SIGMA IOTA RHO HONOR SOCIETY FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES Journal of International Relations PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA | Renewing the Mandela Legacy and Promoting Active Citizenship in a Changing World 44TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA EMMA D. O’ROURKE | Environmental Stressors on Migration within Guatemala MARIA JOSE LOZANO SANABRIA | IDP Returns in Transitional Societies: Colombia MAI PHAN | Decoding the Trade War’s Impact on ASEAN LIONEL WH OH | On the Islamization of Malaysia: Emergence of Jihadi-Salafism and Future Prospects DEVEN PATEL | The ECB’s Monetary Reponse to the Euro Crisis Through the Lens of the Taylor Rule: Comparing Germany and Greece to the Eurozone JARED SAWYER | Misrepresentations in Conservation: The Blackwashing of Palm Oil Production in Malaysia SHAYNA VAYSER | Women in Red: Femininity and Womanhood in the Soviet Union MADELINE SMITH | Migrant Pregnancies: Maternal Health and International Aid Along the Refugee Trail from Syria to Europe PAUL WITRY | The Cyberspace Race: A Contest to Win Global Digital Dominance Volume 21 | Spring 2019 i ii Want to change the world? Expand your worldview Fletcher students are global citizens in and out of the classroom, and make their mark on the world in a meaningful way. Join the ranks of Fletcher influencers making a difference. For more information, please visit our website. fletcher.tufts.edu I chose Fletcher because it embodies the three qualities I was looking for in a graduate school — international, interdisciplinary and inclusive. Aditya K. Kaushik MALD 2017 Contact The Office of Admissions & Financial Aid 160 Packard Ave.• Medford, MA 02155, USA +1 617-627-3040 [email protected] Spring 2019 | Volume 21 Journal of International Relations iii iv Fordham University’s MA Program in International Political Economy and Development offers a unique and innovative interdisciplinary approach to studying international economic relations. Students may specialize in: Global Finance & Emerging Markets International & Development Economics Journal of International Development Studies International Global Environment & Resource Management Relations Sigma Iota Rho National Honor Society for International Studies Spring 2019 | Volume 21 Generous merit-based For additional information please visit: fellowships are available to iped.fordham.edu those who wish to pursue or contact us at: careers in international Dealy Hall E-517 banking and finance, public 441 East Fordham Road service or with private Bronx, New York 10458 Telephone: (718) 817-4064 international relief and Fax: (718) 817- 4565 development organizations. Email: [email protected] Spring 2019 | Volume 21 Journal of International Relations v vi EXECUTIVE BOARD STAFF Editor-in-Chief, Print COPY ONLINE Sophie Pu Associate Editors Deputy Online Editor Aaron Chen Francesca Arruda de Amaral Editor-in-Chief, Online Alexandra Ciullo Annie Hsu Tiger Huang Philippe Atallah Kameron Fisher Online Correspondents Deputy Editor Gretchen Bednarz Ian Palmer Justin Melnick Tyresa Jackson Ra’phael Davis (John Jay College of Criminal Justice) Rachel Lietzow Clay Graubard Paul Witry Copy Editor Nitin Rao Jackson Foltz Annabel Ware Francesca Arruda de Amaral Daniel Hurley Ria Mazumdar Design Editor Son Mai Phan Karen Whisler Tiger Shen Managing Editor Kameron Fisher Bloggers Jade Akhras - Andy Anderson - Joyee Au Yeung - Zachary Cameron John Chappell - Rachel Collins - Ra’phael Davis - Jackson Foltz - Julie Geng Emma Himes - Daniel Hurley - Hyung Jun You - Joshua Kadish - Jacob Kind SPECIAL THANKS TO: Rachel Lietzow - Son Mai Phan - Ria Mazumdar - Brendan O’Halloran Robert Okada - Ian Palmer - Anna Schwartz - Tiger Shen - Aminata Sy - Jenna Vigal Dr. Frank Plantan Paul Witry - Tom Yuz - Yicheng Zhang National President of Sigma Iota Rho Dr. Tomoharu Nishino Faculty Advisor of the Sigma Iota Rho Journal of International Relations The JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS is a non-profit publication produced by un- dergraduates at the University of Pennsylvania. All inquiries and comments should be addressed to the Mr. Mark Castillo Editor-in-Chief, 635 Williams Hall, 255 S. 36th Street, Philadelphia PA 19104. Senior Liaison Officer, Sigma Iota Rho All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or part without permission is prohibited. Copyright 2019, Journal of International Relations. Cover Design by Karen Whisler Spring 2019 | Volume 21 Journal of International Relations vii viii LETTER FROM THE EDITOR LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT Dear Reader, Each year in this space I ring the steeple bell for international studies, urging colleagues and new Sigma Iota Rho (SIR) inductees to continue to champion our mission of not only recognizing our best student’s It is my greatest honor and pleasure to present you with the 21st Edition of the Sigma Iota Rho Journal of academic achievements, but to promote the study of international affairs on campuses and their wider International Relations. The Journal represents over twenty years of undergraduate excellence in the field communities. This may merely be preaching to the choir, making it difficult to convey the real urgency of international relations, and its distinguished reputation is certainly well-earned. This year’s articles we face as educators and practitioners to find new ways of understanding; new theories to account for continue the tradition of academic rigor, and are drawn from a pool of highly competitive submissions the ever-changing dynamics of the world; and new operational procedures for the delivery of solutions from around the world. The Journal occupies a unique space in scholarly discourse by offering voices to the to the timeless challenge: “how do we make the world a better place?” Likewise, students today are most exceptional undergraduate individuals, whose research on topics ranging from migrant pregnancies extremely motivated by the idea of bettering the world by affecting change. They are driven by ideals of in Syrian refugees to the impact of trade wars on ASEAN tackle the most difficult questions of our social impact, social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility, the environmental Commons, and world today. I also invite you to peruse our online journal at SIRjournal.org for weekly opinion, blog demands for recognition of the power of social and ethnic diversity, tied as it is to human rights and the and research pieces that contribute to SIR’s mission to encourage open forum discourse on international growing socio-political and economic inequalities they see in the world. affairs. Our online Editor-in-Chief, Tiger Huang, has made a truly phenomenal contribution to the online journal this year by introducing a record number of writers and correspondents, in addition to The fuller context of these concerns today is we find a liberal arts education, particularly within the publishing articles at a faster rate than the journal has ever seen before. humanities and social sciences, are under assault for an alleged lack of relevance; a failure of their core propositions to deliver empirical solutions. The attack is fueled by an emergent sentiment of discontent This year, we are honored to publish another esteemed United States President, President Barack Obama. with the institutional manifestations that grew out of these traditions in our current world order, that In the last few years, race and class relations around the world have become increasingly fraught with these institutions have helped create or exacerbated the discontent and inequities we observe in the the rise of xenophobia and extremism, a problem that President Obama addresses in his lecture at world today. Has an intellectual sclerosis settled in to academe and among our policy-makers? Within the Sixteenth Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. Celebrating the American higher education, the past year has witnessed an alarming number of closures of humanities incredible life and contributions of Nelson Mandela, President Obama reflects on that which has been and liberal arts programs and departments. We are told in the most categorical of terms that a student’s achieved in addition to that which still has yet to be accomplished. I encourage you to read his rousing employment and the future of society now lies in the STEM fields. And our social and political world, call for collective action to enact the visions championed by many great individuals – Mandela, King and which we are reminded on a daily basis is “polarized,” has produced little else beyond hand-wringing, Lincoln to name a few – of equality, justice and freedom. wailing, and a paralysis of thought and action. Following the transcript of President Obama’s lecture, the Journal features nine stellar undergraduate So what are we as educators to do? First, trust the unforeseen benefits of institutional and organizational articles that contribute their research to the field of international relations. This year’s edition highlights inertia. While these forces usually stand in the way of change, today they are preserving the liberal a wide array of topics, including the impact of environmental blackwashing of the Malaysian palm oil international order that has afforded us prolonged periods of peace, an exponential decline in battlefield industry, the ECB’s monetary response to the Euro crisis, and the cyberspace race. Furthermore, this deaths, a global trade system that provides us often overlooked comforts and conveniences while lifting year’s journal sees a range of research methods, from multivariate