As modern-day economists continue to raise concerns about an increasingly likely economic recession, policymakers should examine recent economic crises to determine potential takeaways or implications for future events. The 2008 financial crisis was a defining global political and economic event. Two significant markets impacted were the United States and the European Union, who pursued divergent financial and monetary policy responses to the crisis despite their close relationship. Most existing scholarship focuses on the institutional differences in policy implementation, analyzing their impact on the overall economic trajectory. However, this thesis found that despite differences in economic indicators, anger leading to instability remained in both the U.S. and the EU, regardless of the current overall economic state. In both regions, anger and upheaval were centered around the unequal economic distribution and inequality levels, which the everyday citizens viewed as only exacerbated by the economic crisis and the resultant policy decisions.

Contrary to current economic analysis, which focuses primarily on overarching macroeconomic factors and statistics to draw conclusions, researchers and policymakers should treat income inequality as a significant outcome and indicator of a crisis response rather than an afterthought. The 2008 financial crisis in both markets showed that despite varying levels of recovery in specific economic indicators, the lack of importance placed on equitable economic distribution led to worldwide political upheaval and created a backlash that still reverberates today.

Economic crisis moments, both in the past years and in the future, should be treated as an opportunity to make progress in reducing income and wealth inequality rather than policymakers simply striving to maintain the status quo. The economic downturn caused by the COVID pandemic in 2020 and its resultant response showed that policymakers still are not adequately emphasizing the importance of equitable policies and are underestimating the importance of long-term political stability in favor of economic metrics.

Smart city technologies have been repurposed by authoritarian regimes as a new, non-intrusive mechanism of authoritarian control and governance, focusing specifically on the case of Hong Kong under increasing influence from mainland China. While smart cities are typically promoted as innovations for urban efficiency, sustainability, and improved quality of life, their implementation in Hong Kong reveals a more complex reality—one where digital infrastructure has the ability to be used to suppress dissent and reinforce centralized urban governance. Through the historical and political contextualization of Hong Kong’s transition from colonial apathy to democratic aspiration, this paper highlights how the promise of “One Country, Two Systems” has steadily eroded with the assistance of smart city technologies. The Chinese central government’s deployment of non-intrusive surveillance under the guise of smart city initiatives, has enabled a rising perception of a depoliticized, yet deeply invasive, model of enforcing social order. Methodologically, the research employs a comparative case study analysis, analyzing Hong Kong’s smart city evolution with those in both Western democratic contexts and mainland Chinese cities, as well as perceptions from residents in the respective spheres. The study draws on policy documents, scholarly literature, and publicly available surveillance infrastructure data, along with conceptual frameworks regarding the role of civic participation, state-private partnerships, and authoritarian resilience. By comparing Western and Chinese approaches to smart cities and analyzing the public-private dynamics at play, this thesis argues that Hong Kong serves as a pivotal case illustrating the global implications of specific methods perpetuating digital authoritarianism. It will be demonstrated how smart cities will never be completely politically neutral, and that in authoritarian contexts, smart cities have the potential to become sophisticated tools for monitoring, regulating, and ultimately silencing civil political society. In response to this analysis, this thesis also identifies and evaluates potential mechanisms for resisting or mitigating the repressive and invasive functions of smart city technologies, providing a framework for safeguarding urban autonomy in the digital age.

Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine has shocked the European security landscape, particularly the European defense industry. This thesis evaluates how this change in the international geopolitical order has shaped national preferences for defense industrial integration within the European Union (EU). Drawing on existing integration and defense industry literature, it considers three possible outcomes of this external shock on preferences for defense industrial integration: increased delegation of competence from the Member States to the European Union, increased preference for intergovernmental coordination but not change of competence, or the continuance of the status quo. To examine the effects of the invasion on Member State preferences, this thesis focuses on the supply (production and exports) and demand (procurement and imports) sides of the European defense industry. Ultimately, it demonstrates that Member States prefer increased intergovernmental coordination on defense industrial issues. In an additional application of the external shock framework, the thesis also finds that the second Trump administration, and resultant turmoil in the trans-Atlantic relations, has further generated a preference for increased intergovernmental coordination but with greater impetus and urgency than previously observed.

As a result of the rise of Salafi extremism in the 2000s and 2010s, states in the Muslim world implemented policies to address this rising threat to their government’s stability. To this end, some states sponsored Sufism, an Islamic ideology traditionally stereotyped as apolitical and peaceful, as an ideological opposition to Salafi extremism. However, out of the many states in the Muslim world that held relatively significant Sufi populations and could have sponsored Sufism, only four chose to do so. Dozens of other governments pursued other policies, such as the promotion of an indistinct “moderate” Islam or the reinforcement of nonsectarian values, to oppose growing Salafi extremism. This thesis argues that these governments chose to not sponsor Sufism out of fear that it would undermine the state’s political-religious legitimacy. This legitimacy was usually born out of a governmental commitment to secular or nonsectarian ideals. Thus, sponsoring Sufism would have undermined the state’s dedication to those ideals and therefore their governing legitimacy.

How can Congress take back power that it has ceded to the presidency in order to fulfill its constitutional obligation as a balancing power against the executive branch? This is the motivating question of this thesis. The United States is currently in a political era characterized by polarization, increasingly intense animus between Democrats and Republicans, executive aggrandizement, and democratic deconsolidation. All of these trends can be traced back to failures of Congress to act, oftentimes delegating its legislative powers to the executive branch due to political gridlock. Social media and the constant news cycle have created incentives for Members of Congress to value political communication with the general public more than the actual practice of legislating, contributing to the persistent inaction that Congress is known for in the modern era. This Thesis takes a retrospective look at the original theories that were used by the Framers of the Constitution to create Congress, trying to understand what their intentions were in its design so as to better understand what is in need of fixing in the modern institution. Following this logic and a robust secondary source analysis, this paper complicates the notion of government transparency as an absolute moral good and poses the question: would it be better for Congress to decrease its transparency efforts in favor of curating a more deliberative legislative environment? This question is understood through the case example of the appropriations process, understanding that Congress’s Power of the Purse is essential to its operation as the Article I. branch of the federal government. The Constitution would suggest that a less transparent Congress is well within the bounds of permissibility, directly referencing items related to transparency in the document itself. After grappling further with the notion of transparency versus secrecy, legislatively feasible reforms grounded by the original intent of the Framers of the Constitution are proposed. These reforms could properly diminish special interest groups’ influence over lawmakers as well as protect Congress from a power hungry executive branch. Ultimately, it is entirely feasible for Congress to enact reforms that decrease its transparency so that it may, counter to intuition, work better for the American people.

cemented. Yet, the boundaries of what's permissible and impermissible may also fluctuate and develop as a result of these catalysts of change. While there is nothing inherently wrong with progress, unchecked evolution may become domineering and furthermore oppressive. The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate Princeton's progress and, furthermore, the institution's current actions. Essentially, it is to evaluate the fairness, wisdom, and overall accurate judgment of their response against the Palestinian protesters. However, this evaluation will not be done by a student, post-doc researcher, or member of the faculty. Rather, the actions of the past will be called to judge the performance of the present. Using Princeton's past interactions with student-led protests, this paper will examine similarities, consistencies, and, importantly, discrepancies between various eras of protests and the most recent War on Gaza protests. As such, this endeavor will be done through the analysis of four specific eras of Princeotnian protests: The Vietnam era, The South African Apartheid era, The Black Lives Matter era, and finally, the War on Gaza era. In each of the eras, there will be three main connecting variables of comparison. Firstly, the demands of the activists. What was the central issue or problem that the group was protesting against? How do the demands of the group illustrate their values and, furthermore, their relationship with the public and Princeton? The next variable of analysis is the form of expression, i.e., Protests, sit-ins, etc. How did the specific student group express their ideas? Were they confrontational and disruptive? Lastly, the final mode of analysis is the university's response. In other words, how did the university interact with the actions of the student group? Did they meet them with hostility or restraint? Were they deaf or receptive to the demands of the student group? Nevertheless, why are these the three main variables of analysis? These variables are important in understanding Princeton's management of the War on Gaza protests. For instance, if throughout the four cases we find a stark similarity of demands and forms of protests; however, the Institutional responses on the War on Gaza was inherently harsher than other cases , this would provide evidence of inconsistencies of management, hypocrisy, and most importantly discrimination. In other words, let us presume the protestors in the BLM or Apartheid era performed eerily similar protests as their War on Gaza counterparts did and, furthermore, had inherently similar demands. Yet, the Princeton administration treated the War on Gaza protesters in a more brash and harsher way. While this is not on-the-dot evidence for straightforward crimes, it would still pose a problematic situation for Princeton. If an analysis such as this were to happen, a deeper understanding of why Princeton veered away from its methodology of the past would need to be performed. Questions revolving around the notion of what made Palestinian protesters different from Vietnam, Apartheid, and Black Lives Matter protesters if their demands and forms of protesting were similar. Nonetheless, in order to get to that train of thought, the following analysis has to be made. In the next four chapters, each respective era will be analyzed based on this methodology.

In 2024, the U.S. provided nearly $13 billion in foreign assistance directly to sub-Saharan Africa. That aid contributed to healthcare, education, economic growth, and governance. For decades, providing foreign assistance has enjoyed bipartisan support in the U.S. because the benefits to soft power at home, and transformative change abroad, are recognized as crucial for supporting the national interest of global peace and stability. If the U.S. allocates nearly a third of all foreign assistance to sub-Saharan Africa, and this aid, when effective, bolsters our national security, it is imperative to know that it works. A subset of U.S. aid is categorized as “Governance,” and includes programs aimed at supporting and strengthening civil society. In post-conflict countries, it is particularly important that good governance is pursued because it supports stability and the prevention of future conflict. However, it was previously unclear how effective “Governance” aid is at improving governance outcomes in post-conflict states, especially compared to other categories of aid. To address this gap in the literature and provide recommendations to U.S. policymakers for maximizing the potential of U.S. aid, this thesis utilizes a three-pronged approach to assess the impact of U.S. aid on governance outcomes in Uganda and in Rwanda. By combining a two-country comparison, qualitative research of U.S. and local documents, analysis of development and governance data, and interviews, I am able to ascertain the relationship between U.S. aid and governance in the focus countries. The results indicate that the impact of “Governance” aid depends heavily on the country context and political landscape, and the U.S. should adjust the type of aid and corresponding conditions for aid in post-conflict countries accordingly.

Major international sporting events have increasingly become arenas of immense societal, cultural, economic, and political significance. For instance, hosting the 1992 Olympics had massive economic benefits for Barcelona, the 2010 World Cup in South Africa showcased to the world how the country had evolved post-apartheid, and the 2024 Paris Olympics displayed the richness of French history and culture. In 2026, Senegal will host the 4th Summer Edition of the Youth Olympic Games, across the cities of Dakar, Diamniadio, and Saly. The 2026 Youth Olympics not only marks the first time that Senegal will host a major international sporting event but also the first Olympic event held on the African continent. Accordingly, the Youth Olympics represent a crucial opportunity to investigate and understand how to successfully execute a major international sporting event in Africa, particularly in West Africa. This thesis explores policies that could ensure the success of the upcoming 2026 Summer Youth Olympic Games. This thesis proposes a number of recommendations for the Senegalese government and the Dakar 2026 Organizing Committee on the most effective approach for hosting the Games and the policies that will maximize its impact. The central research question guiding this thesis is: What approach—economic, political, or cultural—to hosting international sporting events should the Dakar 2026 Organizing Committee and Senegalese government pursue, and what specific policies will contribute to the success of this approach? The thesis relies on case studies of past international sporting events and detailed interviews conducted with those organizing the event in real time. Utilizing a case study methodology, this thesis analyzes the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil (economic), the 2008 Olympics in Beijing (political), and the 2024 Olympics in Paris (cultural). Each case study includes an overview of the sporting event, the context of the host country, a deeper discussion of the benefits and challenges of the specific approach, and the relevance for Dakar 2026. This thesis then incorporates expert perspectives from individuals within the Dakar 2026 Organizing Committee and the Ministry of Youth, Sports, and Culture. These interviews and conversations offered key insights into the Senegalese context and the current state of preparations for the 2026 Youth Olympics. Drawing from these two methods, this thesis advises the Senegalese government and Dakar 2026 Organizing Committee to implement a joint economic and cultural approach to maximize the success of this historic event. These economically and culturally oriented policy recommendations include the creation of youth athletic pathways, the development of public transportation infrastructure, a Dakar 2026 Cultural Olympiad, inclusion of various ethnicities and rural communities, and fostering greater environmental sustainability. The findings from this thesis assist in creating a new model for evaluating future international sporting events, especially those held in Africa.

There has been a steady increase in book bans and school curriculum censorship in recent years. In fact, PEN America has documented nearly 16,000 book bans in US public schools since 2021. Book bans and other forms of school curriculum censorship can greatly disrupt a school’s ability to provide an inclusive education to students. An inclusive curriculum is essential as it allows students to see their own experiences reflected in what they are learning, thus affirming their identity. On top of this, such a curriculum can help foster empathy and understanding. Current literature on the topic of book bans and curriculum censorship focuses particularly on the perspectives of teachers and librarians in conservative states, where legislative book bans have been fully implemented. An existing gap in the literature is the lack of perspectives from educators and students in progressive states. Though many of these states have mandates for inclusivity in school curricula, the threat of censorship remains prominent. To address this gap, this study examines three specific questions: Are schools creating an inclusive curriculum and school environment? How does the threat of curriculum censorship affect schools in states considered to be the most progressive? Are state mandates for inclusive curricula enough to ensure an inclusive school education? To find answers to these questions, I interviewed students, teachers, and library staff in three US school districts located in progressive states. Simi Valley School District and Conejo Valley School District in California and Princeton Public School District in New Jersey. Findings from this study suggest that although educators in these districts typically try their best to teach an inclusive curriculum, there are still some areas where students and the educators themselves say the curriculum can be improved upon. A contributing factor to this gap is the lack of resources, such as textbooks, that align with the state mandates. In addition to this, parent complaints and local school boards have the ability to severely impact curriculum, as shown in the Conejo Valley School District. Rather than facing “hard restrictions,” such as legislative book bans, progressive states tend to face “soft restrictions” on curriculum, which is censorship that is enforced by societal norms and the local community, rather than through law. While much of the power regarding the specificities of school curriculum resides in local school boards, current federal attacks on diversity, equity, and inclusion have led participants to feel uncertain about what the future holds in terms of curriculum censorship. Based on the findings, in order to ensure an inclusive curriculum to all US students, it is recommended to 1) Respond to the Trump Administration’s anti-DEI invoices through state coalitions, 2) Set forth specific state-level policies for what an inclusive school curriculum looks like at the K-5, 6-8, and 9-12 level AND add inclusivity training requirements for teachers, and 3) Have K-12 mandates for inclusivity on the local level, through inclusivity task forces and Professional Learning Communities.

As global climate change intensifies, extreme heat events are becoming more frequent and severe, posing an increasing threat to public health. India is particularly vulnerable to adverse health outcomes from extreme heat due to its geographical location, rapid urbanization, high population density, and socioeconomic inequality. To mitigate this risk, the World Health Organization (WHO) has promoted the adoption of Heat Health Action Plans (HHAPs) to help governments plan context-specific strategies to deal with adverse health outcomes from extreme heat. These plans are guided by WHO criteria for high quality and effective implementation. However, there has been little research into the quality and implementation of India’s state and sub-state level HHAPs, particularly in regions most at risk. This thesis examines inequities in the adequacy- which encompasses both quality and implementation- and presence of HHAPs across Indian states. There were two central research questions in this thesis: (1) Do India’s state-level HHAPs meet the adequacy standards set by the WHO? (2) Is there an equity gap in HHAP adequacy and presence between the most and least vulnerable states? The first hypothesis predicted that the most vulnerable states would have the lowest HHAP quality and weakest implementation due to systemic inequities. The second hypothesis posited there would be an equity gap between highly vulnerable and less vulnerable states, thereby widening health and adaptation policy inequities. Using a mixed-methods approach, a content analysis of India’s state and sub-state level HHAPs using WHO criteria was conducted, and State HHAP Adequacy and Vulnerability Indexes were developed. Geospatial mapping was also performed to compare climate vulnerability and HHAP presence across India’s states. The results show that while the most vulnerable states do not always have the worst HHAP adequacy, there is an equity gap in HHAP adequacy and presence between the most and least vulnerable states. The most vulnerable states do not have the best nor highest presence of HHAPs despite the greatest need. Additionally, many of India’s HHAPs are not well implemented, failing to meet all of the WHO’s phases for effective implementation. Hence, the results highlight the need for improved implementation of existing plans as well as prioritization for the most vulnerable states. This thesis concludes with policy recommendations: strengthening HHAP implementation, focusing on the most vulnerable states, and improving HHAP quality. It is imperative that those most at risk are effectively protected from the adverse health impacts from extreme heat.

For Australia to remain the partner of choice to Pacific nations, they must become more receptive to them and allow them to exercise agency over their region. As China increases their engagement with the Pacific, they threatens Australia’s position as the partner of choice to Pacific island nations. This paper explores how Australia is not addressing the key concerns, priorities and goals of Pacific Island nations through their Pacific Step-Up initiative and military deterrence method. Australia’s Australian Financing Facility for the Pacific and Pacific Australian Labour Mobility program do not address key concerns and priorities of Pacific nations and have instead focused on projects that seek to benefit Australia more than Pacific nations. Australia’s military strategy to deter Chinese military presence in the region also undermines Pacific leaders' agency over the region they call home. Australia, instead of partnering with Pacific nations to address the concern of China in the Pacific, have decided to address this with other external partners and has ignored Pacific leaders' priorities and agency over how to handle this geopolitical competition. This paper finds that Australia’s Pacific Step-Up initiative and military engagement in the region don’t have a focus on the core issues that Pacific Island nations face, and ignores the agency of Pacific leaders. This could result in China offering a more receptive partnership to Pacific nations, and cause Australia to no longer be the partner of choice to Pacific nations.

Microfinance institutions (MFIs) operate at the intersection of financial sustainability and social impact, aiming to provide underserved populations, particularly women, with access to credit. While women are often considered more reliable borrowers, existing research has not definitively established whether lending to women enhances MFI profitability. This study examines whether MFIs can achieve financial stability while maintaining their mission of empowering women. Using a dataset of almost 3,000 MFIs in developing countries from MIX Market, we analyze how gender-targeted lending influences MFI financial performance across three profitability measures. Our regression models incorporate key control variables, including institutional size, loan quality, and institution type, to isolate the effects of lending to women. Additionally, we assess whether supplemental non-financial services, such as female loan officers and microenterprise education, amplify the financial impact of gender-targeted lending, by addressing the unique challenges that women face in developing countries. Our results indicate that while targeting women does not significantly affect overall profitability, a higher percentage of female borrowers is associated with lower delinquency rates- a distinction not observed when measuring gross loan allocation to women. Additionally, we find that female loan officers reinforce these positive repayment effects and, among profitable institutions, enhance profitability. However, our analysis also reveals surprising inefficiencies in enterprise training services, which, contrary to expectations, appear to yield minimal or even negative effects. Our findings contribute to the broader discussion on the viability of social impact finance, shedding light on whether prioritizing women as borrowers strengthens or strains MFI financial sustainability.

The primary goal of this thesis is to reevaluate past U.S. foreign policy toward North Korea and propose future strategies to address the persistent threats and crises posed by the regime. Following a review of the Korean Peninsula’s modern history since World War II and the existing academic literature, this study analyzes the engagement and hardline approaches adopted by U.S. administrations from President Clinton to President Biden, offering a critical assessment of their achievements and limitations. It then examines North Korea’s contemporary realities—including extreme poverty, systematic human rights violations, and the two prominent roles of nuclear weapons—to propose a revised policy framework that includes both engagement and hardline approaches. By drawing lessons from previous administrations and recognizing the Kim Jong Un regime’s sole policy goal—the survival of the regime—this thesis concludes that the present and future U.S. administrations must adopt a posture of strategic skepticism rather than one rooted in optimism.

Period poverty refers to a lack of access to menstrual products that are sanitary and safe to use, menstrual hygiene, and menstrual education. For many Americans, a lack of access to menstrual products may not seem like an urgent cause. In fact, there is often an assumption that a high-income country, like the United States, does not struggle with access to essential sanitary products. However, in a national study conducted by PERIOD.org, in the United States of America, 1 in 4 teens and 1 in 3 adults struggle to afford period products. The public school space is an important site where period poverty manifests. When a young girl cannot afford safe and sanitary menstrual products, she may be physically uncomfortable and distracted in the classroom. However, menstrual stigma adds an additional layer— she may feel a sense of shame and embarrassment. These factors cumulate resulting in increased absenteeism, as well as a worse experience within the education system for all menstruating students.

There has been an increasing movement to provide free menstrual products within public schools, as a way to combat menstrual inequity. In August of 2023, the state of New Jersey enacted Bill S-1221, requiring the provision of menstrual products, free of charge, for all public schools serving students in grades 6-12. The policy requires that school districts provide menstrual products in at least 50% of female and gender-neutral school bathrooms.

Due to the stigmatized nature of menstruation there is very limited data on the prevalence of period poverty in schools, as there is for similar educational barriers, such as food insecurity. Given the novelty of policy interventions to help combat period poverty in schools, like menstrual product mandates, there is no public data or studies on the current state of implementation of these policies. Thus, given the recent implementation of New Jersey’s menstrual product mandate in schools, this thesis conducts oversight for the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE), to evaluate the current state of implementation. To assess how street-level bureaucrats are forging the implementation of New Jersey’s anti-period poverty program, this study evaluates how methods of implementation differ across schools defined by differences in their levels of student need and bureaucratic complexity.

This thesis aims to understand the following questions: To what extent have public school districts in New Jersey have complied with the Bill: S-1221, requiring the provision of menstrual products for all public schools serving students in grades 6-12? What are the roles of various street-level bureaucrats in the implementation of this policy? Thus far, what have been the challenges, and successes, of the implementation of this policy? To what extent did the state of New Jersey, and the New Jersey Department of Education adequately prepare school districts to implement this policy, and how does this preparedness vary based on the need and complexity of the district? To answer these research questions, I conducted 29 semi-structured interviews with street-level bureaucrats, such as superintendents, teachers, administrators, and school nurses, to better understand what the current menstrual product policy looked like on the ground-level, I developed a method of school district categorization, to analyze how implementation varies with complexity and student-need.

This thesis concludes with 11 policy recommendations for the New Jersey Department of Education and New Jersey Department of Health, to support street-level bureaucrats with the implementation of the free menstrual product program. This thesis works to highlight the and uplift recommendations of the street-level bureaucrats, within New Jersey Public Schools.

As large language model (LLM) chatbots become increasingly accessible, concerns have emerged about users relying on them for professional advice in high-stakes domains like law, given their tendency to produce inaccurate, misleading, and biased responses. While a small body of existing research suggests that many people are willing to consult chatbots for legal advice, little is known about what the nature of these interactions might be, users' willingness to trust and act on the information they receive, and how various factors influence perceptions. We investigate these questions through a large-scale survey experiment involving over 900 participants. Ultimately, we find that 21% of participants had previously used an AI chatbot for legal advice, and that the vast majority considered the advice credible and used it to take action. After assessing participants' prior use of AI chatbots for legal advice, we randomly assigned them to one of five treatment groups. Each group, with the exception of the control, was exposed to either a warning message (weak, medium, or strong) or a marketing claim modeled after real statements made by OpenAI about GPT-4's performance on the Bar Exam. Participants were then presented with a legal scenario, asked about their initial intended course of action, prompted to interact with an embedded chatbot for advice, and assessed on their perceptions of this advice. Contrary to our expectations, statistical analysis did not reveal a significant relationship between the marketing claim we test and user trust. However, qualitative evidence suggests that it may have influenced trust at the individual level. Similarly, warning messages - styled after those on leading chatbot interfaces - did not appear to significantly reduce trust or deter users from relying on chatbots for sensitive legal issues. Stronger warnings showed modest, though inconclusive effects. These findings carry important implications for the degree of legal liability developers may face. Design and marketing choices that overstate the capabilities of chatbots or otherwise fail to inform users about their limitations might expose developers to liability under doctrines such as negligent misrepresentation and consumer protection law. Based on these considerations, we develop a set of policy recommendations that would simultaneously help limit the degree of liability faced by developers and protect users from the risks of overreliance on AI-generated legal advice.

This thesis examines President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s strategic rhetoric through comparative content analysis of his speeches on Turkey’s military interventions in Syria and diplomatic positioning on the Israel-Palestine issue from 2016-2024. Analyzing more than 60 speeches, this study challenges conventional characterizations of Erdoğan as either strictly pragmatic or ideological. The quantitative analysis reveals nuanced patterns: ideological language dominates in Palestine speeches (52.24%) while pragmatic language prevails in Syria speeches (54.37%), though these proportions shifted significantly over time. Most notably, a dramatic reversal occurred by 2024, with Syria speeches showing an extraordinary ideological-to-pragmatic ratio of 4.28, far exceeding Palestine’s more balanced ratio of 1.0 in 2023. Event-based analysis further demonstrates Erdoğan’s strategic adaptability, with ideological language increasing after the 2023 Hamas attack (from 48.5% to 58.7%) and during post-conflict phases in Syria (reaching 56.3%). The conflict phase analysis reveals a clear evolution in Syria rhetoric from predominantly pragmatic during early intervention years (58.2% pragmatic language, 2015-2019) to increasingly ideological in post-conflict rhetoric (56.3% ideological language, 2024). Drawing on Richard Weaver’s hierarchy of arguments, Walter Fisher’s narrative paradigm, and Contextual Adaptation Theory, this thesis argues that Erdoğan employs sophisticated strategic calibration rather than rigid ideological or pragmatic orientations. His rhetorical flexibility—adjusting language based on domestic political imperatives, international positioning, and evolving security concerns—represents a distinctive form of middle power diplomacy. This research contributes to our understanding of political communication in increasingly autocratic contexts and offers insights into how regional powers navigate complex geopolitical environments while balancing domestic legitimacy with international strategic objectives.

This thesis analyzes the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) processes surrounding the U.S. Air Force’s Sentinel missile modernization project, highlighting critical environmental justice (EJ) concerns related to tribal communities, specifically the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara (MHA) Nation on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota. As the largest nuclear modernization initiative since the Cold War, Sentinel involves replacing the aging Minuteman III missiles with modernized intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), profoundly impacting local communities and ecosystems. The research investigates the historical context of nuclear weapons deployment on tribal lands, the success of meaningful community engagement through the Sentinel Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), and assesses whether current federal environmental laws sufficiently protect tribal sovereignty and community well-being amid expansive military initiatives. Through a detailed case study, this thesis critiques the communication and consultation failures within the NEPA process and offers targeted policy recommendations to enhance meaningful tribal engagement and EJ considerations in future federal actions. The findings highlight the need for comprehensive legislative reforms that better integrate tribal sovereignty, environmental justice, and community perspectives into federal environmental reviews and decision-making processes.

Abstract: This study looks into the algorithmic biases embedded deep in AI moderation systems regarding their impact on the Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) region focusing on Arab and Palestinian digital rights. It analyzes how prominent platforms like Meta, Twitter (X), Google, and YouTube employ systems that excessively moderate Arabic and Palestinian voices which leads to economic and informational inequality. Drawing on research from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, 7amleh, and Safiya Noble, the study stresses the lack of accountability in the governance frameworks concerning AI. It also analyzes the EU's regulatory approach in the AI Act, as well as the fragmented American version of the approach, and pinpointed many overlaps and contradictions, as well as gaps. In reaction to those gaps, the paper proposes active social responsibility policies on ethics of government investment, biases in governance datasets, transparency, independent audits, international cooperative governance frameworks, diversity policies, and ethical structural biases. The aim is to strengthen the proposition advocating for a responsive and comprehensive global AI governance system that provides fairness, accountability, and equity for those disproportionately affected by policies biased towards digital moderation.

Since the beginning of its formation, race has worked its way into every crook and cranny of United States’ political and social structures. In the past, race has been weaponized to justify the marginalization of certain racial groups, justifying the status quo and existing racial hierarchy. This investigation aims to examine how racial identity shapes individual actions and beliefs for Black Americans, specifically when it comes to politics. Factors like a shared sense of identity (linked fate), racial and ethnic stability and importance, and perceived discrimination of individuals in one’s racial group may play a role in how one perceives and expresses their own identity and the behaviors that emerge from it.

By conducting a survey of around 2,000 participants, I was able perform several in-depth analyses, running linear regressions between racial identity and voting behaviors, observing what factors contribute to an individual’s sense of identity, and seeing how individuals respond to rhetoric regarding race in a political setting. Additionally, I tested 3 different race/ethnicity categorization questions, observing reactions and preferences across racial and ethnic groups. Throughout the analysis, several statistically significant relationships emerged. Additionally, results indicated that certain race/ethnicity data collection methods are more effective than others. The findings from this investigation can work to inform policy, revealing relationships between aspects of one’s identity, perceptions of race, and political and social behaviors. Furthermore, these results can help inform race collection methods and survey practices, prioritizing the comfort and expression of the individuals that encounter them.