Women’s historical lack of agency over the presentation and preservation of their contributions to society leaves us with immeasurable gaps in understanding how they have shaped our modern world. Despite the political and social progress of the last century, the U.S. still struggles to reach equitable representation of men and women in our political system up and down the ballot. Due to a variety of social, economic, political, and interpersonal reasons research has found that this disparity stems not from women losing elections but not getting to the campaign trail in the first place. Through a collection of oral histories of women politicians and political candidates, this project explores the nuance and importance of including the narratives of these self-identified outliers. While publicly the beginning of a politician’s journey is generally their campaign, in reality, there are many stepping stones before any of them get to that point. Regarding the women’s representation gap, getting to candidacy seems to be the final hurdle, while in their personal journeys to office it is just the beginning. These oral histories provide a deeper look into the impacts that masculine ethos, the gendered psyche, political ambition, self-confidence, familial roles, and timing have in these women's considerations of political careers.

Czechoslovakia failed to implement democracy and nationalism in an equal and fair manner to the Czechs and Slovaks. As Masaryk mirrored Czechoslovakia off of the United States and his close friend President Wilson, the founding Czechoslovakian documents created an unequal version of the basic democratic principles. The domestic geopolitical culture of nationalism and nationalism abroad influenced ethnic identification between the new borders for the Czechs and Slovaks. Without the shared social language of Czechoslovakian nationalism the Czechs and Slovaks did not unite politically, ethnically, or at all. This allowed for the Czechs to take over and create their idealist democracy, otherwise known as an ethnocracy.

This thesis approaches the concept of nationalism within the context of post-Soviet Estonian and Georgian state-building from a sociological perspective, building upon the work of Émile Durkheim, Bernard Yack, Anthony Smith, and Rogers Brubaker. Taking such a stance identifies nationalism as a social concept whose relationship with geopolitics and political integration comments on the merits of post-Soviet Estonian and Georgian geopolitical conditions and their respective state-building processes, specifically regarding ethnic minority and international integration. I argue that the cases of Estonia and Georgia demonstrate that social solidarity institutionalized in states and expressed through nationalism has significant effects on geopolitics and the integration of ethnic minorities into a broader multi-ethnic state as well as on the integration of a broader multi-ethnic state into the international community. This thesis demonstrates that the different paths that Estonia and Georgia took towards this integration indicate the significance not only of domestic nationalistic circumstances, but also of the larger geopolitical realities and underlying historic foundations in which and from which state-building must occur.

This thesis examines the recent emergence of populist radical right-wing parties across Western and Eastern Europe. Starting with the insufficiency of current explanations for this rise, I examine micro-, macro-, and meso- scale cross-national analyses to determine which major variables predict the rise of populist right-wing forces across these nation-states. Finally, using the conceptual resources of social identity theory, the paper argues that social status may be a mediating factor by which economic and cultural-identitarian forces influence the populist radical right.

The use of nuclear weapons as a tool for international politics has been studied and debated on since their invention. With such a powerful threat of world annihilation at hand, it is possible that states will act in certain ways to avoid this outcome. Contrarily, scholars of international relations have also noted that some states have attempted to manipulate the risk of a nuclear attack in order to win against an adversary in a conflict. The Cold War between the superpowers of the United States and the Soviet Union shows clear examples of the intentional use of nuclear bombs to sway an opponent’s decision-making in a crisis. The believability of the threat is often determined by arsenal size, past actions, and the increasing manipulation of risk. This paper is divided into four main sections providing an introduction to deterrence theory and the following case studies of the Berlin Blockade, the Korean War, and the Cuban Missile Crisis. These were chosen due to their importance in shaping how relations between the US and USSR carried on for the remainder of the Cold War. Additionally, these crises show the varied responses by different US Presidents along with changing Soviet leaders. The goal of this paper is to explore the impact of nuclear weapons in the successful ending of these crises for the United States when combined with the different political, economic, and social factors at the time. While nuclear weapons do affect the outcome for each of the crises, the other factors cannot be ignored in explaining the actions of each state to achieve their desired conclusion.

If one were to go to Virginia today and visit Monticello, the former home of Thomas Jefferson, they would find a building that resembles a museum more so than a home. Inside are paintings, maps, sculptures and even the antlers of many great beasts. But the first thing that will come to a visitor's sight aren’t these wonders, but rather the busts of two men that glare at each other at the entrance of the home. One stands on a pedestal, large and draped in cloth, the other a simple marble statue of a younger man. The former statue depicts Monticello’s owner and the latter is of the first Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton . One may find this curious, as the two didn’t have a friendship and were often thought of as the cause for the United States becoming a two-party system, due to their disagreements. For Thomas Jefferson the placement of these busts seemed natural as it put him into eternal combat with a man he considered his main political rival.
These two men could not have had more different upbringings; Thomas Jefferson was born to a wealthy family that owned land and slaves, whereas Alexander Hamilton was born on a Caribbean island in poverty, only to be orphaned early on in his life . Despite these differences both men found a common goal in fighting for independence for the American colonies. Jefferson would do so as a diplomat and author of the Declaration of Independence, Hamilton would be a patriot through being a soldier and assistant to General George Washington. Once the war was over, the two continued their service to the country and would find themselves as the first heads of the United States’ cabinet departments. By being in Washington’s cabinet, the two came in conflict with one another frequently on the policy of the time such as the country’s neutrality in foreign affairs. No issue put them more in conflict than their stances on the country’s economic state.

Youth voters in the US have had a steadily declining turnout since the right to vote was expanded to include 18-20 year old citizens in 1971. The decline appears to be related to both internal reasons and external reasons. Internal reasons include apathy about the political process, while external reasons can include voter suppression tactics such as voter identification laws and laws preventing felons from voting. For those that currently participate in the political process, social media appears to play a big part in youth spreading their political opinions. The recent expansion of early voting has resulted in more young people voting by early voting, showing that making voting more accessible allows young people to exercise their political voice through voting. Despite internal and external obstacles young voters face while voting, new voting methods have the potential to expand the turnout of youth voters.

Naming and naming practices take place at various sites associated with international politics. These sites include border crossings, migrations, diasporas, town halls, and offices of political parties representing minorities. This project is an investigation of these and other sites. It takes seriously questions of names and naming practices and particularly asks how people participate in these practices, often doing so with states and state authorities. It not only looks at and discusses how people proceed in these practices but also assesses the implications for people regarding how and when they can be at home as well as how and where they can move. Through an ethnography of Aegean Macedonians involving interviews, participant observation, and archival research, I find that naming practices occur well beyond the sites where they are expected. Names themselves are the result of negotiation and are controlled neither by their bearers nor those who would name. Similarity of demonyms with toponyms, do not ensure that bearers of such demonyms will be at home in the place that shares there name. Changes in names significance of names occur rapidly and these names turn home into abroad and hosts into guests.