The United States failed to consider the realities of post-war Iraq prior to entering the country in 2003. Policymakers assumed the dismantling of Saddam Hussein’s regime and defense capabilities would bring immediate peace, stability and democracy to the country. These assumptions proved false. Lack of planning, insight and resources prevented the United States from addressing the community-level conflicts that plague the Iraqi state. As a result, in 2014, a terrorist organization killed and terrorized innocent civilians in unstable post-war Iraq. Even though members of the United Nations questioned the legality of the Iraq War in 2003, the international law of armed conflict does not hold the United States accountable for the hostile environment that plagues post-war Iraq today. The United Nations Charter developed after World War II as a means for regulating and limiting violence and war does not legally define expected post-war behavior or results. Lack of post- war legal standards allows preference and self-interest to dictate occupation and reconstruction plans. The transformative reconstruction of Japan from 1945-1952 highlights this reality. The United States after World War II, motivated by the communist threat, extensively calculated and contributed to the rebuilding of Japan. Over 50 years later, the occupation of Iraq, which required an equal or greater reconstruction campaign, was not economically or politically favorable. This thesis examines these two dichotomist cases of United States’ occupations and reconstructions to elucidate the need for a critical examination of the peace-building and peacekeeping post-war period. Furthermore, the paper argues that post-war peace is not simply a legal issue but a moral matter. The tradition of Just War, which guided the United Nations’ understanding of when a war is legal and what actions during war are legal, is the moral background by which violence is ethically justified. If a war is morally justified because of its ability to bring about peace but that peace is never achieved, can the violence committed during the war be considered just? Without recognizing the moral importance of Jus post Bellum, justice after war, the international law of armed conflict has little motivation to promote legal standards for the post-war period. Amending the Just War Tradition to include a Jus post Bellum criterion can therefore begin the process of internationally recognizing the consequences of post-war behavior.
Past Master's Projects
The variety of master's projects produced by our students testifies to the interdisciplinary nature of the Duke GLS program. Some take the form of a traditional master's thesis, but explore issues from a perspective that requires stepping back from disciplinary boundaries or combining the methods of different disciplines. Others combine traditional academic analysis with other modes and genres -- whether creative, documentary or practical. Each of them represents the culminating efforts of a student in achieving the MALS degree.
From 2014-22, a few projects each year were awarded the designation of "Exemplary Master's Project," and marked as such in these records. Search for the word "exemplary" to find them. Exemplary projects were highlighted as particularly good models for students contemplating master's projects of their own. A video showcase featuring some of our 2019-20 winners may be found here.
Starting in 2022-23, all students completing projects are invited to present their work in a public year-end Master's Project Showcase. Projects whose authors choose to present at this event are designated "Showcase Projects."
This analytical essay describes the creation of a prototype online magazine, titled Protean, for a Graduate Liberal Studies (GLS) program like the one at Duke University. Industry level production standards were implemented in the creation of Protean’s beta or prototype website. The primary steps included: discovery, development, design, and implementation. These four steps were divided into two separate phases. Phase one began with discovery; this involved establishing a target audience for the magazine and developing a needs assessment survey that queried the needs of the target audience. This survey served to help make decisions regarding content and design choices for the magazine. Phase two encompassed the development, design, and implementation steps that incorporated the data gathered from: the needs assessment survey, secondary research on best web design practices, and feedback solicited from the client during a formal product pitch meeting. For this project, the GLS program at Duke University represents the client entity. The culmination of these two phases resulted in: extensive preliminary work, detailed in this essay, a beta website of the prototype magazine, plans for a student and alumni-based editorial board, and a sustainability plan for this publication.
This final project is a curriculum for library instruction for first year students at Duke University. I have created a set of learning goals and outcomes that first year students should be able to achieve for academic success. These goals and outcomes are derived from the ACRL Information Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education. The ACRL goals are broad and designed for all types of higher education students, so I have narrowed down the goals for students at Duke. In order to teach these learning goals, I have created eleven lessons and assignments, designed to teach students specific goals and outcomes. The final aspect of the curriculum is assessment of both the lessons and the instructors, so the curriculum is able assess its effectiveness and adapt to better teach students.
This thesis explores the role that the natural world played in the art and writing of the Bloomsbury group. Very little academic work has been done on this topic beyond the coffee-table books on the gardens of Charleston Farmhouse and Monk’s House. Most serious work has been on the various themes of nature found in Virginia Woolf’s more popular novels. Nature is a prolific theme in the Bloomsbury Group’s painting and literature and they devoted much time to it. Their attitude towards nature was one of respect, not veneration like that of the Romantic period. They viewed man as a part of nature, not outside of nature, or controlling nature. Holding a biocentric view of nature, they eschewed the prevailing attitude of anthropocentricism. They were concerned with the idea of civilization and wrote extensively about what it meant to be civilized. Another major Bloomsbury theme was the contrast of nature wild versus nature tamed. These ideas were discussed, written about, and depicted in their artwork. This paper investigates the aforementioned Bloomsbury topics and also includes man (and woman’s) relationship to nature, terror in the garden, joy in the garden, and the protection of nature.
This paper focuses on female protagonists in young adult dystopian literature, specifically Suzanne Weyn's The Bar Code Tattoo, Suzanne Collins' The Hunger Games and Veronica Roth's Divergent. The author questions what about these female protagonists sets them apart from their respective dystopian societies and captivates young adult readers. The author dissects these novels in the context of adolescence, a time of new beginnings and daunting changes, all of which take place in a seemingly confusing and chaotic world, and argues that dystopian young adult literature plays on the confusion, turmoil and panic that exist in adolescence and creates a new reality out of it.
This paper explores how neoconservative ideology informed the Bush Administration’s interpretation/use of intelligence, leading to the decision to invade Iraq. The Administration based its decision to invade Iraq upon four neoconservative assumptions. The first assumption was that Saddam Hussein’s regime was on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons and had already amassed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons. The second assumption was that the regime had meaningful links with Al Qaeda and had something to do with 9/11. The third assumption was that, within Iraq, the regime’s fall would be followed by rapid and peaceful democratization. The fourth assumption was that a similar democratic transformation would be precipitated elsewhere in the region. This paper examines primary source documents authored by key members of the Bush Administration (President Bush, VP Cheney, Secretary Powell and Secretary Rice). These accounts are compared to other relevant primary source documents such as the “9/11 Commission Report” and the “National Intelligence Estimate.” In addition, the preexisting 9/11 ideology held by top officials in the Bush Administration that shaped the decision to invade Iraq is examined.
This paper addresses belief gaps that exist around the contentious and often misunderstood issue of climate change by highlighting the history and science behind the existing research, incorporating the most up-to-date policy and projections by governmental agencies and exploring the many factors influencing the opinion of citizenry – primarily in the United States. Attention is given to the efforts by multiple entities over the years, including specific case studies on tobacco and acid rain, to disprove scientific research and the long-term effect on policy. Ultimately, by analyzing in-depth polling data, comparing with the history of environmental movement, and accounting for the role of government and private industry, conclusions are drawn about possible trends and pathways for more productive discourse and action.
This paper explains the necessity of including the middle school student in the educational process of literacy. Including a curriculum, this project gives guidance to the layman as well as the teacher in the organization of creating ways to strengthen the reading skills of the student with a lower Lexile proficiency. The project uses the memoir writing process as the engine to promote literacy.
The Family Business is a series of first-person creative nonfiction stories exploring the genealogy and mythology of my family’s multigenerational history of war. I trace the genesis of my family’s warrior ethos from medieval Ireland to modern Afghanistan. I examine family stories, photographs, and objects, reflecting on universal —and paradoxical—themes of belonging, loyalty, patriotism, and violence buried in these deeply personal artifacts. The stories also provide a framework to describe the rich, distinct, and often troubling sense of cultural exile that is the inheritance of military children growing up in a chaotic and violent world.
This paper explores the significant periods of migration and diaspora within my family, the Liangs. It will take the form of a personal essay and will rely primarily on interviews conducted with family members to create a coherent account of my family’s historical narrative. Supplementing these narratives will be historical and socio--?political analysis. The paper will focus on three primary time periods: beginning with my grandfather, Liang Chao--?wei’s, educational sojourn to America in the 1920s as a student at Tsinghua College. This section will also examine the historical origins of Tsinghua and the challenges he and other students faced on their diasporic path towards achieving national redemption. The second period of diaspora explores the family’s displacement from China after the rise of the Communist Party in 1949 and will examine the family’s pursuits to seek refuge in Hong Kong, as well as the struggles they faced in transitioning to their new life as refugees. The final period of displacement involves the family’s immigration to America in 1963. It will investigate the political backdrop that led to the liberalization of America’s immigration policy that allowed the family to successful immigrate to the United States and begin their lives as Chinese Americans.