Vienna Student Wins 2018 Best Graduate Thesis in International Relations Award
April 17, 2018
Webster University's International Relations program has announced that Marianne Grant, a graduate student at the Vienna campus, has been selected as the winner of the 2018 Graduate Thesis Award in International Relations.
She received the award for her thesis, "Buying Time: The Effect of Costly Signaling and Interdependence on Low-Conflict Duration."
The Graduate Thesis Award in International Relations is given annually to recognize individual excellence in student research. It is open to all international relations students throughout Webster’s global and online campus network. Those nominated for this award go through a competitive review process and are evaluated for originality, quality of writing, strength of theoretical literature, methodological rigor, and contribution to the field of international relations.
The Thesis Award Committee members, chair Burcu Pinar Alakoc (St. Louis), Allan MacNeill (St. Louis), and Ioannis Nomikos (Athens), found Grant’s thesis to be well-argued and theoretically rich in its exploration into how interdependence lengthens the duration of low-level interstate conflicts by raising the cost of conflict and by creating space for pacific tools for signaling resolve. Using both qualitative case studies and quantitative methods, and taking the South China Sea crisis as a test case, Grant makes a significant contribution to international relations literature on the effects of costly signaling and interdependence on conflict duration.
A certificate of honorable mention has also been awarded to Webster Thailand student Len Thanh Vu for her thesis, "Anti-Drug Trafficking in Southeast Asia from the Perspective of Regional Integration."
Based on the interpretation and analysis of official documents, Vu investigates why and how the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has failed to effectively deal with the production, trafficking and consumption of illicit drugs, and to cooperate on a larger scale against transnational crime.
Congratulations to both Marianne Grant and Len Thanh Vu on their exemplary research in the field of international relations!