UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones December 2016 A World of Warning: Exploring U.S. Department of State Travel Warnings and Alerts Ryan Daniel Larsen University of Nevada, Las Vegas Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/thesesdissertations Part of the Public Policy Commons Repository Citation Larsen, Ryan Daniel, "A World of Warning: Exploring U.S. Department of State Travel Warnings and Alerts" (2016). UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones. 2873. http://dx.doi.org/10.34917/10083164 This Dissertation is protected by copyright and/or related rights. It has been brought to you by Digital Scholarship@UNLV with permission from the rights-holder(s). You are free to use this Dissertation in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s) directly, unless additional rights are indicated by a Creative Commons license in the record and/or on the work itself. This Dissertation has been accepted for inclusion in UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones by an authorized administrator of Digital Scholarship@UNLV. For more information, please contact [email protected]. A WORLD OF WARNING: EXPLORING U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE TRAVEL WARNINGS AND ALERTS By Ryan D. Larsen Bachelor of Arts in International Affairs and Spanish Language and Literature University of Nevada, Reno 2001 Master of Public Administration University of Nevada, Las Vegas 2006 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy - Public Affairs School of Public Policy and Leadership Greenspun College of Urban Affairs The Graduate College University of Nevada, Las Vegas December 2016 Copyright by Ryan D. Larsen, 2016 All rights reserved Dissertation Approval The Graduate College The University of Nevada, Las Vegas September 2, 2016 This dissertation prepared by Ryan D. Larsen entitled A World of Warning: Exploring U.S. Department of State Travel Warnings and Alerts is approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy - Public Affairs School of Public Policy and Leadership E. Lee Bernick, Ph.D. Kathryn Hausbeck Korgan, Ph.D. Examination Committee Chair Graduate College Interim Dean Anna Lukemeyer, Ph.D. Examination Committee Member Helen Neill, Ph.D. Examination Committee Member Michael Bowers, Ph.D. Graduate College Faculty Representative ii Abstract Travel Warnings and Travel Alerts are documents issued by the United States Department of State to inform U.S. citizens traveling to other countries about the safety conditions of the desired destination. Travel Warnings are created for protracted conditions while Travel Alerts are meant for temporary circumstances. Scant research exists about official State Department travel advice, and there is an absence of knowledge about its components. This qualitative study seeks to answer the questions, what is the nature of State Department Travel Warnings and Alerts and what is their function? This study explores and seeks to describe the nature of Travel Warnings and Alerts and analyzes their function. The qualitative research design employs content analysis of archived Travel Warnings and Alerts and is anchored in Social Construction Theory, which provides a framework for understanding the social construction of target populations. This study then asks, is there a relationship between how a foreign country is socially constructed from the perspective of the United States and the issuance of State Department Travel Warnings and Alerts? Social Construction Theory is extended here to countries of the world and shows that there is indeed a relationship between the issuance of Travel Warnings and Alerts and the foreign countries for which they are issued based on their social construction. iii Acknowledgements In July 2003, I moved to Las Vegas to take a position in the Office of International Programs at UNLV to work full time and begin to take classes in its Master of Public Administration program by night. One of the first people I met was Dr. Lee Bernick, and I express my deepest gratitude for his years of guidance. The day we met in July 2003, he advised me of a better route to take from the apartment I was renting to campus, and today he is the Chair of my dissertation committee and continues to give me the best advice. Dr. Anna Lukemeyer started me off on my dissertation journey, and I am so grateful for everything she has taught me. Dr. Michael Bowers and Dr. Helen Neill have been role models since I met them, and their support and confidence has meant a lot to me. I am grateful to all four of them for agreeing to serve on my dissertation committee and for guiding me through this process. I would like to give special thanks to Susan Thompson for her years of mentorship, support, and friendship. I could not have succeeded in this academic endeavor while working full time without her encouragement. Thank you to my parents for the foundation they gave me and their enduring support and thank you to my community of friends and colleagues for cheering me on so sincerely. Finally, I wish to express my deep gratitude and appreciation to my husband, Travis Stone, for his constant support from the moment I suggested the idea of applying to the Ph.D. in Public Affairs program through the many evenings and weekends I went to class and stayed in my office to write. He encouraged me to still go to class despite exhaustion and to keep writing during those times that I thought I had nothing left to give. Thank you to all of you. I could not have done it without you. iv Table of Contents Abstract…………………………………………………..………………………….……...…...iii Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………………...…iv Table of Contents…………………………………………………………………………….…..v List of Tables……………………………………………………………………………………vii List of Figures……………………………………………………………………………………ix Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………………………………………1 Travel Warnings and Alerts……………………………………………………………………1 Definitions……………………………………………………………………………………...2 Official Travel Advice Today………………………………………………………………….2 Travelers……………………………………………………………………………………….6 Statement of the Problem………………………………………………………………………7 Purpose of the Study…………………………………………………………………………...8 Chapter 2: Literature Review………………………………………………………………….10 The State Department and Policy……………………………………………………….........10 Travel Warning Research…………………………………………………………………….12 Theoretical Framework……………………………………………………………………….23 Chapter 3: Research Design……………………………………………………………………30 Archived Documents…………………………………………………………………………30 ATLAS.ti Software…………………………………………………………………………...31 Intercoder Reliability…………………………………………………………………………32 Managing the Sample Size…………………………………………………………………...33 Application of Social Construction Theory…………………………………………………..36 Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Findings……………………………………………………….40 v Descriptive Statistics………….………………………………………………...…………….41 Component……………………..……………………………...………………………….......42 Background Codes……………………………………………………………………………43 Background Codes Content Analysis………………………………………………………...54 Reason Codes…………………………………………………………………………………57 Reason Codes Content Analysis……………………………………………………………...69 Verb Codes……………………………………………………………………………………72 Verb Codes Content Analysis………………………………………………………………...83 Observations in Travel Warnings and Alerts…………………………………………………84 Social Construction and Travel Warnings and Alerts………………………………………...86 Category 1 Countries…………………………………………………………………….93 Category 2 Countries…………………………………………………………………….98 Category 3 Countries…………………………………………………………………...101 Category 4 Countries…………………………………………………………………...104 Category 5 Countries…………………………………………………………………...109 Guiding Hypotheses Revisited………………………………………………………………118 Chapter 5: Conclusion……………………………………………………………….………..123 Purpose and Research Question……………………………………………………………..123 The Nature and Function of Travel Warnings………………………………………………123 Social Construction Theory and Travel Warnings…………………………………………..127 A Critique of Social Construction Theory Application to Travel Warnings and Alerts……129 Recommendations for Further Research…………………………………………….………131 Concluding Remarks………………………………………………………………………...132 Appendix A…………………………………………………………………………………….134 Appendix B…………………………………………………………………………………….138 vi Appendix C…………………………………………………………………………………….150 Appendix D………………………………………………………………………………….....154 Appendix E………………………………………………………………………………...…..164 Appendix F…………………………………………………………………………………….169 References……………………………………………………………………………………...203 Curriculum Vitae……………………………………………………………………………...220 vii List of Tables Table 1: Top 25 Background Codes……………………………………………………………..44 Table 2: Background Codes Analyzed…………………………………………………………..54 Table 3: Top 25 Reason Codes…………………………………………………………………..58 Table 4: Top 25 Reason:Violence Codes………………………………………………………...68 Table 5: Top 25 Reason:Potential Codes…………………………………….…………………..69 Table 6: Reason Codes Analyzed………......……………………………………………………70 Table 7: Top 25 Verb Codes..............……………………………………………………………73 Table 8: All Verb:Avoid Codes………………………………………………...………………..81 Table 9: All Verb:DoNot Codes…………………………………………………………………82 Table 10: Verb Codes Analyzed…………………………………………………………………83 Table 11: Developed Economies……………………………………………………...…………87 Table 12: Economies in Transition…………………………………………………….………..88 Table 13: Developing Economies……………………………………………………………….89 Table 14: Autocratic Countries………………………………………………………….………91