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Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/11274/15806
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Browsing History by Author "Belfiglio, Valentine J."
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Item Is the red line only rhetoric?: Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs), Syria's civil war, the United States failed foreign policy and its unintended ramifications(1/1/2014) Milmine, Karen; Belfiglio, Valentine J.; Travis, Paul D.; Robb, JeffreyThe thesis evaluates Middle Eastern foreign policy of the George W. Bush and Obama administrations in the Syrian civil war and the utilization of chemical weapons in August 2013. The United States' response to the chemical attack on Damascus highlights an inability to deal with Middle East instability due to the Arab Spring's secular and religious conflict and long-term violent conflict further damages the American presence in this region. The thesis utilizes a historical analysis of the U.S. relationship with Syria, to highlight problematic foreign policy constructions under the Bush and Obama administrations, as well as analysis of its political ramifications. The evidence reveals erosion of the U.S. as moral arbiter of geopolitical conflicts due to "red line" rhetoric, wherein foreign policy is unable to respond to the Assad regime and Russian chemical weapons dealmaking isolates the U.S. from its role as negotiator in international conflicts.Item Plagues, paranoia, and Cold War blowback: The continuing national security risk of the Soviet-United States biological arms race(1/1/2014) Milmine, Alexis; Belfiglio, Valentine J.; Travis, Paul D.; Robb, JeffreyThe Cold War biological arms race is a site of contention within the geopolitical landscape under the theories of containment and mutually assured destruction. Rapid proliferation of biological weapons creates instability within the construction of biosecurity and is further complicated by the status of the Russian Federation and its stiffening of international relations with the United States. The thesis will analyze the impact of the Cold War biological arms race within national security policy, particularly in terms of terrorism and Russian movement into a new Cold War mentality, marked by the increasing lack of transparency. The analysis will highlight inefficiencies of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention between the United States and the Russian Federation to delineate the reasons needed for a foreign relations focus on bioterrorism by non-state actors and the influence of the Soviet Union on the current crisis of the global eradication of biological weapons.