Cameron Abadi
Max Kade Scholar
B.A., Political Science

Project Title: "The Early History of the German Greens:  From Student Movement to Political Party"

Mr. Abadi will investigate the political origins and evolution of Germany’s Green Party.  

While there is agreement that the Green Party is a descendent of the 1960’s student movements, the process by which localized movements transformed and organized into a national political party has been under-researched. Mr. Abadi hopes that a discerning look at the German political landscape’s recent past will afford a clearer portrait of its present complexities. 

Future plans:  Mr. Abadi hopes to continue to pursue the study of 20th century German intellectual history and political theory in graduate school and as a professor.

Patricio Zambrano-Barragán
B.A., Political Science

Project Title: "New Citizenships, New States:  Post-WWII Germany and the Lessons for a Supra-National Europe"

Mr. Zambrano’s research focuses on human rights, state-building, and citizenship in Europe.

Specifically, he intends to investigate how the process of the denazification of Germany effectively changed the political and legal parlance of the international polity, not only making possible the turn toward the Declaration of Human Rights, but also prefiguring the élan of European Unification as a supra-national community of equal states and citizenships.

Future plans:  Mr. Zambrano will pursue a career in international law.

Henry Kwan
M.A., African Studies

Project Title: "Bombs, Bullets, and CEOs:  Britain's Commercial Military Industry and the Privatization of Conflict in Sub Saharan Africa"

Mr. Kwan will examine the post-Cold War correlation between the rise of the commercial military industry in the United Kingdom and the proliferation of privatized warfare in sub-Saharan Africa.

The United Kingdom serves as the headquarters to some of the world’s largest and most well-known private military firms – commercial enterprises and corporate entities that specialize in the provision of professional services intricately linked to warfare. Britain is also a principal supplier of ‘contract’ and ‘private’ soldiers to conflicts in sub-Saharan Africa, most notably such countries as Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Future plans: Mr. Kwan will pursue a doctorate after which he plans to  pursue a career in teaching and research in academia.

Tiffany Alora Thomas
B.A., Political Science

Project Title: "Evolution of Mexican-American International Relations During the Tenure of the Partido Revolutionario Institutional (PRI)"

Ms. Thomas will examine the evolution of Mexican-American relations from the beginning of the Cold War to the Post Cold War era and the creation of NAFTA. She will research the reasons behind the changes in Mexican- American relations during this time  by focusing on different presidents and their administrations,  domestic political and economic factors, and the ways in which international dynamics affected foreign policies of the two countries. By studying the evolution of Mexican-American relations, Ms. Thomas hopes to achieve a greater understanding of the future of Mexican American relations – especially as it relates to the current economic integration created by NAFTA and whether it will ever extend to political integration of the two countries.  

Future plans: Ms. Thomas hopes to become an attorney practicing in international law.

Brian Cuddy
M.A., International Relations

Project Title: "Strategies for Peace in the Sudan"

Mr. Cuddy will study the prospects for peace in the Sudan in the wake of a twenty year civil war in the south of the country, and genocidal crimes in the west. By using a comparative framework – first comparing situations within the Sudan, and then comparing the Sudanese situation to other historical and contemporary cases – Mr. Cuddy aims to suggest strategies for a successful peace operation in the Sudan, and to contribute to academic debates on theories and models of peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

Future plans:  Mr. Cuddy will pursue a career in international civil service or with a  non governmental policy institute.

Brenda Kombo
Ph.D., Anthropology

Project Title: "The Napoleonic Code and State Management of Domestic Violence in Cameroon"

In Cameroon, a former French colony, the Napoleonic Code, instituted in the early colonial period, maintains an influence it has lost in France. It continues to play an important role in regulating family life.  Ms. Kombo will explore this role by conducting research on how French colonial legal discourse and practice delimited conceptual space shaping responses to domestic violence in Cameroon.  This research is part of a larger project in which Ms. Kombo analyzes how changes in the Cameroonian legal system combined with transnational human rights discourse have created new forms of knowledge and power.

Future plans: Ms. Kombo will pursue a career in the international human rights field.

Michael Morgan
Ph.D., History

Project Title: "The Origins of the Helsinki Final Act, 1954-1975"

Mr. Morgan’s project focuses on the Helsinki Process, one of the turning points in the history of the Cold War, but one that has not received much in depth attention from historians. Focusing on the states that played the most important role in the development of the Final Act, Mr. Morgan will build a picture of how and why the most important states in the negotiations acted as they did. His overall goal is not only to explain the origins of the Helsinki Final Act itself, but also to address larger and related questions about the emergence of international human rights norms, the rise and fall of détente, and the beginning of the end of the Cold War. 

Future plans:  Mr. Morgan will pursue a career in academia or government.

Linnea Duvall
B.A., History and East Asian Studies

Project Title: "Environmental Degradation and Japan's Comprehensive Security Strategy"

Because of limits on Japan’s use of its self defense forces in a military way, it has to engage in comprehensive security, one aspect of which is environmental degradation. Ms. Duvall  will investigate the extent to which Japan has been successful in defining a security policy around environmental degradation concerns. In particular, Ms. Duvall is interested in the development of projects such as the Asia Forest Partnership and COP.   

Future plans: Ms. Duvall hopes to be a Foreign Service Political Officer the US State Department and pursue an advanced degree in International Affairs.

Daniel Bernstein
B.A., Political Science

Project Title: "The Grand Strategy of Jawaharlal Nehru"

Mr. Bernstein will study the Grand Strategy of India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Among the questions he hopes to answer are: what influences shaped Nehru’s vision for India,  how he forged a national identity in an extraordinarily diverse population, and what the unique features of Indian federalism are. Mr. Bernstein hopes that the answers to these questions will shed light on nation building elsewhere. 

Future plans: Mr. Bernstein will pursue a career in international law and politics.

Justine Röhmel (spring 2006)
Ph.D., Political Economics

Project Title: "Measurement of Efficiency in Health Care:  An Analysis of the Efficiency of Hospitals"

There is a growing debate in Europe that social insurance, while necessary, has become increasingly unaffordable. Ms. Röhmel hopes to contribute positively to this debate by measuring the efficiency and productivity of German hospitals and identifying sources of variation.  She will examine whether we can associate differences in the determinants of efficiency with differently structured health care markets. While at Yale she will compare efficiency of German hospitals with that of American hospitals. The overall aim of her project is to come up with compelling health policy reform recommendations. 

Future plans: Ms. Röhmel hopes to become a health economist with the German Federal Ministry of Health and Social Insurance.

Sachka Stefanova (Fall, 2005)
Ph.D., Law and Political Science

Project Title: "The Impact of Globalization on the State-centered Implementation and Protection of Human Rights"

Ms. Stefanova will assess the effects of globalization on human rights systems as established in Germany and the United States.  Her research is based on the premise that the issue of human rights even in post modern, liberal capitalist democracies, is impacted by globalization. In particular,  globalization has contributed to the erosion of state capacity since it locks states into global networks and systems which directly and indirectly affect the lives of their citizens but over which no single state can, by itself, exert effective control. Ms. Stefanova contends that in transforming state power, globalization provokes critical questions about the political and institutional conditions necessary for the protection and advancement of human rights in a global age.   

Future plans: Ms. Stefanova hopes to work for an international organization, or international law firm practicing human rights law and transnational law.

Ulrich Volz
Max Kade Scholar
Ph.D., Economics

Project Title: "Monetary and Financial Cooperation in East Asia"

The Asian financial crisis of 1997/98 sparked great political interest in monetary and financial integration and cooperation in the region.  Mr. Volz will examine the desirability and feasibility of regional monetary and financial cooperation agreements in East Asia.  Drawing on the classical and more recent theoretical approaches to monetary integration, as well as the European experiences, Mr. Volz will investigate the economic conditions for monetary and financial integration in the region  and assesses the benefits and problems associated with it.   

Future plans: Mr. Volz plans to pursue a career in academia or with an international organization.

José Antonio Hernández Company
B.A., International Studies

Project Title: "Interparty Relations and Electoral Reform in Mexico:  1995-2003"

Mr. Hernandez will study interparty relations in Mexico in order to determine what factors favor or discourage cooperation among political organizations.  His research is brought on by fact that although Mexican parties initially helped bring about political reform, since 1997 they have failed to cooperate and thus have stymied the consolidation of democracy in the country.  Mr. Hernandez claims that this knowledge is vital to understanding how Mexico’s democratic regime will function in the future and how important issues such as legislative effectiveness, interest representation and democratic accountability will be dealt with.   

Future plans:  Mr. Hernandez will pursue a career in Mexican politics and public administration.

Iván Cajeme Villarreal Camero
M.A., Economics

Project Title: "Demographic Transition and Economic Growth in Mexico"

Mr. Villarreal’s project examines the connection between demographics and economic growth, with an emphasis on the effect of changes in the age structure of populations caused by demographic transition.  Specifically he seeks to determine the effects that the change in the age distribution of the population has had, and could have, on Mexico’s economic performance.  Understanding how demographic shifts affect economies is crucial to designing appropriate public policies that help take full advantage of these changes, especially in underdeveloped countries like Mexico.     

Future plans:  Mr. Villareal will pursue a PhD and then work at a Mexican government agency or international organization focusing on economic development. 

Andrew Farmer
M.Phil, Historical Studies

Project Title: "The Texas Democrats and the 1968 Elections"

Mr. Farmer ‘s project analyzes the process, effects, and reasons for the nationalization of Texas politics between 1960 and 1976.  While at Yale, his major focus will be on the relationship between the Democratic National Committee competing Texas factions during the time it was headed by Connecticut political boss, John M. Bailey. 

Eamonn McGrattan
Ph.D., History

Project Title: "Dr. Kissinger's 'Year of Europe' and the Battle for European Identity"

Mr. McGrattan’s work focuses on the emergence and manipulation of identity politics in transatlantic relations in the early 1970’s and on competing ideas of a nascent  ‘European’ identity.  It centers on Henry Kissinger’s famous ‘Year of Europe’ speech of April 1973 and hopes to contextualize it in the light of a growing transatlantic cultural drift provoked most clearly by the Vietnam War and the radical discourse of the late 1960’s and further aggravated by Cold War détente, the collapse of the Bretton-Woods system and the enlargement of the European Community.

Sebastian Walsh
M.Phil., International Relations

Project Title: "An Investigation of the Influence Exerted by Pro-Zionist Pressure Groups on United States Policy towards Palestine (1943-1947)"

Mr. Walsh will examine the rise of Islamist politics in North Africa, most particularly Algeria, during the 1990s. Specifically, he will focus on the Islamic  philosopher, Malek Bennabi, and the influence his ideas exerted on the Front Islamique du Salut in Algeria.  Mr. Walsh will also analyze the potential that Bennabi’s  ideas may hold for the development of an authentic, Islamic form of democracy in North Africa.

Ekaterina Domnina
Ph.D., Medieval and Early Modern Studies

Project Title: "Shaping Early Modern International Relations:  The Case of Anglo-Papal Diplomacy in the Tudor Period"

Ms. Domnina’s project aims to demonstrate that many modern practices in international relations, such as resident diplomatic representation and the idea of a multipolar world, were developed in Western Europe as early as the 16th century, in which the widening contacts with Italy, the cradle of modern diplomacy, played the pivotal role. The case of Anglo-Papal diplomacy in the early modern period shows how the English monarchs employed their relations with the papacy for improving their own diplomatic practices and later for playing against their former ‘tutors.’  Ms. Domnina hopes that  research in this area will lead to a better understanding of how the principles of modern international relations were brought to life.

Future Plans: Ms. Domnina will pursue an academic career.

Alexander Yalov
Ph.D., Economics

Project Title: "Adaptation and Application of the Existing Methods of Company Valuation to the Emerging Markets"

Emerging markets present tremendous opportunities for investors. However, existing valuation methods are not appropriate tools for studying emerging markets, that are characterized by a number of positive (e.g. high returns, large share of foreign speculative capital)  and negative (e.g. political instability, high profit taxes) features not found in developed markets. Mr. Yalov’s objective is to adapt  the existing methodology of valuation to the reality of emerging markets. He claims that some methods, such as the forecasted discounted cash flow method, have certain advantages over others.

Future plans:  Mr. Yalov hopes to combine an academic career with part time consulting.

Iglika Yakova
Ph.D., Political Science

Project Title: "Intermediation of Professional Interests in the Agricultural Sector in Czech Republic:  Analysis of Corporatism and Enlargement Effects"

Ms. Yakova’s project addresses the intermediation of professional interests in post-communist countries acceding to the European Union. Specifically, she analyzes how Europe is affecting organized interests in the agricultural sector in the Czech Republic.  Her goal is to define the complex and changing relationship between the post-communist legacy and European incremental incentives in the construction of a group of professional interests. 

Future plans: After completing her PhD, Ms. Yakova will seek a position with the EU or an international institution in the field of sustainable development.

Guoyou Song
Ph.D., International Relations and Public Affairs

Project Title: "Keeping Balance:  A Study of Relations Between Trade and Security in US China Strategy, 1979 to 2003"

Mr. Song’s research focuses on the relation between security and trade in US strategy toward China.

The increase and development of economic cooperation between the US and  China is in sharp contrast to fluctuating cooperation in the security sphere. Mr. Song will seek to explain this paradox, that is not easily explained by traditional international relations theory.

Future plans:  Mr. Song hopes to become a professional researcher of international relations specializing in the field of Sino-American relations.

Yu Ye
Ph.D., Law

Project Title: "Liberalization of Trade in Energy Service Under the GATS"

Ms. Ye’s project is a legal analysis of trade in energy services, a fairly new issue in GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Service). This issue is one which is an exceedingly important one for China,   one of the world’s largest consumers of energy, but one which has not received much attention.  Among the questions Ms. Ye  hopes to answer are: what limitations does the  existing WTO/GATS framework confront, how it can be improved without fundamentally altering the prevailing regime structures, and what China’s  position on the issue of trade in energy services should be.  

Future plans: Ms. Ye will pursue a career as a university professor and a part-time government advisor.

Yuichiro Hirano
Ph.D., Advanced Social and International Studies

Project Title: "Politics and Forest Management in the People's Republic of China"

Mr. Hirano’s project seeks to clarify the transformation of forest management policy as set forth by China’s central government with forest management at the local level. He will do so by analyzing how political and social conditions, such as the Communist Party’s domination of the state, the socialist collectivization of villages, economic reform and frequent policy changes, influence the relationship between local people and the forest.  Mr. Hirano’s overall aim is to apply this framework to international activities and help establish sustainable societies worldwide.

Future plans: Mr. Hirano hopes to become a university professor.

Haruka Matsuda
Ph.D., Contemporary East Asian History

Project Title: "The Relations Among U.S., South Korea, and South Vietnam in the 1950s"

Ms. Matsuda will  study a neglected aspect of the Vietnam War, the question of how the US government made the linkage between Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, especially South Korea and South Vietnam, and how these countries reacted to such intentions. She will analyze the political, economic, cultural and military relations between these three countries.  By exploring this theme, Ms. Matsuda hopes to contribute to a better understanding of international Cold War history in Asia and propose explanations for the particularly complex nature of the Cold War in the region.

Future plans: Ms. Matsuda hopes to teach Cold War history in East Asia and US-East Asia relations at the university level.

Kalyan Kumar
Ph.D., Historical Studies

Project Title: "The Making and Unmaking of a Steel City:  Urban Landscape of Jamshedpur, c. 1907-1970"

Mr. Kumar’s project is an in depth study of an industrial town, Jamshedpur, which owes it growth to the setting up of an iron and steel industry in 1907. His study will involve looking into the histories of capital, labor, architecture, planning, social relations, and the spatial relations of the town.  Through, his study, Mr. Kumar will write the history of the city and explore the issue of urbanism and its relation to industrial capitalistic development in the Indian context.

Future plans: Mr. Kumar will pursue an academic career.

Tina Kuriakose
Ph.D., International Law

Project Title: "Legal Analysis of International Policy Response to the Protection of Traditional Knowledge"

Ms. Kuriakose’s  research addresses the deep concern developing countries have in the protection of traditional knowledge. She will analyze existing intellectual property  policy regarding the protection of traditional knowledge and explore the extent to which these principles are congruent with axioms of natural law as evidenced in human rights. Her research also proposes to consider the efficacy of the use of non-intellectual property tools such as customary norms, consumer protections, marketing laws, trade practices and unfair competition laws in the protection of traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions.  Ms. Kuriakose also hopes to examine the scope for national initiatives in the protection of traditional knowledge.    

Future plans: Ms. Kuriakose will pursue a career in academia with concurrent involvement in public policy initiatives.