Date of Award
5-11-2012
Major
Political Science & Economics
Faculty Advisor
Frederick Solt
Abstract
Amid the burgeoning literature on international norms, the study of states that violate them, so called pariahs, remains sparse (Shannon 2000). Although recent studies of pariah states have the identified numerous ways in which they break international norms, we do not know why they pursue one action over another (E.g Geldenhuys 2004, Nincic 2005). I argue that the export of violence is caused by the state’s "revolutionary identity" which leads to the adoption of competing and incompatible norms. Using qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) I test this against other alternate and prevailing hypotheses, demonstrating that a combination of sovereignty, existential threat, and either irredentism or a revolutionary identity is necessary to cause the export of violence. As an additional analysis, I examine this under the Cold War and Post-Cold War eras, achieving similar results.