Livingstone Undergraduate Research Award in the Social Sciences
Livingstone Undergraduate Research Award in the Social Sciences
Jared Bedros Daniel
Sociopolitical Influence and the Impact of Deterrence: An Examination of the ICC’s Effectiveness in Preventing Global Human Rights Abuses
View Jared’s project online
My project evaluated the extent of the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) authority in investigating and prosecuting human rights abuses worldwide, which includes crimes against humanity, war crimes, genocide, and other violations of this nature. In my paper, I identify and qualitatively examine six unique, yet ideologically overlapping, interactions with the ICC, which include sociopolitical powers in Russia, Afghanistan, Libya, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Sudan, and Kenya.
What is your major and expected year of graduation?
My majors are political science and psychology. I graduate in spring 2024.
What inspired you to pursue your project?
Previous work with Professor Lauren Farmer in the Political Science department inspired this project. I took her International Organizations and U.S. Foreign Policy courses, which made me more knowledgeable on the topics explored in my thesis and ultimately culminated into a research presentation in fall 2022 on human rights abuses at Guantanamo Bay. From here, in fall 2023, I developed the presentation into this paper with Professor Mark Pollack to analyze broader human rights abuses and tie them to a relevant international organization, in this case the ICC.
What does winning this award mean to you?
Winning this award means that, despite my main focus being on psychology, I still chose well when I selected political science as one of my majors. I was frequently the only one in my classes not considering law school or something law-adjacent, which made me sometimes feel less qualified for or committed to the coursework. Nonetheless, I put my heart into every paper I wrote or project I completed, so it was extremely validating to be recognized for this with my political science thesis.
How did the Libraries support your research?
The library was extremely helpful throughout this process. Not only was the ease of access to various databases and literature important, but the staff’s willingness and openness to help with any issues and direct me towards an area in the stacks that could be of interest were integral to the making of this paper. With an end total of over 60 references, I could not have done it without the help of Temple Libraries!
In his remarkable paper, Jared Daniel asks perhaps the central, but long neglected, question about international criminal justice: Can the International Criminal Court not only punish leaders who commit war crimes, but also deter future leaders from doing so, for fear of punishment? To answer this question, Jared derives conjectures from existing theories of criminal justice and deterrence, and tests them in a set of meticulously researched case studies drawing on a wide range of reliable primary sources. His conclusion, though discouraging, is compelling, namely that nearly all political leaders investigated by the ICC thus far have managed to avoid judgment through a variety of means, ranging from witness tampering to defying arrest warrants. Largely for this reason, he shows, the world’s leaders generally do not fear the ICC, and are not deterred by it. Yet this finding is not a counsel of despair, but a sign that the Court and its defenders must do more to make the Court more effective and lengthen the shadow that it casts over future leaders contemplating similar atrocities
—Mark Pollack, Professor, College of Liberal Arts
This category covers research methods in the social sciences. Disciplines represented include such fields as Anthropology, Business, Communication Studies, Economics, Education, Geography and Urban Studies, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology. Social sciences often include qualitative or quantitative research methods similar to those used by the "hard" sciences, but may also involve more traditional library research in the form of a literature review.
This award is generously sponsored by John H. Livingstone, SBM ’49.