Theses/Dissertations - Political Science
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Browsing Theses/Dissertations - Political Science by Author "Clinton, W. David."
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Item Diplomatic immunity : the history and enduring significance.(2022-03-25) Carroll Beaty, Olivia M., 1989-; Clinton, W. David.Is diplomatic immunity a transitory or permanent feature of international life? This dissertation will answer this question by exploring the theory, history, and contemporary understanding of diplomatic immunity. A case study of the recently verified Amarna Age will provide evidence of this nature. After affirming that diplomatic immunity is indeed a permanent and essential feature of international relations, this study shall examine the intersection of the public’s current understanding of this practice and the duties of the modern state. A case study of a recent outcry against diplomatic immunity will be examined to highlight how tensions can manifest in today’s networked society. Given that some manifestation of diplomatic immunity is a natural and permanent feature of international relations, what methods can be utilized to hold diplomats accountable while also preserving this important practice? This dissertation will map a few ways that accountability can be fostered within the current system of international relations without requiring a major overhaul of current international treaties.Item Good for self and good for others : Rousseau’s construction of international politics.(2016-04-05) King, Joshua D., 1987-; Corey, David D.; Clinton, W. David.My dissertation situates Rousseau’s international thought within the generally accepted categories of IR Scholarship. Was he a realist, a liberal, a constructivist, or something else? I argue that he does indeed exhibit tendencies of realism as well as modern constructivism but, ultimately, transcends both of these categories. Like realists, Rousseau is deeply aware that the struggle for power permeates social life. Awareness of and participation in this struggle conditions the behavior of individuals and states. Rousseau also shares with Constructivism the belief that state interests and political structures are the result of ongoing social and historic processes that continue to be constructed, interpreted, and revised. The ongoing construction of identities, interests, and institutions, means that change is possible, even in the international realm. Rousseau, however, is neither Realist nor Constructivist in the way he appeals to nature as the basis for his socio-political criticism. Rousseau’s arguments do not issue in a call for modern man to return to a state of nature, but they do affect the kind of “constructs” Rousseau is willing to entertain as legitimate. In order to improve political constructions, we must more nearly approximate psychological unity and strive to better correlate physical ability with psychological need. Social and political structures, including hierarchies of power, are necessary features of human life, but Rousseau also sees that such structures have a profoundly humanizing role to play in cultivating civic virtue, forming individual identity, and constraining amour propre. Rousseau articulates a responsibility to pursue international justice and suggests ways to do so through domestic politics, while acknowledging the intrinsic limitations bound up in humanity’s social existence.Item Hamiltonianism : Alexander Hamilton on American foreign policy.(2019-03-01) Boucher, Joshua Gregory, 1991-; Clinton, W. David.American foreign policy-making often involves a choice between various “traditions.” Hamiltonianism is one such tradition that has informed decision making throughout American history. However, Hamiltonianism has not been previously well-defined in terms of its namesake. This dissertation asks two questions: what are the principles of Alexander Hamilton’s foreign policy? And are those principles reflected in the foreign policies of other American foreign policy makers throughout history? Through a close-reading of several of Hamilton’s most important essays, letters, and other documents, the dissertation better defines Hamiltonianism by pointing towards several foundational principles in the tradition. The dissertation begins by examining Hamilton on the national interest, then on human nature, international law, war, commerce, and diplomacy. It examines Hamilton’s writings on justice, and determines that it is just for states to take care of their own but also to fairly take into account the interests of others when possible. It examines Hamilton on institutional responsibility in foreign policy, and on the importance and use of national honor in policy making. Finally, the dissertation looks for Hamiltonian principles in action in various policy-makers throughout American history. In the end, the dissertation does determine that there are principles in Hamiltonianism and where we can find them in Hamilton’s writings, as well as where those principles have been used from future policy-makers in American history.Item Jonathan Swift's response to the challenge of modernity : a reading of Gulliver's Travels.(2019-04-08) Condra, Clinton Charles, 1984-; Clinton, W. David.In Gulliver’s Travels Swift does obliquely what he does in his sermons and non-satirical writings more directly: he defends a settled social order, which was held together morally by a common Christian religion and led politically by men of property and liberal education, or by gentlemen. Swift defends this order not as perfect but as preferable, despite its imperfections, to the proposed and emerging modern alternatives. In the settled order he sees better prospects for what he calls in one of his sermons “the present happiness of mankind.” By this he means the measure of happiness available to human beings in this world, which he describes in the same sermon as intended by God to be “a place of trial” rather than anything like the “place of rest [that men] would make it.” Modernity is presented in the Travels as an attempt—or as a set of similar and similarly dangerous attempts—to transform the world into a place of rest, and Gulliver is decisively modern in his attraction to each of these attempts.Item Justice, prudence, and foreign relations in Aristotle’s political thought.(2015-07-23) Sims, Stephen Patrick, 1987-; Nichols, Mary P.; Clinton, W. David.This dissertation examines how the political thought of Aristotle addresses foreign relations and the nature of international politics. I argue that for Aristotle the practice of justice and prudence occurs only in relation to the common good of particular and separate political communities. Thus, the possibility of human happiness, understood to be the life of virtue, depends on the existence of separate and free political communities. Aristotle nevertheless understands natural justice and natural friendship as a sign of a fundamental human community, which helps explain his concern for just foreign relations. Thus, although human happiness depends on participation in a self-sufficient political community, it does not prescind from human relationships that cross the boundaries of political communities. I conclude by showing how Aristotle’s political thought combines strengths of contemporary theories, such as realism, liberalism, or cosmopolitanism, while at the same time avoiding their weaknesses.Item Montesquieu's moderate statesmanship and the Sino-American relationship.(December 2022) Ruiz, Christopher, 1988-; Clinton, W. David.This dissertation’s point of departure is the observation that many general theories of international politics have been unable to isolate a lodestar by which American statesmen can navigate the rise of China. A principal problem these theories face is an overreliance on parsimonious, abstract systems in their explanations and predictions of international behavior. The international political thought of Montesquieu is a fruitful alternative for statesmen. Rather than reducing international political life to a system of interaction between general causes, Montesquieu’s corpus shows that the real impact of general causes can only be understood as qualified by both particular circumstances—which find expression in the decisively particular political communities that span the globe—and human freedom. The infinity of particular circumstances and indeterminacy of free human actions will invariably frustrate attempts to solve international problems or predict international behavior with any certainty. Accordingly, Montesquieu demonstrates that a statesmanship founded on both intellectual and practical moderation, as opposed to a kind of mathematical certitude derived from abstract systems, is the best way to understand international political life. This dissertation illustrates Montesquieu’s contribution to international political thought through an ongoing discussion of how Montesquieu’s thought can help American statesmen navigate the contemporary Sino-American relationship.Item Raymond Aron and his dialogues in an age of ideologies.(2020-01-10) Orlando, Nathan, 1988-; Clinton, W. David.This dissertation examines the thought and rhetoric of scholar and editorialist Raymond Aron by exploring his conversations on politics during the Cold War with several of his more well-known interlocutors, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Friedrich Hayek, Henry Kissinger, and Charles de Gaulle. Each chapter finds Aron at odds with one of his contemporaries on a particular matter of policy in order to reveal the prudence of Aron’s politics of understanding as well as the emphasis he places on and virtue he demonstrates in public discourse. Through his dialogues, Aron shows us not only how to think politically but also how to engage in constructive public debate.Item The common law of nations : the ius gentium in the political thought of Francisco Suárez, S.J.(2019-03-26) Gonzalez, Michael Roland, 1995-; Clinton, W. David.Francisco Suárez preserved and refined the classical notion of ius gentium for modernity. According to Suárez, the law of nations consisted in mutually recognized norms that govern international conduct in war and peace, bearing legal status as customary standards. As such, the ius gentium offered a tenable basis for international order in a post-Christendom world, becoming the foundation for international relations in the emerging epoch of nation states. Suárez presented the ius gentium as a means to international order without an international authority. He proposed that states, as communitates perfectae, or self-sufficient and independent authorities, could govern international life together through common effort. By explicating Suárez’s international thought, and by comparing and contrasting it with that of Hugo Grotius and Edmund Burke, I will endeavor to demonstrate that Suárez’s account of international relations most accurately identifies the bases for international order without international authority.Item The nature of global contest : will-to-power and Nietzsche's international politics.(2020-01-13) Carr, Rex G., Jr., 1983-; Clinton, W. David.Though known for its sweeping and encompassing character, Nietzsche’s thought has had little influence in the field of international politics. This is striking given the frequency with which Nietzsche writes not only of nations, but of the significance of their relationships. To address this deficit, as well as foster new and productive engagement with Nietzsche within the field of international politics, the following study articulates what I understand to be the theory of international politics implied by, and operating within, Nietzsche’s philosophy. Beginning with Nietzsche’s foundational theory of will-to-power, I detail its relationship to human flourishing as understood by Nietzsche, and the importance of social constructions: Nietzsche considers culture, society, and even the state as natural human creations intended to aid man in establishing life-enhancing relationships with the primal forces of life as articulated in the theory of will-to-power. But of equal importance with respect to human flourishing is the international system within which such domestic energies and associations operate: I argue that Nietzsche conceives of the international system as an essential arena in which those life-enhancing agonistic struggles between culturally distinct populations deemed necessary for human flourishing are able to occur on a grand and far more consequential scale. Furthermore, I demonstrate the ways in which Nietzsche sees international politics becoming only more central to mankind’s future following the Death of God: Western man’s two-millennia long physiological transformation, combined with a civilizational post-God cultural exhaustion lead Nietzsche to view the coming age as one defined by global conflicts over the future of the species. Informed by analysis of these and other key concepts, I articulate a naturally emergent model of international politics: aristocratic in character, the center of such politics is cultural vitality rather than material power, with communities struggling against one another in pursuit of creative energy. I conclude by situating this model among the dominant theories within the field of international politics, and discuss at length its implications regarding liberalism and the current standards of international morality.Item The wars of peoples : science, democracy, and international politics in the thought of Winston Churchill.(2018-10-18) Jeffrey, Marjorie L., 1990-; Clinton, W. David.This dissertation investigates Churchill’s understanding of international relations, primarily by reading and analyzing several of his war histories. The first chapter explains Churchill’s historical philosophy, and reviews much of the secondary literature across the project as a whole. The second chapter looks at episodes from The World Crisis which teach important lessons about wartime statesmanship, or lack thereof. The third chapter examines the importance of peace-making as a part of the obligations of leaders in war. The failures of peace-making after World War I serve as urgent lessons for future leaders about the possibilities and limitations of peace-making, and particularly of what not to do, or what to seek to avoid. In seeking to understand Churchill’s teachings on international relations, his prescriptions for international politics and diplomacy in the twentieth century cannot be understood apart from his fears about the dangers of science and democracy, especially when combined. This is a running theme throughout the dissertation, dealt with directly in the fourth chapter, concerning Churchill’s most urgent warnings about science, democracy, and the future. In the fifth chapter, I turn to Churchill’s practical prescriptions for improved relations between states with an investigation of what he means by stating that honor can be a guide for international relations.