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This Week's Topic  

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February 19: "Economic Liberalism and the Challenge of Armed Domestic Conflict."
 
Mr. Holger Meyer
Ph.D. student in the Department of International Affairs
** Abstract:
Numerous quantitative studies in the field of international relations have analyzed the relationship between economic interdependence and conflict. A strong empirical consensus has emerged that commerce promotes peace. However, the literature still faces an important challenge: While inter-state armed conflict decreased in the post Cold War era of globalization, intra-state conflict remains at a significant level. In fact, civil wars have become the dominant form of violent conflict, representing a major threat to domestic and international security and order.
 
Apparently, the pacifying effect of trade interdependence does not translate into a robust similar effect on the domestic level. In contrast to the assumption of the structuralist literature that trade might foster conflict, the results of the model as specified suggest an overall pacifying relationship of international trade for all regime types. The magnitude of this effect is, however, dependent on the regime characteristics of the country in question. This paper shows that the impact of trade on the likelihood of the onset of armed domestic conflict is dependent on the interaction between trade and domestic institutional factors – namely regime type. The evidence for a bell-shaped relationship between the interaction of trade and regime type and domestic armed conflict indicates that the positive impact of trade is greater in countries with highly democratic and highly authoritarian regimes then in those in-between.
**Bio:
Holger Meyer is a Ph.D candidate in International Affairs at the School of Public and International Affairs at The University of Georgia. He holds a Magister Artium (“with distinction”) degree in Political Science and English Philology from Georg-August-Univesität, Göttingen, Germany. His general research interests include the impact of economic globalization on national and international institutions and post-Cold War political transformation processes. His current projects focus on the interaction of international trade, democratization and domestic conflict.
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CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS:
If anyone is interested in presenting a paper, thesis, prospectus, or dissertation please contact Jon Polk at the e-mail address or phone number listed above.
Upcoming  Forum
 

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Upcoming Forums 

On Friday, March 29th, 2013 at 2:00pm Brittany Rae Leach will present her work "SlutWalk and Sovereignty: Transnational Protest as Emergent Global Democracy" at Globis Center. 

Abstract: 
A critical challenge for contemporary political thought is to grapple with the ways emerging forms of political practice contest traditional understandings of sovereignty. In order to investigate this, I analyze SlutWalk, which began as a local protest against a Toronto police officer’s statement that women should not dress like sluts if they do not want to be victimized by rape and rapidly expanded into an anti-sexual violence movement spanning six continents. I weave an empirical examination of the SlutWalk phenomena with a theoretical interpretation. Empirically, I map the evolution and spread of the protest using first-person accounts by protestors, news media articles, photographs, and video. I also recount the movement’s internal debates, including criticisms that SlutWalk harbors racial bias as well as objections to the tactic of reclaiming language. I compare the first SlutWalk to the re-interpretations of the movement in other places and find that while the same anti-sexual violence messages are reiterated by all SlutWalks, the way these messages are conveyed are adjusted to fit the local culture. Theoretically, I contend that transnational protests cannot be comprehended within the paradigm of modern state sovereignty because they involve the coordination of political activity across national borders. To think through transnational protest, I suggest a conception of post-national democracy which centers the importance of values, practice, and identification. I argue that the modern state system is at a transitional point in which the mythos and the material power of the nation-state remain, yet new ways of practicing politics and organizing political authority are beginning to transpire. Additionally, I investigate the relationship between individual and state sovereignty, using SlutWalk’s understandings of consent and bodily autonomy to open up new ways of thinking about international and interpersonal relations.

 

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CALL FOR PRESENTATIONS:
If anyone is interested in presenting a paper, thesis, prospectus, or dissertation please contact Szymon Stojek at the e-mail address or phone number listed above.

 

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Globis Events

  • 29 Mar
    Friday Forum with Brittany Leach

    On Friday, March 29th, 2013 at 4:30pm Brittany Rae Leach will present her work "SlutWalk and Sovereignty: Transnational Protest as Emergent Global Democracy" at Globis Center.  Abstract: 
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