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Fostering Global Security: Nonviolent Resistance and US Foreign Policy

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Fostering Global Security: Nonviolent Resistance and US Foreign Policy University of Denver Digital Commons @ DU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate Studies 1-1-2010 Fostering Global Security: Nonviolent Resistance and US Foreign Policy Amentahru Wahlrab University of Denver Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd Part of the Communication Commons, and the International Relations Commons Recommended Citation Wahlrab, Amentahru, "Fostering Global Security: Nonviolent Resistance and US Foreign Policy" (2010). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 680. https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/680 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Studies at Digital Commons @ DU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ DU. For more information, please contact [email protected],[email protected]. Fostering Global Security: Nonviolent Resistance and US Foreign Policy _____________ A Dissertation presented to The Faculty of the Joseph Korbel School of International Studies University of Denver _____________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy _____________ By Amentahru Wahlrab November 2010 Advisor: Jack Donnelly © Copyright by Amentahru Wahlrab, 2010 All Rights Reserved Author: Amentahru Wahlrab Title: Fostering Global Security: Nonviolent Resistance and US Foreign Policy Advisor: Jack Donnelly Degree Date: November 2010 ABSTRACT This dissertation comprehensively evaluates, for the first time, nonviolence and its relationship to International Relations (IR) theory and US foreign policy along the categories of principled, strategic, and regulative nonviolence. The current debate within nonviolence studies is between principled and strategic nonviolence as relevant categories for theorizing nonviolent resistance. Principled nonviolence, while retaining the primacy of ethics, is often not practical. Indeed, most nonviolent movements have not been principled, or solely principled. Strategic nonviolence is attractive because it does not require any individual or group to believe in a particular faith or ethical tradition. However, strategic nonviolence is problematic as a source for action because it empties nonviolence of ethical content. If left with only the categories of principled and strategic nonviolence any analysis of US foreign policy is hampered by either principled nonviolence‘s impracticability or by the possibility that strategic nonviolence will be used for unethical ends, what I term ―imperial nonviolence.‖ This tension led me to search for a middle path between principled and strategic nonviolence. ―Regulative nonviolence‖ is so-called because the concept owes an intellectual debt to Immanuel Kant. It is theoretically possible to argue for a US foreign policy that is grounded in the regulative ideal of nonviolence while it is nearly impossible to get from the current American policy of overwhelming force to one of principled nonviolence. In the end, regulative nonviolence is more ideal than strategic nonviolence, it retains the ethical core of principled nonviolence without removing all forms of violence ii from its operational tool kit. However, it is also more ―realistic‖ than principled nonviolence because it recognizes that politics is the art of the possible. In this sense, this dissertation owes a debt not just to Kant but also to Machiavelli, with a slight twist. While Nicoló Machiavelli argued that political leaders must learn how ―not to be good‖ I am arguing that they must learn how to be good, or, at least, to be less violent in their pursuit of political change. iii Acknowledgments No dissertation is ever conceived, written, and endlessly re-written without wide- ranging support from mentors, advisors, colleagues, family, and friends and this one is no different. My committee Chair, Jack Donnelly, encouraged me, coaxed, and eventually and humorously cajoled me into reframing the dissertation into a coherent and comprehensible form. Alan Gilbert, who served as co-chair, helped me to see good ideas amidst the morass and fog of dissertation writing and he relentlessly cheered me on through to the finish line. Rachel Epstein was from the beginning a tether to the real, an ever present and much needed reminder to think in terms of practical, pragmatic politics. Her dictate to always think in terms of publishing, audience, and coherence has not always been easy to follow but her advice will remain a mantra as I prepare the manuscript for book publication. I owe an un-repayable debt to Manfred B. Steger whose advice and mentoring over the years has time and again pulled me from the brink and back into the light. He honorably agreed to serve on the committee at the last minute when it became clear that I needed him. I cannot thank him enough. Finally, Roscoe Hill graciously and skillfully served as Outside Chair. I would also like to thank the following friends and colleagues, without whom I might not have finished: Rebecca Otis, Chris Seager, Anwar Hossain, Sasha Breger, Arturo Lopez-Calleja, Micheline Ishay, Jack Donnelly, Alan Gilbert, Susan Rivera, George DeMartino, Matthew Weinert, Eric Fattor, Manfred Steger, Isaac Kamola, Sherri Replogle, Noha Shawki, Rachel Epstein, Lane Crothers, Sarah Sass, Jeremy Engels, Michael McNeal, Randy LeBlanc, Asli Calkivik, Garnet Kindervater, Ali Riaz, Carlos Parodi, Erik Rankin This dissertation is dedicated to Leela Plesse and Sarah Sass. iv Table of Contents INTRODUCTION: Fostering Global Security ................................................................ 1 Linguistics of Nonviolence—Nonviolence as Symbol and Sign .................................... 8 Part I Thinking about Nonviolence ................................................................................................ 21 CHAPTER ONE: Three Categories of Nonviolent Resistance ..................................... 22 Section One: Principled Nonviolence ......................................................................... 27 Section Two: Strategic Nonviolence ........................................................................... 36 Section Three: Regulative Nonviolence ...................................................................... 44 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 59 CHAPTER TWO: Situating Nonviolence ..................................................................... 62 Power Politics ............................................................................................................ 62 Pacifism ..................................................................................................................... 71 Human Security ......................................................................................................... 77 Critical Theory ........................................................................................................... 81 Summary and Conclusion ........................................................................................... 86 Part II A 21st Century Global Security Agenda .............................................................................. 89 CHAPTER THREE: A 21st Century Security Agenda ................................................... 90 Hegemonic Origins of a 21st Century Global Security ................................................ 93 The ―War on Terror‖ and the Counter-Terrorism Pillar ............................................. 98 Political Oppression and the Democracy Pillar ......................................................... 101 Nuclear Weapons and the nonproliferation/WMD Pillar ......................................... 104 Climate Chaos and the Environmental Pillar ............................................................ 111 Conclusion ............................................................................................................... 113 Part III The Four Pillars of Global Security ............................................................................... 116 CHAPTER FOUR: Re-framing the ―War on Terror‖ ................................................. 117 Frames of the ―War‖ on Terror ................................................................................ 122 Section I: Lessons Learned From Terrorism Studies ................................................ 124 Section II: Lessons learned from state responses to terrorism .................................. 148 Section III: Lessons learned from nonviolence studies ............................................. 161 CHAPTER FIVE: Democracy Promotion and Imperial Nonviolence ........................ 172 v Democratization ...................................................................................................... 173 Section I: Polyarchy, Popular Nonviolence, and Democratic Peace .......................... 174 Section II: Will The Spread Of Elite Democracy Promote Global Security? ............. 214 Section III: Is the Strategy of Preventive War an Effective Means of Spreading Democracy? ............................................................................................................. 241 Section IV: Will Nonviolence More effectively Promote Democracy? ...................... 261 CHAPTER SIX: Conclusion ....................................................................................... 287 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................
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