Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Identifier

1336

Date

2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Major

Political Science

Committee Chair

Nicole Detraz

Committee Member

Matthias Kaelberer

Committee Member

Sharon Stanley

Abstract

After the Cold War, a paradigm shift occurred in the study of international conflict that led to a move away from traditional state-military centric security to make human beings the referent object of security instead. This paper uses the case studies of Sierra Leonean child soldiers and Brazilian street children to explore the links between human security and development. Children are already a vulnerable population, but they are made more insecure when they live in underdeveloped states. While poverty is a main causal factor in both these phenomena, other variables contribute to these social epidemics such as: weak governing structures, neoliberal economic policies, and socities too ill-equipped to reintegrate these marginalized children. This paper frames the two case studies within a human security narrative, and finds that most of these issues have structural causes that require long-term structural solutions.

Comments

Data is provided by the student.

Library Comment

Dissertation or thesis originally submitted to the local University of Memphis Electronic Theses & dissertation (ETD) Repository.

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