Publication Type: Proceeding

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: All policy flows from the ideational construction of policy subjects and how they are imagined to be affected by a proposed policy intervention. Policymaking, of all types, must have a distinct imagination of the subjects that the policy is purported to effect; those subjects could be the family, victims of crime, industrial and corporate workers, enemy combatants, immigrants, taxpayers, or what have you. The crucial point is that policymaking cannot occur in the absence of legislators’ imagination of policy subjects. In this paper, I develop this argument in the context of the ‘family’ as a policy subject that underlies all family legislation, where family legislation or policy is loosely defined as inclusive of all those policies that are seen to affect the functioning and well-being of American families. Family policy therefore covers a diverse range of policy categories, such as tax, health care, labor, social security, crimes against children, contraception, welfare, marriage, and education policies, from a multitude of others. Driving, or underlying, all these policies is a distinct imagination of ‘family’ as the subject of legislation. As we shall see in this paper, members of congress from the two major parties have two distinct ideational frames or mental images of the family. These ideational frames are, I suggest, a Republican one of a Strict Parent family and a Democratic one of a Nurturing Environment family. Fundamental differences in the imagination of ‘family’ as a policy subject inform equally fundamental variations in how members from the two parties come to see and understand problems that assail the family and accordingly, how they purport to fix those problems through policy.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The main question addressed by this paper is whether or not there are some grounds for optimism that since the 2004 elections some of the problems pertaining to the institutionalization of democracy in Romania since 1989 are likely to be corrected. The problems include serious questions regarding the rule of law, the clientelistic nature of political parties, the lack of accountability of political elites, and the use of a constructive rather than a personalized and accusatory dialogue between political opponents.
The conclusion of the paper is that so far, Romania seems to resemble the model of an “incomplete democracy” and is less likely in the foreseeable to approximate the model of a liberal democracy.
It also remains to be seen whether the process of accession to the EU and the latter’s monitoring of the justice system will result in a real reformation or whether it will remain at the level of cosmetic surgery.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Liberia has been in a protracted armed conflict since 1989, and has proven to be a threat to the West African sub-region, instigating and fuelling wars in Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ivory Coast. Consequently, Liberia has (along with some of its neighbours) spiraled to the bottom of the development index. Children and young people were invaluable in the Liberian conflict, and this paper will examine their involvement in the war through both security and development lenses.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of what many
considered to be a bipolar international system, many scholars of
international conflict have been looking for new grand theories for our
newly globalized, post-Cold War system. One scholar in particular,
Samuel Huntington, and his provocative ?civilizations? theory, has
drawn a significant amount of critical attention from conflict
scholars. Though there have been two significant quantitative tests of
some of the hypotheses from Clash of Civilizations (CoC) that found
little to no empirical support for Huntington?s assertions, (Henderson
and Tucker 1999; Russett et al 2000), there has yet to be a
comprehensive statistical test of Huntington?s theory during the post
Cold War era due past data limitations. This study utilizes updated
data from the International Correlates of War Project (ICOW), which
allows me to do a more comprehensive, quantitative test of CoC during
the post Cold War era. I improve upon previous studies of CoC by
adding an additional nine years in the post Cold War era as well as
using both militarized disputes (MID?s) as well as international wars
as dependent variables in the study.