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A conference paper about human rights, hypocrisy, and the case of Roma, for presentation at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association on March 22-24, 2012, in Portland, Oregon, is presented. It examines three primary sets of questions that provide the organizational basis including learnings from existing scholarly treatments of the plight of the Roma, origins of the Roma in Europe, and sources of hypocrisy with respect to the Roma.

Major world sporting events are underexplored phenomena in the study of international politics. But they have often become focal points for political conflict, most recently in the high profile protests in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics. This paper examines the origins and effects of political contestation at world sporting events over the past 30 years. In it, we ask: why do actors choose sporting events to voice political opposition? How often do such protests have an impact? And, more importantly, what are the mechanisms by which this impact is achieved? To answer these questions, we present a dataset of all large protests and boycotts at major international sporting events over the past half-century. We draw upon select cases ranging from the U.S. boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics to the Beijing protests both to explain variation in outcomes and to increase our understanding of the interaction between international sport and politics. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What makes international institutions endure when they are challenged by noncompliance--especially in the field of arms control where the stakes and risks are so high? When noncompliance threatens an institution, actors can choose to abandon it, replace it, or rally in its defense. Realists and rationalists would expect an examination of materially defined interests to explain this variation. However, these approaches are not alone capable of describing how and why the strategic interests of states change in a way that accounts for the variance in outcomes. Consideration of the concept of legitimacy is necessary to complete the circle. Specifically, this paper disaggregates the concept of legitimacy in order to isolate its different operational dimensions. It then examines them in the case of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), which is widely considered to be experiencing a "crisis of compliance," and seeks to identify the conditions in which the NPT would, in fact, unravel. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States and Europe have a common stake in stabilizing the global economy in the wake of the financial crisis. Indeed, the strength of the transatlantic partnership will be critical in managing this and related challenges, preventing future ones, and retrofitting the Western global order. But as Barack Obama underscores the imperative of reinvigorate US-European relations and McCain calls for the creation of a “League of Democracies,” little has been said about how such a steadier, more cooperative relationship will be achieved and sustained. In this paper, we draw lessons from recent experiments in governance in the United States and the European Union in issue areas ranging from environmental regulation to social inclusion in order to advance a new framework for transatlantic cooperation. We contend that the governance arrangements that underpin the partnership need to be rethought in order to promote better the normative consensus building, opportunities for mutual learning, and adaptability necessary to thrive in an increasingly fluid environment. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Americans get the majority of their information from local news; furthermore, local news is a primary source for information on national and international affairs, rated more highly than any of the major network news. In recent years, foreign policy is becoming an increasingly salient issue for the average American, and for the first time since the Vietnam era, polls show foreign policy as the most important problem facing the nation. Yet a considerable literature shows that citizens know considerably less about (and pay less attention to) foreign policy than domestic issues. But in the wake of 9-11 and the Iraq war, questions arise over the extent to which these traditional assumptions about the role of foreign policy in domestic politics still hold and whether local news foreign policy coverage provide Americans with the information necessary to form meaningful opinions with respect to foreign policy issues. By examining a unique database comprised of both national and local news in 2002 and 2004, this paper seeks to illuminate a number of questions: ·What is the nature of the information reaching ordinary citizens about international affairs? ·Does coverage pit congressional leaders against the president, etc)?·Does the coverage take a stance on the role of the U.S. in international affairs (e.g. a unilateralist vs. multilaterist bent)? ·Are efforts made to connect foreign policy issues to the everyday lives of Americans? ·Does media coverage seek additional sources besides the U.S. government to present information? The answers to these questions have important implications for not only the foreign policy and political communications literatures, but also for the U.S. and international policy communities. As such, the paper pays special attention to nexus between academic and policy realms. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper will draw upon constructivist approaches to develop a theory of soft law, analyze its use and operation in Europe, and suggest ways in which how soft law might usefully be coupled with hard law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]