2004–2005 IGCC Dissertation Fellows

2004–2005 Dissertation Fellows

Toshihiko Aono

Graduate Department: History, UC Santa Barbara

As a native of Hiroshima, I learned the disastrous effects of atomic bombs in my school days. In class activities, I has several chances to talk with "Hibakusha" and visited the Hiroshima Peace Museum. Some of my friends are the children of "Hibakusha." These experiences stimulated my interest in problems of peace and war, especially nuclear issues.

Goals: After I complete my graduate work, I hope to be engaged in researching and teaching international history as a major research university.

Dissertation title: The Twin Crises of the Cold War: Berlin, Cuba, and Anglo-American Relations, 1961–1963

Abstract: My dissertation explores policy interactions between the United States and Britain during the Berlin Crisis and the Cuban Missile Crisis. I re-interpret the two crises, which have long been recognized as separate events, as the interconnected "twin crises," because the experience of the Berlin Crisis informed the British and American response in the Cuban Crisis. My project also re-examines the British role in the twin crises. Washington and London kept close intergovernmental contact throughout the crises. More than the existing studies suggested, Britain influenced American decision-making and played an important role in the twin crises. The notion of the "twin crises" and the significance of the British role contribute to understanding the dynamics of the global Cold War system of the early 1960s and the roles of alliance politics in the resolution of superpower conflicts.

Lisa Blaydes

Graduate Department: Political Science, UC Los Angeles

Dissertation title: Instrumental Islam: Strategic Interaction in the Arab World

Numerous trips to study Arabic in the Middle East and a growing understanding of how bad government and ineffective institutions can affect people's lives stimulated my interest in issues of global conflict and cooperation.

Goals: I want to become a university professor and publish a book about how political institutions affect regime change and democracy in the Arab world.

Abstract: The resolution of inter- and intrastate conflict is nowhere more desired than in the Middle East. In my dissertation, I present a theoretical framework for explaining the strategic interaction—that is, the interdependent decision-making processes—that takes place as key actors bargain over the set of terms and conditions to resolve long-standing conflict. I argue that negotiating to change the political status quo can be viewed as a bargaining game where various actors negotiate the terms of the new political institutions. I examine three important cases of conflict resolution in light of the basic propositions generated by bargaining theory: the Israeli–Palestinian peace process 1992-96, the Sudanese Civil Conflict 1989–present, and Yemeni Reunification 1986–90.

Suzanne Burg

Hometown: New Providence, New Jersey

Graduate Department: Communications, UC San Diego

I became interested in famine early warning and response while working as a volunteer lecturer in Mekella, Ethiopia, during the 1999–2000 famine and war with Eritrea and observing their combined effects on the local population.

Goals: I intend to pursue an academic career. My future research interests will include conflict early warning systems in the Horn of Africa.

Dissertation title: The Politics of Information in Famine Early Warning: Implications for Famine Detection, Mitigation, and Prevention

Abstract: This study examines the political choices behind the methodologies that different famine early warning systems use. Early warning systems have become important to famine prevention since the mid-1970s but have not succeeded in reducing famine occurrences. One reason is lack of consensus on what causes famine and how to eradicate it. The differences between famine early warning systems operated by different international and national organizations indicate this lack of consensus. The danger is that different systems disagree about whether famine is imminent, delaying response. My hypotheses are: 1) the politics of these systems and competition between them influence their design; and 2) this impairs their ability to detect famines. I examine these through interview and archival data to be collected in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rome, and Washington, DC.

Sung-eun Choi

Hometown: Los Angeles, California and Seoul, Korea

Graduate Department: History, UC Los Angeles

Having come from a geographic region of intense political conflict, I have always believed in the importance of examining historical and social change in their global contexts. Several major historical events converged and transformed the Korean peninsula: colonial domination, the Cold War, and mass democratic movements in the context of global capitalistic changes in East Asia. Having spent a good deal of my childhood in the United States, I am also a product of global movement and migration. My early education in the French language and French history have allowed me to pursue my interests in yet another geographic region.

Goals: I would ultimately like to teach and research global conflict and the ways in which the intersecting interests of nationalism and global participation profoundly influence the lives of transnational migrants.

Dissertation title: Resolution of the Algerian Conflict and Citizenship Politics in Postcolonial France: 1962–1990

Abstract: The resolution of the Algerian War of Independence as an international conflict continues well beyond its closure to influence domestic and foreign policies in France with regard to its former North African colony. Decolonization history is central to the understanding of France's politics on minorities and its continued effort to integrate the white settlers who populated Algeria under colonialism. This project attempts to reinstate this history while examining its relevance for the study on the effects of decolonization on foreign policy.

Joseph Conti

Graduate Department: Sociology, UC Santa Barbara

Hometown: Littleton, Colorado

My interest in the World Trade Organization began with volunteering at a community center where I became involved in the mobilization for the protests against the 1999 WTO ministerial meetings in Seattle. Dissatisfied with explanations for how the WTO operates, I began to seek a more detailed and analytical understanding of issues related to law, power, and trade.

Goals: In the future, I wish to contribute to a larger public dialogue on the reform of the institutions of global governance and the construction of a fair and just global economic system.

Dissertation title: Power Through Process: Determinants of Dispute Resolution Outcomes in the World Trade Organization

Abstract: Proponents of the WTO have argued that its juridical model of dispute resolution has created a "level playing field" for the resolution of trade disputes between large and small nations. But, critics have charged that power imbalances in WTO jurisprudence and dispute settlement reproduce the relations of dependence that characterize the larger world political economy. This dissertation will use event history analysis and interviews to address this debate by testing hypotheses about power advantages that may arise from hegemonic dominance, world system position, or experience as a repeat player in the litigation process. The findings will address the equity of WTO practices and contribute to debates in many fields about the structure of global governance, the nature of power in international institutions, and the potential for conflict between states over trade and economic competition.

Katja Favretto

Hometown: Ljubljana, Slovenia

Graduate Department: Political Science, UC Los Angeles

My interest in global conflict and cooperation was stimulated by personal experiences related to the break-up of Yugoslavia.

Goals: Academic research and teaching.

Dissertation title: Bargaining in the Shadow of War: Bias and Coercion in Superpower Mediation

Abstract: In this project, I develop and test a formal model of international crisis bargaining to examine the relationship between the degree of mediator bias and the success or failure of mediation. I show, game theoretically, that the mediator's bias can influence the outcome of mediation by revealing private information about whether or not the mediator is resolved to enforce a settlement through the use of force. When bias is high, a peaceful outcome is more likely because the disputed parties are more certain that the mediator is resolute. By contrast, when the degree of bias is middling, negotiations are more inclined to fail because one or more of the disputants may expect that the mediator is incapable of punishing the disputant who fails to settle.

Eleonory Gilburd

Hometown: Buffalo Grove, Illinois

Graduate Department: History, UC Berkeley

I am a first-generation émigré from the former Soviet Union, and in a sense, the global process scholars describe—the flow and traffic of goods, humans, and technologies; contact zones and in cultural borderlands; multivalent identities and multiple attachments—have cut into the very fabric of my family's life. I think in personal terms my interest in cross-cultural encounters emerged initially from strange combination of reading European literature amidst the invariable, dreary Soviet everyday (that is, imaginative border-crossing) and immigration to the United States by way of Vienna and Rome (that is, real, and multiple, border-crossing).

Goals: I hope to teach European, Russian, and international history at both the undergraduate and graduate level. I plan to revise my dissertation for publication as a book and to continue researching and writing.

Dissertation title: To See Paris and Die: Foreign Culture in the Soviet Union, 1956–1968

Abstract: In my dissertation I examine how the Soviet government and the educated Russian-speaking public "saw Paris" in the 1950s and 1960s: how they imagined the "West," tasted its fruit, and were profoundly transformed in the process. In the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse, the country was deluged by foreign words, thoughts, and artifacts, yet its immediate antecedent, a cultural invasion no less significant or spectacular, has not been systematically explored. I argue that in the 1950s and 1960s, the intrusion of foreign culture—as cause, effect, and one facet of de-Stalinization—resulted in a dramatic restructuring of Soviet society, substantial reshaping of the subject-government relationship, and a profound transformation of Soviet culture and the regime. My study reconsiders the reformism of the 1950s in the context of cross-cultural interactions.

Eunyoung Ha

Hometown: Seoul, Korea

Graduate Department: Political Science, UC Los Angeles

The goal of my dissertation project is to analyze the relationship between globalization and income inequality in both developed and developing countries and to pay close attention to the role of domestic political institutions, that is, the ideological position of the government. I became interested in this topic for two reasons. First, I want to identify those who benefit from and those who are harmed by the integrated world market. Second, I would like to study whether redistribution policies of the government can still play an important role for income equality even in the midst of globalization.

Goals: As a globalization specialist, I plan to continue researching the impact of globalization on domestic political economies. I would like to suggest favorable government policies to increase welfare but reduce conflict under globalization.

Dissertation title: Globalization, the Ideological Position of the Government, and Income Inequality

Abstract: Despite increased scholarly concern over the relationship between globalization and income inequality in recent years, current empirical studies still have two main problems. First, most studies focus only on developed countries. Yet, because globalization can impact income inequality differently in developed and developing countries, to clarify the relationship, we have to study inequality in both developed and developing countries. Second, most studies on developing countries emphasize only economic factors. Yet, the ideological position—left, central, or right—of the government still strongly influences income inequality both in developed and developing countries even in the midst of globalization. In sum, the goal of my dissertation project is to explain the relationship between globalization and income inequality in both developed and developing countries with a focus on developing countries.

Cullen Hendrix

Hometown: Kalamazoo, Michigan

Graduate Department: Political Science, UC San Diego

Living in southern Mexico first opened my eyes to the effects of uneven development and natural resource dependence in the developing world.

Dissertation title: The Paradox of Plenty Revisited: States and Insurgents in the Resource-Dependent World

Abstract: Civil conflict is the predominant form of political violence in the world today. While there is a growing awareness of which states are at risk of experiencing such wars, we still do not understand why some conflicts are more violent than others and the determinants of insurgent group relations with local populations. I argue that natural resource endowments and patterns of external support affect the incentives of insurgent groups to organize hierarchically and engage in violence against local populations. I develop a model of the insurgent group as a local monopoly provider of goods and services facing competition. This allows me to predict the effects of changes in the structure of economic opportunities for insurgent behavior. I employ both large-N econometric analysis and case-study based analysis of movements in the Philippines, Colombia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Angola.

Barak Daniel Hoffman

Hometown: Baltimore, Maryland

Graduate Department: Political Science, UC San Diego

My interest in global cooperation stems from trying to understand why some countries are wealthy while others are desperately poor. Attempting to account for income disparities around the world led me to comprehend the magnitude of global poverty and sparked a desire to design solutions to the problem.

Goals: I want to conduct policy-oriented research on understanding how foreign aid mediates between aid-recipient governments and the citizens those governments represent.

Dissertation title: The Impact of Foreign Aid on Democracy

Abstract: How does foreign aid affect politics in aid-recipient countries? Notwithstanding donor assertions, foreign assistance appears to be undermining democracy. Surprisingly, we know remarkably little about how aid and democratic institutions are linked causally. On the one hand, recipient governments may be using aid as a form of patronage. On the other hand, conditions on aid may force recipient governments to treat aid donors as their primary constituency. In order to investigate these causal processes, I propose a country case study of Tanzania and request a grant to conduct research in that country. Because this study will clarify the political impact of existing programs, the results will provide donors with guidance they need to make more informed decisions concerning the role their aid plays in mediating relations between recipient governments and their citizens.

Susan Hyde

Hometown: Sisters, Oregon

Graduate Department: Political Science, UC San Diego

While studying abroad in Chile in 1999, my eyes were opened to the diverse effects of U.S. foreign policy as well as the positive effects of democratization. While in graduate school, I realized that there was little work being done on the interaction between domestic politics and international democracy promotion.

Goals: I hope to become an academic at a research university and produce work that is relevant and readable to policymakers while also being theoretically and methodologically sound.

Dissertation title: Foreign Democracy Promotion, Norm Development, and Democratization: Explaining the Causes and Consequences of Internationally Monitored Elections

Abstract: The role of international actors in the process of democratization has been insufficiently explored. This project explains why international election monitoring developed as an international norm, despite the fact that it was initially considered a violation of sovereignty. I argue that leaders of truly democratizing countries had the incentive to signal their intent to the international community. Pseudo-democrats could get the same benefits by holding elections and inviting monitors, thus leading to the development of an international norm. I document the trend of monitored election over time, provide a two-stage signaling game, and quantitatively test the implications of this game. I also propose a field experiment to test the effectiveness of monitoring, and argue that while monitors cannot deter all forms of fraud, they change the likely type of electoral manipulation.

Alexander Kolev

Abstract: I propose to investigate what explains the successful accommodation of the post-Communist ethnic conflicts in Bulgaria, Estonia, Kazakhstan, and Macedonia. Through the construction of analytic narratives, I will examine the behavior of the major domestic political forces (both of the majority and minority) in each of the four cases and how this behavior was affected by influences from the "kin states" of the ethnic minorities and from major international actors like the European Union. The evidence will come from secondary sources and dissertations, interviews with local academic specialists and NGO representatives, media reports and analysis, and archival work. The four narratives will be compared in search of a pattern of external influences modifying the behavior of the domestic actors, and this pattern will be tested

Jamus Lim

Hometown: Singapore

Graduate Department: Economics, UC Santa Cruz

My broad research interests lie at the intersection of political economy and international finance. Hence, almost by definition, my research leads me to consider the influence of conflicting interests, the interaction of this inherent homogeneity, and the implications that this holds for future cooperation. For example, one of my research areas looks at the role that special interests such as global banks play in the flow of global capital, and the impact of institutions such as the IMF in mediating the conflicts that arise.

Goals: I hope to enter into academia, possibly at a liberal arts college that would afford both the opportunity to continue my interdisciplinary research as well as the possibility of shaping and inspiring young minds in this area.

Dissertation title: Essays in Positive International Political Economy: Special Interest Politics
and International Financial Policy

Abstract: Economic globalization and the concomitant economic liberalization of countries worldwide has led to the increasing politicization of international financial policy. The aim of this dissertation is to apply the micro-based modeling framework of special interest politics to phenomena in international finance. It seeks to examine the redistributive effects of a financial crisis, and the role of the IMF in post-crisis resolution; and the impact of special interests on a managed float of an exchange rate, and the political factors therein that induce currency crises. The dissertation has the potential to inform international policymaking, thus building bases for intergovernmental cooperation; while at the same time drive institutional design and reform, thus easing the concerns of anti-globalization protesters, a source of recent global conflict.

Gary Milante

Hometown: Moorpark, California

Graduate Department: Economics, UC Irvine

A conscientious upbringing and study in the humanities instilled in me a strong sense of justice and ethics. World inequality and poverty are challenges to anyone committed to these principles. However, history suggests that these issues cannot be properly addressed in environments of war and unrest. Incorporating the incentives for cooperation into our policies on alleviating poverty can increase their efficacy.

Goals: I intend to work for the World Bank, United Nations, or other international organizations, applying my understanding of conflict and economics to influence policy.

Dissertation title: Economic Determinants and Consequences of Conflict

Abstract: The dissertation addresses the issues of conflict and inequality and then develops the implications of conflict for international trade and prosperity. The author first develops a theoretical approach to issues of equality and conflict, showing that conflict has a non-monotonic (initially increasing and then decreasing) relationship with inequality. Empirical research on equality and conflict confirm the theory and reject recent empirical findings that there is no relationship between equality and conflict. A second empirical analysis provides positive rational for policy: International institutions that strive to increase trade and development should pursue policies that reduce conflict-increasing inequality.

Mark Schuller

Graduate Department: Anthropology, UC Santa Barbara

Dissertation title: Globalization of Local Civil Society: Effects of Bilateral Funding on Recipient Women's NGOs in Haiti

Abstract: Is conflict a latent effect of global cooperation? Does bilateral aid given directly to women's non government organizations (NGOs) contribute to divisions between state and local civil society? What effect does bilateral aid have on recipients NGO's autonomy and women's participation? To answer these questions, researcher is conducting a two-year multi-sited project in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, San Francisco, New York, Boston, and Washington, D.C. Specifically. IGCC funds are sought to complete the second year of Haiti fieldwork, before researcher applies to participate in the summer 2005 UCDC program. Proposed research integrates quantitative and qualitative data collection methods, combining strengths of long-term participant observation and comparative survey methods. A triangulation of approaches such as discourse and regression analysis investigates research questions. Results will be shared with a diverse group of policymaking and local NGO audiences in addition to contributing to scholarly literatures of globalization, civil society and women's studies.

Laura Wimberley

Hometown: Wilmington, Delaware

Graduate Department: Political Science, UC San Diego

My dissertation was prompted in part by the pre-war debate over the U.S. invasion of Iraq. Much of the disagreement was about expectations about post-war governance, but political science research offered little guidance. I hope my general theory and historical comparisons in the dissertation will shed some light on this important concern.

Goals: I hope to continue my policy-relevant research, while also teaching students how to be critical yet constructive citizens.

Dissertation title: Pyrrhic Peace: Governance Costs and the Utility of War

Abstract: Wars fought over territory or regime type do not automatically confer benefits on the victor. If a winner is to extract anything useful from a target population, it must monitor, reward, and sanction compliance with and resistance to the policy it imposes, which is costly. Formal models show that as a population's internal organizational capacity and level of grievance increases, so do governance costs. Nationalism, experience with democratic participation, and ethno-linguistic fractionalization are among the factors which determine a population's incentives and ability to resist. This dissertation uses quantitative data that captures the ability to impose governance costs to predict the level of militarization of regime and territorial disputes, and qualitative data from four cases to demonstrate the existence and consequences of resistance.

Mark Eric Zegler

Hometown: San Diego, California

Graduate Department: Interdepartmental Graduate Program in Marine Sciences, UC Santa Barbara

I have always been passionate about the sea. I also grew up near the U.S.–Mexico border and have seen that sustainable management of the oceans requires international cooperation. As a student of marine science and environmental policy, I realize that the peaceful resolution of transboundary marine conservation conflicts will become more important in the twenty-first century.

Goals: I would like to become an applied researcher and practitioner for understanding how collaborative learning can be used to manage common pool resource tenure conflicts associated with the development of marine protected-area programs.

Dissertation title: The Prospect of Collaborative Learning for Managing Environmental Conflicts: Comparative Caribbean Case Studies

Abstract: My study focuses on understanding the theory and practice of how collaborative learning processes for adaptive management can be used to resolve conflicts that relate to transboundary marine protected areas. A framework was developed in order to understand issues that inhibit collaboration. This framework integrates conservation biology, conflict resolution, environmental institutions, and political ecology. This framework will evaluate hypothesis that explain how cross-scale interaction can lead to conditions of environmental conflict. Anthropological and geographic information science techniques will be used to collect ethnographic data and conduct spatial analysis. Research will be conducted within the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System Program and focus on the Bacalar Chico National Park and Marine Reserve in Belize and the Xcalak Reefs Reserve in Quintana Roo, Mexico.

Zachary Zwald

Hometown: Modesto, California

Graduate Department: Political Science, UC Berkeley

Interest in my current research on the interaction of strategic beliefs with technical information concerning missile defense is the result of a life-long fascination with the nature of military conflict. This interest has been furthered by my growing skepticism of rational explanations for immensely complex policy issues, particularly when the costs are high as they are in decisions to use military force.

Goals: My immediate goal is to teach at the university level. Eventually I would like to get involved in arms control policy.

Dissertation title: Preference Formation and Policymaking with Complex Technology

Abstract: This project seeks to explain U.S. policy on missile defense from 1963 to the present. I contend that policymakers' understandings of strategic concepts shape their understandings of technology when assessing its capability and purpose, and ultimately determine the developmental trajectory of missile defense. To evaluate this position, I am conducting in-depth historical analysis, process tracing, and interviews. Specifically, I have cataloged information from major newspapers and journals during the period of interest as well as transcripts from congressional committee hearings and votes. Through analysis of this data I will explain the origin and influence of strategic concepts, their effect on technical assessments of missile defense, and the effect of these technical assessments on the direction of missile defense policy.

*renewal

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