What constitutes the meaning of a place? In what ways does place affect our ways of thought? This study seeks to explore the geopolitical relationship between place and the study of International Relations (IR). By re-conceptualizing the category of place as a situated and geo-historical marker of human identity, new spaces of inclusion and collaboration in Latin American-U.S. relations can be uncovered, linking the study of phenomenology to contemporary IR theories. With attention on the lived-experience and existential nature of geopolitics behind Latin American-U.S. Cold War relations, the study of geopolitics can be de-colonized from the monopoly of dominant centers of knowledge, displacing the historical exclusion of responses and alternatives from the marginalized developing world. The displacement of these imperial forms of thought thus gives rise to a critical pedagogy of international relations as a practice constituting everyday life, re-thinking the history of the discipline in order to broaden its horizons.

The crisis of unity in multiethnic societies may be indicative of strained relations among various ethnic groups. Economic competition by a minority arouses resentment and envy in the dominant group. When the political development lags behind social and economic development, ethnicity is introduced into politics. If the system fails to resolve issues through institutional arrangements violence may become a mode of communication among these groups and the minority may attempt to secede. The case of India provides an excellent example of particularistic associations. The Sikhs have played a significant role in the division of the subcontinent and the development of the economy, Tensions have resulted in violence and counter-violence by both minority and majority groups. India has failed to introduce institutional changes to fulfill the promises made by the secular constitution. The Hindu dominance and discrimination in case of Sikhs can not be denied. While the issues still remain, India faces the risk of secessionist movements not only by Sikhs but also by other regions where minorities feel having been discriminated.

The conflicts of the past decade in Central America have produced substantial refugee movements into neighboring nations. Costa Rica has had to cope with an influx of refugees and migrants as large as 10 percent of its population. This work presents a case study of the situation in Costa Rica, focusing on the issue of refugee integration into the host society. It draws on qualitative field research conducted in that country during 1986. The study discusses the evolution of the Costa Rican state's response to the refugee crisis and analyzes the characteristics and impact of policies undertaken by various state bureaucracies. It also describes the assistance efforts of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and private voluntary organizations, along with their interaction with the Costa Rican state. The study concludes that the government's need to maintain firm control of refugee programs has overshadowed its commitment to refugee integration. In so doing, the humanitarian purpose of refugee assistance has been compromised.

This study examines why Romania's dissidence within the Soviet bloc has not provoked a military response from the Soviet Union during the 1965-1985 period. The hypothesis assumed is that Soviet tolerance is granted to Romania in exchange for its internal orthodoxy. Based on English and Romanian sources of information and on the author's experience having lived in Romania, the following factors are analyzed: Party internal control, its organization, leadership and ideology. The study concludes that Romania's internal orthodoxy, closely resembling Soviet society, has neutralized the country's dissident foreign policy saving it from a Soviet military intervention.

The primary purpose of the thesis was to compare the present cultural and political significance of La Virgen de la Caridad del Cobre for Cubans on the island and in exile, focusing on the Virgin's role as a symbol of national identity. The secondary purpose was to explore the historical evolution of the Virgin's myth through an analysis of documents and scholarly literature. In addition to participant observation, interviews of 50 Cubans were conducted at La Caridad's shrines in Cuba and Miami. These interviews reveal that the Virgin's symbol continues to meet the religious, economic, political, and social needs of Cubans everywhere. Furthermore, her symbol reveals insights into the nature of Cuban national identity. The thesis concludes that the myth of La Caridad, like Cuban identity itself, is dynamic, complex, multi-dimensional, and fluid

Mexico is home to almost 2.9 million square kilometers of land and water surface area that is affected by water pollution and environmental degradation. While geographically more prevalent to pollution threats as well as one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, it is important to coordinate the management and regulation of coastal zones effectively to safeguard these ecosystem from degradation. However, because of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, nations view the problem of living resources and their management as a national priority instead of an international cooperation initiative. Mexico's fragmented, overlapping, and sometimes corrupt domestic institutions for environmental policy yield ineffective and inadequate pollution control, a result of which is a high level of marine debris presence on the coasts, as evidenced by a recent study in Veracruz, Veracruz. This marine debris, the most abundant of which is composed of plastics, is detrimental to marine life, leading to death, starvation, debilitation, reduced quality of life and lowered reproductive performance. While several avenues are being explored to mitigate marine debris in the environment, such as decreasing knowledge gaps, increasing pollution prevention measures, and education, degradation issues have compounded globally, revealing a clear picture of inadequate international regulation and convention. A stricter Mexican national regulatory system that incorporates private and public waste management organizations to incentivize and facilitate waste cleanup is needed to improve the health of the global ocean.

This research presents practitioners' insights on the concepts, theories, models, assessments tools, and other training practices that are currently considered when creating a two-day predeparture intercultural training (ICT) specifically for Americans departing for at least a one-year international assignment. This study reports data gathered by using a web-based survey that was completed by 25 practitioners from the intercultural communication field who provide predeparture ICT. The current literature in the field of ICT is presented as well as a sample outline of a two-day predeparture ICT program based on the results of this study and the literature. The outline indicates the primary content elements, one possible sequencing of such a program, as well as descriptions of how the elements are delivered and what tools are used to support the delivery. The motivation for this study was to provide a bridge between theory and practice in the field of ICT as there is an abundance of literature regarding the theory of the field, but very little has been written about how practitioners are employing the theories in their work.

This dissertation investigates the specific factors that drive state action in Canadian Arctic security policy, particularly in relation to securitization of the Arctic region and historical factors that influence decision-making. The purpose of this research is to develop stronger linkages between securitization processes and actual policymaking. When studying the Arctic as a defined geographical space, we see considerable differences between Arctic states when it comes to how cultural and historical attachment to the Arctic region may serve as a selling point for the ability of national governments to justify allocation of defense resources to their respective publics. Using the Canadian case, this research illustrates the strength of identity factors when compared to day-to-day bureaucratic politics and the influence of public opinion. This dissertation does not follow the ideas of one particular theoretical paradigm, but instead utilizes eclecticism to better illustrate the depth of the various factors that may contribute to policymaking. Additionally, the effects of policymaking and securitization processes are measured through public opinion. The ultimate findings of this research support a hypothesis of linear identity factors as a major influence on Canadian Arctic security policy, but also suggest that research on securitization theory needs to better connect rhetorical v securitization processes to actual policymaking. Through this, the research not only provides value in using this case as a test for the strengths and limits of securitization theory, but also emboldens understandings of security policy as being driven by a combination of domestic policy, foreign policy, endemic historical factors, and government strategic communication practices.

This study aims to explore the relationship between clientelistic economies and systemic corruption under the framework of Economic Norms Theory. Pointedly, it examines the evolution of contractual mortgage credit as a percentage of GDP (representing the growth of a non-self-enforcing contract market) compared to both actual and perceived levels of corruption in Brazil in order to assess whether Brazil is exemplary of a transitioning economy under the theory of Economic Norms. The hypothesis of this paper is two-fold. First, I expect that as mortgage credit as a percentage of GDP generally increases, actual corruption will decrease. Secondly, I expect that as perceptions of corruption worsen, actual corruption will improve. The results corroborated the hypothesis: as mortgage contracts occupy a larger percentage of national GDP, perceptions of corruption worsened while actual corruption has slightly improved. These findings suggest a shifting set of public values away from clientelistic norms and towards norms associated with contract-intensive economies.

This paper investigates when propagandists criticize their country's war effort, examining instances where propagandists openly criticize the regimes they are expected to support during an armed conflict. This is a unique and relatively unexplored angle on propaganda, differing from widespread research on the range of effects that propaganda has on a target population, the reasons behind using propaganda on a target population, and the methods propagandists use to raise support for a political authority. Understanding when propagandists criticize their country's war effort can mitigate their influence by helping audiences identify when and how propagandists use criticism to their advantage. The paper hypothesizes that propagandists criticize their country's war effort when a military failure is too apparent to ignore or deny and that they acknowledge smaller failures more often as war goes on to maintain credibility. These hypotheses were tested by measuring TV propagandist's responses to several cases in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian War. The results are that more apparent failures garnered increased amounts of criticism from propagandists, and that the passage of time didn't increase criticism of smaller failures unless they affected the Russian public.