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The Belt Tightens: China's Learning Curve on Employing Soft Power in Sri Lanka
Tizard, Will ; Hrishabh, Sandilya (vedoucí práce) ; Romancov, Michael (oponent)
The Belt Tightens: China's learning curve on employing soft power Sri Lanka Will Tizard Master's Thesis Department of Geopolitical Studies January 2018 Abstract As China's ascendency in the geopolitical order accelerates, lesser powers are increasingly critical to the growth of its economy, trade relationships and international prestige. Sri Lanka, long a useful entity for the Middle Kingdom, has benefited substantially from Chinese investment and cordial relations. During the hardline Rajapaksa regime and 26-year civil war in Sri Lanka, Chinese largesse allowed the island nation's power structure not just to sustain itself but to consolidate and to stand astride impressive development projects even as it faced sanctions from the West over its human rights record and authoritarian rule. Nine years on from the end of the destabilizing civil war, I examine how the Eastern embrace evolved from soft power into increasingly strategic hard power in Sri Lanka. I also consider the limitations of this success: Although it was clearly more effective than the more traditional hard-power economic sanctions from the West in achieving its goals, the still-evolving skills of China and Sri Lanka in converting resources into effective soft power have resulted in behaviors that are hardly projecting a glowing, attractive...
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Political and Social Implications of Changes in Rock Music in Prague Since the Late 1960's
Sheridan, Flanna ; Calda, Miloš (vedoucí práce) ; Hrishabh, Sandilya (oponent)
Music has played an important role in the political and social developments in former Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic over the past 40 years. The underground movement that was born during the 1960's and 1970's and its younger cousin the alternativa movement have had a substantial impact on the perception of Czech society and its political scene as well as influenced several generations of listeners. It is often considered to have heavily contributed to the events leading up to the Velvet Revolution. In the 1980's, it drew criticism from the state for facets such as language. The 1990's brought a vast amount of international music and commercialization, though it is important to note underground trading of international music was very strong even before the Velvet Revolution. Czech music may have shifted toward an apolitical role, but the power of musical movements have been proven by the lessons of the past. The political role may be have been inadvertent, but no t inert. Its role is to be taken into consideration in the events that took place during up until 1989. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to better understand the role of music in Czech society, specifically the underground movement, in its effect on society and politics.
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Afghanistan: role of drug business in the internal conflict
Zhaliapava, Liudmila ; Nožina, Miroslav (vedoucí práce) ; Hrishabh, Sandilya (oponent)
This work is focused on Afghanistan, which is one of the centers of the world drug business. Plus Afghanistan is a zone of the old military conflict. However, this is not evidence that this conflict and drug business is connected. Nevertheless, shady regional economy is functioning in that region, and big part of it is drug business. The center of this economy is Afghanistan, place of long military conflict. Connections between drug business and military confrontation in conflict regions along the crucial trafficking routes are attended as well. This problem is took up by the example of one of the main route of traffic - from Afghanistan to Central-Asian piece of northern, or "Silk" road. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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Sex for Sale: Globalization and Human Trafficking
Aiello, Annmarie ; Levrincová, Petra (vedoucí práce) ; Hrishabh, Sandilya (oponent)
The practice of trafficking has many different facets; drug trafficking, arms trafficking and human trafficking complete the top three illegal trafficking practices today. Human trafficking may be the third highest illegal trafficking practice, however there is inadequate mainstream information on the affects of the trade and horrifying issues that incorporate trafficking in human beings. This paper will discuss how the globalized world has been enabling trafficking in human beings with a concentration on South Eastern Europe. In the future this hopefully will not be a pressing issue that needs to researched and discussed but until then raising awareness and education is the best solution in combating human trafficking. In today's time trafficking of women for sexual exploitation is rapidly growing in South Eastern Europe and is known to be in the fourth wave.160 Trafficking affects almost every country in the world and is significantly higher during different periods of history. Since South Eastern Europe is currently a breading, transportation and in some cases a destination country, it is an integral region dealing with human trafficking, which must be examined. Unlike the other waves of human trafficking, the fourth wave has an added trigger and enabler of globalization. Studying how Globalization is...
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Geopolitical impact of China's search for energy on the Indian Ocean and South China Sea
Rodd, William ; Hrishabh, Sandilya (vedoucí práce) ; Riegl, Martin (oponent)
This thesis examines the geopolitical consequences of China's search for energy resources on the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. It provides a brief outline of the energy situation of the world as a whole, specifically how it is becoming a more globalized and singular market. This change is occurring at the same time as a pronounced shift away from the traditional measurements of 'power' towards 'softer' more subtle definitions. There is a brief section outlining the geopolitical teachings of Alfred T. Mahan, specifically how he advocated seapower primarily for the purpose of providing the stability and security necessary for trade. Chinese analysts have been embracing the teachings of Mahan, but also interpreting them in a way that justifies the naval buildup Beijing has been embarking on in recent years. The paper briefly looks at the potential sources that China could turn to meet its energy needs, but concludes that it will have to rely on oil for the foreseeable future. It then attempts to define overall Chinese interests, specifically how nearly all of these relate somehow to energy security, thus underlining the importance of this topic to leaders in Beijing. The last half of the work delves into a geopolitical analysis of the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, and how militarization in the...
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The VA: A Political Solution to a Societal Problem
Henceroth, Nathan William ; Raška, Francis (vedoucí práce) ; Hrishabh, Sandilya (oponent)
Thesis Abstract The thesis of this project is that the United States' Department of Veteran Affairs, the VA, is a political creation, since its foundations were not charitable, economic, faith-based, ethnic, etc. Its foundation was purely on the political wherewithal and expediency that the Federal Government in Washington, DC felt during the interwar years, and the threat to American society that many WWI veterans posed as a result of their being angry at not receiving advanced payments on their bonuses. This is the central thesis, albeit nuanced, that pre determined whether the VA had any chance at succeeding at its goals. Secondarily, this paper outlines why the VA has been able to become the relative success that it has been. With regards to the starting point at which many veterans enter into the VA health care system, the results have been nothing less than a minor miracle. This aspect is analyzed and outlined within the body of the paper, and specific examples are given in support. In addition, the VA's health care system is explained, and its organization is presented in the form of maps and charts to expedite the reader's knowledge acquisition. To fully understand the VA's outreach, its organization must be understood. It is important to understand the context in which the VA was created, and the...
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A Search for Common Ground - Disparity With & Within the Arab League
Crisp, Daniel ; Riegl, Martin (vedoucí práce) ; Hrishabh, Sandilya (oponent)
The Arab League is an International Organization that is not unifying the Arab Community. There are many reasons for this. It has many incongruences in what is necessary to have a unified and successful regional body. Some are infrastructural, some are cultural, some are behavioral, and some are a combination. Most notably the lack of commonality is a key issue especially in the face of a proclaimed Arab identity. That problem is further exacerbated by the polemic rather than academic nature of discourse on Arabism, Islam and the region. Another key problem faced in the region is the multitude of wars. The many wars have created instability, chaos, and an inability to move forward in the region often due to their cyclical nature. There is nothing uniting the region as a whole, although arab and islamic movements have tried. Nationalism has prevailed as the cohesive unit in the region. In that regard, the nation is the only structure in place to deal with the many crises that the region continues to face. There is no umma and what is more there is no concrete arab identity, it is only based on history. Though there are societal customs and institutions inherited from that history, one of which is the emphasis on honor over acquisition (though not absolute in the region). This makes the pursuit of a union of...
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Geopolitical impact of China's search for energy on the Indian Ocean and South China Sea
Rodd, William ; Hrishabh, Sandilya (vedoucí práce) ; Riegl, Martin (oponent)
This thesis examines the geopolitical consequences of China's search for energy resources on the Indian Ocean and South China Sea. It provides a brief outline of the energy situation of the world as a whole, specifically how it is becoming a more globalized and singular market. This change is occurring at the same time as a pronounced shift away from the traditional measurements of 'power' towards 'softer' more subtle definitions. There is a brief section outlining the geopolitical teachings of Alfred T. Mahan, specifically how he advocated seapower primarily for the purpose of providing the stability and security necessary for trade. Chinese analysts have been embracing the teachings of Mahan, but also interpreting them in a way that justifies the naval buildup Beijing has been embarking on in recent years. The paper briefly looks at the potential sources that China could turn to meet its energy needs, but concludes that it will have to rely on oil for the foreseeable future. It then attempts to define overall Chinese interests, specifically how nearly all of these relate somehow to energy security, thus underlining the importance of this topic to leaders in Beijing. The last half of the work delves into a geopolitical analysis of the Indian Ocean and South China Sea, and how militarization in the...
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The WTO, Agribusiness, and the Third Food Regime
Wilhelm-Ross, Samuel ; Hrishabh, Sandilya (vedoucí práce) ; Bernard Thompson Mikes, Antonin (oponent)
Food regime theory emerged in the 1980s as a tool to delineate the history of the modern food system. Scholars insist that we have arrived at the third and putative corporate food regime that is dominated by a select group of agribusiness corporations. The corporate food regime"s ascent to dominance will be presented here as a product of the realization of neoliberal trade policies at the urging of the World Trade Organization. Initially promising development to fledgling countries, the WTO"s forays into agriculture have amounted to nothing less than a catastrophe for the Global South. The hope that developing countries would be able to trade their way out of debt has long been abandoned, and the gap between the developed and developing world has only been further exacerbated as a result of trade liberalization. Worse yet, the WTO"s Agreement on Agriculture was intentionally littered with loopholes that allow Northern countries to egregiously subsidize crops that are then exported off to Southern markets at artificially low prices, crippling local producers in the process. Through examining import and export flows in the Global South since the trade agreement, this cruel feature of the modern food system will become evident as will the subsequent jump in agribusiness" profits amid the direst of...
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