International Relations Undergraduate Honors Theses

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The motives of militarizing infectious disease responses: Indonesia, Brazil, and the COVID-19 pandemic
(2025-04-29) Ramidi, Smaran Reddy
The COVID-19 Pandemic was the moment where the World Health Organization’s “Disease X” became reality for the general public. The pandemic was a moment where decades of institutional preparedness was finally tested, pushing international institutions and governments to their maxes as they faced a deadly unknown. To face the overwhelming strain many countries turned to their last resort: the military. One review found that 95% of countries used their armed forces in responding to COVID-19, a staggering number for an institution that is not frequently involved in domestic health matters. With statistics like these, it begs the question of how involved militaries were in taking on traditionally civilian roles to address the rising problems of COVID-19. Comparing the traditional position of the military with the civilian government’s preparedness for COVID-19 provided insight into the justifications for military involvement. Comparing Indonesia and Brazil, two relatively large democratic countries with a contentious civil-military history, I found that the COVID-19 pandemic offered the country’s respective militaries to progress their image and grow their power under the auspices of COVID-19. By carrying out military operations other than war that spanned from humanitarian aid and logistics to policing and biomedical research, the militaries gained confidence among the public as the nation’s defenders and the prerogative to take back the power they had previously lost to civilian governance. In Indonesia, the military worked together with the President assisting him with his political aspirations while gaining operational power within Indonesia’s democratic government. On the contrary, in Brazil the military’s support faltered as the President took authoritarian-leaning actions which threatened their societal reputation and influence. Allowing militaries to take on nontraditional roles in health crises normalizes their actions during vulnerable periods, as seen in Indonesia and Brazil, leading to a backslide in modern civil-military relations which can be stopped.
Weapons of mass distraction: information warfare in the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Gaza wars
(2025-03-29) Swanson, Jessica R.
Though states have relied on information warfare to support conventional conflicts throughout history, technological developments, particularly over the past two decades, have transformed both the actors capable of conducting operations as well as the operations themselves. Despite some international efforts to adapt law and policy to encompass this rapidly changing environment, legal frameworks remain unequipped to address the contemporary challenges posed by 21st century information warfare. By examining information operations conducted by both state and non-state actors in the Russia-Ukraine War and the Israel-Gaza War, this paper seeks to define and categorise the contemporary information landscape and identify further challenges to effective policymaking. Through an in-depth analysis of conflict-related information operations, and a comparison of actors both within the same conflict settings and between the two wars, this paper proposes additional categorisations of information operations and further identifies gaps in existing legal frameworks based on these findings.
Temporary by design: how Turkey manages, but doesn’t integrate, Syrian refugees through historical models of control
(2025-03-28) Vakili, Yasmine
My thesis examines Turkey’s Temporary Protection Regulation (TPR) for Syrian refugees as a strategic extension of long-standing state practices of population management and exclusion established since the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. While the international community often frames TPR as a humanitarian response to the Syrian refugee crisis, this paper argues that Turkey’s refugee policy is deeply rooted in the legacy of Ottoman governance, the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, and the influence of Western intervention. By utilizing a combination of both archival research from the Mark Bristol Papers and post-WWI diplomatic correspondence from the Library of Congress Manuscript Division, along with contemporary policy analysis of Syrian refugees’ rights in Turkey, this paper aims to show how the management of minority populations in the late Ottoman and early Republican periods informs Turkey’s current refugee laws and management. TPR ultimately offers limited rights and legal ambiguity, resulting in Syrian refugees existing in a state of social and economic precarity while reinforcing narratives of national security and sovereignty. The policy exemplifies how modern refugee management can serve as a tool for demographic engineering and international political leverage, rather than integration or long-term protection.
Standing the test of time: a study of the 2500-year dominance of Persian kingship in Persian nationalism
(2025-03-28) Sara Katharine (Katie) Harmon
In this thesis, I seek to understand how the complex historical past of what today is the Islamic Republic of Iran, from the founding of the Achaemenid Empire to the present day, is evoked and used in the construction of Persian nationalism. I will approach the problem through the lens of kingship and imperialism. Within this topic of kingship and imperialism, I will study individual kings, both mythical and real, as well as eras of kings and the general idea of the “Shah.” Within the realm of kingship, I will also delve into ideas such as the relationship with the “other,” and understanding the way Islam, particularly Twelver Shi’ism, impacts the understanding of the Persian Shah as it relates to Persian national identity. The thesis will seek to emphasize the impact of the perpetuation of the Persian Empire throughout history and the flexibility of the figure of the “Shah” in the construction of Persian nationalism, as well as looking at the recurrent perennialism theory of nationalism as the dominant theory of Persian nationalism. Some specific questions I intend to answer are: how does the specific figure of the Shah directly play into Persian national identity? How has this changed with each new Iranian dynasty, from Cyrus the Great to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and finally under the Islamic Republic? How do mythological kings bolster Iranian nationalism versus historical kings? How do figures that are not Iranian kings still play into the kingship mentality, ranging from the hero Rostam to Ayatollah Khomeini? How has Persian kingship and the Persian imperial model influenced the world within the Persian Empire and the world surrounding it at different periods? How does the Persian relationship with the “other” play into the kingship ideals in Persian Empire and Iran? How does Islam play into the kingship narratives in Iran? These are some interrelated questions I will seek to answer through a study of over 2500-years of Persian kingship and nationalism in Iran.
Salient, resurgent, or a flash in the pan? A comparative legislative study of American industrial policy
(2025-04-10) Martin, Jack
This paper will conduct a comparative study of American industrial policy, focusing on the policies enacted during the late 1980s and under the Biden administration in response to high- tech challenges from Japan and China, respectively. It will build upon a model of transformation packages to understand how and why industrial policy gets implemented to argue that the recent pivot towards intervention and investment in federal decision-making stems from a good-faith desire to enhance innovation. That model will be deployed to theorize how the US will continue to compete with China into the future, and if new legislation like CHIPS and the IRA represent one-off measures or are part of a broader shift in American economic policymaking.
Power, politics, and finance: how multilateral development banks shape ASEAN’s energy transition - insights from Viet Nam and Indonesia
(2025-03-28) Dang, Kim-Ngan (Katie)
This thesis examines the effectiveness of multilateral development banks (MDBs) in shaping ASEAN’s energy transition through climate finance, focusing on Viet Nam and Indonesia between 2016 and 2023. Using a mixed-methods approach that integrates project-level data analysis with qualitative policy review, the study evaluates how the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), and the World Bank Group (WBG) mobilize financial and technical resources in two of ASEAN’s largest economies. The study finds that although Indonesia received more funding, MDB financial commitments contributed a greater share to Viet Nam’s climate finance needs, GDP, and renewable energy (RE) targets.Indonesia had a higher share of technical assistance projects, reflecting the country’s complex regulatory environment. The findings highlight the importance of institutional capacity, and streamlined regulatory and policy frameworks in shaping MDB effectiveness. Regional initiatives such as the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility (ACGF) illustrate MDBs’ potential to catalyze coordinated efforts in ASEAN’s energy transition. The study concludes that MDB success depends not only on the scale of financial contributions, but also on how well MDBs navigate national and regional policy environments to accelerate the energy transition.
A polarized diaspora: the changing relationship between American Jews and Israel after October 7th
(2025-03-28) Betts, Dora
How has the relationship between Jewish American identity and Israel shifted since October 7th? Deemed ‘the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust’ by President Biden, the Hamas-led terrorist attacks on October 7th, 2023, marked a pivotal change in Jewish American support for Israel. Jewish American organizations sent nearly a billion dollars in donations to Israel after the attack during a growing movement of solidarity among Jews in support for Israel. However, the retaliatory Israeli policy and military responses after October 7th has prompted a political and generational divide between Jews in the US. Such a divide can not be generalized among individuals, however, three political movements shape the discourse: one that vies for consistent support of Zionism; one that argues for a new, progressive Zionism; and one that rejects Zionism in favor of an identity without. Within these three streams is a widening polarization between Jewish Americans that support Israel and Zionism, and those that do not. The policy and programming changes in Jewish American organizations are indicative of this, and organizations must grapple with which camp they position themselves in and the broader implications attached. For analysis, I will be looking at multiple Jewish American organizations that fall on a spectrum along these three movements: Taglit-Birthright Israel (Birthright), the American Council for Judaism (ACJ), and Jewish V oice for Peace (JVP). I will use these analyses to comprehend how Jewish American organizing can foster novel understandings of the relationship between Jewish Americans and Israel.
Big brother is watching: the integration of commercial remote sensing satellites into U.S. defense and intelligence architectures
(2025-03-29) Stussi, Thibaut A.
In the past three decades the U.S. government has increasingly adopted commercial remote sensing and imagery satellites within its military and intelligence remote sensing operations. The commercial sector, like most sectors in space, require a heavy up-front capital investment with high risk. This poses the question of why the sector developed in the first place given these high barriers to entry, what role the government had in its development, and what specific uses the government sees in commercial remote sensing. This thesis analyzes these questions and analyzes the policy development of commercial-government interactions in remote sensing, followed by a future policy analysis and policy recommendations for the sector. I find that the sector’s development was pushed by commercial growth stemming from the creation of France’s Spot Image following successful battlefield integration of commercial remote sensing during the Gulf War, which caused heightened government demand for remote sensing capability that could only be satiated by the commercial sector. The unique benefits of commercial capabilities, such as reduced barriers to information sharing, instituting redundancies into government systems, and reduce information wait times, helps explains the longevity of their integration over the creation of traditional government systems. Following this, I analyze the historical development of policy, finding key inflection points during the mid to late 1990s and the first Trump Administration, analyzing the rationale for these policy shifts and seeing their impact today. In analyzing policy development, I outline a series of faults within the existing policy framework, such as inability to address systemic differences in perspective, lackluster focus on nascent firms, and R&D disparities. In analyzing these issues, I propose a series of policy changes to address issues stemming from both these policies and historical lapses in the sector.
Democracy in the balance: movements, institutions, and the prospects of democratic deepening in Chile
(2023-03) Lopez, Sarah
State sponsored feminism in Mohammed bin Salman’s Saudi Arabia
(2024-05-01) Bilan-Cooper, Ashari
This thesis is structured as follows. First, I will begin by exploring the literature on state-led feminism and its relationship to reform in authoritarian settings. Then, I will contextualize these findings in the case of Saudi Arabia before and after MBS came to power. This comparison will provide a comprehensive foundation of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. The following sections will explore the impact of state-led educational and economic reforms on women in greater detail. Supported by literature on political liberalization, I will then introduce the limitations of political reform in Saudi Arabia and how censorship in the digital age is impeding political empowerment for women. The final section will combine critical findings from the four sections discussed, education, economic opportunity, political empowerment, and technology, to reveal that MBS’s reform ambitions disguise state-enforced repressive tactics that minimize women’s full integration and mobilization in society.
Pioneering power: the impact of artificial intelligence on international power
(2024-03-29) Nesoff, Willa; Weinstein, Jack, Lt Gen, USAF, (Ret).
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) generates profound implications for international power dynamics. With relevant benefits and risks, this is a critical point in time to analyze the role of AI within the theoretical discipline and practical application of international affairs. With proper integration, AI has the potential to strengthen existing dimensions of international power. Understanding the prerequisites of an AI ecosystem (technological infrastructure, human capital, educational system, resources, and drive), this thesis analyzes the competency of five nations (The United States, the People’s Republic of China, India, the Republic of Korea, and Japan) to foster the development of a national AI ecosystem. The nations are ranked in a tiered methodology to understand relative power positions within the international system. Currently, the United States and the People’s Republic of China are ranked in Tier 1, and India, the Republic of Korea, and Japan are ranked in Tier 3. The tiered methodology and individual analyses suggest the introduction of AI into the international system will entrench current power dynamics. First-mover advantage will sustain the global positions of already influential powers, like the United States and the People’s Republic of China, founded on early adoption, innovative environments, and economic dominance. While second and late movers will undoubtedly benefit from AI, the application and development of AI in these nations will likely address national challenges before innovative applications or international input. In terms of international power dynamics, AI will widen the power gap between central and peripheral nations of the international system by supplying dominant nations with large gains while only maintaining the power of status quo countries.
Navigating hospitality: an analysis of the response to Venezuelan migration in Colombia
King, Alex; Hare, Paul
In the last ten years, nearly three million Venezuelans have fled to neighboring Colombia, which has had to rapidly adopt various policies and collaborate with non-governmental actors both local and international to manage this unprecedented wave of migration. Colombia has not criminalized this migration either, keeping a relatively open border and permitting residency for up to ten years with full access to social services and formal employment, policies which stand out as significantly more progressive and accepting of migrants than many of their neighbors. However, a variety of factors, including the current administration which does not prioritize migration issues, Colombia’s lack of experience as a destination country for migration, and limited international cooperation have hindered the effectiveness of the country’s response. Migrants without regular status, validated educational and professional titles, and those from marginalized communities face additional challenges integrating into Colombian society and accessing services guaranteed by the government, leaving them in a state of limited legality. This thesis will examine the policies currently in place for Venezuelan migrants, as well as their effectiveness and implications in the national healthcare system, the labor market, and education, followed by suggestions for a more effective, comprehensive, and efficient integration process.
Partisan power-sharing and the outbreak of the 1994-1998 Civil War in Iraqi Kurdistan
(2024) Gordon, Gideon
Reconstructing a functioning polity after civil war or state collapse often requires the former combatants to share power in a new political system. Existing literature on post-conflict power-sharing tends to assume that co-ethnicity facilitates efforts to share power. In my research on the Kurdish civil war in northern Iraq (1994-1998), I challenge these assumptions, exploring how power-sharing can fail catastrophically within a single ethno-nationalist movement. I trace the establishment and disintegration of power-sharing institutions between the main Kurdish parties in the early 1990s, and argue that their informal “50-50” power-sharing arrangement lacked the strength to manage partisan resource conflicts. Each party continued to feel existentially threatened even with the agreement in place, and once the balance of power within Iraqi Kurdistan shifted, power-sharing institutions collapsed.
An Inter-American human rights system without the United States? Understanding why the United States has not ratified the Belém do Pará Convention
Niksch, Maecey
Violence against women (VAW) is a pervasive problem globally and is especially prevalent in the Americas. In the late 1980s, the Inter-American Commission of Women (Comisión Interamericana de Mujeres, CIM), a specialized commission of the Organization of American States (OAS), drafted the Belém do Pará Convention—a legally-binding international convention adopted in 1994 to prevent, punish, and eradicate VAW through the Inter-American human rights system. Since its adoption in 1994, the Belém do Pará Convention has become the most widely ratified international treaty in the Americas, and 32 out of 35 OAS member states have ratified it. Strikingly, the United States has not. To explain why, I examine three areas: (i) the U.S. tendency to attach reservations when ratifying international human rights treaties and the international community’s criticism of this, (ii) the limitations of the U.S. Constitution and federalist structure on ratifying international human rights treaties; and (iii) the U.S. government’s exceptionalist attitude regarding domestic VAW laws. Because of the restrictions of federalism and U.S. reservations to international human rights treaties, I argue that the U.S. government asserts exceptionalism in its own limited domestic VAW laws in order to justify its absence from the Belém do Pará Convention. Perhaps the most harrowing conclusion from my research is how U.S. absence from human rights treaties grants it impunity within the Inter-American human rights system, which has dire consequences for the ability of U.S. women to seek justice for the violence committed against them.
The politicized café: explaining the politicization of the ahwa in contemporary Egyptian social movements
(2023-03-31) Amin, Hanadi; Lori, Noora
The Arab Spring uprisings (2010-11) have inspired a recent outpouring of critical scholarship examining the logic of protests. Scholars have emphasized the role of information technologies, the experiences of particular social groups, and comparative political transformations. Less consideration has been given to the contributions of everyday spaces in this period of popular revolution. However, during the 2011 protests, Egyptian cafés facilitated political activity by providing activists space in which to organize campaigns, shelter from law enforcement, and cultivate solidarity networks among demographics traditionally segregated from one another by gender and socioeconomic class. In exploring the politicization of the Egyptian café at the onset of the Arab Spring, I pose the question: under what conditions are seemingly apolitical spaces rendered political in periods of social unrest? In my analysis, I prioritize the processes which facilitated the Egyptian café’s transformation from an everyday space into a setting for political mobilization. I argue that the ahwa’s politicization in the lead-up to the revolution reflected a shift in ordinary Egyptians’ experience of political repression from atomized and particularistic to general and collective. I demonstrate further that this collectivism served to ‘activate’ the ahwa within a broad network of politicized everyday spaces that facilitated ‘hidden in plain sight’ mobilization along Egypt’s periphery.
Tracing Patterns of Divergence in Arms Trade after the 2022 Russia-Ukraine War: Case Studies of Turkey and India
(2023-03-31) Captan, Fiona
What causes states to diverge from their historic alliances/alignments? This paper examines two case studies - Turkey and India - focusing on the degree to which alliances, arms transfers, and conflict alter each state’s status quo. Turkey joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1952 to contend with threats emanating from the Soviet Union. Today, Ankara’s foreign/defense policy diverges from that of NATO and the West in its effort to regain Ottoman-like control in the region and thus decrease dependence on Western military support. Turkey has transitioned from seeking Western aid and alignment to deter Russian aggression to being the second most powerful army in NATO with a sturdy domestic defense industry that has given it significant regional bargaining power. Initiating controversial arms deals with U.S. and Western adversaries, developing a domestic defense industry, and demonstrating the effectiveness of Turkish defense products in the Russia-Ukraine War, Ankara has decreased its alignment with NATO. India, along with Australia, Japan, and the United States, formed the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (more commonly known as the Quad) in 2007 to counter Chinese regional aggression. While the Soviet Union/Russia historically dominated India’s arms imports, the 2022 Russia-Ukraine War demonstrated the inferiority of Russian weapons. Further, a declining Russian arms industry threatens arms exports to India and India’s domestic security against the People's Republic of China (PRC). Given minimal Russian influence on India’s military doctrine, New Delhi is determined to diversify its arms suppliers to become less dependent on Russia and align more with the West and the Quad, thus edging closer to abandoning its decades-long relationship with Russia. Turkey and India are seemingly moving in different directions from their historical ties with NATO and Russia, respectively. By studying these two mid-powers in complicated alliances/alignments, we can see the different routes states take to move away from the status quo.
Lifting the Curse of the Blue Diamond: Explaining the Normalization of Relations Between Saudi Arabia and Thailand
(2023-03-31) Al Tamimi, Lila
Thirty years ago, Saudi Arabia downgraded their diplomatic and economic relationship with Thailand due to a series of crimes that occurred between 1989 and 1990. Namely, a gem heist committed by a Thai janitor in Riyadh, murders of multiple Saudi diplomats, and the disappearance of a prominent Saudi businessman rapidly soured their bilateral ties. As the Gulf Kingdom has staunchly maintained its condition that Thailand must apprehend responsible parties before normalization can occur, unsuccessful attempts from previous Thai administrations has kept the prospect of normalization at bay. Nevertheless, Saudi Arabia and Thailand announced their decision to normalize relations on January 25th, 2022. What shifted in this critical juncture that led the two countries to normalization? In contrast to speculation that economic incentives primarily influenced the decision, I argue that changes in executive power within Saudi Arabia and Thailand were the critical factors that led to normalization. Using qualitative data from news articles, government reports, and interviews as well as quantitative data from third party and government sources, I exhibit how Prayuth Chan-o-cha and Mohammed bin Salman’s rise to power enabled them to institute reforms of the country’s domestic and foreign policy objectives that characterized normalization as beneficial to state interest. I conclude my analysis by examining Saudi Arabia and Thailand’s converging foreign policy interests in the face of shifting geopolitics between the United States and China.
Flexible response: an analysis of the Trump administration’s impact on U.S. relations with Romania
(Boston University, 2020) Usherenko, Eliot
The Abraham Accords: the culmination of a decades-long normalization process between Israel and the UAE
(Boston University, 2021) Sorkin, Emily
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently became the third Arab country and first Gulf state to advance an agreement normalizing relations with Israel—the first Arab nation to do so in 26 years. After United States President Donald Trump announced the historic deal on August 13, 2020, Bahrain quickly followed suit on September 11 with its own agreement to formalize ties to Israel. Leaders from Israel, the US, the UAE, and Bahrain ultimately convened at the White House on September 15 to officially sign the Abraham Accords, which established bilateral normalization agreements between Israel and its new Gulf partners, as well as inaugurated a new era in Middle East foreign policy. In addition to Bahrain, the UAE’s new partnership with Israel also allowed for Sudan and Morocco to normalize ties to Israel and join the Abraham Accords—albeit motivated by American incentives. Even Muslim-majority Kosovo took advantage of this shift in Israeli foreign affairs to establish diplomatic ties to Israel, and Bhutan—which does not even have official relations with the US or China—also recently normalized ties to Israel. 5 Many speculate that Oman, Saudi Arabia, or Tunisia may be next to take such steps.
Separate but equal: urban spatial organization and transitional justice in Bosnia and South Africa
(Boston University, 2021) Sargeant, Madison L.
Transitional justice regimes emerged in the 20th century as a tool for states transitioning from conflict and authoritarianism to democracy and peace. Among other goals, societal reconciliation between previously hostile groups is a critical objective of these regimes. However, transitional justice regimes often fail to narrowly and tangibly address societal circumstances that influence conflict, leaving societies that adopt them vulnerable to suboptimal returns. Urban spatial organization is one such circumstance. While there is considerable evidence that urban issues are related to ethnic and racial conflict, this relationship has not yet been explored in the context of transitional justice. In this study, I examine Sarajevo and Johannesburg through both the mechanisms that define their respective states’ transitional justice regimes and each city’s demographic development. I find that there is a discernable disconnect between the expectations of transitional justice regimes and urban planning policies and realities that inhibits the success of the former by underutilizing the latter. This complicates the peacemaking process and can provide pretext for further conflict—at the very least, the disruption between the two agendas fails to be a net positive for societal reconciliation and resilience. As such, it would be mutually beneficial to urban planners and political leaders to understand the restraints political and spatial realities place on one another.

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