College of Behavioral & Social Sciences
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The collections in this community comprise faculty research works, as well as graduate theses and dissertations..
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Item Recontracting Global Governance(2020) Lugg, Andrew David; Allee, Todd; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation introduces an original theory explaining how international organizations (IOs) evolve in response to changing member dynamics. I argue that member states create new subsidiary IOs, which I call linked international organizations (LIOs), in order to “recontract” their cooperation. Three features of LIOs incentivize their creation: 1) they are easy to create, 2) they have flexible design features, and 3) they insulate the original IO from destabilizing reform. I evaluate my theory using a multi-method approach. First, I analyze original data on nearly 1,200 LIOs created since World War II. Statistical tests show that changes in the membership environment at existing IOs – including the addition of new members, changes in the distribution of power, and shifts in member preferences – leads to LIO creation. Second, I examine LIO creation at the United Nations (UN) using historical analysis, quantitative text analysis, and case studies of the Decolonization Committee, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Peacebuilding Commission (PBC). Finally, I investigate the creation of LIOs at the World Bank, including case studies of the International Development Association (IDA) and the Global Environment Facility (GEF). My dissertation proposes a major rethinking of reform and evolution at IOs. The creation of LIOs provides states a means to resolve internal disagreements and updates IOs so that they are more reflective of their diverse memberships. This helps maintain (and even expand) cooperation in an increasingly multipolar world.Item AWAKENING ACTIVISM: THE POLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY OF INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS(2018) Braun, Joseph; Reed, William L; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Individuals are an integral part of international human rights. While central to our leading theories of human rights change and to the efforts of human rights organizations in the real world, empirical scholarship has not systematically investigated how individuals choose to become advocates. Without the mobilization of individuals, human rights institutions and campaigns are deprived of the energy and material that fuel their success. In this dissertation, I closely evaluate the reasons why individuals choose to become engaged in human rights campaigns, what drives them to advocacy, and what this tells us about the relationship between political psychology and international human rights. In Chapter 1, I consider how incidental emotions influence individuals’ support for child hunger relief and refugee assistance, finding that negative emotions like disgust tend to amplify pre-existing views. In Chapter 2, I evaluate the effects of the negativity bias and loss-aversion bias on support for child hunger relief. I find that the combination of negative imagery and gains-focused messaging had a significant and positive effect on individuals’ support for both personal and government action to help feed and house the hungry. In Chapter 3, I discuss the important effects that political ideology had on the relationships I observed in Chapters 1 and 2. I illustrate how those on the political left and right responded in systematically different ways in each of the experiments, and note how these differences reveal the critical importance of targeted messaging with an emphasis on ideology. Finally, I conclude with a discussion of these dissertation findings as theoretically important and practically useful, with an emphasis on a focused and practically-oriented future research agenda.Item In the Court of World Opinion: International Law on the Use of Force and Crisis Escalation(2012) Appel, Benjamin; Huth, Paul; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this dissertation, I examine how international law on the use of force influences the behavior of leaders in international crises. I argue that leaders are less likely to escalate militarily in international crises when the Charter of the United Nations and related legal principles prohibit the use of force compared to when international law allows for the right of self-defense. I argue that international law can constrain crisis actors from employing the large-scale use of force by facilitating the dynamics of reciprocity in crisis-bargaining. Crisis actors who act in accordance with international law can expect to receive greater international support, while actors that violate the law can expect to obtain less support. International law therefore promotes the peaceful resolution of international crises because actors with the support of third parties can credibly signal their intent to employ the use of force in self-defense and deter their adversaries from engaging in the aggressive and illegal use of force in the first place. I find strong support for my theoretical argument using both quantitative and qualitative methods. Using an original dataset on international law on the use of force in international crises from 1946-2005, I find that leaders are less likely to escalate militarily when international law prohibits the use of force than when they have a right to use force. I also find that intergovernmental organizations are more likely to support leaders who have the right to use force, providing support for the underlying causal mechanism in my argument. Finally, I present a case study of the Cuban Missile Crisis and find that international law contributed to President Kennedy's decision to implement the blockade, instead of employing air strikes against Cuba.