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11. Globalization and the Politicization of Muslim Women: Consequences for Domestic Violence in the Netherlands and the United States19

Author:
Mishal Khan
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Globalization as a theoretical lens guides us toward a greater understanding of some of the most turbulent transformations that are taking place in the world today. Anthony Giddens provides a compelling definition of this phenomenon, framing it as―the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa. Nothing demonstrates this more sharply than the impact of global events on those Muslim populations residing in what can be broadly defined as the―Western‖ world. This ironically termed―reverse colonization entails an unprecedented number of people from Muslim countries migrating to the Global North, laying the foundation for a myriad of challenging negotiations and novel circumstances. However, there are a number of concurrent transformations that are taking place within Muslim populations that have become the subject of increased scrutiny. The rise of radical Islam, the enhanced religiosity of Muslim youth, and the increased wearing of headscarves by women are all aspects of a global Islam that has attracted the widespread attention of policymakers, scholars, and ordinary citizens alike.
Topic:
Debt
Political Geography:
United States and Netherlands

12. The Commodification of Human Life: Human Trafficking in the Age of Globalization

Author:
Yanchuan Liu
Publication Date:
03-2011
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
This study seeks to answer three questions. First, to what extent does globalization contribute to the vulnerability of victims of cross-border human trafficking? Next, how have the United States and the Netherlands responded to this phenomenon, and why have the two governments responded in the way they did? Finally, as developed countries tighten their borders out of security concerns when economic inequality continues to attract migrants from developing regions, is there space for the convergence of the interests of destination countries and those of the migrants so that these individuals will have safe, legitimate alternatives to the irregular movement that leads to severe exploitation, such as Trafficking in Human Beings (THB)?
Political Geography:
United States and Netherlands

13. Obliged to Give: Remittances and the Maintenance of Transnational Networks Between Somalis at Home and Abroad

Author:
Laura Hammond
Publication Date:
12-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
One day, while drinking tea with Suad and her children in their small apartment in Lewiston, Maine, I asked her whether she felt pressure from her relatives in Somalia to send money. She chuckled sadly and said, “People say that there is a pill called ga'alqois, which means [literally] that which distances one from their relatives and close friends. Before you leave, you promise your friends and relatives that you will not take the pill and will not forget to send them money. Then when you arrive in the United States you see how hard life is here and you don't send any money. People say that you must have taken the ga'alqois pill.”
Political Geography:
United States and Somalia

14. Sheikh Ali Hussein

Author:
Joe Darwin Palmer
Publication Date:
12-2010
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Bildhaan: An International Journal of Somali Studies
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
East Africa: In 1966, the U.S. Agency for International Development built a residential school for the training of teachers in Somalia near the city of Afgoi on the Shabelle River, a dozen miles inland from the capital city, Mogadishu. The construction contract was given to a company in Nairobi, Kenya. There were no construction companies in Somalia or paved roads between Kenya and neighboring Somalia. Besides, anything of value would have already been stolen at gunpoint by bandits (shifta) so the necessary equipment—trucks, a bulldozer, a pavement roller, transmission wires, concrete poles, generators, stationary diesel engines, asphalt, toilets, plumbing, and so on—were sent by sea from Mombasa. There were no stores in Somalia: no grocery, no hardware, no McDonald's.
Political Geography:
Kenya, United States, Somalia, and East Africa

15. Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict in the Twentieth Century

Author:
Juan Cole
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Iraq and Israel/Palestine may on the surface appear to be very different societies with little in common. Iraq has its Kurds, Sunni Arabs, and Shiites, and its modern history has been a struggle over monarchy, republicanism, and the one-party state. Israel and Palestine are Jewish, Sunni Arab, and Christian Arab, and their central struggle has been over the shape of the Zionist state and the question of Palestinian statelessness. Iraq is a hydrocarbon state, while Israel and Palestine have diverse economies. The two can fruitfully be viewed through the same prism in two ways, however. On a comparative level, they share much in common, being multi-ethnic states with a background in Ottoman and British colonial administrative practices. Their fragility and ethnic instability have driven both internal civil wars and wars with neighbors. They have also had an important impact upon one another. The rise of Zionism in the Middle East and the Arab rejection of it robbed Iraq of its vibrant and influential Jewish community, with fateful results. It also displaced thousands of Palestinians to Iraq and hundreds of thousands to neighboring Kuwait. Iraqi troops fought Israel, with Iraq supporting its Palestinian foes. The Palestinians of Kuwait were further displaced by the Gulf War, and those of Iraq had to flee to Jordan and Palestine after 2003. The Israel lobby in the United States was one important mover in fomenting the 2003 U.S. overthrow of the Iraqi government, which propelled Iraq into chaos.
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, Middle East, Israel, Kuwait, Palestine, and Jordan

16. Difficult Dialogue: The Oslo Process in Israeli Perspective

Author:
Avraham Sela
Publication Date:
05-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
The Oslo Accords seemed to represent the new post-Cold War/ post-Gulf War era, which ostensibly heralded the beginning of a “new world order” under American hegemony. The weakened Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and Arab radical actors, such as Syria and Iraq; the belief that the American-led capitalist, market-oriented ideology had scored its final victory—best expressed by Francis Fukuyama's “End of History” thesis; Israel's vulnerability to Iraq's mediumrange missiles and to American financial pressures; and the perceived loss of Israel's status as a reliable U.S. ally in a tumultuous Middle East all seemed to have created ripe conditions for a historical breakthrough in the long-stalemated Arab-Israeli peace process.
Political Geography:
United States, Iraq, America, Israel, Arabia, Syria, and Oslo

17. Somali Immigrants and Health Care: Neo-Liberal Globalization in the United States and Holland

Author:
Hye Won Hong
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Proper health care is important for everyone. According to Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well being of himself and of his family. It states that health care is an essential right for everyone regardless of their social, cultural, and economic status. However, recent studies have shown that providing proper health care has not been well addressed, especially with regard to immigrants.
Political Geography:
United States and Holland

18. Power, Morality, and Self-Interest: The United States and European Union Foreign Policy Impact on Human Rights in Colombia

Author:
Federico Segura Molina
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
This essay examines the impact of the foreign policy of the United States and the European Union (EU) on the human rights situation in Colombia. Not only was this project an essential component of the Macalester-Maastricht Globalization in Comparative Perspective Study Abroad Program, but a variety of factors also motivated my study: • Colombia is an anomaly in the study of foreign policy and human rights. As a region with uncommon political, economic, and social realities, Colombia is a country where two distinct approaches to foreign policy and human rights, those of the U.S. and EU, are simultaneously at work. Despite their significant ideological and philosophical differences, however, both the U.S. and the EU strongly support Colombia's administration and its national policies. In order to gain a comprehensive understanding of the human rights situation in Colombia and to create effective policies in the future, it is important to understand the unusual impact international action has had on national policy and the fate of human rights. It is imperative to reconcile these two different approaches to for-eign policy, as well as the myriad perspectives and accounts of the current human rights situation in Colombia. It is my desire to inspire reflection upon how past and current actions of the U.S. and the EU have ameliorated or deteriorated the human rights situation in Colombia. In addition, I hope to contribute to the search for a long-lasting solution to the political, economic, social, and ideologi-cal chaos that has wreaked havoc upon Colombian society. Finally, I have a strong personal connection to the topic. As a citizen of Colombia who is pursuing an undergraduate degree in Interna-tional Studies in the United States and the Netherlands, I have a deep interest in exploring the complex connections between Colom-bia, the United States, and the European Union.
Political Geography:
United States, Europe, and Colombia

19. The Allure of the Radical: Understanding Jihadist Violence in the West

Author:
Kabir Sethi
Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
Grand proclamations of world peace and prosperity, so famously made by scholars and politicians alike in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, today seem naive and almost laughable. Francis Fukuyama, writing as the Berlin Wall came down, believed that we were witnessing “Not just the end of the Cold War…but the end of history as such: that is, the end point of mankind's ideological evolution and the universalization of Western liberal democracy as the final form of human government.”1 For better or worse, that has not been the case. To use Benjamin Barber's words, we seem to be witnessing “retribalization” rather than “McWorld.” The fall of Communism as a global political movement did not bring an end to anti-Western sentiment in the world, as testified to by annual riots in India on Valentine's Day, anti-American rallies in South Korea and Japan, and Peru and Venezuela's explicitly anti-Western regimes. One violent movement in particular, though, has especially caught the imagination of the West, the movement that is commonly referred to as “Islamic terrorism,” “global jihad,” or “contemporary jihadist violence.” Part of what makes this movement so noticeable is its seemingly global reach and appeal. From bombings in Bali, Indonesia, to attacks in India, the Middle East, Europe, and all the way to the United States, “Islamic terrorism” seems to have spread across the world. This essay addresses the appeal of radical and violent interpretations of Islam in continental Western Europe and the United States.
Political Geography:
United States, Japan, India, and South Korea

20. Appendix - Globalization in Comparative Perspective

Publication Date:
01-2009
Content Type:
Journal Article
Journal:
Macalester International
Institution:
Macalester College
Abstract:
The Macalester Globalization in Comparative Perspective program consists of a first semester at Macalester or abroad in a student's own area of academic focus, following the guidelines long established by Macalester College. (Macalester's international students fulfill the first semester abroad requirement by their study at Macalester; Macalester U.S. students are required to study abroad or away elsewhere in the U.S. during the fall semester as part of this program.) This would mean, for example, that interested and qualified students, in any relevant field of study throughout the College, would individually spend the period of September–December studying international issues and liberal arts courses (earning 12–18 credits, depending on the program and the coursework) and gaining a strong local and regional perspective on globalization in any one country throughout the world.
Political Geography:
United States