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Political Science

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/10342/69

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    Drivers of disaster planning among African-American households
    (2023-10-13) Pudlo, Jason; Ellis, William Curtis; McGowen, Ernest B III
    The paper seeks to explore the drivers of disaster planning in African-American households. While the paper is exploratory, we attempt to dialogue with substantial theoretical and applied research around vulnerability and disaster. Race, ethnicity, and vulnerability are issues deeply entangled with American disaster preparedness and response. In our study, we hope to illuminate the threads which bind them together and contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between race, ethnicity, class, and preparedness. Data for this project comes from a disaster planning question placed on the 2020 Collaborative Multiracial Post-Election Survey (CMPS). We analyze a split sample of around 5000 African American households descriptively and with multinomial logistic regression. Disaster planning among African American households is a product of past experiences, concern about other hazards, connected to social trust, and gender identity. These results are similar to other findings within the study of household preparedness and help to advance the understanding of predictors within the African-American community. Key drivers such as income, education level, gender identity, social trust, and perceptions of other risks are consistent with previous studies. This project is the first to examine issues of disaster planning utilizing a national sample of African-American households via the one-of-a-kind 2020 CMPS.
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    The New Cold War: US-Russian Relations Under the Trump Administration (2017-2020)
    (East Carolina University, 2020-11-23) Kriminger, Taylor
    The new Cold War is alive and well. While the original Cold War is much different from the new, it aids in providing a glimpse into what may lie ahead if tensions are not properly addressed. President Trump initially sought to address these very tensions with Russia before he was inaugurated on January 20, 2017, but events would unfold that would inevitably render that goal as a herculean task with no indications of improvement. The Trump administration would be plagued by sensational news and media hysteria that would inevitably overemphasize—or inflate—the Russian threat. This narrative is seemingly joined by Russia’s purported threat narrative that the West is actively trying to undermine Russian society. The culmination of both countries’ respective threat narratives and the lack of predictability only make miscalculation and escalation more probable, thus indicating that the bilateral relationship has entered a dangerously low point not seen since the original Cold War.
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    The Effect of Partisan Media Exposure on the 2016 Presidential Election
    (East Carolina University, 2018-05-01) Buchness, Madison Emmie
    Does partisan media influence people’s attitudes? In particular, does media bias influence voters’ attitudes toward presidential candidates? One perspective is that voters’ opinions of candidates are due to other factors, such as, social relationships or work environments. In other words, the media does not matter in opinion formation. Another possibility is that television programs do influence viewers to believe a certain message. It might be the case that viewing partisan media, like Fox and MSNBC, move opinions in a direction consistent with the message conveyed. This subject is important, as the republic was formed with the intention of having informed voters, and the media plays a vital role in educating that electorate (Lippman, 1922). The American republic stands on the idea of informed voters choosing their next leader (Carpini and Keeter, 1996). But, framing theory suggests the way an issue or candidate is “framed” affects the opinions people form about those issues or candidates. This clearly strays from the idea of a rational voter forming opinions based on information only. In this study, I used the 2016 and 2012 American National Election Studies data to examine how exposure to partisan framed media affects candidate evaluations. I find that partisan media does affect people’s feelings toward presidential candidates. In the next section, I review research on minimal effects, selective exposure, and framing to help answer the research question. Following that, I discuss the data and methods involved in the study. After an explanation of the methods that I used, I share my findings. In the final section, I present my conclusions of this analysis and the implications.
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    Comparing the Quality of Media Coverage in Democratic Elections
    (2015) Leicht, Hannah
    This research study looks to determine the varying quality of election coverage in democratic nations. Articles from USA Today and The New York Times that covered the 2012 presidential election were used to study media quality in the United States, The Daily Telegraph and The Guardian provided coverage of the 2010 British election, and The National Post and The Globe and Mail were used to examine coverage of the 2011 Canadian election. The articles chosen from these newspapers provided election coverage from one month before the respective election days. A comprehensive list of terms and phrases denoting high or low quality media coverage was used to compare the quality of the newspapers from each nation. The findings of this research showed that Canada had the highest quality media while Great Britain had the lowest. All three countries had similar percentages for low quality terms.
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    AN ANALYSIS OF THE INFLUENCE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS ON INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT
    (2014) Kearney, Kevin M.
    Perhaps no technological innovation in modern history made more of an impact on the course of international relations than the creation of the nuclear bomb. The question of its exact influence on international affairs is an important one that this thesis will discuss and analyze. / Since the creation of nuclear weapons, there have been positive and negative aspects of its influence on international affairs. Some of the positives include a decrease in devastating conventional warfare and an increased reliance on diplomacy over conflict. The negative consequences include the possibility of radiation from the use of nuclear weapons, the instability of the mutually assured destruction (MAD) principle, and complicated moral dilemmas in the use of such potentially catastrophic weapons. / Historically, political figures and theorists have had contrasting views on nuclear weapons and their influence since their deployment on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The theory of deterrence became a strong defense in favor of nuclear weapons. Deterrence theory essentially states that due to the sheer ability of a nation to counterattack in devastating way utilizing nuclear weapons, rival states are dissuaded from using their own nuclear weapons. Others have claimed that this theory is empirically illogical and very unstable. Those who support this stance include renowned political figure Henry Kissinger, who actually once supported deterrence theory, but has since reversed his position. / This thesis will center on exploring how the impacts of nuclear weapons have had an influence on the world as a whole, both through their use, and the threat of deployment, and whether my presumed positives and negatives are valid. To do this, I will describe and analyze several key cases in which I believe nuclear weapons helped avoid serious conflict. These cases include the Middle East, the Cold War, the Pakistan-India conflicts, and Japan. /
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    Al-Qaeda's "Cultural Jihad:" Violent Censorship by Al-Qaeda and Associated Movements, 2001-2011
    (Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013) Durant, David M.
    Since 2001 there have been at least 11 AQAM (Al-Qaeda and Associated Movements) terror attacks or plots directed at European targets in relation for acts of creative expression such as the Danish Muhammad cartoons or Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilk's insulting drawing of Muhammad. In addition, numerous creative intellectuals and Muslim reformers have received death threats from AQAM. Salafist -jihadists see their struggle with the United States and its allies as an all-encompassing one in which western ideas and culture pose every bit the threat that western armies and security services do. As such, silencing those "apostate" Muslims who embrace aspects of western modernity and all those who "defame the religion" and its Prophet, is as important as winning military and political victories. This "cultural jihad" is seen by Al-Qaeda and its supporters as an essential duty deeply rooted in both Islamist ideology and certain interpretations of Islamic law. It shows that AQAM is indeed motivated by what it sees as a religious-ideological imperative that transcends short-term political objectives.