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Charmaine Willis, Ph.D.
cnwillis@skidmore.edu
Visiting Professor
Skidmore College
Year of PhD: 2023
Country: United States (New York)
Research Interests
Asian Politics
Foreign Policy
NGOs
Research Methods & Research Design
Political Violence
Comparative Regionalism
Social Movements
Civil Society Organisations
Spatial Analysis
US Military
Soft Power
Pedagogy
Economic Sanctions
Countries of Interest
Japan
South Korea
North Korea
Philippines
China
Publications:
Journal Articles:
The development of a country’s civil society has typically been tied to the development of democracy: a vibrant civil society is indicative of a vibrant democracy. Why, then, has civil society emerged differently in South Korea, a country that democratized fairly recently, and Japan, a country that has been democratic since the end of the Second World War? I argue the origins of democracy in both states significantly contributed to the contrasting characters of civil society. In Japan, top-down democratization facilitated the development of a civil society with a strong link to the state for the majority of the 20th century, best viewed from the perspective of Gramsci. By contrast, the bottom-up democratization process in South Korea fostered a civil society where organizations monitor the state, best understood from the Tocquevillian perspective. Through comparative case analysis, this study endeavors to contribute to the literature on civil society by highlighting the ways in which democratization influences the trajectory of civil society.
In recent years, an upward trend in terrorist attacks has mirrored an increase in suicide attacks. According to our preliminary analysis, the events of September 11th marked a sea change in the number of terrorist attacks. While a rich literature has evaluated why terrorists participate in suicide attacks, none have considered the uptick in volume after 9/11, and fewer yet have considered how female fighters may be contributing to this. We evaluate how both structural and female-specific factors affect the likelihood of female fighter suicide attacks. Recent literature discovered a trend in terrorist groups using females as suicide bombers due to cultural norms that permit them to get closer to targets. We test our theory using data from the Chicago Project on Security and Threats Suicide Attack Database (CPOST-SAD) and various datasets from the Quality of Government (QOG) compendium for the 1986–2016 time period. We construct a series of models that consider both female-specific and structural factors that could explain variation in the number of female suicide attacks. Our results indicate that our models encompass relatively stable patterns. Female political empowerment, female educational attainment, and female employment rates are significant and positive in our post-9/11 models, indicating that they may increase female suicide attacks. Democracy is a relevant structural factor and generally yields a positive effect on female suicide attacks across both time periods and multiple models. Ethnic fractionalization is significant in both time periods but yields a negative effect before 9/11 and a positive effect in the later period.
Students often struggle to grasp how examining international phenomena at the systemic, state, or international level of analysis can yield different understandings or perspectives. To help students understand the dynamics at the different levels of analysis, we suggest the use of several short games that make students be “lab rats in their own experiments.” In this article, we discuss the mechanics of three short games we play with our students. We offer our qualitative impressions of the impact of these games on the understanding of the students.
The learning curve on how to become a Teaching Assistant (TA) can be rather steep. In this paper, the authors explore three areas they wish they were advised in prior to beginning their teaching careers. The lessons are centered on balancing expectations and responsibilities in the following areas: 1) prioritizing their own work and research over teaching and vice versa, 2) the dual role of instructor and mentor, and 3) adapting prepared lesson plans when unexpected circumstances arise. The authors are three doctoral students in political science with approximately three years of teaching experience each. As such, they offer a unique perspective: each are settled into their position as TA but remember the challenges they faced while on the path to this role.
Book Reviews:
Book review of Erin Fitz-Henry's US Military Bases and Anti-Military Organizing: An Ethnography of an Air Force Base in Ecuador
Book review of Amrita Basu's Violent Conjectures in Democratic India
Book review of Yuko Kawato's Protests Against U.S. Military Base Policy in Asia: Persuasion and Its Limits.