with at least one child are living at or below the federal poverty level” and “over half of working women do not earn adequate income to cover their basic necessities” (Brion 2009, 1). Moreover, conventional measures of poverty do not adequately capture women’s struggles to support themselves and their families, nor do they document the numbers of women seeking basic self-sufficiency. Even though there is lack of accurate data on women in the county, which is a critical problem, there is also a dearth of social science research on existing efforts to enhance women’s economic security in Miami-Dade County. My research contributes to closing the information gap by examining the characteristics and strategies of women-led community development organizations (CDOs) in MDC, working to address women’s economic insecurity. The research is informed by a framework developed by Marilyn Gittell, who pioneered an approach to study women-led CDOs in the United States. On the basis of research in nine U.S. cities, she concluded that women-led groups increased community participation and “by creating community networks and civic action, they represent a model for community development efforts” (Gittell, et al. 2000, 123). My study documents the strategies and networks of women-led CDOs in MDC that prioritize women’s economic security. Their strategies are especially important during these times of economic recession and government reductions in funding towards social services. The focus of the research is women-led CDOs that work to improve social services access, economic opportunity, civic participation and capacity, and women’s rights. Although many women-led CDOs prioritize building social infrastructures that promote change, inequalities in economic and political status for women without economic security remain a challenge (Young 2004). My research supports previous studies by Gittell, et al., finding that women-led CDOs in Miami-Dade County have key characteristics of a model of community development efforts that use networking and collaboration to strengthen their broad, integrated approach. The resulting community partnerships, coupled with participation by constituents in the development process, build a foundation to influence policy decisions for social change. In addition, my findings show that women-led CDOs in Miami-Dade County have a major focus on alleviating poverty and economic insecurity, particularly that of women. Finally, it was found that a majority of the five organizations network transnationally, using lessons learned to inform their work of expanding the agency of their constituents and placing the economic empowerment of women as central in the process of family and community development.

This research project examined the effects of participation in a six-month global service-learning program in the intercultural development of a group of students. The students under consideration herein participated in the 2009 program year of the Grace University EDGE Program, which took place in Mali, West Africa. The present research builds on and contributes to three primary areas of research: intercultural development, service-learning, and study abroad. As the literature in these areas revealed the lack of a consistent way to assess global service-learning, I tried a three-part method of assessment. First, the Intercultural Development Inventory formally measured growth in intercultural competence. Second, guided course-writing generated by the students was used to facilitate followup interviews of most participants, especially considering the intersections between IDI results and students' self-perceptions as reported in their papers. Third, the interviews were coded and explored for information related to the process of intercultural development. The participants, overall, demonstrated positive intercultural competence gains while undergoing a complex process involving the impetus for and experience of development, ultimately resulting in changed patterns of thought.

This thesis will present an exploration of how healthcare interpreters utilize intercultural communication skills as they interact with cultural differences in their work. I will review the literature on healthcare interpreting, including provision laws, standards, codes of ethics, paradigms, and roles. I will focus on intercultural communication literature in order to demonstrate possible ways that it can be applied to the healthcare interpreting field. In order to better understand how intercultural communication is being used in healthcare interpreting, I will conduct interviews with healthcare interpreters who have had intercultural training. In conclusion, elements of a training framework will be introduced that could be developed in order to train advanced interpreters who are interested in using an intercultural approach in their work.

A four-year war in Croatia in the early nineties left Eastern Slavonia and the Vukovar region struggling with the consequences of inter-ethnic conflict and human suffering. Poorly addressed post-ethnic reconciliation issues resulted in many challenges in everyday living for the people of Vukovar, especially so with the segregation of the public educational system based on language and ethnicity. This research explored the outcomes of the policy in Vukovar to divide the student body based on the language they spoke. The literature review examined issues of inter-ethnic conflict, post-war reconciliation, and the process of grieving and transition in order to define how these processes affect people involved in public schooling in Vukovar today. I have examined literature in intercultural sensitivity, intercultural conflict, reconciliation, cultural marginality, and identity formation. I compiled data through in-depth interviews with five specialists in the field of public educational system in Vukovar. They included a journalist and author, a teacher, administrators, and parents. I found the presence of slow but consistent increase in readiness for the process of rejoining schools in Vukovar. This convergence in attitudes of the majority and the minority groups regarding their public school education might be the best indicator that Vukovar is shifting from the position of grieving to a place more open to the new solutions and agreements. However, one should not forget that bringing students together is not a key to reconciliation. Even though it appears that parents and teachers have motivation and good incentives to accomplish the process of reuniting, the students themselves lack the understanding of the importance of the same. I hope that this study will provide insight into the state of affairs in Vukovar's educational system today and may provide insight into the ways of managing the larger issues of reintegration and reconciliation between the diverse cultural communities.

The resettlement of refugees and asylum seekers in Germany since reunification in 1990 has been challenged by two peaks in asylum seeker applications in 1992 and again in 2016. From the 1992 peak, which was fueled by asylum seekers fleeing the former Yugoslavia, extensive research has already been conducted over the past thirty years. These studies have demonstrated the actual outcomes of these primarily Yugoslavian asylum seekers and refugees with these findings indicating legal and economic uncertainty having a detrimental effect even years after resettlement. Using Germany as a case study, this analysis aims to survey the available information in the more recent example of asylum seekers arriving in Germany from 2014 onwards primarily from the Syrian Arab Republic, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Ultimately, successful resettlement equates to successful integration measures. The issues of policy legacy and learning as well as elements of the available support network for asylum seekers in housing, Integrationskurse (integration courses), and advice centers are examined to understand how each relates to successful integration and security for asylum seekers. The findings indicate that Germany has achieved successful resettlement and integration of asylum seekers through policy learning from the early 1990s onwards and a strong support network available for those seeking asylum, yet the exclusion of certain groups from integration measures unfairly leaves some behind. A continuous evaluation of these integration measures is necessary to ensure the successful resettlement of refugees and asylum seekers in Germany in anticipated future peaks in asylum seeker applications.

This study investigated the relationship between intercultural communication sensitivity and the culturally developed variables of emotional intelligence, ethnocentrism. multicultural ideology, patriotism and cultural identity. Correlation analysis was used to investigate the retationship between each unique variable and intercultural communication sensitivity. The survey instrument developed to analyze each relationship was created by previously determined scales with proven reliability and validity scores which ensured result integrity. A sample of 419 undergraduate college students completed questionnaires on a confidential and voluntary basis. Questionnaires made up of six sections measured intercultural communication sensitivity, emotional intelligence, ethnocentrism. multicultural ideology. patriotism and cultural identity. Data were collected from two universities in Northern California-one small private institution and one large; public institution. Through careful analysis, results supported previous literature and proposed hypotheses. Intercultural communication :sensitivity was positively correlated to emotional intelligence and multicultural ideology and negatively correlated to ethnocentrism, patriotism and cultural identity. The results reported in this study is valuable information for individuals in professional and personal contexts who desire to understand factors that may affect their ability to effectively, appropriately and successfully engage in intercultural and international interactions. The results presented may be key for improving intercultural and international relations due to improved communication.