Browsing by Author "Harris, Peter, committee member"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

Open Access
Autonomous region formation in the Middle East: cases in Kurdistan
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Wipperfurth, Pike James, author; Cavdar, Gamze, advisor; Harris, Peter, committee member; Yarrington, Jonna, committee member
Autonomous Region Formation in the Middle East - Cases in Kurdistan, is a thesis paper that interacts with Yash Ghai's theory for the formation of autonomous regions (Ghai, 2003), and applies the analytical framework developed by Yash Ghai and Sophia Woodman (Ghai and Woodman, 2013) to a series of cases left out in the original study. The paper seeks to address the gaps and limitations of the original study by selecting cases from the Middle East geographic region, stemming from the shared experiences of the Kurdish people and their bids for autonomous region formation, and encompass both established and unestablished autonomous units. The cases of Iraqi Kurdistan (Iraq) and the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) (Syria) serve as established autonomous units while the Kurdish majority regions of Bakur (Turkey) and Rojhelat (Iran) serve as unestablished cases for which a comparative analysis can be made. By utilizing Ghai's theory (Ghai, 2003) and the analytical framework of the original study (Ghai and Woodman, 2013), this paper tests the theory and framework against a new set of cases with characteristics different than those in the original study, effectively challenging, testing, and advancing the theory and framework. The paper highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the theory and analytical framework, as well as proposes potential factors and avenues of analysis that could be included in future studies.
Open Access
Beyond Challenger Deep: an in-depth study of the human dimensions and social outcomes of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2018) Wilson, Katie, author; Gruby, Rebecca, advisor; Harris, Peter, committee member; Richmond, Laurie, committee member
This thesis contains in-depth d+L168ocumentation of the human dimensions and social outcomes of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument (MTMNM, est. 2009), a large marine protected area (LMPA) in the United States insular areas of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) and Territory of Guam. LMPAs (marine protected areas in excess of 100,000km2) are a nascent trend in marine conservation, with 80% of existing LMPAs being established as of 2010 or later. Currently, there is a paucity of empirical research on their human dimensions. This thesis presents a qualitative case study of the MTMNM – a relatively longer established LMPA – with a primary focus on the perceptions of key stakeholders engaged in designation, planning, and implementation processes. Results document the human dimensions of the MTMNM by outlining its key stakeholders, designation process, design, politics of support and opposition, and social outcomes. I focus in particular on social outcomes of the MTMNM, which I describe in thick, nuanced detail within 5 major themes: unfulfilled promises, mistrust and social division, territorial sovereignty, conservation legacy effects, benefits and hopes for the future. I argue that the delivery of social benefits and respect for territorial sovereignty are of paramount importance moving forward. As a whole, the contribution of this thesis is in demonstrating empirically how the 'people-centered' aspects of LMPAs are essential to ensuring the model's social-ecological success.
Open Access
Chinese trade & investment in the 21st century: the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative on industrialization in developed & less developed economies
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Cahill, Michael J., author; Roberts, Anthony, advisor; Mahoney, Pat, committee member; Harris, Peter, committee member
Over the past few decades, China's rise as a global industrial leader has profoundly impacted developed and less developed economies. Most recently, the Chinese government has pursued the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to increase its reach and integration into the global economy through trade and investment agreements with roughly 147 countries. Drawing on longitudinal data from 124 countries, I analyze the effects of Chinese trade and investment on the industrialization of developed and less developed economies in the 21st century. Specifically, I analyze whether participation in BRI agreements moderates these effects. The results indicate that Chinese trade and investment increase industrial employment and growth, especially in countries participating in the BRI. However, Chinese trade and investment have a more extensive negative impact on industrial productivity within BRI countries than their non-participating counterparts. While the results are mixed on the benefits and consequences of increased bilateral relations with China, they depict an interesting picture of how Chinese trade and investment affect foreign economies.
Open Access
Environmental security: a source of legitimacy and contestation in global environmental governance
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2022) Liebenguth, Julianne, author; Betsill, Michele, advisor; Harris, Peter, committee member; Macdonald, Bradley, committee member; Malin, Stephanie, committee member
Environmental security is an increasingly popular concept though which various actors seek to understand and articulate the urgency, risks, and vulnerabilities associated with dangerous socio-environmental changes. Such urgent shifts include rising temperatures, droughts, floods, intensifying weather-related disasters, land-use changes, and the expansion of exploitative and extractive practices, all of which can be said to pose significant dangers to a vast range of political communities and systems under the broader rubric of environmental security. The consequences of turning to the logic of security, however, are heavily debated among those who both espouse and reject this conceptual linkage. Thus, this dissertation seeks to dig deeper into the ways security is conceptualized, leveraged, and contested across certain domains of global environmental politics. Specifically, I contribute three empirical studies that each employ critical discourse analysis to highlight distinct connections between the environment and security as they emerge across different state and non-state actors, including governments, IGOs, NGOs, TNCs, and resistance movements. I focus on the Food, Energy, Water (FEW) security nexus as an over-arching arena of global environmental politics in which such actors frequently draw upon securitized language to describe environmental problems and their potential solutions. I find that 1) elite actors including state representatives, NGOs, and IGOs designing the FEW security nexus agenda position scarcity as the main threat and private sector actors as key agents of environmental security; 2) environmental security is leveraged in unique ways as a source of legitimacy by TNCs operating across the FEW nexus; and 3) resistance movements can generate contradictory and alternative visions of environmental security and legitimacy that challenge prevailing and unequal systems of governance. I conclude that the emergence of the FEW security nexus as global development paradigm presents a particularly important opportunity to interrogate processes and performative implications of securitization (both oppressive and emancipatory), build upon alternative, bottom-up visions of environmental security, and reflect upon the changing role of the state in relation to both security and global environmental politics more broadly.
Open Access
Inclusive Just War Theory: Confucian and Mohist contributions
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2016) Davidson, Lake Andrew, author; McLeod, Alexus, advisor; Gorin, Moti, committee member; Harris, Peter, committee member
Warfare has permeated humanity across cultures and through time. It is a human activity that often carries with it large-scale consequences. However, even if it does not, human lives are always lost, and the effects of war are devastating. Because of this, thinkers from around the globe have given accounts regarding the ethics of war. Can war ever be justified? If so, how? What entity has the authority to declare war? What actions are permissible in a justified war? These are only a few of the questions that are often raised, and the answers to them are perhaps as numerous as their developers. This project serves to explain and examine some of these theories. I begin by describing three major positions as they have developed in the West: realism, pacifism, and Just War Theory. Using the categories and conceptions described here, I look to classical Chinese approaches to war from the Confucian and Mohist traditions. Ren xing, “human nature”, is important to Confucian thoughts on the ruler. I use this account to craft a more robust notion of Just War Theory’s “legitimate authority” condition. Jian ai, “impartial care”, is a Mohist concept that I argue informs a type of pacifism and may also play into thoughts on justification for going to war, especially in cases of humanitarian intervention. The latter part of this project applies these theories and new formulations to specific examples of warfare, hoping to show their relevance. Upon this examination, and overall, I hope to increase our understanding of the ethics of war by looking to forgotten or less popular approaches to thinking about the conducting of military affairs.
Embargo
Individual proactive adaptation: integrating vulnerability and natural hazards into a new cognitive model
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Li, Yanxi, author; Knight, David, advisor; Solomon, Jennifer, committee member; Harris, Peter, committee member
Individual proactive adaptation refers to personal proactive behaviors in response to crisis events (in this study, natural disasters) aimed at minimizing the disruptions caused by such disasters. The process of adaptation is often complex and dynamic, influenced by the synergistic effects of multiple factors. Current research on adaptation motivation and decision-making is largely influenced by the Protection Motivation Theory, which emphasizes the role of subjective factors in the cognitive and decision-making processes. However, as adaptation theories evolve, scholars are beginning to acknowledge the role that objective indicators play in the cognitive process of proactive adaptation. This thesis builds on these research trends and theories in two studies. Study 1 conducts a systematic review of current research on indicators of adaptation and integrates those indicators with socio-ecological thinking to develop a new cognitive model. Study 2 involves a plausibility probe based on semi-structured interviews (N = 27) among residents of the Dujiangyan District of central China, an area that was impacted considerably by earthquakes and COVID-19 in recent years. The probe involves applying the new model to analyze those interviews and identify viable objective indicators for the cognitive process of adaptation. This approach is more cost-effective compared to prematurely conducting more ambitious and systematic tests of model assumptions. Results from Study 1 indicate that individual vulnerability and hazard characteristics, as indicators representing social and ecological dimensions, participate in each appraisal stage of the adaptation cognitive process. Results from Study 2 highlight several indicators as crucial objective measures of individual proactive adaptation. These indicators include the scope of impact, past hazard experiences, income, age, housing condition, etc. Overall, the thesis suggests that previous research has failed to account for the role of individual vulnerability and natural hazard characteristics in the appraisal stages (as opposed to the final decision stages) of cognitive processes of individual adaptation. Additionally, the new model and case study findings point to paths forward for better incorporating objective indicators in future research on cognitive processes associated with individual proactive adaptation.
Embargo
Military-government relationships in environmental justice protections: a Colorado case study
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2024) Haberlack, Emily, author; Malin, Stephanie, advisor; Mao, KuoRay, committee member; Harris, Peter, committee member
This thesis aims to examine the environmental and public health experiences of individuals who worked and live(d) in El Paso County, Colorado, during and after the public was informed of high levels of per – and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) chemical contamination in the Fountain Valley local drinking water from Air Force military activity on Peterson Air Force Base in 2016. I've collected the data presented in this thesis to study the dynamics between mobilized community members, local government, and military as they navigate the environmental justice issues of contested illness, community safety, and harm from military activity in the United States. The data collected includes qualitative interviews from community members and personnel who were involved in protecting residents and providing safe drinking water. In addition, I conducted content analysis on news reporting of the water contamination to investigate how information on the hazard was communicated to the public. The U.S. military is the largest polluting entity in the world (Woodward, 2004; LaDuke & Cruz, 2013). As such, the military-industrial complex is responsible for environmental contamination and harms across the country and within the communities they occupy (Woodward, 2004). PFAS chemicals are contaminants that enter the environment and human bodies through production, distribution, and waste processes from the companies that create them and industries that use them, like the military and firefighters. PFAS are historically found in aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), a fire suppressant that was created by 3M and the U.S. military and ubiquitously used on military bases since the 1970s. These activities have spread the chemical compounds throughout urban and rural spaces and have created massive implications for the health and safety of community drinking water sources. These chemicals are identified as "forever chemicals" due to their strong chemical bonds which do not easily break down in the environment and have been shown to bioaccumulate in the human body. As an emergent contaminant1, PFAS exposure is highly contentious, and studies are still being conducted to concretely link exposure to detrimental health effects like thyroid issues and cancers. The research that has been completed has identified PFAS as having concerning health effects for human health (Mueller et al., 2024; Cordner et al., 2021). As such, communities exposed to PFAS contamination face unique challenges pursuing environmental justice, defined as the equitable distribution of environmental benefits and burdens, ensuring that all communities, particularly marginalized ones, have equal access to a clean and healthy environment, and are not disproportionately affected by environmental harms. (Roberts et al., 2018). This research utilizes the concepts of distributive and procedural justice, and contested illness from the environmental justice literature. These environmental justice concepts are combined with the treadmill of destruction theory to study community relationships and dynamics after military created PFAS water contamination in the Fountain Valley. Findings from my thesis show how the Fountain Valley community members' struggles for clean water and for recognition of their health impacts from PFAS exposure illustrate a broader issue of positional power dynamics. Affected residents, often left out of key decision-making processes, faced significant barriers to accessing meaningful and useful, translated information about the risks they faced. The Air Force's financial contributions to water filtration efforts, while necessary, do not absolve the institution of responsibility for the long-term health and social impacts of contamination they caused—responsibility they have not fully claimed, while also avoiding authentic communication with the communities and people their actions affected. Instead, the true leaders in this environmental crisis have been mobilized community members, who have fought tirelessly for procedural justice and greater transparency in the face of systemic failures. Understanding the lived, psycho-social experiences of communities and local government as they navigate contested illness and public infrastructure safety after military contamination is critical to questions of justice and environmental contamination surrounding the leading global polluter, the U.S. military.