Journal of the Martin School of International Studies
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Journal of the Martin School of International Studies Volume1, Issue 1 December 2009 Journal of the MARTIN SCHOOL of INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Volume 1, Issue 1 Editors J. Chad Mann and Alexis M. Olson Martin School Staff Bill L. Smith, Director Kelli Schrand, Program Advisor Sarah M. Nelson, Martin Scholar Professor Romuald Afatchao, Associate Director Martin Institute Advisory Board Katherine Aiken Morris Krigbaum Butch Alford Kevin Martin Robert Bakes Lowell Martin Elisa Briesmeister Warren Martin Lisa Carlson Louise McClure John Chapman Sharon Scott Raymond Dacey George Simmons Verla Flores Richard Slaughter Sharlene Gage Gary Stubblefield Holly Greenfield Dirk van Beek Joel Hamilton Bob Wetherell 2 Journal of the Martin School of International Studies Letter from the Editors We as students of the Martin Institute proudly present Volume 1, Issue 1 of the first annual Journal of the Martin School of International Studies. In the spring of 2009, Dr. Bill L. Smith, Director of the Martin Institute, approached us with the concept of creating a publication to showcase the academic achievements of those graduating with degrees in International Studies. The Martin School of International Studies administers an undergraduate major and minor in International Studies at the University of Idaho. This interdisciplinary program is designed to prepare students for success in the evolving international community. An International Studies degree provides the global perspective and competitive edge in careers that help students meet the challenges of tomorrow. Each student majoring in IS selects a regional emphasis based upon which part of the world they wish to study most in-depth. These decisions are tied to the student’s language study and study abroad experience. Each also selects an issue emphasis. International Relations, Global Resources and Development, and Global Economics and Business are the three options. In the IS Capstone course taken in the last semester, seniors research a particular problem within their region and issue emphases and develop a policy paper including specific recommendations and steps to take toward the resolution of the issue. These papers represent the cumulative scholastic effort of IS students throughout their undergraduate careers. Another opportunity available to International Studies students exists in the Martin Scholars Program. The Martin Institute inaugurated the Martin Scholar program in 2005 in order to help IS majors be more competitive for post-graduation employment and admission to graduate programs. Students selected as Martin Scholars become paid research interns working on major global issues. They work in groups of three or four on a predetermined topic, under the guidance of both a faculty mentor who is an expert in the field and the Institute Director. They take a one credit class during the first six weeks of the Fall semester which focuses on the topic, following which they select a particular research topic that will then engage them for the rest of the academic year. The Martin Scholars focused on the Francophone World with faculty expert Sarah Nelson, Professor of French in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. This journal features four policy papers from the Spring 2009 IS Capstone course followed by two papers that are the result of the 2008-2009 Martin Scholar Program. This being the first volume, our objective is to provide you, the reader, with a glimpse into the endeavors of students in the Martin School and the IS Department at the University of Idaho. As founding editors, we sincerely hope you learn as much from these papers as we have. Best, J. Chad Mann Alexis M. Olson Senior Senior International Studies International Studies, English, & Political Science Vol.1, Issue 1 December 2009 3 It now becomes necessary for us to put our major global problems into a socially relevant global framework. Our world has become too complex, too interdependent, to answer these questions by simplistic answers. These problems call for creative thinking... – Boyd A. Martin, founder of the Martin Institute and namesake of the Martin School of International Studies, at the Institute’s inauguration, 1980 4 Journal of the Martin School of International Studies 2009 Journal of the Martin School of International Studies Table of Contents 3 Letter From the Editors 6 Population Growth and Islam: Family Planning in the Middle East and North Africa Kimberly Castelin 14 Save the Remittances: Remittances and the Global Economic Crisis Anna Brown 23 Alternatives to Aerial Fumigation Policy Along the Colombian-Ecuadorian Border Sarah Hulse-Reyes 31 The Legal Status of the U.S. Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Adam Sanchez 36 Africa’s Language Situation: A Space for New Ethnic Constructs? Nastasha Everheart 50 Perpetuating Dominance or Promoting Self-Sufficiency Ashley Borup Vol.1, Issue 1 December 2009 5 Population Growth and Islam: Family Planning in the Middle East and North Africa – Kimberly Castelin nations which, according to Gapminder.org, have the highest total fertility rates also have sizeable Muslim populations and would benefit from bringing in an accepted “Muslim” family planning model. In North Africa and the Middle East specifically, urban crowding and water resource strains are exacerbated by even modest total fertility rates (around 3 children per women is the global median but is above the replacement rate of 2). Socioeconomic problems are also created by high population growth rates. International and national organizations have acknowledged the importance of family planning. In 1962 Egyptian leaders “clearly identified rapid population growth as a threat to economic betterment of Issues with Population Growth the Egyptian people....”2 Rather, a loose sort of Global population growth is gaining more and Muslim solidarity was expounded which looks to more attention internationally as the strains the Qur’an and the Sunna as its leading forces. placed upon the earth and its resources begin Though Islam forms the morals by which millions to increase. Malthusian economists predict of people live, Islam’s “role is not uniform enough that soon the Earth will have met its carrying to have equivalent effects on fertility across capacity for human life. To try and correct for the different social, economic, or demographic 20th Century population boom nations need to contexts.”3 The political leaders of each country actively pursue reducing fertility rates. are the most instrumental in implementing family planning programs. Social stigma Middle East and North African nations do against contraception can be won by “Using not have the highest population growth rates in local resources in advocacy for family planning, the world; however, other nations with sizeable based on the cultural context of Shari’ah….”4 Muslim populations like Afghanistan and Nigeria Several Muslim nations have conquered the can learn from the trials and success of other social impetus against family planning and have nations’ programs. Both nations have fertility successful programs in place which the rest of rates of nearly 7 children per woman.1 By using pre-established programs these already cash- 2 Robinson, Warren C.; Ross, John A. Eds. The Global Family Planning Revolution. World strapped nations can save time and money in Bank, Washington, DC 2007. 19. implementing a proven model and tweaking 3 Johnson-Hanks, Jennifer. “On the Politics and it for their own nation’s need. Many of the Practice of Muslim Fertility: Comparative Evidence from West Africa”. Medical Anthropology Quarterly. Vol. 20 No. 1 March 2006. 14 1 “UN Data: A World of Information.” World Population Prospects. 28 Sept 2007. United Nations’ 4 Hasna, Fadia. “Islam, Social Traditions, Population Division. 4 May 2009. http://data. and Family Planning”. Social & Policy un.org/Data.aspx?d=PopDiv&f=variableID%3a54. Administration. Vol.37 No.2 April 2003. 181. 6 Journal of the Martin School of International Studies the Muslim world can learn from and utilize when out of the conference.6 The conference did forming their own policies. however allow for leaders of Muslim nations to have agreed upon guidelines to guide their policy decisions. International Solutions These two important international conferences In 1994 a conference held on Population did a lot to bring family planning into the public and Development in Cairo established that eye and to establish norms which are adhered the individual has the right to pursue family to. Establishing norms not only helps to hold planning practices. It is the onus of governments governments and NGOs accountable for their to ensure availability of contraceptive methods work, but allows governments, funders, and to their populations. In theory, this ensures that donators to have a means to assess programs. modern contraceptive devices be made available to everyone. However, in areas where cultural sensitivity towards birth control and different Government Support for Programs perspectives of ideal family size pervade, One of the first Muslim nations to establish the idealism driving individual pursuance of a nationwide family planning program was contraceptives lies outside the jurisdiction of Tunisia. Habib Bourguiba and the Neo-Destour multinational interference. In Muslim societies party led Tunisia out of colonialism and set the family planning is often “perceived as a synonym tone for Tunisia’s progressive nature in the early of birth-spacing” where “…the ideal family is 1960’s. Bourguiba implemented