Charmaine Noelle Willis
Biographic Data
| ID | 1494115 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Charmaine Noelle Willis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Charmaine Noelle |
| FAMILY NAME | Willis |
| SIGNATURE | WILLIS C N |
| AFFILIATIONS | University at Albany, State University of New York |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0664-6158 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Not seeing the forest for the helicopters
Trading with Pariahs
Why has North Korea avoided capitulating to economic sanctions pressures? We argue that economic sanctions have been ineffective and unsuccessful for three reasons: North Korea’s adeptness at evasion, other states’ unwillingness to enforce economic sanctions, and North Korea’s efforts to avoid panopticon effects via its diplomatic statecraft and policies that allow states to monitor and collect information on others. We contend that the implement…
States as Role Models
We often look to the examples set by other countries when thinking about how to deal with problems at home. But what explains why some countries are more likely to serve as role models than others? Are people influenced mainly by the examples set by countries that are considered to be particularly successful in a given policy area? Or are they influenced to a greater extent by countries that are more familiar to them, or that appear more similar …
The Realities Facing Graduate Students
Committees from the American Political Science Association (APSA) on the status of graduate students in political science conducted digital surveys in 2018, 2020, and 2022. Distributed using listservs from APSA, the surveys asked about a range of realities facing graduate students including employment opportunities, industry or academic support, and overall well-being. Analysis of the data pre-, during-, and post-pandemic revealed high anxiety in…
Field Research When There Is Limited Access to the Field
How can scholars conduct field research when there is limited access to the field? This article first identifies how limited and uncertain field access can affect field research and then provides recommendations to address these challenges. We focus on conducting field research in Japan because of our substantive expertise, but we believe that the problems and solutions outlined in this article are applicable to a broad range of countries. Our ho…
Breaking the Glass Ceiling? Female Participation in Militant Organizations in Islamic State Affiliates in Southeast Asia
Prior research on female participation in militant organizations explores organizational and individual factors that influence women’s recruitment, and the roles women fulfill. However, most research focuses either on transnational organizations or local militant groups. Within this study, we explore how linkages with transnational groups shape female participation within their overseas affiliate organizations. We employ an original dataset of fe…
Field Research
What is field research? Is it just for qualitative scholars? Must it be done in a foreign country? How much time in the field is “enough”? A lack of disciplinary consensus on what constitutes “field research” or “fieldwork” has left graduate students in political science underinformed and thus underequipped to leverage site-intensive research to address issues of interest and urgency across the subfields. Uneven training in Ph.D. programs has als…
Protest by candlelight
Protest activist leaders must make a series of decisions about the strategies they use; one such decision is the choice of tactic or performance, often informed by their cultural historic contentious repertoire. In South Korea's contentious repertoire, the use of candlelight vigils has become an increasingly prevalent form of protest tactic. Candlelight vigils have become an increasingly prominent tactic in South Korea’s repertoire over the last …
Treading Lightly
Since the end of World War II, the United States has amassed a sizable network of foreign military bases. Over the past twenty years, scholars have devoted an increasing amount of attention to this network and the two-level games that host nations—i.e., countries that have convened a basing agreement with the United States—play to manage their bilateral security relationship. Much of this literature explores well-known host nations in East Asia (…
Teaching about Oppression and Rebellion
Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote that “Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains.” Whereas the former claim of the quote is contestable and gendered, the latter part is empirically true from slavery to economic exploitation and widespread oppression that occurs to this day. Nevertheless, history shows that rarely will people take up weapons and rebel against the powerful. We have found that students often do not understand why this should be the c…
Democratization and civil society development through the perspectives of Gramsci and Tocqueville in South Korea and Japan
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 contrastin…
System, State, or Individual
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.…
The ballot or the bomb belt
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 evalua…
Violent conjunctures in democratic India
The protection of minority groups is traditionally associated with democracies, both in terms of political opportunities and physical integrity; extensive anti-minority violence typically occurs in
Protests Against U.S. Military Base Policy in Asia
Field Research
What is field research? Is it just for qualitative scholars? Must it be done in a foreign country? How much time in the field is “enough”? A lack of disciplinary consensus on what constitutes “field research” or “fieldwork” has left graduate students in political science underinformed and thus underequipped to leverage site-intensive research to address issues of interest and urgency across the subfields. Uneven training in Ph.D. programs has als…
System, State, or Individual
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.…
Protest by candlelight
Protest activist leaders must make a series of decisions about the strategies they use; one such decision is the choice of tactic or performance, often informed by their cultural historic contentious repertoire. In South Korea's contentious repertoire, the use of candlelight vigils has become an increasingly prevalent form of protest tactic. Candlelight vigils have become an increasingly prominent tactic in South Korea’s repertoire over the last …
Teaching about Oppression and Rebellion
Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote that “Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains.” Whereas the former claim of the quote is contestable and gendered, the latter part is empirically true from slavery to economic exploitation and widespread oppression that occurs to this day. Nevertheless, history shows that rarely will people take up weapons and rebel against the powerful. We have found that students often do not understand why this should be the c…
Trading with Pariahs
Why has North Korea avoided capitulating to economic sanctions pressures? We argue that economic sanctions have been ineffective and unsuccessful for three reasons: North Korea’s adeptness at evasion, other states’ unwillingness to enforce economic sanctions, and North Korea’s efforts to avoid panopticon effects via its diplomatic statecraft and policies that allow states to monitor and collect information on others. We contend that the implement…
Field Research When There Is Limited Access to the Field
How can scholars conduct field research when there is limited access to the field? This article first identifies how limited and uncertain field access can affect field research and then provides recommendations to address these challenges. We focus on conducting field research in Japan because of our substantive expertise, but we believe that the problems and solutions outlined in this article are applicable to a broad range of countries. Our ho…
Breaking the Glass Ceiling? Female Participation in Militant Organizations in Islamic State Affiliates in Southeast Asia
Prior research on female participation in militant organizations explores organizational and individual factors that influence women’s recruitment, and the roles women fulfill. However, most research focuses either on transnational organizations or local militant groups. Within this study, we explore how linkages with transnational groups shape female participation within their overseas affiliate organizations. We employ an original dataset of fe…
Protests Against U.S. Military Base Policy in Asia
The ballot or the bomb belt
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 evalua…
Protests Against U.S. Military Base Policy in Asia
Violent conjunctures in democratic India
The protection of minority groups is traditionally associated with democracies, both in terms of political opportunities and physical integrity; extensive anti-minority violence typically occurs in
Democratization and civil society development through the perspectives of Gramsci and Tocqueville in South Korea and Japan
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 contrastin…
System, State, or Individual
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.…
The ballot or the bomb belt
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 evalua…
Protest by candlelight
Protest activist leaders must make a series of decisions about the strategies they use; one such decision is the choice of tactic or performance, often informed by their cultural historic contentious repertoire. In South Korea's contentious repertoire, the use of candlelight vigils has become an increasingly prevalent form of protest tactic. Candlelight vigils have become an increasingly prominent tactic in South Korea’s repertoire over the last …
Treading Lightly
Since the end of World War II, the United States has amassed a sizable network of foreign military bases. Over the past twenty years, scholars have devoted an increasing amount of attention to this network and the two-level games that host nations—i.e., countries that have convened a basing agreement with the United States—play to manage their bilateral security relationship. Much of this literature explores well-known host nations in East Asia (…
Teaching about Oppression and Rebellion
Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote that “Man is born free, but is everywhere in chains.” Whereas the former claim of the quote is contestable and gendered, the latter part is empirically true from slavery to economic exploitation and widespread oppression that occurs to this day. Nevertheless, history shows that rarely will people take up weapons and rebel against the powerful. We have found that students often do not understand why this should be the c…
Field Research
What is field research? Is it just for qualitative scholars? Must it be done in a foreign country? How much time in the field is “enough”? A lack of disciplinary consensus on what constitutes “field research” or “fieldwork” has left graduate students in political science underinformed and thus underequipped to leverage site-intensive research to address issues of interest and urgency across the subfields. Uneven training in Ph.D. programs has als…
Breaking the Glass Ceiling? Female Participation in Militant Organizations in Islamic State Affiliates in Southeast Asia
Prior research on female participation in militant organizations explores organizational and individual factors that influence women’s recruitment, and the roles women fulfill. However, most research focuses either on transnational organizations or local militant groups. Within this study, we explore how linkages with transnational groups shape female participation within their overseas affiliate organizations. We employ an original dataset of fe…
States as Role Models
We often look to the examples set by other countries when thinking about how to deal with problems at home. But what explains why some countries are more likely to serve as role models than others? Are people influenced mainly by the examples set by countries that are considered to be particularly successful in a given policy area? Or are they influenced to a greater extent by countries that are more familiar to them, or that appear more similar …
The Realities Facing Graduate Students
Committees from the American Political Science Association (APSA) on the status of graduate students in political science conducted digital surveys in 2018, 2020, and 2022. Distributed using listservs from APSA, the surveys asked about a range of realities facing graduate students including employment opportunities, industry or academic support, and overall well-being. Analysis of the data pre-, during-, and post-pandemic revealed high anxiety in…
Field Research When There Is Limited Access to the Field
How can scholars conduct field research when there is limited access to the field? This article first identifies how limited and uncertain field access can affect field research and then provides recommendations to address these challenges. We focus on conducting field research in Japan because of our substantive expertise, but we believe that the problems and solutions outlined in this article are applicable to a broad range of countries. Our ho…
Trading with Pariahs
Why has North Korea avoided capitulating to economic sanctions pressures? We argue that economic sanctions have been ineffective and unsuccessful for three reasons: North Korea’s adeptness at evasion, other states’ unwillingness to enforce economic sanctions, and North Korea’s efforts to avoid panopticon effects via its diplomatic statecraft and policies that allow states to monitor and collect information on others. We contend that the implement…
Not seeing the forest for the helicopters
Political science (15 works) · Law (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Politics (8 works) · Law (6 works) · Psychology (5 works) · Political economy (4 works) · Democracy (3 works) · Development economics (3 works) · Economics (3 works)