Cornell International Affairs Review - Volume 06, Number 1 (Fall 2012)
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Item Campaign of Devastation: Assessing Motives for the Russian Government's 1999-2000 Destruction of ChechnyaResnick, Laura (Cornell University Library, 2012-11-01)In 1999, the Russian government all but razed Chechnya’s capital city of Groznyy. The Russian military devastated Chechnya, killing thousands of civilians and wiping out vital infrastructure, signifying the capstone in a campaign of destruction inflicted on Chechnya to crush the burgeoning separatist movement. Government-rebel attacks like this one occur when governments seek to end insurgent campaigns by using force to kill rebels and destroy their base of support.1 The unusual paradox in the Russian-Chechen conflict was that the Russian government’s ultimate intent was to stop the Chechen separatist movement and re-absorb Chechnya into the Russian Federation, and yet the damage it chose to inflict on the region was unimaginable in its scope and extent. Why would a government, in effect, completely destroy its own land and ruin what it considers its own infrastructure and part of its economy? Why would a government want to inflict massive pain, suffering and death upon enormous numbers of civilians that it considers to be legitimate members of its own nation? At face value, nothing appears more ludicrous than a government murdering its own civilians and scorching its own earth. This paper endeavors to prove, however, that such brutality was not paradoxical, but had underlying normative and strategic value for the Russian government.Item A Call for Ecologically Informed Policy to Address Sex Work: Evidence From KenyaSteinacker, Léa (Cornell University Library, 2012-11-01)With the recognition that sex workers constitute a key population at higher risk for the acquisition and dissemination of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) has come an appreciation of the central role that they might assume in policy solutions to the global HIV epidemic. Since then, the activist approach and to some extent, the academic gaze have shifted from mere disease control to a more comprehensive accounting of sex workers’ lives. Policies and strategies for interventions, however, have largely lagged behind. Most interventions treat sex workers as a focal point of an infection network, while the daily realities of women and men who do sex work are often placed on the back burner of analysis.Item Lessons on Government from one Non-State Entity to Another: How the Irish Republican Movement Informs Hezbollah's Attempt at the Clausewitzian Political ArmBaumgardner, Paul (Cornell University Library, 2012-11-01)The great nineteenth-century military theorist Carl von Clausewitz changed the art of war forever with his masterwork, “On War.” This text illuminated one of Clausewitz’s greatest contributions to military thought: the Trinity of war. Clausewitz argued that a successful military campaign requires the balanced cooperation of three important levels of society: the political wing (the government), the military wing (the army), and the popular wing (the citizenry). In modern warfare, Clausewitz’s Trinity still remains an important lesson, especially for non-state actors. By examining the Irish Republican Army and Hezbollah, we can better understand how non-state actors balance the three branches of the Trinity and achieve their sociopolitical objectives.Item Effects of Islamic Banking on Financial Market Outcomes in GCC Countries and IranMorrissey, Robert (Cornell University Library, 2012-11-01)Islamic banking and finance have become increasingly widespread over the past two decades, particularly in Muslim-majority countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia. This paper uses country-level data to examine how growing Islamic banking sectors have affected financial market outcomes in six countries. The analysis is split into two parts, first testing the hypothesis that countries with large Islamic banking sectors were less affected by the 2008 financial crisis than countries with strictly conventional banking systems, and second testing the hypothesis that emerging Islamic banking sectors have had a positive effect on private saving in countries with large Muslim populations. I find evidence that the banking systems of countries with large Islamic banking sectors fared no better at providing credit during the financial crisis than conventional alternatives, but do find evidence supporting a positive correlation between Islamic bank development and private saving.Item A Pacifist in the Pacific: Past, Present, and Future United States Policy Towards MyanmarLong, Sean K. (Cornell University Library, 2012-11-01)Myanmar, sitting on the border between South and Southeast Asia, reflects a historically oppressive state with internal struggle as surrounding countries compete for influence. In 1990, the government promised multi-party elections only to ignore the results and imprison advocates for democracy, including Aung San Suu Kyi, the face of Myanmar’s democratic movement. Afterwards, the United States adopted economic sanctions and restricted ties with the country. Recently, leaders in Myanmar have reached out to the United States for the first time in decades. With policy towards Myanmar at a crossroads, how can the United States pursue its own interests while influencing Myanmar’s slow transition to political and economic change?Item Revisions to Lipset's Economic Theory of Democratic Development: India as a Case StudyBanerjee, Anwesha (Cornell University Library, 2012-11-01)Seymour M. Lipset dubbed economic development a “social requisite to democracy,” considering factors such as national wealth, a large degree of industrialization, and high levels of education to be necessary fertilizers to prepare a breeding ground for democracy. Citing many different cases throughout history leading up to the present (which, for him at the time of writing his article, “Some Social Requisites of Democracy,” was 1959), he famously posited that “the more well-to-do a nation, the greater the chances that it will sustain democracy.”1 While these arguments may ring true for many countries (particularly Western ones), one country in particular does not follow that trend and, thus, fails to fit into his model. That country is India.Item Cornell International Affairs Review: Fall 2012Cornell International Affairs Review, Editorial Board (Cornell University Library, 2012-11-01)Item Should the Responsibility to Protect be Enshrined in International Law?Lo, Amanda (Cornell University Library, 2012-11-01)While states admit a moral responsibility to take action against states that violate human rights and international criminal law, international law does not create any legally binding obligations on states to prevent or punish violators of human rights. Yet, enshrining the “responsibility to protect” in international law will only threaten the stability of the international system that has long operated based on the norm of state sovereignty and the principle of non-interference.