This dissertation project examines the lived experiences of immigrant and second- generation Iranian immigrants to uncover the factors that shape their perceptions of belonging in two differ western nations. It is a qualitative methods study that utilized in-depth interviews. I address the limitations of past research by highlighting that Iranians' experiences of belonging and membership in western nations are greatly influenced by the national narratives of their host societies and the global politics surrounding Iran. My central research questions are: How do America's and Germany's national narratives of immigration influence Iranians' sense of belonging? and How do Iranians perceive the global politics surrounding Iran as impacting their lives in the West? Research on Iranians in the United States and Europe underscores Iranians' proclivity to become entrepreneurs in their new nation, the lack of solidarity and community among Iranians, and the discrimination that they experience due to their ethnic and religious identities. However, we lack comparative scholarship that examines Iranian immigrants' experiences in two nations where the national narratives are different. Moreover, there is an absence of research that addresses whether, and how, global politics influence perceptions of belonging. The three empirical chapters examine the data from sixty-four in-depth interviews with immigrant and second-generation Iranians living in northern and southern California, and Hamburg, Germany. In the first interview data chapter, I examine the motivations of Iranians' migration to the US and Germany, their settlement experiences, and their expectations of their lives in their new nation. Specifically in this chapter, I reveal that the lack of foreign policy considerations for post-Revolution Iranian exiles in the US and the institutionalized nature of refugee policy, and lack of it, in each nation helps explain the varying settlement experiences of immigrant-generation Iranians in the US and Germany. It is noteworthy that these experiences also helped shape Iranians' understanding of each nation's main values and characteristics. In the second empirical chapter, I show that national narratives of immigration are important in shaping Iranian immigrants' understandings, expectations, and experiences of belonging and membership in the US and Germany. These narratives inform their interpretations of not just the prospects of belonging, but the indications of whether they have accomplished it. In the last data chapter, I explore how Iran's global political standing influences the lives of Iranian immigrants living in the US and Germany. In both the US and Germany, the dominant negative discourse surrounding a highly politicized homeland stigmatizes Iranians' identities, and makes them more subject to experiences of marginality and discrimination. Specifically, in the US, global politics puts a cap on Iranians' quality of middle class experiences, and facilitates the construction of social marginality and discrimination against them. In Germany, it helps solidify a boundary that is already there. Ultimately, this dissertation research uncovers three important aspects in regards to perceptions of belonging among Iranians in the US and Germany: First, a comparison of Iranian immigrant experiences in two western nations where the narratives of belonging are considerably different demonstrated that the national narratives of an immigrants' host society greatly shape and mediate perceptions and experiences of belonging and membership. Specifically in the US, Iranians perceive belonging when they can obtain opportunities for social mobility, when their ancestry is not marked or stigmatized, and when they can place themselves in the `nation of immigrants' narrative. In Germany, Iranians perceive that they can come close to belonging once they are perceived as having culturally accommodated to German society, can access greater opportunity structures, and are perceived and accepted as `good foreigners and immigrants'. Second, an examination of how global politics surrounding Iran impact Iranians' lives in western nations revealed that their identities are stigmatized; they encounter marginality and exclusion, and ultimately feel that they do not belong or have full membership in the US and Germany. Interestingly, Iranians in both nations hypothesized that an improved Iranian standing would help facilitate belonging and membership. What is more, their perceptions of how their lives would change, and how belonging would take shape, if they did not live with the stigmas created by Iran's global politics, were inextricably linked to the national narratives of their host societies. Third, there were significant generational differences in how the second-generation in each nation assessed belonging. In the US, the second-generations' ability to access the educational resources needed for professional careers, despite their perceptions of the existence of anti-Iranian prejudice, legitimized both the US national narrative and proved to them that they can secure a good quality of life and be a part of US society. In Germany, the second generation experienced generational lag with regard to belonging. Their ability to belong is not resolved by length of residence, German citizenship, German educational attainments, or their adherence German cultural norms and practices. Rather, second generation believed that being marked as foreigners was perpetual, and not an identity that one loses after a few generations. Ultimately, among the US second-generation US sample there were more significant/powerful declarations of the ability to acquire social mobility and belonging, while those in Germany experienced a more generalized feeling of not belonging. This research contributes to ongoing conversations regarding immigrant belonging and membership. It adds the comparative dimension of belonging and membership by examining evaluations of belonging in two western nations where the national narratives are different. Furthermore, it takes into account how the contentious and antagonistic political relationship between Iran and western nations has impacted Iranians' lived experiences, and ability to belong, in the US and Germany. Ultimately, the inclusion of national narratives and global politics contributes to our understanding of the sociological processes that facilitate, and disrupt, experiences of immigrant belonging and membership in their host society, and provides us with a deeper understanding of the layered and complex dynamics that shape immigrant experiences. / Sociology

<p>Denna uppsats är en kritisk granskning av Samuel P. Huntingtons modell att förstå världspolitiken utifrån, som han presenterar i boken The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Granskningen utgår från en analys av hans grundläggande begrepp, ”civilization” och ”clash”, och från ytterligare en analys av hur hans modell skiljer sig från andra modeller om världen. Med hjälp av dessa analyser diskuterar jag rimligheten i den tes som han ställer upp och konsekvenserna som hans förutsägelser och policyrekommendationer får, för att sedan kunna bedöma om hans modell är användbar eller inte. Min slutsats är att den inte är särskilt användbar, främst på grund av den oklara betydelsen av hans begrepp. En modell utifrån fler faktorer skulle istället ge oss en bättre förståelse av världen.</p> / <p>This paper is a critical examining of Samuel P. Huntington’s model for understanding world politics, that he presents in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. The examining is based on an analysis of his basic concepts, “civilization” and “clash”, and on another analysis of how his model differs from other models about the world. With the help of theses analyses I discuss the reasonableness of the these he formulates and the consequences that his predictions and policy recommendations have, to be able to judge if his model is useful or not. My conclusion is that it’s not very useful, mainly because of the unclear meaning of his basic concepts. Instead, a model based on more factors would give a us a better understanding of the world.</p>

Denna uppsats är en kritisk granskning av Samuel P. Huntingtons modell att förstå världspolitiken utifrån, som han presenterar i boken The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. Granskningen utgår från en analys av hans grundläggande begrepp, ”civilization” och ”clash”, och från ytterligare en analys av hur hans modell skiljer sig från andra modeller om världen. Med hjälp av dessa analyser diskuterar jag rimligheten i den tes som han ställer upp och konsekvenserna som hans förutsägelser och policyrekommendationer får, för att sedan kunna bedöma om hans modell är användbar eller inte. Min slutsats är att den inte är särskilt användbar, främst på grund av den oklara betydelsen av hans begrepp. En modell utifrån fler faktorer skulle istället ge oss en bättre förståelse av världen. / This paper is a critical examining of Samuel P. Huntington’s model for understanding world politics, that he presents in his book The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. The examining is based on an analysis of his basic concepts, “civilization” and “clash”, and on another analysis of how his model differs from other models about the world. With the help of theses analyses I discuss the reasonableness of the these he formulates and the consequences that his predictions and policy recommendations have, to be able to judge if his model is useful or not. My conclusion is that it’s not very useful, mainly because of the unclear meaning of his basic concepts. Instead, a model based on more factors would give a us a better understanding of the world.

[pt] O filósofo prussiano Immanuel Kant, depois de questionar se a mente humana pode perceber a realidade como ela de fato é, chegou à conclusão de que a realidade e a aparência da realidade não são a mesma coisa; e que, na verdade, o objeto deve se conformar ao sujeito. Pensadores associados ao pós-modernismo, ao aceitarem estas conclusões, passaram a argumentar que a aparência da realidade é produzida pelos próprios sujeitos e depende de relações de poder e crenças. Esta dissertação, através de uma minuciosa releitura dos então chamados realistas clássicos - embora uma perspectiva pós-moderna - propõe que, na política internacional, os atores empregam o poder subjetivo, que é entendido como um poder que interfere com as ideias e com os objetivos de uma realidade confeccionada do jeito que ela se revela para os sujeitos-alvos. Inspirando-se nos pensadores pós-modernos, abordagens teóricas são aqui exploradas no intuito de conceituar a forma como esse processo pode ser pensado. Inspirando-se no método de Pierre Bourdieu, as conclusões obtidas nesta dissertação são aplicadas a dois casos históricos: a Revolução Francesa e a invasão soviética ao Afeganistão. / [en] The Prussian philosopher Immanuel Kant, after inquiring whether the human mind can grasp reality as it is in itself, came to the conclusion that reality and the appearance of reality are not the same. In fact, he concluded that the object must conform to the subject. Thinkers associated with postmodernism, by accepting these conclusions, came to argue that the appearance of reality is produced by subjects themselves and depends on relations of power and beliefs. This dissertation, through a close rereading of so-called classical realists with a postmodern perspective, proposes that in world politics, actors employ subjective power, which is understood as the power to interfere with ideas, with the goal of custom tailoring reality as is appears to targeted subjects. By drawing on postmodern thinkers, theoretical approaches are explored which serve in conceptualising how this process may be thought of. By drawing on the methodology of Pierre Bourdieu, the insights at which this dissertation arrives are applied to two historical cases, the French Revolution and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.

This thesis examines the study of images in International Relations (IR). Even though images play an important role in global politics, images have received little attention by IR scholars. In this thesis I aim to answer how images can be studied. I conduct two analyses, which I call ‘single image analysis’, and ‘multiple images analysis’ to answer the research question of ‘how did images of children in the Syrian war shape global political narratives and identities´. I argue that images of children in the Syrian war though their emotional value (re)produced as Syrian identity of ‘misery’, ‘chaos’, and ‘hopelessness’. And images (re)produced narratives of who is ‘good’ and ‘bad’. Two analyses are conducted to discuss the different ways images can be analysed. I argue that single image analysis and the multiple images analysis have their own strengths and weaknesses and applicable in different cases. Also, I argue further theoretical and methodological discussions on how to study images would benefit IR as a whole.

This thesis argues that the end of Soviet Marxism and a bipolar global political imaginary at the dissolution of the short Twentieth Century poses an obstacle for anti-systemic political action. Such a blockage of alternate political imaginaries can be discerned by reading the work of Francis Fukuyama and "Endism" as performative invocations of the closure of political alternatives, and thus as an ideological proclamation which enables and constrains forms of social action. It is contended that the search through dialectical thought for a competing universal to posit against "liberal democracy" is a fruitless one, because it reinscribes the terms of teleological theories of history which work to effect closure. Rather, constructing a phenomenological analytic of the political conjuncture, the thesis suggests that the figure of messianism without a Messiah is central to a deconstructive reframing of the possibilities of political action - a reframing attentive to the rhetorical tone of texts. The project of recovering the political is viewed through a phenomenological lens. An agonistic political distinction must be made so as to memorialise the remainders and ghosts of progress, and thus to gesture towards an indeconstructible justice which would serve as a horizon for the articulation of an empty universal. This project is furthered by a return to a certain phenomenology inspired by Cornelius Castoriadis, Claude Lefort, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Ernesto Laclau. The thesis provides a reading of Jacques Derrida and Walter Benjamin as thinkers of a minor universalism, a non-prescriptive utopia, and places their work in the context of new understandings of religion and the political as quasi-transcendentals which can be utilised to think through the aporias of political time in order to grasp shards of meaning. Derrida and Chantal Mouffe's deconstructive critique and supplement to Carl Schmitt's concept of the political is read as suggestive of a reframing of political thought which would leave the political question open and thus enable the articulation of social imaginary significations able to inscribe meaning in the field of political action. Thus, the thesis gestures towards a form of thought which enables rather than constrains action under the sign of justice.

In 2017, Australia officially recognized orphanage trafficking as a form of modern slavery, creating a precedent in legislation regarding children rights. This process intended to inspire global norms has been the result of a collaboration with NGOs, advocating against harmful practices in Cambodia. While research has been previously conducted on the impact of Western tourists and lack of thinking upon humanitarian intervention in Cambodia, there has been no study so far on the consequently Australian legislative process. This research intends to analyze the Australian attempt in becoming a norm entrepreneur, through the analysis of the writing of the 2017 Parliament report ''Hidden in Plain Sight''. The content analysis of the report will be put into perspective with previous global agreements on children rights and the Australian Code of Conduct for NGOs, using the framework of moral norms. The argument defended in the research is that NGO action in Cambodia has been monitored by the Australian government for decades, while leaving them relatively free in their action. But 2017 marked a historic turn in regulations, as Australia placed itself as regional policy leader by incorporating orphanage trafficking within the definition of modern slavery, under the pressure of NGO advocacy.

No description available.

[pt] Muitas das perspectivas críticas às Relações Internacionais (RI) argumentam que a conceitualização acadêmica do internacional-global está calcada na universalização da modernidade Ocidental alternativa superior ao pensamento político. Entretanto, esta perspectiva raramente teoriza a Economia Política do Conhecimento (EPC) que sustenta a superioridade de certos princípios através das trocas mercadológicas desiguais de saber universitário. A perspectiva da EPC têm se destacado nos últimos anos, discutindo o impacto da globalização capitalista na padronização neoliberal da educação, impacto este bastante evidenciado nas universidades brasileiras. Apesar disso, a abordagem da economia política pouco contribui para refletir a própria significação do global e do internacional como dinâmica de poder central. Navegando nestas lacunas teóricas, a presente pesquisa se debruça sobre a EPC, porém teorizando como esta economia política pode ser considerada internacional e global. A pergunta da pesquisa é: como a experiência pedagógica no ensino superior brasileiro, bem como sua inserção em uma EPC, ajudam a conceituar o internacional e o global? A metodologia da pesquisa consiste em engajar com esta experiência através de uma textualização autobiográfica que interliga relatos sobre a sala de aula de docentes e discentes em turmas brasileiras de graduação, pós-graduação e preparatório comunitário. Com esta metodologia, a pesquisa explora abordagem teórica denominada estudo internacional crítico, que sugere as salas de aula como pontos nodais de uma EPC internacional-global multifacetada, que, por sua vez, empurra a pedagogia para suas formas mais dialógicas. Através desta abordagem, a pesquisa argumenta em favor da relação coconstitutiva entre a pedagogia e a política internacional-global. / [en] Many critical perspectives on International Relations (IR) argue that the academic conception of the international-global is based on the universalization of Western modernity as the superior alternative to political thought. However, this perspective rarely theorizes the Political Economy of Knowledge (PEK) that sustains the superiority of certain principles through unequal market exchanges of university knowledge. The PEK perspective has stood out in recent years, discussing the impact of capitalist globalization on the neoliberal standardization of education, an impact that is quite evident in Brazilian universities. Despite this, the political economy approach does little to reflect the very meaning of the global and the international as a central dynamic of power. Navigating these theoretical gaps, the present research focuses on the PEK, but theorizing how this political economy can be considered international and global. The research question is: how does the pedagogical experience in Brazilian higher education, as well as its insertion in an PEK, help to conceptualize the international and the global? The research methodology consists of engaging with this experience through an autobiographical textualization that interconnects reports about the classroom of teachers and students in Brazilian undergraduate, graduate and communiarian prepschools classes. With this methodology, the research explores the theoretical approach called critical international study, which suggests classrooms as nodal points of a multi-faceted international-global PEK, which, in turn, pushes pedagogy towards its most dialogical forms. Through this approach, the research argues in favor of the co-constitutive relationship between pedagogy and international-global politics.

Recently, a new IR movement called Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP) has become more influential and achieved certain success when states like Sweden, Canada and France adopted these theories. This study will analyse Switzerland’s foreign policy to understand to what extent it is a FFP. Feminist Foreign Policy Analysis has developed new frameworks to answer this research question. Such as Aggestam and True’s four commitments, which is adapted in this thesis. Through a qualitative content analysis, policy documents of the Swiss government are analysed for gender mainstreaming, international development assistance, Women, Peace and Security (WPS) and gender equality mechanisms. The findings are that the implementation of WPS policies is at an advanced stage, and the international development assistance includes clearly defined budget goals and many pro-gender objectives. On the other hand, there is a lack of gender mainstreaming throughout Switzerland’s core foreign policy papers and gender equality mechanisms are rather sparse. The research concludes that, although Swiss FP contains feminist elements, it cannot be defined as feminist.