Rob

I am an assistant professor in the department of Political Science at Grand Valley State University. In broad terms, my area of research and teaching is International Relations.

More specifically, I focus on two areas of research:

First, I look at the relationship between Globalization and Human Rights.

Globalization is the trans-continental growth in the magnitude of economic, political, social, and security interdependence between multiple actors (state and non-state actors, included). These increasing levels of interdependence create new opportunities as well as challenges for the realization of human rights around the world. The relationship is quite mixed. The widening acceptance of human rights norms around the world since the end of World War II is an important aspect of social globalization. Some aspects of globalization allow for increasing pressures on states from above and below to respect the rights of their populations. But other aspects increase the threats that states perceive, and that they respond to with increasing levels of repression.

My approach to exploring this relationship employs statistical analysis to find significant determinants of state repression, and follows the work of others like Steven Poe, Christian Davenport, C. Neal Tate, David Cingranelli, Will Moore, Conway Henderson, Wesley Milner, Clair Apodaca, and David Richards. My theoretical approach is significantly influenced by others as well, like William Dixon, Gary Goertz, Kathryn Sikkink, Alison Brysk, Alexander Wendt, Jack Donnelly, Rhoda Howard-Hassmann, Ted Robert Gurr, Joseph Nye, Robert Keohane, Jon Pevehouse, Harvey Starr, Richard Falk, Martha Finnemore, Margaret Keck, Bruce Russett, and John Oneal.

My hope is that through a better understanding of what leads to greater or lesser realization of human rights globally, as well as the tactics that assist in changing states’ behavior for the better, such lessons will be more effectively implemented. It is through the use of this same approach to determining the causes of and effective management techniques for international and civil conflicts that we may be able to increase the number and scope of zones of peace throughout the world. This is where the political scientist and the idealist in me meet. And while it is always important to maintain a reasonable level of realism in understanding the ways in which international politics works, I also believe that such an application of our knowledge to making the world a better place to live is possible.

According to the Minorities at Risk Project , which is based in the Center for International Development and Conflict Management at the University of Maryland, "Groups highlighted on this map [below] face high levels of repression at the hands of state agents. Groups experienced one of the following forms of repression in 2003: military campaigns against armed rebels; military massacres of suspected supporters; or ethnic cleansing."

Second, I explore the manner in which Regional Powers influence their respective Regional Security Complexes.

In the past, many people who study international relations have focused on the global system level to explain the security-related behavior of states. But in the current period, it is becoming more important to understand security dynamics within a regional context. Most states’ and other actors’ concerns about security are focused on their own immediate areas - more so than distant global powers. This has been especially true since the end of the Cold War. This doesn’t mean that global powers or processes are irrelevant. It means that regional powers and processes are more important than ever to understand. And even those global powers that interact with regions other than their own, tend to do so to differing extents and in manners that are influenced by different regional contexts.

Given this context, it is important to understand what it is that makes security in one region very different from that in others. To understand these differences, one must pay particular attention to those states that are particularly influential in determining the security order within their own neighborhoods. These states are referred to as regional powers. My colleague, Derrick Frazier and I have developed a framework through which we can systematically identify these states and better understand the nature of their influences. We contend that in order to do both of these things, one must pay attention to not only the level of capabilities that potential regional powers possess, but also the manner in which they behave.

As a first cut at this though, we identify those states that do possess a significant concentration of their region's power capabilities. These are the states that are shaded blue in the following image...

I have also published work that assesses the levels of foreign policy cohesion among members of the G7, as well as the determinants of defections from the group.

I am interested in a broader understanding of security than that which has traditionally dominated the field of international relations. Considerations of security are more varied than defense against conventional state-on-state attacks, though of course these security considerations continue to be the primary ones in certain places today. As Barry Buzan points out below though, the types of threats that are 'securitized' vary across time and space. Generally, most states' and peoples' dominant security concerns do emanate from within their own neighborhood, and not from the global system level. That being said, given our high degree of interdependence, which is being increasingly magnified through the process of globalization, it is becoming more difficult to consider instability, suffering, or insecurity in distant locations to be completely separated from our own interests. This means that issues such as human security, distant conflicts, and failed states should be of concern to us all.

Feel free to take a look at my My Personal Website

Here is Barry Buzan talking about the process of securitization. Part 1:

Part 2:

Here is John Mearsheimer illustrating a particular perspective in the process of securitization for the United States

Here are Anne-Marie Slaughter and G. John Ikenberry illustrating the process of securitization as well, in more broad terms for the United States

On the value of Amnesty International's postcards to Prisoners of Conscience:

From Amnesty International, on Torture:

On the Crisis in Darfur:

An Interesting Piece that someone posted on Human Trafficking:

Police raided a rental hall used by a group organizing protests at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minnesota, on Friday.

This is how you spread freedom...