What is Policy Research For? Reflections on the United States’ Failures in Syria

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 373-386
Author(s):  
Shadi Hamid
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Course Of Action ◽  
Syrian Civil War ◽  
Policy Community

Debates over the Syrian civil war and the role of u.s. policy have brought into sharp relief the dilemmas of policy research. When the basic thrust of policy seems immovable irrespective of events on the ground, how should researchers respond? Should influencing policy be the animating objective of policy research? Who exactly should our work be directed to? This article considers the evolution of the Obama administration’s u.s.-Syria policy and what it has meant for those of us in the policy community who (apparently futilely) wrote in favor of a fundamentally different course of action. Two approaches to policy research are discussed in detail as they relate to Syria. The first is to accept the narrow constraints of policymaking and tailor one’s recommendations accordingly. The second is to not accept “reality” as a given and to write about what should happen, however unlikely it might be. In the second approach, the priority is on shaping public debate as well as influencing internal dynamics within government, rather than on tangible policy outcomes.

scholarly journals International Law and Humanitarian Intervention in the Syrian Civil War: The Role of the United States

SAGE Open ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 215824402091953
Author(s):  
Oluwaseyi Emmanuel Ogunnowo ◽  
Felix Chidozie
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Qualitative Method ◽  
Case Study Research ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
The United States ◽  
Syrian Civil War ◽  
Syrian Conflict

This article interrogates the legality of American interventions in the Syrian conflict. The Syrian civil war stands as one of the most controversial conflicts of the 21st century, owing to the mass destruction of lives and properties and the multiplicity of interventions which have created numerous strands of the conflict. The United States as one of the intervening powers has shown support for the rebel forces geared at toppling the Assad government. The research adopts the qualitative method and utilizes the case study research design. The research makes use of secondary data as derived from academic journals, books, book chapters, newspapers, and so on and analyzes these data through the use of thematic analysis. The findings of the study reveal that the interventions of the United States are not legal. The study also finds that the United States possesses certain strategic interests in the Syrian conflict which it aims to achieve.

Countering extremism drives Egypt's foreign policy

2015 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Active Role ◽  
The United States ◽  
Strategic Partnership ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Direct Involvement ◽  
Syrian Civil War ◽  
At Home

Significance In the midst of economic and security problems at home and accelerating instability in the region, President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi has looked outwards to seek help. Partnerships with the Gulf have aided a reeling Egyptian economy while active relations with Russia have provided military benefits. Yesterday it was announced that Russia will supply Egypt with 46 new Ka-52K Alligator Helicopters for Egypt's two new French Mistral warships. Impacts Any differences with the Gulf on Syria will not be acute enough to damage relations. Besides, Egypt's direct involvement and impact on the Syrian civil war are negligible. However, Egypt will continue taking a more active role in Libya. Relations with the United States will be sustained given the decades-old strategic partnership that is still important to both sides.

scholarly journals Defunding Hate: PayPal’s Regulation of Hate Groups

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1/2) ◽  
pp. 46-53
Author(s):  
Natasha Tusikov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Regulatory Authority ◽  
Hate Speech ◽  
The United States ◽  
Public Debate ◽  
Hate Groups ◽  
Screening Practices ◽  
Critical Questions ◽  
White Supremacists

The riot by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017, generated a public debate about the role of platforms in policing users involved in violent hate speech. PayPal’s efforts on this issue, in removing services from some designated hate groups while continuing to serve others, highlights the challenges payment platforms face when they act, whether formally or informally, as regulators. This article examines PayPal’s policies and enforcement efforts, both proactive and reactive, in removing its services from hate groups in the United States. It pays particular attention to the surveillance and screening practices that PayPal employs to proactively detect users who violate its policies. The article argues that public calls for PayPal to identify and remove its services from hate groups raise critical questions about ceding broad regulatory authority to platforms and reveal the serious challenges of relying upon commercial enterprises to address complex social problems.

The Civil War and U.S. World Power

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jay Sexton
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Civil War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Economic Power ◽  
World Power ◽  
Global Power ◽  
The World

Jay Sexton’s opening essay focuses on the role of the Civil War in the realization of U.S. national and global power in the nineteenth century. Though the Civil War gave evidence of the immense military and economic power of the United States, he shows, the projection of that power on the world stage also required foreign collaboration.

Food Stamp Participation by Emergency Food Recipients

1994 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 31-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Curtis
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
African Americans ◽  
Welfare Policy ◽  
Policy Research ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Debate ◽  
The Poor ◽  
Human Organization

Despite long-term interest in poverty in the United States, and the increasing role of applied and practicing anthropologists as producers and consumers of policy research, anthropologists have not yet had much impact on the welfare policy debate. That debate rests on certain widespread assumptions about the causes and consequences of poverty, the characteristics of the poor, and the effectiveness of proposals to eliminate poverty. As Brett Williams points out, discussions of poverty and welfare have been dominated by economists, who count and classify the poor, and journalists, who depict the poor as isolated and pathological ("Poverty Among African Americans in the Urban United States," Human Organization 51,2[1992]:164-174).

Soleimani’s death may further weaken Iran in Syria

2020 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pragmatic Approach ◽  
Military Leaders ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Complex Operation ◽  
Syrian Civil War ◽  
The Government ◽  
Selection Of

Subject Iranian networks in Syria. Significance Iranian commander Qassem Soleimani played a key role in shaping the array of foreign and local Shia militias that supported the government of President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war from 2011. This was a complex operation involving the mobilisation of sympathetic clerics across the Shia world, who sponsored and recruited the various militias, as well as the selection of capable military leaders. Impacts The Quds Force will seek multiple means of retaliating against the United States through covert operations and proxies. Iran will take a pragmatic approach to preserving key alliances, including with Russia and Syria. The IRGC might accelerate the redeployment of some militias from Syria to Yemen, Iraq or other more promising theatres. IRGC leaders will become more cautious in their travel plans, reducing their scope to deploy personal charisma in co-opting foreign Shia.

The Role of Anti-Slavery Sentiment in English Reactions to the American Civil War

1976 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 405-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas A. Lorimer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Working Class ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
The United States ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Testing Ground ◽  
Parliamentary Reform

From 1861 to 1865, English politicians and journalists watched with passionate interest as the United States seemed to tear itself apart over the question of slavery. During these years, English public men, politicians and writers of all qualities and degrees, gave extensive airing to their views both of slavery and of American democracy. This extensive commentary on the American conflict, and the subsequent revival of interest in parliamentary reform, have made the divisions in English opinion on the war a useful testing ground of mid-Victorian social and political attitudes. Early studies, written from the perspective of the northern victory, the abolition of slavery, and the martyrdom of Lincoln, found it difficult to comprehend the extent of pro-confederate sympathy in England. On the slavery question, the mid-Victorians seemed to have lost the abolitionist enthusiasm of their evangelical forebears in the Clapham Sect. In order to fathom this failure of English judgement, historians attempted to show that the more articulate minority, the upper echelons of mid-Victorian society, sided with an aristocratic, slave-owning south, while the less articulate majority, middle-class radicals and the working class, sided with a democratic, abolitionist north.

U.S.-Russian Agreements on Syria Break Down as the Syrian Conflict Continues

2017 ◽  
Vol 111 (1) ◽  
pp. 170-181 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil War ◽  
The United States ◽  
Syrian Civil War ◽  
Syrian Conflict ◽  
Political Settlement

Starting in February 2016, the United States and Russia reached a series of agreements aimed at establishing a cessation of hostilities in the Syrian civil war and facilitating a political settlement of the underlying conflict. Although the agreements showed initial promise, various breakdowns led the United States to suspend bilateral communications with Russia regarding maintenance of the agreements by October 2016.

The Role of Gender and Sensation Seeking in Film Choice

2008 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 97-105 ◽  
Author(s):  
Smita C. Banerjee ◽  
Kathryn Greene ◽  
Marina Krcmar ◽  
Zhanna Bagdasarov ◽  
Dovile Ruginyte
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Sensation Seeking ◽  
Negative Mood ◽  
Positive Mood ◽  
The United States ◽  
High Arousal ◽  
Subject Design ◽  
Happy Mood

This study demonstrates the significance of individual difference factors, particularly gender and sensation seeking, in predicting media choice (examined through hypothetical descriptions of films that participants anticipated they would view). This study used a 2 (Positive mood/negative mood) × 2 (High arousal/low arousal) within-subject design with 544 undergraduate students recruited from a large northeastern university in the United States. Results showed that happy films and high arousal films were preferred over sad films and low-arousal films, respectively. In terms of gender differences, female viewers reported a greater preference than male viewers for happy-mood films. Also, male viewers reported a greater preference for high-arousal films compared to female viewers, and female viewers reported a greater preference for low-arousal films compared to male viewers. Finally, high sensation seekers reported a preference for high-arousal films. Implications for research design and importance of exploring media characteristics are discussed.

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