OSU Journal of Politics and International Affairs - Spring 2023

JPIA
The Journal of Politics and

International Affairs
Volume XVI
Spring 2023
2
The Journal of Politics and International Affairs
The Journal of Politics

and International Affairs
Volume XVI
Spring 2023
The Ohio State University
Editors in Chief
Eleonora Julmy Corinne Miller
Secretary Treasurer
Jess Costakis Kaylee Jennings
Editorial Staff
Elizabeth Apple Darian Rostam
Tristan Miller Jacob Masterson
Advisor
Jennifer Mitzen
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A special thanks to JPIA’s faculty advisory, Dr.
Jennifer Mitzen. Thanks also to the faculty and
staff of the Ohio State Department of Political
Science for their support of undergraduate
research.
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Contents
Chinese foreign policy Stadium 11
Diplomacy is incentivizing third-world
nations to bend the knee:
Stadium Diplomacy is Chinese Soft
Power
Ethan Schneider, The University of` Kansas
The Dragon Lady: Reinterpreting 29

Gender in U.S. Foreign Policy
Vy Nguyen, Dartmouth College
Technology as a Factor of State 49

Consolidation: A Geopolitical Study of
Meiji Japan (1868 - 1912)
Qiqin Sun, Johns Hopkins University
The Word on Tweets: An investigation 73

of the relationship between professional
media’s portrayal and public perception
of Indigenous homelessness
Shiri Yeung, University of Toronto
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The Journal of Politics and International Affairs at The Ohio
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COPYRIGHT © 2023 THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

JOURNAL OF POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL
AFFAIRS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
6
Dear Reader,
We are pleased to present the Spring 2022 edition of the Journal

of Politics and International Affairs at The Ohio State University.
This issue of the Journal features four papers from four excellent
young scholars. These papers were chosen out of many of excellent
submissions from around the world. We are confident in their quality
and in their contribution to the academic literature of international
relations, public policy, political theory, economics, and American
politics.
Our Journal, revived in 2011 by a group of Ohio State undergraduate

students, has continued to flourish thanks to the efforts of our editorial
staff and officers. This Journal is the result of hundreds of hours of
work by members of JPIA, and we are exceptionally proud for the
deduction and passion they have shown during the publication process.
We are also grateful and proud of those who have submitted their work
to the Journal, as each of these students is contributing meaningfully to
their respective fields.
This Journal, like all those before it, would not be possible without the
help and support of the Department of Political Science. We would
like to especially thank Dr. Jennifer Mitzen, JPIA’s faculty advisor. Dr.
Mitzen’s experience, advice, and wisdom were invaluable. We would
also like to thank Ms. Shay Valley, without whom this physical copy
you’re reading would not exist. In addition, we’d like to thank the
faculty and staff of the Department for their support of JPIA and of all
undergraduate researchers.
Finally, we’d like to thank you, the reader, for you interest in our
Journal. We hope that its contents will introduce you to new
perspectives and profound ideas; we hope that you find interest in these
pages and that our work is meaningful to the development of a broader
community of rigorous undergraduate research in the social sciences.
Eleonora Julmy & Corinne Miller
Editors in Chief
7
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All views and opinions expressed the respective authors in

the following papers are their own and do not reflect those
of the Journal of Politics and International Affairs or the
Ohio State University.
9
10
Chinese foreign policy Stadium

Diplomacy is incentivizing third-world
nations to bend the knee:
Stadium Diplomacy is Chinese Soft Power
Ethan Schneider
This research examines how China’s Stadium Diplomacy foreign policy establishes stable
hegemonic relations through economic dominance over Costa Rica and Senegal. The goal of
this project is to use comparative analysis on Stadium Diplomacy to add to the current literature
on Chinese hegemonic relationships. I will use the Hegemonic Stability Theory to explain
how a hegemony creates stable hegemonic relationships through economic dominance and how
it is used in comparative analysis. Data collected from world fact books, journal articles, and
trade agreements signed by the PRC and Costa Rica, Senegal, and Nicaragua were used in a
comparative analysis. Costa Rica’s Stadium Diplomacy trade deal is compared to Senegal’s
Stadium Diplomacy trade deal while Nicaragua is a country without a Chinese Stadium
Diplomacy trade deal to analyze Chinese hegemonic stability. Comparative analysis has shown
Stadium Diplomacy does not establish a hegemonic relationship but is a stabilizing agent
after a third-world country becomes economically dependent on China. This research can be
utilized by future projects researching the establishment of a Chinese hegemonic
relationship in Nicaragua, third-world governments determining if Chinese
economic dominance is beneficial for their country, and foreign governments, such as
Taiwan, wishing to establish or maintain diplomatic ties with third-world nations.
Introduction:
S tadium Diplomacy is a Chinese foreign policy where China gifts a

sports stadium to establish political relations. The recipient is often a
third-world country that lacks the ability to produce the building mate-
rials and economy to build the stadium. The initial infrastructure trade
deal involves the construction of a multi-purpose soccer stadium (Xue
et al., 2019). The stadium is also designed to host other non-sports-re-
lated events such as political rallies and concerts (Xue et al., 2019).
In the case of Kenya, universities and scholarships were a part of the
construction of an Olympic-sized stadium (Xue et al., 2019). Stadium
diplomacy is designed to establish relations with third-world nations
by providing nonessential and essential forms of infrastructure. While
a sports stadium is nonessential infrastructure, continued cooperation
with China leads to the construction of essential infrastructure.
China dictates government policies in third-world countries
through Stadium Diplomacy infrastructure trade deals. The trade deals
involve the building of multi-purpose sports stadiums in exchange for
some diplomatic and economic cooperation. In a trade deal carried
out from 2007 to 2011, China required Costa Rica to change foreign
government policies only recognizing the People’s Republic of China
11
and no longer recognizing the Taiwanese government in order to
receive the National Stadium of Costa Rica (Verri, 2020). The Costa
Rician-Chinese trade deal shows the requirements of changes to
government policies to receive Chinese foreign direct aid (FDI). A
change in government policy for aid is seen as an aspect of diplomatic
hegemonic relations. If a country becomes dependent on FDI from a
single country, then the relationship is viewed as a hegemony.
Many critics of Stadium Diplomacy cite a developing or
continuing commodity-based economy in third-world countries.
A commodity-based economy relies on the exportation of natural
resources such as grain or iron. Several trade deals require the third-
world country to offer natural resources along with policy changes
(Ferchen, 2011) (Harris, 2015). A commodity-based economy only
works if other countries continue to buy those natural resources or
as long as the natural resources last (Ferchen, 2011). China uses the
natural resources acquired through the Stadium Diplomacy trade deals
to build infrastructure with Chinese manufactured goods in the very
country the natural resources are extracted from (Moreira, 2007). The
requirements for accepting a Stadium Diplomacy trade deal remove
a country’s ability to self-govern and create an economic hegemony.
After China builds the infrastructure, the third-world country no longer
needs to manufacture the goods or employ the country’s citizens in its
construction.
How has China created hegemonic relationships with
countries receiving Stadium Diplomacy? China’s initial Stadium
Diplomacy trade deal often requires very little commitment on the
recipient’s part and is typically considered a gift. However, continued
Stadium Diplomacy trade deals increase requirements for policy
changes and monetary compensation for China. A theory created to
define hegemonic relations is known as Hegemonic Stability Theory,
HST. HST looks at three different aspects of assessing hegemonic
relationships: military occupation, diplomatic soft power, and economic
dependency. This paper will focus on diplomatic soft power and
economic dependency. Countries considering accepting a Chinese
Stadium Diplomacy trade deal should consider the short-term impact
of having essential infrastructure built and the long-term impact of
potentially becoming economically dependent on China. Foreign
governments wishing to establish diplomatic relations with a potential
or current recipient of a Chinese Stadium Diplomacy trade deal should
understand the appeals of Stadium Diplomacy and the potential of
a recipient becoming a lesser state in the Chinese hegemony to create
more appealing counteroffers.
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Road Map:
China is establishing hegemonic relationships with foreign
policy, Stadium Diplomacy. Stadium Diplomacy is creating economic
dominance over third-world countries. The literature review covers
research on hegemonic relationships and what role economics plays in
the relationship. The research design explains how I use quantitative
and qualitative data to construct my analysis. The analysis is comprised
of a section for Costa Rica, Senegal, and Nicaragua with a final
comparative section. The discussion section applies the discovery from
the analysis to other first-world nations’ foreign policies.
Literature Review:
Hegemonic relations have been a common theme in
international relations research. Hegemonic Stability Theory (HST)
is used when researching modern hegemonic relations. Robert Gilpin
is credited with creating HST when he compared the three economic
theories: Liberalism, Marxism, and Mercantilism (Gilpin, 1976). Gilpin
(1976) conducted a comparative analysis explaining how a hegemon
uses economic dominance to control or manipulate other countries. In
this paper, economic dominance is defined as a single country being the
largest trading partner for both imports and exports of another country.
This research will contribute to the understanding of Chinese foreign
policies creating hegemonic relations through economic dominance.
Researchers are investigating how hegemons establish
economic dominance over third-world countries. They have discovered
that hegemons use FDI trade deals known as “commodity-for-
manufactures trades” to create an economic dependency on the
hegemon (Ferchen, 2011, p. 69). A commodity-for-manufactured
goods trade deal creates economic dependency as, “demand for the
region’s commodity exports has raised the prospect of the region’s
increased economic dependency on these primary sector exports, and
the increased importation of manufactured goods” (Harris, 2015,
pp. 154-155). This research will examine trade deals between China
and third-world nations defining manufactured goods as essential and
nonessential infrastructure. This paper defines essential infrastructures
as roads, hospitals, and schools, and nonessential infrastructure as
sporting stadiums, and will study how nonessential infrastructure trade
deals contribute to economic dependency.
Researchers also look at how a hegemon manipulates political
policies in economically dominated countries. There are two forms of
policy manipulation: explicit manipulation, when policy changes, are
written into the infrastructure trade deal, and passive manipulation, a
country choosing to change policies to strengthen ties to the hegemon.
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Verri (2020) finds both forms of manipulation across the world by
observing Stadium Diplomacy:
With the establishment of diplomatic relations between Costa
Rica and China came recognition of the One China policy and the
subsequent termination of a sixty-three year diplomatic relation with
Taiwan. At a regional level, Costa Rica became the only Central
American country then to recognize the policy, fulfilling a precondition
set during the secret negotiations for diplomatic engagement. At the
global level, Costa Rica formed part of a trend between 2004 and 2007
in which countries as varied as Liberia, Dominica, Senegal, Chad and
Malawi adopted the One China policy, and made room for stadiums
designed and built by China. Taiwan proposed no emblematic project
to compete with China’s gift, as Taiwanese politicians were still unaware
of the new Sino-Costa Rican diplomatic negotiations. (p. 284)
Senegal chose to change policies after decades of trade relations with
China to receive a new stadium (Delgado, & Villar, 2020). This research
aims to find to what extent a Stadium Diplomacy trade deal contributes
to the creation of hegemonic relations.
Researchers in the field of international foreign policy notice a
hegemon creates or maintains economic dominance through soft power.
Soft power is when the citizens of the two countries have a positive
opinion of each other and want to maintain strong political ties. Yen-
Pin Su and Oscar-Rene Vargas Delgado (2017) surveyed Nicaraguan
citizens and discovered the citizens had a negative opinion of China
after the Nicaraguan government signed an infrastructure trade deal
that did not use the Stadium Diplomacy policy (Su, & Delgado, 2017).
This opinion caused citizens to protest the Chinese infrastructure
project to the point of impeding the construction of the infrastructure
(Su, & Delgado, 2017). This research will observe a third-world
country’s citizens’ opinion of China after signing a Stadium Diplomacy
trade deal. Citizen support of the Chinese government trade deals
would show if Soft Power is a result of Stadium Diplomacy.
Economic dominance is determined by observing a country’s
trading partners. These observations use empirical data to prove
dependency. Some researchers have conducted an empirical analysis of
export-import changes showing economic dependency between China
and third-world using data collected from trade reports published by
organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank, the
Chinese Statistical Yearbook, and the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD (Urdinez, et. al., 2016). This
research will utilize the data sources from previous researchers to
determine if a third-world nation has become economically dependent.
14
Discovering if a third-world country is economically dependent on

China will increase the number of nations known to be in a hegemonic
relationship with China.
Researchers of modern international relations view economic
dominance as a defining principle of a hegemonic relationship.
Understanding how trade policies establish economic dominance will
help identify countries in hegemonic relations. Examining the outcome
of Stadium Diplomacy will help determine what foreign policies lead
to economic dominance. This research will further the field in studying
different foreign policies creating hegemonic relations through trade
deals. This research would help leaders of third-world nations decide
if economic dependency on a hegemon is the best course of action
for their country. Foreign relations committees in countries, such as
Taiwan, wishing to establish or maintain strong diplomatic ties with
third-world nations need to understand how Stadium Diplomacy trade
deals can change a third-world country’s government policies.
Research Design:
I relied on journal articles to read annotated versions of
government documents relating to stadium infrastructure projects, to
compare the contracts between China and Costa Rica, Senegal, and
Nicaragua. I examined the conditions of trade deals to determine what
each country received, and compared the government policy changes
China required for each country to receive the FDI. I looked for
overlapping conditions in China’s trade agreements with each country.
Common themes in similar trade agreements provided evidence of how
China is establishing stable hegemonic relationships with multiple third-
world countries.
I measured economic changes with data from sources like The
World Bank. I used Global Edge to view changes in a country’s export
and import partners. Quantitative data was collected from the World
Bank and Organization of Economic Co-operation and Development
databases. The databases showed the dollar amount of exports and
imports changed in China’s favor when China built stadiums. I
observed changes in exports and imports five years before and after the
signing of the FDI contracts. I used the statical data to create the visual
graphs of the FDI recipient’s economic changes.
I used international affairs theories to establish a quantitative
benchmark for a hegemonic relation. The theory provides an explicit
definition of benchmark requirements for a hegemonic relation and
journal articles provide the evidence to support the claim of the
relation. Qualitative literature along with statistical data provided the
evidence to prove the date a hegemonic relation was created and ended.
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After proving there is a hegemonic relation, I use comparative analysis
to discover foreign policies creating the relationship. I also observe FDI
being provided to the hegemony as a stabilizing agent to maintain the
hegemonic relationship.
Analysis:
Costa Rica
Costa Rica’s recognition of the One China policy was written
into the Stadium Diplomacy trade deal that took place in 2007. The
recognition of the One China policy in the Costa Rica-Chinese
Stadium Diplomacy of 2007 is an example of a hegemony controlling
the actions of a third-world country through trade deals. In 2007, Costa
Rica and China established Sino-Costa Rican relations requiring Costa
Rica to recognize the One China policy in return for the construction
of a public works project including the National Stadium of Costa
Rica (Ellis, 2021; Verri, 2020). The Sino-Costa Rican negotiations were
not public at the time, “during the secret negotiations for diplomatic
engagement” (Verri, 2020). A hegemon dictating policy changes
through economic dominance is an aspect of hegemonic relationships.
China using a Stadium Diplomacy trade deal to provide FDI to
Costa Rica on the prerequisite of changes to government policy is a
hegemon using economic dominance to control another country. The
graph confirms a monetary increase of Chinese FDI in Costa Rica as
promised in the trade agreements.
Costa Rica’s imports of Chinese products increased after

recognizing the One China policy. Costa Rica received a larger amount
in FDI from their Stadium Diplomacy trade deal. In 1995, 12 years
16
before recognizing the One China policy, Costa Rica imported $40.2
million in trade goods from China (Jenkins, Peters, & Moreira, 2008).
Costa Rica received a stadium as part of a Stadium Diplomacy trade
deal and more than $1.3 billion in other essential and nonessential
infrastructure projects in Chinese FDI (Ellis, 2021, p. 89). Costa
Rica became the major trading partner for China after the Stadium
Diplomacy trade deal, “in 2013, Costa Rica’s exports accounted for
54 percent of all Central American exports to China” (Harris, 2015).
The Costa Rican-Chinese Stadium Diplomacy trade deal gave China
economic dominance by becoming the largest trading partner for Costa
Rica. Economic dominance is how China controls the actions of third-
world countries.
Senegal
Senegal has made two different Stadium Diplomacy trade
deals, several years apart, and each trade deal provided a new
stadium. In 1985, China constructed the Stadium of Friendship in
Dakar, Senegal (Xue et al., 2019 ). In 2018, China built The National
Wrestling Stadium located in Dakar, Senegal (“National Wrestling,”
2018; “China-Aided,” 2021). Each Stadium Diplomacy trade deal built
nonessential infrastructure in Senegal that Senegal could not afford to
do themselves, and did not require Senegal to change any government
policies.
Senegal has recognized the One China policy twice. The

recognition of the One China policy came before the Stadium
Diplomacy trade deals. In 1971, Senegal no longer recognized the
17
Taiwanese government (Xue et al., 2019). However, Senegal broke ties
with China in 1995 and re-recognized the Taiwanese government (Xue
et al., 2019). Later, Senegal severed ties with Taiwan again in 2005
recognizing the One China policy (Xue et al., 2019). Senegal changing
its government policy on Taiwan without a Stadium Diplomacy trade
deal is evidence of Stadium Diplomacy not establishing hegemonic
relationships. Recognizing the One China policy is a common trend in
China offering Stadium Diplomacy trade deals to third-world countries.
Stadium Diplomacy increased the USD amount of exports
from Senegal to China. Observing the export value in USD five years
prior and five years after the Stadium Diplomacy trade deals shows
an upward trend in export value. In 1980, Senegal exported $5.9
million five years before the signing of the first Stadium Diplomacy
trade deal (World Bank, 2022). In 1990, five years after the Stadium
Diplomacy trade deal in 1985, Senegal exported $13.6 million to China
(World Bank, 2022). Economic dominance is the benchmark used to
measure whether China has a hegemonic relationship with a third-
world country. China increased its exports using Stadium Diplomacy to
become the largest trading partner with Senegal and establish economic
dominance over Senegal.
Nicaragua
Nicaragua recently changed government policies no
longer recognizing the Taiwanese government. On October 7th,
2021, Nicaragua officially broke diplomatic ties with the Taiwanese
government by officially recognizing the One China policy and no
longer recognizing Taiwan as a country (“Xinhua Commentary,”
2021). On December 10th, 2021, Nicaragua signed government
documents establishing diplomatic relations with China (“Nicaragua
Breaks,” 2021). Nicaragua’s recognition of the One China policy
indicates Nicaragua wants to have closer ties with China for economic
benefits. Nicaragua does not currently trade many exports and imports
with China, but if the trends of Costa Rica and Senegal carry over,
Nicaragua will see an increase in exports and imports with China.
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Nicaragua has had little trade with China for over ten years.
Nicaraguan exports to China have been on a downward trend in the
last five years. According to the World Bank, Nicaragua exported
$21.4 million in 2015 to China and $18.5 million to China in 2020. As
of the publication of this paper, Nicaragua has not seen an increase
in yearly exports to China (World Bank, 2022). The Nicaraguan
government may have noticed the trend of Chinese FDI being a result
of recognizing the One China policy. It appears Nicaragua is willing
to enter into a hegemonic relationship with China to receive increased
trade.
One China policy and Stadium Diplomacy
This paper originally hypothesized China was using Stadium
Diplomacy to create hegemonic relations. It was theorized a third-
world country would recognize the One China policy after receiving a
Stadium Diplomacy trade deal. However, the evidence shows a third-
world country recognizes the One China policy before China offers a
Stadium Diplomacy trade deal. Nicaragua has only recently recognized
the One China policy in 2021, and as of the publication of this article,
and has not received a Stadium Diplomacy trade deal (“Nicaragua
Breaks,” 2021; “Xinhua Commentary,” 2021). Senegal received two
Stadium Diplomacy trade deals, both of which happened after the
recognition of the One China policy (Xue et al., 2019). Costa Rica
accepted the One China policy as part of a Stadium Diplomacy trade
in 2007 (Ellis, 2021). Costa Rica and Senegal both received extensive
financial benefits from Chinese FDI in addition to the sports stadiums
themselves. The evidence suggests if a third-world country is willing
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to recognize the One China policy, China will reward the third-world
nation with a Stadium Diplomacy trade deal. Therefore, Stadium
Diplomacy is a reward for accepting the One China policy.
Stadium Diplomacy trade deals do not require policy changes
in the trade deal negotiations. Nicaragua and Senegal both changed
government policies recognizing the One China policy without making
a Stadium Diplomacy trade deal. Costa Rica is the only country to sign
a trade deal requiring a policy change to receive a stadium (Ellis, 2021;
Harris, 2015). Senegal made government policy changes in the years
before receiving Stadium Diplomacy trade deals (Xue et al., 2019).
Nicaragua made government policy changes in 2021 and has yet to sign
a Stadium Diplomacy trade deal (“Nicaragua Breaks,” 2021; “Xinhua
Commentary,” 2021). Senegal changed government policies and
then received a Stadium Diplomacy trade deal. This paper has found
recognition of the One China policy is a trend to receive Stadium
Diplomacy trade deals.
Exports and imports between China and between Costa
Rica and Senegal only increased after the recognition of the One
China policy. Costa Rica and Senegal have become reliant on China’s
willingness to continue importing millions of USD worth of trade
goods establishing a hegemonic relationship through economic
dominance (Gilpin, 1976). The trade deals following the recognition of
the One China policy give China the largest majority of the recipients’
exports or imports market (Harris, 2015; Su, & Delgado, 2017). A
hegemon has economic dominance when the hegemon controls the
largest majority of another country’s market (Ferchen, 2011). This
paper uses economic dominance as the establishment of a hegemonic
relationship. China’s economic dominance only happens after a country
recognizes the One China policy.
China provides millions of dollars to third-world countries,
and the citizens of those countries have a positive opinion of China
due to the stadium’s presence creating a stable hegemonic relationship.
Citizen-level support of a hegemonic relationship promotes the stability
of the hegemony. China providing a third-world country with a sports
stadium for the country’s most popular sport keeps China in a positive
light for the citizens. A large majority of Costa Ricans enjoy watching
soccer where China built the National Soccer Stadium (Ellis, 2021;
Verri, 2020). Senegal’s national sport of wrestling happens in the
Chinese-built National Wrestling Stadium (“National Wrestling,” 2018;
“China-Aided,” 2021). Nicaragua’s most popular sport is baseball
where China will likely build a national baseball stadium (“Nicaraguan
Baseball,” 2017). The Stadium Diplomacy trade deals come after a
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country becomes economically dominated by China. The purpose

of China providing FDI in the form of a stadium is to stabilize the
hegemonic relationship in the third-world nation.
Discussion:
Soft Power over Hard Power
Stadium Diplomacy is creating Chinese soft power in third-
world countries. Other first-world nations should follow the Stadium
Diplomacy example and create a foreign policy targeted specifically
toward creating soft power in third-world countries. On October 7th,
2021, Nicaragua officially broke diplomatic ties with the Taiwanese
government (“Xinhua Commentary,” 2021). On December 10th,
2021, Nicaragua signed government documents establishing diplomatic
relations with China (“Nicaragua Breaks,” 2021). Should the nations
like The U.S., France, and The U.K. make a similar policy, they would
create a strong soft power presence in third-world countries which
will make third-world citizens more willing to be in a hegemonic
relationship.
Stadium Diplomacy is an example of a diplomatic solution
creating a hegemonic relationship without the use of military force. The
U.S. can create a form of Stadium Diplomacy foreign policy and reduce
the financial and human life cost of creating hegemonic relationships.
Costa Rica and Senegal have become reliant on China’s willingness to
continue importing millions of USD worth of trade goods, establishing
a hegemonic relationship through economic dominance (Gilpin, 1976).
The trade deals, following the recognition of the One China policy,
gave China the largest majority of the recipients’ exports or imports
market (Harris, 2015; Su, & Delgado, 2017). Stadium Diplomacy trade
deals stabilize a hegemonic relationship and incentivize other third-
world countries to change government policies. The U.S. creating a
Stadium Diplomacy foreign policy would reduce the financial cost of
creating hegemonic relations, stabilize hegemonic relations, and, most
importantly, reduce the cost of human lives in creating and maintaining
a hegemonic relation.
Hard Changes
Policymakers should increase soft power in third-world
countries with FDI to construct nonessential infrastructure to win the
hearts and minds of the people. Third-world countries with a strong
positive opinion of a hegemon are willing to change government
policies to strengthen political ties with the hegemon. Senegal broke
ties with China in 1995 and re-recognized the Taiwanese government
(Xue et al., 2019). Senegal severed ties with Taiwan again in 2005,
recognizing the One China policy (Xue et al., 2019). Senegal’s national
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sport is wrestling where China built the National Wrestling Stadium;
the National Wrestling Stadium gives China a citizen-level presence
in Senegal’s most popular sport. (“National Wrestling,” 2018; “China-
Aided,” 2021). Because a third-world country has a positive opinion
of a stronger country, they are willing to join a hegemonic relationship
without the use of unwanted policy reforms to receive FDI. Third-
world countries will make policy changes without provocation to gain
the favor of a hegemon. This means citizens will have a positive opinion
of the country providing the nonessential infrastructure.
Other first-world nations should divert more funds to
diplomatic solutions rather than military solutions because diplomatic
solutions are beneficial to a third-world country and the hegemon.
Costa Rica received Chinese FDI as part of a Stadium Diplomacy
trade deal including an “$83 million soccer stadium, the purchase of
$300 million in government bonds, various highway, public works,
and aid projects, and a $1 billion joint venture to expand the country’s
petroleum refinery” (Ellis, 2021, p. 89). In return, in 2007, Costa Rica
and China established Sino-Costa Rican relations requiring Costa
Rica to recognize the One China (Ellis, 2021; Verri, 2020). A stadium
diplomacy trade deal required Costa Rica to make policy changes in
exchange for a trade deal worth billions of USD. Later, China received
commodities in further trade agreements benefiting both Costa Rica
and China.
Conclusion:
Summary
The main discovery of this paper is how Chinese foreign
policy, Stadium Diplomacy, stabilizes a hegemonic relationship but
does not establish the hegemonic relationship. Stadium Diplomacy is
a result of bending the knee and is not the catalyst for the hegemonic
relationship. The recognition of the One China policy is establishing a
hegemonic relationship. Costa Rica received a stadium as part of a deal
recognizing the One China policy. Senegal received stadiums only after
the recognition of the One China policy. Nicaragua has also recognized
the One China policy and will be an important country to follow to
support or counter the discovery made in this paper. China is using
Stadium Diplomacy to stabilize the current hegemonic relationship and
using stadium diplomacy to incentivize other third-world countries to
recognize the One China policy. Using FDI China creates an example
of what recognition of the One China policy earns a third-world
country. Many countries lacking resources to construct nonessential
infrastructure have a clear model for how to get China to provide the
nonessential infrastructure.
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Limitations
This paper could have been better if it had a larger sample
size of third-world nations and more detailed trade relations prior to
the 1980s. Observing the exact wording of the Stadium diplomacy and
One China policy white papers from third-world countries, especially
Costa Rica, would strengthen the discovery. Nicaragua recognized the
One China policy after evidence was collected effectively removing
it as a control country. The small sample size could create a biased
discovery because of the lack of statistical data. If this discovery is
incomplete third-world countries would base policy decisions on weak
research. Nicaragua is now a variable in this research and no longer a
control making it a country to follow but not a sterile subject. I would
need to increase the number of countries that have received a stadium
diplomacy trade and recognized the One China policy. This would
increase the number of data points making the discovery more precise.
The limitation of time spent on the research and the length of the
document could overcome the sample size and increase the accuracy of
the discovery.
Future Research
A future research project can use this paper to explain how
foreign policy creates strong hegemonic relationships. A paper could
explain how diplomacy is more effective than military occupation.
Using Stadium Diplomacy as an example of mutually beneficial
economic relations, future research could look at other foreign relation
policies common in hegemonic relationships. Foreign policies focusing
on military defense treaties instead of nonessential infrastructure could
also be the focus of a similar research project. Understanding how
foreign policies are used to strengthen hegemonic relations is significant
to creating a stable world order. If both parties have something to lose
from breaking the diplomatic relation, both parties want to maintain
the status quo.
23
About the Author
Ethan Schneider is a senior undergraduate from the University of
Kansas who study Global and International Politics and is looking to
continue to a master’s program at Fort Leavenworth. His academic
interests are in policy implications and efficacy. He would like to thank
Professor Brian Lagotte for his unyielding mentorship and his beautiful
wife Rebekah for her constant moral support. As a non-traditional,
this unimaginable dream would never have become a reality without
support from them and many others along the way. Even the Little One
helped.
24
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Stadium in Costa Rica, 2007–11. Architectural History, 63,
283–311.
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GDP) - Senegal [Data]. https://data.worldbank.org
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with China. (2021, December 12). XiHua. https://www.news.
cn.
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of “Stadium diplomacy”-China-aid sport buildings in Africa.
Habitat International, 90, 1-11.
26
27
28
The Dragon Lady:

Reinterpreting Gender in U.S. Foreign Policy
Vy D. Nguyen
Nicknamed the “Dragon Lady,” Madame Ngô Đình Nhu — the de facto First Lady of
the Republic of Vietnam (RVN) from 1955 to 1963 — has been remembered in Western
spheres as a manipulative and “dangerously transgressive” political figure. However, a
comparison between perceptions and reality suggests that racialized and sexualized portrayals
of Madame Nhu spoke more to Western anxieties surrounding Asian women in positions of
power, which challenged the Kennedy administration’s ideology of masculine heroism in the
East. As Madame Nhu became increasingly involved in RVN politics, her attempts to redefine
femininity as strength in Vietnam threatened masculine notions of American power. Therefore,
in adopting gender as a frame of analysis, this paper contends that Madame Nhu’s “Dragon
Lady” character in Western spheres – weaponizing her femininity as a sign of both weakness
and dangerous sexuality — was constructed to recreate power structures that forced the Orient
back into submission, resulting in the 1963 coup to oust the government of President Ngô Đình
Diệm. By contextualizing Western constructions of her character with the cultural politics
of Vietnam, this case study on Madame Nhu highlights the influence of prejudice in foreign
policy, allowing for a more balanced consideration of her politics and role in the Vietnam War.
Introduction:
M adame Ngô Đình Nhu was the de facto First Lady of the Repub-
lic of Vietnam (RVN) to her brother-in-law, President Ngô Đình
Diệm. Madame Nhu was elected as deputy to the National Assembly
in 1956, where she focused on elevating the status of women. At the
start of her career, Madame Nhu was revered for her social activism as
one of the few women in government (Stur, 2008; “Dainty Emancipa-
tor,” 1959). However, she was later reviled for her political agency and
labeled as a sexually-suggestive manipulator – nicknamed the “Dragon
Lady” at the height of her career (Bui, 2008). By the end of the Diệm
regime in 1963, she had established herself as an emblem of RVN
nationalism and a symbolic stand-in for Vietnam in the West, where
Orientalist constructions of her were used to signal developments of the
Vietnam War in American minds.
While intervention in Vietnam was partly viewed as an
American duty against the threat of communism, US-RVN relations
were “a gendered relationship in which the idea of Vietnam was
constructed as a woman” (Stur, 2008, pp.55). Reporting on Vietnam
relied on the feminization of Saigon and development of a “sensual
geography” that defined how Americans understood the war, which
became critical to US justifications of their masculine duty to protect
the feminine East (Keith, 2015, 244). This was reflected in the foreign
policy of President John F. Kennedy, where Oriental constructions
of gender informed his ideology of masculine heroism towards
29
Eastern countries (Dean, 2001, pp.169). Decisions regarding Vietnam
were inextricably connected to constructions of masculine strength
where Kennedy “equated a ‘crisis of masculinity’ with the decline of
American power abroad” (Dean, 2001, pp.169). Furthermore, Robert
Lee, a Professor of Transpacific History at Brown University, argues
that the femininized constructions of the Orient in popular American
culture during this period idealized a notion of Americanization where
the Oriental woman is transformed from “dangerously transgressive
into a symbol of domesticity” (Lee, 1999, pp.162). Madame Nhu,
therefore, represented the “dangerously transgressive” Vietnam that
not only the US sought to domesticate as an ally, but also one that
threatened Kennedy’s ideology of American masculine power.
Racialized and sexualized constructions of Madame Nhu
in Western political spheres and mass media suggest that criticisms
were largely founded on biases against Asian women and anxieties
surrounding changing power dynamics between the US and RVN.
Therefore, by problematizing Western presentations of the “Dragon
Lady,” this paper contends that Western portrayals of Madame
Nhu were rooted in sexist and racist beliefs which/that had been
manipulated in that way to maintain the hegemony of American
masculine power over a feminine Vietnam. This paper will follow
the highlights of her political career – reinterpreting Orientalized
portrayals in Western perception and juxtaposing them with her actions
within the RVN government. Given her reputation in the West for
being manipulative and power-hungry, and therefore most literature
on Madame Nhu has been heavily embedded with Western normative
conceptions and histories of gender, it is important to contextualize the
debate on her character with the cultural politics of the RVN to allow
for a more holistic assessment of her character.
Historical context:
The French attempt to reoccupy Indochina following the
Japanese surrender in World War II was opposed by the Việt Minh, a
Communist-led common front in Northern Vietnam (US Department
of State, 1950). This conflict escalated into the First Indochina War and
was later entwined with the global politics of the Cold War – where
the United States sent military assistance to French efforts against
the Communist North. The United States government justified their
actions as help to “protect security in Indochina and to prevent the
[DRV] expansion of Communist aggression” directed by the Soviet
Union (US Department of State, 1950). Following the French defeat
in 1954, the Geneva Accords temporarily divided Vietnam along
the 17th parallel between the US-backed South and Communist-led
30
North. Yet, in anticipation of Việt Minh plans to reunite the country

under Communist rule, the US escalated its involvement and increased
support to the RVN, led by President Ngô Đình Diệm.
The collapse of French Indochina led to a “domino theory”
that guided US foreign policy for the next decade. Washington
policymakers believed that the situation in Indochina was of strategic
importance, where failure to protect Vietnam from communist
expansion would “weaken the resistance of other countries and
facilitate, if not cause, their fall to communism”, like dominoes (US
Department of State, 1964). The success of communist expansion
would be “damaging to US prestige, and would seriously debase the
credibility of US will and capability” (US Department of State, 1964).
This affirms the belief in Washington that control over the situation
in Vietnam was critical to displays of American power amidst the
bipolarity of Cold War politics – particularly during the Kennedy
administration.
Madame Nhu emerged amidst this political climate as the
most influential Vietnamese woman – notable for her involvement in a
government important to US foreign policy. She married into the Ngô
family at the height of the First Indochina War, where her experiences
in captivity shaped her anti-colonial and anti-communist nationalism.
Although officially the wife of Ngô Đình Nhu, brother and chief
political advisor to the President, American media referred to her with
First Lady status because of Diệm’s bachelorhood and her permanent
residence in the Independence Palace, where she occupied the hostess
role for her brother-in-law’s affairs (Bui, 2012, pp.857). For many,
Madame Nhu became the face of Vietnam, where constructions of her
character coincided with the femininization of Saigon, the junior ally
in Asia that needed to be saved by the US from Communist aggression
(Bui, 2012, pp.854). However, she rose to particular prominence in
Western spheres by 1961 for her criticisms of US involvement in RVN
affairs, during the Kennedy administration (Stur, 2008, pp.67). This
contributed to tensions in US-RVN relations as it challenged the US
exertion of control in Vietnam, an authority that remained previously
undisputed by Diệm. Her increasing visibility in RVN politics,
therefore, placed her at the forefront of political discourse under a new
administration faced with growing pressures to prevent Communist
expansion in the East.
Election to the National Assembly (1956):
Upon winning 99.4 percent of votes in the Long An province,
Madame Nhu was appointed as a deputy to the National Assembly, the
legislative body of the RVN government (Osborn, 2013, pp.99). One of
31
nine women on the Assembly, she spent the next four years increasing
women’s representation in government.
While her electoral success was due to a disproportionately
large constituency of Catholics, her appointment and influence within
the Assembly were due to her relationship with Diệm. These elections,
he admitted, were largely a façade because he did not believe that
people could be trusted to vote on a national government (Higgins,
1965, pp.62). As a result, the flexibility of the electoral process at
this time allowed for Diệm and his advisors to install politicians that
supported his Catholic regime, including Madame Nhu and the
protégés she wanted in the national legislature (Osborn, 2013, pp.99).
In Biên Hòa, for example, she had manipulated the polls so that her
protégé would be elected to the National Assembly, despite having
neither higher-level education nor political experience (Nguyen, 1962,
pp.12-14). This demonstrated to many intellectuals that democratic
processes were merely “fictive symbolic exercises” that created a
government supporting Diệm’s authoritarian rule.
Madame Nhu was initially praised by Western media for her
political participation and reporting focused on her work to increase
women’s representation. Her toughness, especially in advocating for the
status of women, was admired in the public consciousness as “the first
– and for a long time – the only voice to demand a showdown” against
a status quo that discriminated against minorities (“Queen Bee,” 1963).
Coverage, however, was limited to her appearance, where her energetic
participation in the National Assembly was reduced to a description of
her as a “dynamo whose tiny waist can be spanned by a pair of hands”
(Thayer, 1957). Time attributed her successful election to her ability
to wield her femininity as a tool of political manipulation – winning
“with the help of her enormous charm and an occasional whisk of a
sandalwood fan” (“When The Sky Fell,” 1958). The reduction of her
political activity to her appearance – considering the gendered and
Orientalized implications of focusing on her fan – trivialized her role
in RVN politics. This suggests that Madame Nhu’s femininity led to
the US’ automatic prescription of her as weak and non-threatening to
masculine American authority in the region, despite their recognition
of her successful political maneuvering.
The US government paid close attention to the election, and,
despite signs of corruption, intelligence reports showed little criticism
of Diệm’s manipulation of the democratic processes. One report
recognized the bias in elections but attributed the electoral results as a
byproduct of a newly independent country’s adjustment to democratic
processes (Central Intelligence Agency, 1966). The report stated that the
32
Assembly’s makeup of pro-Diệm politicians and few independents was

largely due to the opposition factions’ poor organization, who “ignored”
the election until after the results (Central Intelligence Agency, 1966,
pp.2). This report is largely representative of the US government’s
attitudes towards the new RVN government which, though not
explicitly supportive, still recognized Madame Nhu’s election as
legitimate and demonstrated no opposition to her involvement in
government at this time.
In her early career, Western political spheres and public
opinion expressed no contest to Madame Nhu’s political participation.
Her Catholicism, central to her identity, made her attractive to Catholic
lobbyists in US foreign policy – who argued that her Christian values
of “sympathy, generosity, and understanding are hallmarks of the
American character” (Stur, 2008, pp.54). Coupled with her role in
the organization of and participation in a US-installed democratic
process, her religion allowed her to demonstrate proximity to American
ideals which helped her garner public support and economic aid. At
this point, Madame Nhu was championed for her contributions to
modernizing and democratizing Vietnam, where her political goals
aligned with and aided the US government.
Legislating Family and Morality (1959–62):
In 1959, Madame Nhu passed her first law to improve the
status of women in Vietnam: the Family Code. The legislation outlawed
concubinage, divorce, and forced marriages, and awarded women the
freedom to enter careers without their husbands’ consent and have joint
rights over family financials and property (Stur, 2008, pp.66). Time
named Madame Nhu “the most determined feminist since the late
Emmeline Goulden Pankhurst,” celebrating her as a “dainty feminist”
for her legislative work advancing women’s rights in a historically
traditional and Confucian society (“Dainty Emancipator,” 1959).
Declared a “flaming feminist,” Madame Nhu was titled as a progressive
who “inflamed traditionalists” and whose bill was a surprising yet
commendable advancement for feminism in Asia (“Queen Bee,” 1963).
Still, Madame Nhu’s legislation was criticized by American
audiences that did not understand the cultural contexts of her feminist
efforts. The most controversial clause banned divorce, which critics
– especially in the West – believed were oppressive codifications of
Catholic beliefs about marriage and divorce into law, which limited the
religious freedoms of a largely non-Catholic population (Stur, 2008,
pp.66; “Dainty Emancipator,” 1959). However, when providing context
about Vietnamese customs at the time, Madame Nhu explains that
the divorce clause was meant to prevent men from abandoning their
33
wives and leaving them financially vulnerable – a common practice
that Madame Nhu publicly denounced for making women “an eternal
minor, a doll without a soul, a servant without pay” (Orshefsky, 1962).
Madame Nhu’s feminism catered to the unique conditions of women
in Vietnam where Western critics have falsely interpreted legislation for
Vietnamese women using American feminist standards.
Similar controversy emerged after her second bill, the Law for
the Protection of Morality, which targeted the nightlife scene of Saigon
– specifically “taxi dancers,” women who worked in bars and nightclubs
to serve male patrons. The Morality Law banned activities such as taxi
dancing, underage consumption of alcohol and cigarettes, gossiping, as
well as contraceptives (Osborn, 2013, pp.105).
On one hand, US media argued that her feminist policies
were austere and puritanical measures of control, rather than genuine
attempts at women’s liberation, characterizing her Morality Law as
a backward return to “traditional – and clearly Catholic – values”
(Osborn, 2013, pp.105). Media interpretation of her legislation
reflected Orientalist constructions of Asian people and societies as
fixed in a cultural stasis. Though limited, any media attention Madame
Nhu received emphasized her puritanical feminism, stating that she
had turned “the Paris of the Orient into a city almost Calvinist in
its austerity” (“Viet-Nam’s Intrepid First Lady Brings Austerity to
the Orient,” 1963). Another article likened her laws’ goal to rein in
cheating husbands with how Madame Nhu “would rein in the foreign
correspondents who often reported unflatteringly on her activities”
(“Job for Joe,” 1961). These criticisms represented the beginning
deconstruction of Madame Nhu’s identity as Vietnam’s “dainty
emancipator,” marking her transition in American public opinion into
the dangerously transgressive and authoritarian “Dragon Lady” that
imposed narrow ideals onto wider society. Madame Nhu’s legislative
actions also departed from her previous alignment with American
values, where speculations of her non-secularism threatened the
US government’s values and image as a global superpower – where
Vietnam and its political actors were seen as an extension of US
presence in the region.
On the other hand, Madame Nhu argued that her Family
Code and Morality Law addressed issues created under colonialism.
Madame Nhu explained that her legislative agenda was meant to
reverse repressive colonial laws established under French occupation,
the Precís de Legislation of 1883, that governed Vietnamese women
(“First Lady Talks to French T-Viewers About Family Law,” 1960).
These laws denied women property rights and financial stability by
34
its permissiveness of polyamory and entertainment that encouraged

adultery. Invoking nationalist rhetoric, Madame Nhu argued that “the
coexistence [of French law in Vietnamese society] is an unacceptable
survival from the colonial era” applied by “foreign masters” to
control the bodies of Vietnamese women (“First Lady Talks to French
T-Viewers About Family Law,” 1960). Therefore, by placing her
laws within the context of Vietnam’s legislative history, the impact of
Madame Nhu’s feminism and its intersections with colonial history
become more discernible, demonstrating how Madame Nhu’s laws
were more than just efforts to impose Christian morality in legislation.
However, Madame Nhu remained known as the puritan whose
policies threatened American identity, where her Morality Law signified
her first intervention into American affairs. Though she did not directly
insert herself into foreign policy, her domestic laws affected the lives of
Americans stationed in Vietnam. By legislating women’s sexuality and
outlawing adult entertainment, the Morality Law can be interpreted
as a response to the nature of the US presence in Vietnam by banning
the venues established to serve and entertain American GIs. This was
compounded by the fact that Madame Nhu had previously criticized
American men for corrupting Vietnamese women (US Department of
State, 1963) and warned that “foreigners come here not to dance, but
to help the Vietnamese fight Communism… Dancing with death is
sufficient” (Stur, 2008, pp.67). Whether intentionally or inadvertently,
Madame Nhu’s legislation and criticisms demonstrated an attempt to
dictate boundaries of American men’s lives and sexual activities while
stationed in Vietnam, controlling American masculinity. Considering
Kennedy’s ideology of masculinity in foreign policy, Madame Nhu’s
actions destabilized a power dynamic of Vietnamese submission to
a US masculine hegemony. Applying Dean’s theory, Madame Nhu’s
increasing presence in American affairs, though minimal, illustrated
fears of an “expanding, aggressive [feminine] force” in American men
– such as Kennedy and his advisors – which was changing gender roles
and undermining American masculine power, calling the women’s
inclusion in the public sphere a “conquering army” (Dean, 2001,
pp.169). Sexist and Orientalist critiques thereafter can therefore be
interpreted as a responsive measure to restore the power dynamic of
US hegemony.
Vietnam Women’s Solidarity Movement (1962):
In response to the growing threat of the Communist
revolution, Madame Nhu created the Women’s Paramilitary Group of
Vietnam, a training program for volunteer cadres in weapons handling,
intelligence gathering, and psychological warfare (Osborn, 2013,
35
pp.109). This network of women subsumed smaller women’s
organizations and spread propaganda about the nationalist duties of
RVN women against Communist insurgency (Osborn, 2013, pp.109).
Upon graduating from the program, these women, whom Madame
Nhu referred to as her “little darlings,” were debuted as an extension
to the Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) (Stur, 2008, pp.70) –
pronouncing the need to prepare all citizens for combat. By 1962, it was
reported that the VWSM had over a million members and an “infinite
number of associates” (“The What and Why of the VWSM,” 1962).
As with their treatment of Madame Nhu, media coverage
fixated on the little darlings’ appearance, treating them as visual
entertainment, and belittled the corps as ineffectual because of their
feminine presentations. John Mecklin noted that oversexualized images
emphasized “lovely, wraithlike Vietnamese girls in trim blue coveralls”
and juxtaposed their femininity with their participation in rifle ranges to
highlight the dissonance between femininity and military competence
(Stur, 2008, pp.70). American media was fascinated by Madame
Nhu’s use of femininity as a demonstration of power but argued that
confidence in the infallibility of her feminine force was unfounded
(“Queen Bee,” 1963). Photo captions in Time referred to the women as
“Amazons,” comparing their wartime prowess – symbolized by the “roll
of kettledrums” – to the “gentle rap of a delicate ivory fan” (“Queen
Bee,” 1963). While such depictions associated femininity with weakness,
this obsession with and undermining of the female image revealed
an anxiety about feminine force – a literal manifestation of Dean’s
“conquering army” – threatening beliefs that masculinity defined US
power.
36
FIGURE 1: PICTURES OF MADAME NHU’S PARAMILITARY

TROOP IN THE SECOND TRAINING COURSE, DONG TIEN.1
However, VWSM activities did not meet the claims Madame

Nhu had declared. VWSM membership may have been closer to
200,000 and was exaggerated for propaganda purposes, especially since
Madame Nhu had obtained complete control over major RVN media
outlets by 1962 (Osborn, 2013, pp.113). Paramilitary corps’ duties
were also exaggerated. They were limited to marching in Women’s
Day parades in front of the Independence Palace and did not handle
weapons beyond performative demonstrations, because they were
denied access to weapons on account of the ARVN and US military’s
nonrecognition of the VWSM as legitimate members of the armed
forces (Stur, 2008, pp.70).
Instead, the VWSM occupied a symbolic role that was
deliberately fashioned by Madame Nhu to represent Vietnamese
power through the liberation of women from traditional gender norms,
equating femininity with Vietnamese strength. Madame Nhu presented
martial yet femininized depictions of her little darlings in the Times of
Vietnam, emphasizing their form-fitted blue jumpsuits cinched at the
waist by red belts and dark red lipstick. She also made modifications to
the áo dài, replacing the high-neck tunics with low v-necklines – which,
to the American public, read as sexually suggestive modifications to a
traditionally conservative dress (Osborn, 2013, pp.70). Beyond fashion,
Madame Nhu emphasized images, Figure 2, of hyper-femininity in
1 “Queen Bee”
37
the armed forces, such as photographs of a champion markswoman
that focused on her appearance and sexually-suggestive poses (“Dong
Tien – Forward Together,” 1962). These images of a feminine military
force had been carefully curated to contrast the pajama-like uniforms
of Việt Cộng’s women troops, which Madame Nhu declared a
“disrespect towards womanhood and feminine power,” two aspects she
believed was core to the idea of Vietnamese strength (“Angry Young
Women,” 1962). By presenting femininity as strength, Madame Nhu
asserted a reversal of Kennedy’s definitions of masculine power, where
her paramilitary force was used as a vehicle to criticize the US for
not providing RVN with enough support – further destabilizing the
power dynamic that designated America as the masculine provider and
Vietnam as the feminine damsel.
FIGURE 2: PICTURES OF CHAMPION MARKSWOMAN LAM

THI HUE POSING WITH HER PISTOL PUBLISHED IN THE
TIMES OF VIETNAM.
Buddhist Crisis (1963):
In 1963, Buddhist religious leaders and followers in South
Vietnam protested the Diệm regime’s oppressive laws which excluded
Buddhists from participating in RVN politics. Despite instructions
from the US, Diệm failed to ease the tensions with Buddhist groups,
which later escalated into public self-immolation demonstrations of a
Buddhist monk in June 1963 – this picture, Figure 3, would circulate
38
Western media and inform opposition to US involvement in Vietnam

(“Vietnam, Diem, and the Buddhist Crisis,” n.d.). The crisis itself
demonstrated the growing distance between Diệm and his constituents,
raising American mistrust towards the regime and doubts about
the alliance. Madame Nhu denounced the protests and encouraged
further raids of Buddhist pagodas to suppress religious opposition to
the Catholic-dominated regime. Claiming that the Buddhists were
communists, she remarked “all the Buddhists have done for this country
is to barbecue themselves… with imported gasoline,” offering to supply
more fuel and clap as they continued to light themselves on fire (Young,
1991).
FIGURE 3: THE PICTURE OF BUDDHIST MONK THÍCH

QUẢNG ĐỨC DURING HIS SELF-IMMOLATION. THIS PICTURE
CIRCULATED WESTERN MEDIA OUTLETS AND WON THE 1963
WORLD PRESS PHOTO OF THE YEAR.
39
FIGURE 4: POLITICAL CARTOON BY HERBERT BLOCK
CRITICIZING THE DIỆM REGIME OVER THE BUDDHIST CRISIS,
PRINTED IN NEWSWEEK IN 1963. TAKEN FROM FLICKR. 21
This marked the height of American public hatred towards

Madame Nhu, prompting speculation about the scope of her power
within the government. American media argued that Madame Nhu
had too much political agency, where her harsh comments and Diệm’s
ensuring silence were “proof that Diệm had was falling victim to
[Madame Nhu’s] ‘evil influences’” (Fishel, 1962) weaponizing Madame
Nhu’s feminine brand against her as a “vixenish” and dangerous
feminine sexuality (“Dilemma in Vietnam,” 1963). She began to appear
in media articles without supporting textual information, indicating a
growing association of her with the crisis in Vietnam by the American
2 Block, “Those Crazy Buddhists – Setting Fire to Themselves [Cartoon].” https://flic.
kr/p/FoSmR6.
40
public. In a political cartoon by Herbert Block, Figure 4, though

unnamed, Madame Nhu represents herself and Diệm represents the
RVN government– overstating her agency in political affairs but also
spotlighting her individual responsibility for the crisis in Vietnam.
These sexualized pictures – exaggerated body proportions, tight
clothing, high heels, etc. – reflected journalistic attempts to use her
sexuality to undermine her politics and control narratives using the
female body (Bui, 2008). The fixation on her appearance detracted
from her political contributions by reducing them to hypersexualized
imagery, and indicated beliefs that any danger she posed to America
laid exclusively in her feminine sexuality – echoing Orientalist imagery
of a sexual and transgressive woman threatening the American man, a
stand-in for American power, that needs to be domesticated.
The construction of the “Dragon Lady”– sinister, power-
hungry, and manipulative – began to permeate US political spheres.
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy was critical of Madame Nhu’s
outspokenness where her involvement in RVN politics represented
deviations from 1960s American gender roles, making her
“unattractive” and “queer.”(Onassis et al., 2011, pp.463) She also
shared that President Kennedy had called Madame Nhu a “goddamn
bitch” for interfering in conversations with Diệm (Onassis et al., 2011,
pp.463). This heightened sensitivity to her involvement in politics can
be attributed to gendered biases, where her public declarations are
interpreted as an assertion of feminine power in Kennedy’s masculine
realm of international politics. Racial biases also exaggerate the
dimensions of her political involvement, where Orientalist constructions
of women reduce their complexity to one of two extremes – the docile
“china doll,” a nonthreat, or dangerous “Dragon Lady,” a threat
(Uchida, 1988, pp.170) – in which Madame Nhu could not occupy
a more nuanced middle ground. Therefore, her position as a vocal
participant in public affairs dictated her image as the “Dragon Lady”
in US-RVN politics that threatened the hierarchy in which the Orient,
a feminized junior ally to the US, was expected to conform to US
authority.
The construction of a dangerously transgressive “Dragon
Lady” was used to explain the deterioration of US-RVN relations,
where Madame Nhu was used as justification for the withdrawal of
support from Vietnam following the Buddhist Crisis. Madame Nhu’s
criticisms were regarded as “vicious and poisonous anti-American
utterances” by American politicians – despite being no more vocal
than her male counterparts, whose comments were seen as a natural
part of discourse during the diplomatic process – and singled out as
41
“ingratitude and ill will” towards the aid provided by the Kennedy
administration (US Congress, 1963). Senator Stephen Young likened
her to the snake-woman in the poem Woman With The Serpent’s
Tongue poem, who “blackens goodness in its grave” (US Congress,
1963). Such Orientalist imagery likened her to an animal, allowing for
the Western reconstruction of power dynamics of the American man
over the Oriental beast that needs to be tamed (Uchida, 1988, pp.170).
Senator Young used criticisms of Madame Nhu as the argument for his
Senate resolution to withdraw aid from South Vietnam (US Congress,
1963). He attributed the failures of the RVN government to Madame
Nhu’s manipulative control, as well as Diệm’s inability to tame her (US
Congress, 1963).
While Madame Nhu declared a desire for total power, her
legislative actions within the government suggest that she had limited
influence beyond women’s issues. Diệm, under the advisory of Ngô
Đình Nhu, held majority control over domestic politics and foreign
affairs, according to generals in Saigon (US Department of State, 1963).
Vietnamese women traditionally held power within the family structure,
playing dominant roles in day-to-day logistics (Hoskins, 1975, pp.234).
The familial nepotism of the Diệm government blurred the lines
between Vietnamese family structure and official governmental roles
occupied by family members, where Madame Nhu’s control within
the Palace was more likely a performance of Vietnamese gender roles
that had been misinterpreted by the West. This suggests that criticisms
of Madame Nhu were partly a response to what US perceptions of a
threat to its hegemonic structure of dominance. Therefore, the rhetoric
surrounding Madame Nhu was constructed within US political spheres
as such to help the US government justify actions that recreated power
structures in which the Orient is placed back into submission.
Conclusion:
In conclusion, despite Madame Nhu’s inflammatory speeches,
Western criticism was biased by sexist and Orientalized constructions
of Asian women in politics. Her attempts to redefine femininity in
Vietnam as strength threatened American masculine definitions of
power, particularly under Kennedy, which intensified with her growing
interference in US-RVN affairs. In response, ideas of Madame Nhu
in Western public opinion and political spheres either trivialized her
success using her femininity or weaponized it to portray her dangerous
sexuality. Such constructions allowed the US government to rationalize
the withdrawal of aid and the 1963 coup that ousted Diệm – actions
that recreated power structures in which the Orient is placed back
into submission. By adopting gender as a frame of analysis, this case
42
study on Madame Nhu highlights the influence of prejudice on foreign

policy, particularly how divisions along gender and racial lines affect
decision-making and justifications. While this paper is not meant to
absolve Madame Nhu of her questionable comments or controversial
legislation, it also demonstrates the importance of revising accounts
and criticisms of other powerful women in history, where reinterpreting
gender and Oriental biases allow for a more holistic assessment of
her politics and contributions to feminism in Vietnam – and, thus, the
Vietnam War.
43
About the Author
Vy Nguyen is a junior at Dartmouth College majoring in Government
with a minor in Studio Art. Her research interests include development
in post-conflict societies and gender in international relations, especially
the intersection of women’s issues and global security. At Dartmouth,
she is a War and Peace Fellow and Student Coordinator for Women
and Gender Advising at the Office of Pluralism and Leadership. She
was previously a research assistant in the Government Department
at Dartmouth on menstrual health and hygiene management, and a
research intern at the Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania
on think tanks in Southeast Asia.
44
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47
48
Technology as a Factor of State

Consolidation:
A Geopolitical Study of Meiji Japan (1868 - 1912)
Qiqin Sun
The essay adopts the geopolitical, theoretical frameworks of Professor
Daniel Deudney to analyze the indirect role of technology in Japan’s state
consolidation process during the Meiji Era. The claims reveal how the
material forces and external security conditions of Japan interacted with
the functionality and characteristics of the autocracy formed after the Boshin
War. Then, the essay discusses how technology has boosted the expansion of
state power in Japan rapidly in a few decades and facilitated Japan’s role
as a new imperialist. Specific discussions spot the variety of influences of
technology in two major fields of Japan’s modernization in the Meiji Era –
militarization and industrialization – as well as other influential social
changes, such as the shifts in social classes and the new bureaucratic system.
Technological Shock and the Incentive for Consolidation:
I n 1853, when commodore Matthew C. Perry approached Japan for

the second time in his life, with a small fleet of four steam warships,
the Japanese society ceased to be indifferent to modern technology
under the enemy-at-the-gate scenario. The restrictions on ship-build-
ing and the volume of international trade had left Japan extremely
vulnerable to the jeopardies outside, namely the soaring European
powers’ ambitions and rising global violence interdependence in a wave
of accelerated imperialism. Meanwhile, the after story then consisted
of several astounding episodes in modern political history: Japan was
unified under a strong oligarchic government and transformed into an
imperial power in just a few decades.
One of the most important political themes after the arrival
of the “Black Ships” was the build-up of a modern Japanese state and
the centralization of power into the new central government, processes
of which were complex and intriguing. On this topic, several schools
of thought have emphasized a variety of factors pushing the balance
of power toward a consolidated autocracy. One of the most influential
schools featured the complex processes and outcomes of chaotic yet
drastic ideological transformations in Meiji Japan. There are many
works about religious nationalism that fueled state formation through
the fusion of “the symbolism of the emperor” and the national identity
(Fukase-Indergaard and Indergaard, 2008, p. 372; Colgrove, 1932,
pp. 644-646). Some elaborated on this topic and attributed the success
of such State Shintoism specifically to the establishment of imperial
49
reverence, propaganda of mythical symbolism, and cooperation with
priests (Shimazono and Murphy, 2009, p. 101). Historical narratives
also provided evidence for the penetration and prevalence of another
similar core ideological construction of Kokutai stressing loyalty
and devotion to the state. The concept was strongly and explicitly
interconnected with religious nationalism and established its fame
among a number of audience groups, even the class of businessmen
whose profit-seeking behaviors were seemingly contradictory to
Kokutai’s underlying statism (McClain, 2001, p. 230).
One alternative, or complementary, framework in addition
to the traditional analysis of institutional reforms and ideological
formation is to investigate the indirect, endogenous role of technology
in Japan’s state consolidation, under Professor Daniel Deudney’s
geopolitical thinking. His geopolitical study focuses on world order,
the interactions between political arrangements and the material
context - the set of material determinants of protection and destruction
including the independent material force of technology (Deudney,
1997, pp. 102, 105-106), and the role of technology on human security
(Deudney, 2020).
This essay will follow Professor Deudney’s framework and
address the security and technological rationales behind the remarkable
social and institutional changes in Meiji Japan’s consolidation, with
two major branches of his theory – Republican Security Theory and
Historical Security Materialism. A sample focus of the essay can be
how changes in the material forces shaped and interacted with the
reformations of the ideological superstructures, or how the social
progress, marked by the appearance of bureaucracies, universal
meritocracies, citizenship, and political modernization (Ikegami, 1995,
p. 194), correlate to technology. To organize the narratives, while
introducing geopolitical concepts raised by Professor Deudney, the
essay will focus on two realms of outcomes of technological changes
– military and economy – along with implications on government
structure and security.
Republican Security Theory and Meiji Japan’s Historical
Background:
The very first task of this investigation is to understand how
Professor Deudney’s contribution to Republican Security Theory
(R.S.T.) provides the tool for standardizing the qualitative descriptions
of material contexts. While the majority of R.S.T. arguments
feature the fate of republican polities, R.S.T. managed to generate a
generalization of human history based on to what extent technology
has transformed the possibility of maintaining security and the need
50
of restraining violence to achieve security. Such narratives stem from

the core concept of violence interdependence – “the capacity of actors
to do violent harm to one another” (Deudney, 2007, p. 35). He then
divided the span of human civilization into periods with levels of
technology, and thus violence interdependence, and security motives.
The central idea here is that evolutions in material contexts might serve
as external pressure on internal changes in vulnerable regimes.
In the Japanese case, a lack of technological endowments
was essentially an existential threat given the tide of imperialism in
the mid-19th century. According to Professor Daniel Deudney, around
1850 - the dawn of the Late Global Earth Period (1850-1950), violence
interdependence was intense at a continental level and strong at the
global level, due to the technological innovations among the leading
nation-states in the West (Deudney, 2007, p. 39). The spillovers of
European powers’ advanced technological capacities created not
only these Imperialists’ military advantages but also horrors in the
pre-modern societies in America and Asia, through their imperial
and commercial expeditions. The Japanese society also perceived
this existential risk arising from their incompetence, evidenced by the
portrayal of one American ship as a monstrous creature in American
Warship (1854) that symbolized the “anger” and opposing attitudes
of the Japanese public toward Western powers (Rutgers University,
“Rutger Meets Japan: Early Encounters”).
The geopolitical implication of such an encounter with
the technologically robust West was a concrete incentive for Japan
to transform and consolidate its governance structure. Professor
Deudney argues that intense violence interdependence requires
“substantive government” (Deudney, 2007, p. 36), either domestically
or internationally, to regulate the risks and destructiveness of violent
conflicts. Confronting the Western Imperialists, the Tokugawa
Shogunate was in urgent need of resource concentration and
mobilization for skirmishes, yet much of actual administration and
resource ownership remained scattered in the hereditary rulers of
numerous feudal domains. Such a loose reign, in combination with
backward technological endowments, was inconsistent with the
prevalent security needs even in the Early Global Earth Period (1500-
1850) (Deudney, 2007, p. 39). Japan’s survival in the past largely relied
on geographical isolation, which also hindered its passion for observing
foreign technological innovations over centuries and had virtually
perished given the rising feasibility of expeditions across extensive
distances.
51
As the Western Imperialists became more interested in
projecting forces in the Asia Pacific, the rising regional violence
interdependence rendered the imperfect balance of power in Japan
in the late Edo Era inviable for providing necessary protection and
militarily keeping pace with the West. Hence, it seems natural to
view the later civil war and political centralization in the Meiji Era
as intensive adjustments toward an internal hierarchical structure
necessary for self-preservation.
Historical Security Materialism (H.S.M.) and Technology:
Another tool of Professor Deudney’s geopolitical analysis is
Historical Security Materialism (H.S.M.), elaborated in his journal
article “Geopolitics as Theory” (2000). H.S.M. formulates that
elements and forces in the material context, especially the forces of
destruction, “condition the viability of different modes of protection
[security practices] … and their attendant ‘superstructures’ of political
authority” (p. 80). In other words, the reality of destructive and
protective potentials in the material context has a net overall influence
on the viability of various forms of governance, which are responsible
for the conduct of policies and campaigns to provide security, often in
distinct manners. Such a framework puts forth functionality arguments
on the capability of political arrangements to address security concerns.
In Meiji Japan’s case study, exposure to unprecedented levels
of violence interdependence marked the loosely concentrated state
power as dysfunctional for self-defense. Instead, vulnerability toward
technologically advanced Western Imperialists made state consolidation
a viable approach for Meiji Japan to seek security. The consolidation
could enhance security by abolishing the imperfect balance of power
that restrained the development of defensive capabilities, centralizing
and boosting violence interdependence, and carrying out campaigns of
technological assimilation. However, we shall see that progress in state
consolidation and technological assimilation would also somehow alter
the realities in the material context and impose new security incentives.
In H.S.M., science and technology have double-sided roles
in the formation of a modern autocracy in Japan. The material
context included modern science and technology because the edges of
developments in military technology shaped the forces of destruction.
As a result, the backwardness of Japanese military technology in
the mid-1850s was a critical security threat to itself. As mentioned
before, when the external violence interdependence kept booming and
becoming intense on a continental level largely due to technological
innovations, interstate conflicts had the potential to inflict irreversible
damages on political entities within the geographical region of the same
52
size as a continent (Deudney, 2007, pp. 38-41). That being said, the
potential destructiveness of Western Imperialism, or attacks from any
outsiders with modernized military forces, could peril Japanese society.
Moreover, for Japan, the embracement of science and technologies
was also a crucial constituent of the set of security practices, or modes
of protection, as the applications of modern science and technology
thoroughly altered the level, composition, and distribution of violence
interdependence in East Asia.
Furthermore, there is a major concern in geopolitics: the
preciseness of assertions. In many classical works of Global Geopolitics,
famous thinkers like Halford J. Mackinder often put forth determinist
arguments that examined the likeliness of specific trends or patterns,
such as Mackinder’s propositions on links between Heartland and
global dominance (Mackinder, 1996, p. 106). In this essay, the author
tends not to make such determinist statements.
Overall, the research question is essentially about how modern
technology, as both an element of material context and the subject in a
set of security practices, facilitated and favored hierarchical formation
as a viable structure of political authority to address the varying security
concerns of Japan in the Meiji Era by altering the society’s military and
economic foundations.
Development of Military Technology Amid Changing
Security Needs:
In an age of conflicts and war preparations, military
technology unsurprisingly came to the front stage of Japan’s state
consolidation scheme. From locking down borders to establishing
Western-style military forces, Japan has undergone revolutionary
changes in the nationwide campaign of military modernization. The
general pattern of this process was close to the proposition of Professor
Deudney’s H.S.M. model: specific security needs, arising from certain
material realities, highlighted the superiorities of certain strategies and
military technological developments, which then played indispensable
roles in the rise of new institutions and authorities and, through many
different mechanisms, contributed to the breakdown of the balance of
power.
In particular, we can utilize three relevant geopolitical ideas
in R.S.T. to generalize Meiji history and investigate the role of military
technology in the process of state consolidation chronologically: axiality
(of technological endowments), functionalities of mixture, and the
intercorrelation between state-making and war-making.
53
Axiality and State Unification
Modern technology, and its military applications, destroyed
the fundamental, underlying logic of the viability of a balance of power
in Japan, as the military technological inventions have pushed human
beings’ destructive potentials beyond many pre-existing limitations in
pre-modern times. In geopolitics, such a feature of technology could
be categorized as axiality, and technology itself would be a power asset
due to the ability to influence the extent and distribution of political
power. In short, the axiality of modern military technology answers the
question of how the new rulers in the Meiji Era came into power by
overthrowing the Shogunate together with feudal traditions.
Before jumping to the case, we need to elaborate on the
significance of axiality of technology. The most important reality of
technology’s axiality is that the ownership of “master assets,” including
technology, determines the distribution of power (Deudney, 2007, p.
44). Trendy military technology is certainly an axial power asset – one
that generates disproportionate influences relative to its scale – in places
just starting to equip its forces with the most recently invented weapons,
where even a limited degree of equipping could have rapidly improved
an actor’s competitiveness significantly. Therefore, when increasing
violence interdependence threatens survival, unit-level actors should
acutely identify and systematically exploit the technological advances
to disproportionally increase their advantages or overcome existing
disadvantages. Doubtlessly, the distribution of axial assets is essential, as
Professor Deudney argues that the more concentrated the distribution
of power assets, the more likely the emergence of hierarchical
structures in a region (Deudney, 2020, p. 281). Nonetheless, the effect
of technological assimilation also depends on how successfully an actor
can modify the system-level designs to maximize the efficacy of the new
forces of destruction, as we will see in this section.
Meanwhile, it is also necessary to observe how natural
restraints on violence turned out increasingly obsolete, as violence
interdependence increases along with scientific and technological
advances (Deudney, 1997, p. 103). Topography, as the main natural
terrestrial determinant of violence, has been a crucial indicator of
the feasibility of regional dominance throughout ancient history.
Fragmented topography is effective at impeding rival invasions and
giving defenders an asymmetric advantage in conflicts (Deudney,
2007, p. 41). However, the importance of topographical unevenness
in defense is not completely free of being dominated by other factors.
Technology also enters the list of factors that create possibilities of
54
overcoming topographical barriers by increasing the strength of

offenses, if the other side is short of countermeasures to impede
strengthened assaults.
The Japanese experience of domestic conflicts in the 1860s
did not contradict much of the theoretical framework above. Japan
is a mountainous island with numerous waterways, scarce residential
areas, and extensive forest coverage (Ministry of Land, Infrastructure,
Transport and Tourism, “Land and Climate of Japan”), meaning
that its topography is highly uneven and unsuitable for military
unification in ancient times. However, with modern weapons such as
rifles, cannons, and Gatlin guns, the military practices of fire support,
sudden infantry assaults, and sieges turned more threatening especially
as many domains still relied on short-range and even face-to-face
combats with traditional weapons, and these technologically backward
domains were unlikely to survive conflicts with the proactive opponents
if overwhelmingly relying on mountains, rivers, and forests. Next, a
distributional analysis and an organizational analysis will illustrate how
technology shaped the actual outcomes on the battlefield.
A large share of total military technological endowments in
Japan was owned by Chōshū and Satsuma, the two leading domains in
the Boshin War against the Shogunate afterward. These two domains’
superb awareness of military modernization arose from clashes between
the two domains and Western forces. These failures of the two domains
vividly denoted the threat of a technological gap and convinced
influential figures, even the anti-West activists, to support the pursuits
of hastening technological assimilation by increasing investment in
weapons, sending students abroad, and improving military facilities
(Inuzuka, 2021, pp. 52-53; Fujimura, 2022). Around the same time, the
ambitions of the two domains coincided with the stubborn policies of
the Shogunate. In 1862, the decision to bolster domestic defense made
domains entitled to import foreign firearms, and the new policy altered
the Shogunate’s coherent tradition of restricting armament nationwide.
Chōshū and Satsuma thus legally enlarged trades with European
countries and actively attempted to counter the Shogunate’s influences
by enhancing armament. By contrast, many of the pro-Shogunate
domains still equipped their soldiers with traditional weapons and
almost ceased to have any realistic influences on the battlefield, as
shown by the opening Battle of Toba-Fushimi (1868) in the Boshin War
(Drea, 2009, pp. 7-9). Consequently, the majority of feudal domains
could no longer rely on topographical features for self-preservation, but
these weak domains had to ally with others, either the technologically
55
robust domains or the Shogunate, or arm themselves as the northern
domains did. Nevertheless, a pure distributional analysis was insufficient
to account for the victory of the Imperial forces, mainly consisting of
Chōshū, Satsuma, Tosa, and Saga’s troops, since the pro-Shogunate
alliance initially owned more firearms than the Imperial forces (Fuess,
2020, p. 91).
Instead, the key advantage of the Imperial forces came
from the organizational factors that increased the efficacy of utilizing
modern military technologies. Besides morale, two major differences
generated and widened the gap in combat effectiveness between the
Imperial forces and the pro-Shogunate alliance and the later alliance
among northern domains. The first one was the conduct of resourceful
tactics and the wider applications of knowledge on artilleries, which
gave the imperial forces superior firepower on the battlefield. This
superiority allowed the imperial forces to exercise blockade and
siege and became an important reason for the low relative casualties
on the Imperial side (Drea, 2009, pp. 10-19). With such tactics, the
Imperial forces successfully assaulted several fortifications built along
topographical barriers. The second one was the financial and political
capabilities of quickly mobilizing, supplying and arming a standing
force. The Imperial forces allied with many domains and merchants
to secure routes of logistics, guarantee military supplies, and directly
dispatch the forces of other domains in expeditions (Tōru, 2020, pp.
159-167), and such demanding orders were backed up by military
technological superiorities. This alliance allowed the Imperialists
to secure logistics and orderly transport personnel and supplies
through the mountainous regions that could have been full of risks
of ambushing in a hostile environment. With these organizational
and strategical odds, the Imperial forces more effectively unleashed
the axiality of modern military technologies than the pro-Shogunate
alliance, as well as outnumbering the opponent in both firearms and
soldiers in 1868. Finally, modern military technology redistributed
opportunity to power from the Shogunate to proactive local leaders in
Chōshū and Satsuma, and the Boshin War eliminated most supporters
of feudal traditions constituting the balance of power.
In general, the success of Chōshū and Satsuma in the 1860s
could be accredited to not only the concentration of the stocks of the
axial asset – modern military technology – by these domains, but also
the successful upgradation of military organizations with the help of
more efficient mobilization, transportation, tactics, and training. The
expansions of military technological endowments of the major domains
56
standing behind the Emperor enabled the new government to exclude

feudal lords from power and monopolize political authority with
military dominance.
Mixture and Functionality of Security Provision
During the aftermath of the civil war, the new government
had to face a more complex puzzle of security requiring it to maintain
internal stability while continuing on domestic defense. The most
remarkable part of strategies to address security issues was the
formulation of the optimal mixture – the composition of army and
navy in a state’s military forces – throughout this period.
The importance of mixture lies in its correlation with the
functionalities of carrying out security practices. Hierarchical states are
more likely to rely on land powers instead of sea powers to sustain the
oppressive rule since the army is far more suited to the tasks of internal
suppression than the navy (Deudney, 2007, pp. 119-120), especially in
the mass of inland regions. Therefore, investments in the size, mobility,
and destructiveness of land forces are essential for autocratic regimes to
preserve internal consolidation.
The new Meiji state unsurprisingly opted to develop its land
forces before naval forces to cope with internal security concerns
throughout the 1870s. The scaled adoption of modern military
technologies triggered drastic changes in almost every aspect of army
organization, including many institutional reforms (Drea, 2009, pp.
23-34). Soon after the war, the new government fostered the founding
of modern military academies to help officers familiarize themselves
with modern military technologies, including the use of firearms,
the production of guns and ammunition, as well as cartography. The
government also imposed universal conscriptions under the name of
the Emperor, which signified the importance of the Imperial mythical
symbolism but relied heavily on other measures (Hiroko, 2005).
Simultaneously, the government continued to book advanced weapons
and other essential equipment from Europe to harness upgrades of
combatting potentials.
These changes indeed backed up a series of social and political
reforms in Japan by protecting the new government from collapsing.
Most famously, the Southwest War in 1877 broke out due to the
deprivation of Samurai privileges, and Saigō Takamori – a hero in the
Boshin War – led the rebellion of the Samurai class in Satsuma yet
struggled to gain progress. The government’s defensive forces in the
nearby Kumamoto Castle owned advantageous firepower and insisted
until the arrival of government reinforcements that decisively turned
the tide in bloody skirmishes (Drea, 2009, pp. 44-46). Other even
57
smaller uprisings generated almost no significant threats to the new
regime.
With intensive training, better equipment, and successful
institutional and tactical reforms, the Meiji government rapidly
increased and, more importantly, centralized control of domestic
violence interdependence by embracing modern military technologies
practically and institutionally. Over time, the security risk of internal
instability gradually ceased to be a severe security concern. Then, the
Meiji government redirected the mixture of military forces toward
the security motive of reducing vulnerability toward foreign invasions,
which required great amounts of investment in naval technologies and
warships.
The establishment of a modern Japanese navy came after the
maturity of the army in a competitive environment. Japan’s inability
to produce advanced modern warships was contradictory to its goal
of oceanic security - protecting the trade routes and preventing
foreign navies from approaching the homeland. Besides, the Japanese
military viewed Russia’s interests in the Far East and China’s rapid
modernization of armies and navies as direct threats (Lengerer, 2019,
p. 47). Therefore, the sole choice on the table was to take advantage of
Western shipbuilding technologies via purchases of foreign vessels and
substantially raise expenditure on imports. During the 1880s, many of
the Japanese naval purchase deals aimed at tackling the weakness of
the Chinese fleet. Institutional changes, namely the foundations of new
organs in the Ministry of Navy, the enlarging recruitment of sailors, the
build-up of naval facilities, and appointments of naval officers to study
abroad, followed (Lengerer, 2019, pp. 51-53).
Ultimately, the outward-looking strategy of importing naval
vessels and learning from Western maritime technologies enhanced
state consolidation by justifying predatory taxations (Pyle, 1978, p.
105), as well as by expanding the state’s military capacities. What’s
more, these purchases drove Japan farther in the direction of sea power
formation, and such changes in mixture provoked far-reaching changes
in Japan’s capability of carrying out military operations overseas.
War-Making and State-Making
From roughly 1890 to 1905, Japan not only established
victorious military forces but also accepted the role of a rising
Imperialist. While funding the upgradation of the army and navy, the
Japanese government extended and amplified many of the security
practices mentioned before, such as setting up military academies,
modifying budgets, and enforcing conscriptions. However, Japan
demonstrated aggressive behaviors even before achieving strength, in
58
events as early as the expedition on native Taiwanese, the annexation of

Ryukyu, and the interventions in Korean affairs.
On this series of incremental changes in Japan’s strategic
position, the existing literature highlighted how Japan succeeded in wars
and the significance of the major victories starting from 1894. Here, to
reveal the endogenous processes that led to Japan’s strategic switch, the
author aims to briefly address why Japan’s state consolidation involved
Imperialist elements through the scope of technology and means of
war-making.
Charles Tilly, by summing up the European experiences of
nation-state formations, claimed that war-making capacity – the ability
to reject outsiders’ access to a state’s interests - and the mechanisms of
“extraction” (of internal resources) and “protection” (of allied social
groups) intensively interacted with the process of state making - the
removal of internal rivalries in nation-states (Tilly, 1985, p. 183).
Therefore, the internal political consolidation often carried the intrinsic
mission to confront external actors in potentially violent encounters,
yet not necessarily limited to the actions of defense. And war-making
processes, if successful, could facilitate further extraction and thus
strengthen state-making, forming a feedback loop. In Japan, the case of
state-making was not a contradiction to this trend, as the processes of
internal consolidation yielded huge incentives for external war-making.
The Meiji government had to construct its fundamental
legitimacy upon the provision of security against foreign threats, which
the Shogunate’s decentralized rule failed to achieve. As we saw from
the previous discussions, the Meiji government actively militarized
the country by establishing sophisticated military organizations,
imposing rigid requirements on military service, suppressing domestic
dissatisfaction with violence, and widely introducing Western military
technology. The steady preparations for regional conflicts have altered
the group mentalities, especially since the weakness of neighboring
states provided an incentive for the Japanese leaders to re-interpret
the material context in a highly Social Darwinist international
system. A famous piece of editorial, Datsuaron (1885), criticized
China and Korea’s incapability of transforming their institutions
for modernization, as well as the two countries’ arrogance toward
modern science, and suggested the government “adapt the ways of
the Westerners” when confronting China and Korea, implying the
claim on Japanese Imperialism to prevent East Asia from completely
falling under Western control (Kwok, 2010, p. 20). The whole article
was immersed in disdain arising from the self-identified superiorities
in culture, governance, economy, and technology, thanks to Japan’s
59
Westernization, over China and Korea. Subsequently, the increasing
violence interdependence during the Sino-Japanese arms race and
the prevalence of eagerness for conquering Korea in Japan led to the
outbreak of the First Sino-Japanese War over the domination of Korea
in 1894-1895, which ended with a humiliating defeat of China and the
incorporation of Korea into Japan’s sphere of influence (Kim, 2012).
As Japan underwent the transition to an Imperialist, future
collisions with the more powerful opponents, the Western Imperialists
and Russia, became highly probable, if not inextricable. Therefore, the
expansion of war-making capacities induced the self-fulfilling cycles
of constant war preparations and brutal conflicts in the late Meiji Era
and early Taishō Era when Japan started to compete with Western
Imperialists in the game of Chinese affairs, catalyzing further rises
in regional violence interdependence. But many have also explained
Japan’s imperialist transition with Japan’s “keen sense of insecurity and
vulnerability” starting from Perry’s arrival (Pyle, 1978, p. 108).
By the end of the Meiji Era, Japan had stepped away from
the original security motive – becoming technologically viable and
functional for state-making and self-preservation – to adopt Imperialist
expansions as security practices at the height of a regional hegemon,
with confidence in Japan’s growing technological endowments.
Unfortunately, the vicious nature of Social Darwinist thinking, behind
the expansionist ideologies of Japan, led Japan and East Asian countries
to catastrophes in upcoming total wars as Japan neglected the riskiness
of intense violence interdependence at a continental level when
coercively looting Westerners’ interests in Asia.
Technology and Japanese Capitalism: Economic Changes
Strengthening the State:
In the framework of this essay, the economy should also be
treated as a core component of material context, as economic potential
also lies in the discussion of national security. For instance, the idea
that productive and industrial capacities can determine a state’s
power relative to others is embedded in the traditional views on the
geopolitical concept of war potential (Knorr, 1957, p. 50). Moreover,
emerging states depend on steady economic growth to generate
financial and capital resources that can be injected into the military and
other security-related sectors. These influences of economic potential,
in military struggles, have the key implication that building a strong
economy is consistent with security motives, at least in broad principles.
In Meiji Japan, technology was at the center of splendid
economic achievements. The wide applications of modern technology
revolutionized most aspects of economic routines - production,
60
management, planning, investment, and so on. These drastic changes

generated unprecedented opportunities for the Meiji government to
boost the overall productivity and allocative efficiency of resources.
Aside from improving the economic indicators, technology also enabled
the government to harness the benefits of astounding growth to
maintain the government’s strong control over society through a bunch
of economic and social policies.
This part of the essay will discuss economic policies’
importance concerning security and provide insight into the roles
of technology in the formation of a special economic system, the
economic system’s political influences, and the material foundations of
militarization through the lens of geopolitics that had non-negligible
impacts on the political system of early modern Japan.
Industrialization and State-Corporate Ties
The surprisingly successful industrialization of Meiji Japan,
marked by the maturity of major industrial giants and the shocking
improvements in manufacturing capabilities, triggers plentiful
discussions in the field of political economy. As the Japanese approach
involves intensive government participation, the Meiji economic system
can be termed “State-Directed Capitalism”.
During industrialization, the Meiji government consolidated
its regime and influences on the economy by allying with zaibatsu – the
gigantic industrial conglomerates free of anti-trust sanctions. There
were two trends in which technology acted as a crucial component
in such state-corporate collusion: the abundance of state supports for
corporate operations and the low distinctiveness.
The Meiji government was dedicated to supporting the
establishment of domestic industries by enacting a series of industrial
policies. Aside from commonly mentioned tax reforms, the government
planned out massive projects of infrastructure construction, like
communication (telegraph) and public utilities (railroad) (Pyle, 1978,
p. 83), and pioneered introducing Western industrial technologies,
by directly financing the factories to import European devices in the
case of Tomioka Silk Mill, despite the debatable effectiveness of these
government interventions in the study of economic history (Minami,
1977, pp. 947-948). But in general, it was almost undisputable that
the government’s financial assistance and active engagements created
favorable environments for private investments (Ericson, 2000, pp. 26-
27).
To compensate for the offerings and strengthen cooperation,
corporations generally obeyed the order in which private institutions act
as extensions of the public sector, rather than forming an independent
61
niche. One more important feature of the collusive relationship
between the state and corporations was the low distinctiveness between
the military and civil applications of tools of production, which arose
from the fact that Japan was a late developer. In a void of modernized
domestic capacities to efficiently produce basic supplies, the government
facilitated the import of civil technologies of production to modernize
manufacturing capacities of steel, clothes, and mechanics (Okuma,
1900, pp. 678-683), which also satisfied the need of automating national
defense industries. Also, the firms fulfilled their duties of aiding the
government with operational capacities. One example was Mitsubishi’s
free lease of steamships to the government to transport supplies and
soldiers in the Southwest War, as a reward for the government’s support
of shipping services (Davies, 1985, pp. 46-47).
Nonetheless, the initially low distinctiveness did not come to
an end after the industrial giants thrived in Japan’s industrialization.
The zaibatsu continued to follow the government’s policy guidance,
marched on advanced manufacturing sectors, and took the lead in
the innovations of many sophisticated technologies. One example
was Mitsubishi’s purchase of Nagasaki Shipyard and investigation
of shipbuilding technologies under policy incentives (Kazuo, 1966,
pp. 547-548), which laid the foundation for Japan’s autonomation of
military vessel production.
The constantly low distinctiveness in Japan should have
generated serious security and political concerns. Such a feature
allowed the government to gradually get rid of reliance on foreign
technologies and weapons by tightly cooperating with the domestic
industrial giants, while this feature also decreased Japan’s cost of
launching wars by allowing the government to conveniently divert
civil industrial capacities into military uses (Addicott, 2017, pp. 5-11).
The ambiguous gaps between military and civil production capacities
foreshadowed the difficulty of “strategic neutralization” – the rough
equalization of violence capabilities among neighboring polities -
according to Professor Deudney (2007, p. 46), and such a feature of the
Japanese economy was truly abused by the militarist governments in
later periods. With other institutional pro-expansionist social agendas,
the deficiency of separations between military and civil economic
routines provided favorable conditions for Imperialism and the
sustenance of an autocracy.
In general, the Meiji government handled easy access
to resources for war preparations and armament by establishing
symbiotic relationships with zaibatsu, while the wealthy and influential
capitalists were then unlikely to impose powerful checks on state power.
62
Undoubtfully, the state could readily strengthen authority, control over

civil society, and even violent interdependence by colluding with the
capitalists.
Technology, Booming “Manpower” and Rearranging Social Order
In the previous section, we discussed how the Japanese
industries imported Western technologies and devices with the
government’s support, which spotted the interactions within the
social superstructure, yet the focus deviated from how the majority of
the Japanese population contributed to economic growth and state
consolidation. In this complicated process, two social outcomes of
technological assimilation were most significant: the upgradation in the
productivity of labor and intellectuals plus the reconfiguration of social
classes and leading stakeholders.
Population and labor force can be viewed as important
resources for an economy. Usually, the greater the number of the
working-age population and the more productive the labor forces
are, the more the society benefits from technological innovations. In
geopolitics, the significance of numbers does not simply equate with
the size of the reserve of workers and employees, but such significance
was amplified by the introduction of modern science and technology.
“Science and its practical application” function as the “decisive factor
in politics”, and countries with a larger population have a natural
advantage in the number of potentially extraordinary scientists and
innovative engineers (Sprout, 1963, pp. 205-207). Meanwhile, the full
potential of number is released only when coupled with promising
qualities of labor, which are deeply connected to, if not solely
influenced by, the accessibility and practicality of education.
Hence, the characteristics of a population can partially
explain the magnificent achievements of the Japanese economy in
the Meiji Era. Traditionally, scholars tend to accredit the economic
success largely to the education system and high literacy rate back in
the Tokugawa age (Kobayashi, 1965, p. 290), which indeed lowered
many civilians’ barriers to accepting new knowledge of science and
technology and relieved the burdens of the new government on setting
up educational institutions. Since Japan was also populous, aware of the
importance of modern education, and rapidly incorporated science into
education guidelines, the “manpower” of Japan turned out productive
and matched the increasing social demands for labor (Honda, 1997, p.
263).
In addition, technology not only triggered increases in
industrial labor demand but also induced changes in favor of state
consolidation. Some scholars have argued that when technological
63
advances transform modes of production, the consequent changes
in “the composition of the labor force” may lead to changes in social
relationships (Heilbroner, 1967, p. 340). In the Japanese case, the
prosperity of modern industries redistributed many opportunities
from aristocracy to the originally peripheral population and stimulated
fair competition between these social classes, weakening the political
influences of a large proportion of privileged high-rank Samurais.
Growth in technological and industrial capacities has reshaped
the social statuses of individuals by activating social mobility, as we
can see from the struggle for class equalization and the formation of
meritocracy. The huge demand for knowledge of modern science,
technology, and industry boosted the bureaucratization of Meiji
Japan and the rise of commoners in government branches, where
examinations replaced social ranks as determinants in recruitment
(Fulcher, 1988, pp. 234-235). Together with better education,
new occupational opportunities for commoners resulted in the
empowerment of citizens for the sake of improving overall labor
productivity. Essentially, people with better knowledge of various
subjects of modern science and technology, regardless of class
identity at birth, were large beneficiaries of the Meiji Restoration as
these individuals gained unprecedented opportunities for attaining
wealth and power. This “functionalistic egalitarianism” critically
undermined the necessity of preserving the privileges of hereditary
aristocrats, whose success now also depended on knowledge of modern
science, technologies, and industries (Sonoda, 1990, pp. 100-102).
Over time, technology offered so valuable a chance for commoners
and average citizens to promote class equalization and even become
new social elites. Then, the new government denied the Samurais’
hereditary roles in local administration, as a matter of course, and
proactively incorporated many talented professionals to strengthen the
government’s endowment of human resources and social influences
(Yamada, 2021, pp. 865-873). The reform centralized administrative
duties into the enlarged bureaucratic system originally dispersed among
local nobles.
Through this mechanism, exposure to science and technology
catalyzed the formation of a new class of social elites who participated
in the formation of a largely civic autocracy that also involved a fair
number of military leaders and some open-minded, well-educated
aristocrats emerging as important decision-makers in the new economy
(Harootunian, 1960, pp. 439-442). Although many high-rank Samurais
remained factually privileged and influential even in
64
the new government, one should not overlook the importance of this
liberal reformation agenda as the commoners’ chances for promotion
increased astoundingly (Matsumoto and Okazaki, 2023).
The liberal agenda failed to directly transform Japan into
a civil society in the Meiji Era and did not shatter the oligarchical
structure in the executive branch of the central government. The
oligarchs, including renowned figures such as Itō Hirobumi, Yamagata
Aritomo, and Kuroda Kiyotaka, restrained the appearance of popular
sovereignty both ideologically and institutionally through the 1889
Constitution, though the setup of the Imperial Diet opened new gates
for civic politics (Akita, 1962; Pyle, 1978, pp. 96-97).
Conclusion:
This essay reviews the role of science and technology in
both the construction of military and economic foundations of Meiji
Japan, and the discussions also covered the corresponding influences of
modern military science and production technologies on the capacities
of the autocratic government to conduct tasks of state consolidation
– monopolization of access to political power and domestic violence
interdependence.
First, technological assimilation was a key strategy in the
construction of military foundations of Japan’s state consolidation
and other responses to security concerns. The lethality of Western
military technologies created unprecedented opportunities to overrun
the topographical restraints to national unification, strengthened the
absolute dominance of a government army, imposed the possibilities of
off-coastal defenses, and constituted the driving forces behind ceaseless
war-making. The processes of learning, adopting, and applying
military technologies directly concentrated and upgraded the violence
interdependence under the Meiji government’s control. Such processes
also responded to the shifts in security motives from assuring internal
stability to asserting sea command, eventually giving rise to Japan’s own
expansionary schema.
In addition, this essay also elaborates on how systematic
features of an economy can serve as a factor in geopolitical thinking on
national security and state consolidation. The importance of industrial
bases in public finance and military campaigns makes the economy
necessarily a factor in a state’s capability of security provision. In
practice, the Meiji government pioneered not only the introduction
of production technologies but also the associated projects such as the
construction of physical infrastructures. Through supportive policies,
the Meiji government managed to collude with the large corporations,
which fulfilled the designated duties in war preparations and expansions
65
in return. Simultaneously, technological adaptions induced changes in
labor structure and further weakened the social influences of traditional
aristocrats. On the contrary, the government proactively merged new
professionals and merchants to form a new class of social elites, making
the rule and mobilization of resources more efficient and convenient.
To sum up, Japan’s openness to Western science and
technologies incredibly enhanced its military and economic capacities,
and technological assimilation indeed served as a strategic tool for the
new government to protect the regime, penetrate the society, and assist
the grand strategies for security provision. Therefore, the learning
process effectively consolidated the balance of power into an oligarchic
autocracy. While the author intends to not make radical, determinist
arguments and over-simplify modern history into abstract narratives,
anyone shall not ignore the explicit and implicit presence of modern
technology in the consolidation of the Japanese state through the
creation of political possibilities and security incentives.
66
About the Author

Qiqin Sun is a second-year student studying Economics at Johns
Hopkins University. His research interest includes applied economics,
international relation theory, and political history. He would like to
thank Professor Daniel Deudney for instruction and PhD candidate
Henry Scott for guidance on the project.
67
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72
The Word on Tweets:

An investigation of the relationship between
professional media’s portrayal and public perception
of Indigenous homelessness
Shiri Yeung
The Indigenous peoples of Canada are disproportionately represented in the Canadian

homeless population. One in fifteen Indigenous peoples lack stable housing in major urban
areas, a rate eight times higher than non-Indigenous individuals (Head, 2019). Yet, these
statistics either remain unknown or are mere numbers to the general public, who may never
have the chance to converse with or even encounter an Indigenous homeless individual in
their day-to-day lives. For this reason, professional media hold the power to influence
narratives about the Indigenous homeless population. In other words, the media plays a
crucial role in impacting the public’s perception of these communities in need. The collective
consensus regarding the Indigenous homeless community greatly dictates their social realities
by influencing civic actions such as voting and donations. Yet, reports regarding the Indigenous
homeless community’s portrayal within professional media and how that affects general public
perception are lacking. This study aims to address this research gap by systematically coding
and analyzing a total of 500 newspaper articles and tweets between 2017 and 2021. Using
the software program NVivo, frequently mentioned themes in each source were coded as either
being positive, negative, or neutral. The frequency of themes in newspaper articles and tweets
were then analyzed to identify whether there was any correlation between themes discussed
in the newspaper articles and discussed on Twitter. The study hypothesized that Indigenous
homelessness would be negatively discussed in professional media due to the structural barriers
built upon the existing judicial and social systems, and that professional media would strongly
impact public perception on Indigenous homelessness. However, these hypotheses are disproved
as the results of this data set conclude that Indigenous homelessness is mainly positively
addressed in both professional and social media. Professional media is also shown to either
insignificantly or inconsistently influence public perception of Indigenous homelessness.
Introduction:
C anadians value their personal rights, freedom, and independence

from financial restraint (Exploring Canadian values, 2016). For this
reason, it is unsurprising to see negative sentiments expressed about
homeless populations that many see as a financial drain on society and
a setback to taxpayers. “I feel like a lot of homeless people are lazy
and content... I’m not busting my a*s so you can stand on the corner
begging me for what I got,” stated a twitter user (Twitter Post by Ko
K., 2020). Without an unbiased portrayal accessible from professional
media, the homeless population is often presumed to possess or lack
qualities that explain their “deserved” state. A study by Phelen et al.
(1997), for instance, found that those who most severely stigmatize the
homeless population tend to frame this predicament as consequential
to individual failure. Thus, it is crucial that we understand where public
sentiments come from, given that their information, or lack thereof,
shapes their beliefs. More specifically for the purposes of this study, we
73
examine whether mainstream media affects the personal perceptions of
individual Canadians when it comes to the homeless population.
With professional media as a socializing agent, the media
holds the power to create shared ideologies which ultimately manifest
into collective actions and social realities. Studies find that derogatory
language used by politicians, the public, and the media nurture a
hostile public perception of homelessness (Speak & Tipple, 2006). The
conversation around homeless perceptions and the media is particularly
salient for racial relations in Canada. First Nations, Metis, and Inuit
peoples comprised 20-50% of Canada’s homeless population in major
urban areas in 2019 (Head, 2019). Thus, when we discuss issues of
homeless representation, it is an issue that affects the Indigenous people
of Canada disproportionately compared to other groups in Canada
due to the historical marginalization and persecution of Indigenous
communities.
The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
of Canada (Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015)
pledged to support Indigenous peoples in reclaiming their Indigenous
spirituality, healing, and sense of identity, which the government admits,
had historically been taken from them along with their land. However,
six years after this statement, the 2021 Focus Canada survey suggests
that only 5% of Canadians mentioned “the need for reconciliation
or more support for the Indigenous Peoples” as their immediate
thought when asked about Canada’s Indigenous Peoples (Canadian
public opinion about Indigenous Peoples and reconciliation, 2021).
Such imagery of this group creates a discrepancy between the ways
the Canadian government aims to assist in rebuilding the Indigenous
identity and the social reality that is perceived by the general public. On
the other hand, positive narratives describing Indigenous homelessness
purported by the news can influence personal preferences for donating,
voting to impact policy, or simply exercising empathy towards this
community.
Emerging Canadian literature has begun to trace and
understand the relationship between homelessness and structural
factors outside an individual’s control (Thistle, 2017). For example,
shifting the blame for Indigenous homelessness from individual failure
to Canada’s colonial history and intergenerational trauma tied to
forceful displacement, forced assimilation, and stripping Indigenous
peoples of their homeland. For example, Beaulieu and Stewart (2014)
recognize how the removal of Indigenous children from their homes
during the recentlyabolished residential school system and “Sixties
Scoop” eras contributes to homelessness in a cultural, communal,
74
and spiritual sense. Further, the current Canadian legal and judicial
regulations are built by settlers and fail to encompass Indigenous
rights and identity as part of the national fabric (Christian Aboriginal
Infrastructure Developments). The term, “Indigenous homelessness”
itself thus, carries a complex weight of Canadian history and a call for
permanently dismantling structural barriers contributing to the housing
struggles and mental disbelonging of Indigenous peoples in their
homeland.
The Environics Institute’s 2016 national survey on non-
Indigenous Canadians’ attitude toward Indigenous peoples found
that 36% of their knowledge of Indigenous peoples is obtained from
newspapers (Canadian Public Opinion on Aboriginal Peoples, 2016).
Despite the overrepresentation of Indigenous peoples among the
homeless population in Canada, “[h]omelessness remains one of the
most misunderstood and least documented social policy issues of our
time” (Ralph Nunez & Cybelle Fox, 1999). There has been a lack of
literature that reports Canadian professional media’s portrayal and
its effect, or lack thereof, on public ideologies about this social issue.
The lack of existing texts, as well as the historically and structurally
founded urgency, contribute to the following research questions as the
foundation of this study.
Research Question 1:
How is Indigenous homelessness being discussed by
professional media via newspaper articles and in social media, through
Twitter? More specifically: what is the tone being used (positive, neutral,
or negative) and what are the topics Indigenous homelessness is being
associated with?
Research Question 2:
Does the professional media’s portrayal of Indigenous
homelessness impact its public perception, as expressed on Twitter?
Literature Review:
Creating Narratives on Homelessness:
Research suggests that issues may not be inherently perceived
as problematic, but are socially constructed by a collective definition
(Hrast, 2008). Social narratives substantially impact an individual’s
sense of self and their outward projection toward society as a whole,
in which biases can worsen existing social issues. A qualitative study
conducted with 27 homeless individuals under the shelter system
found that many of the participants feel a devalued sense of self, with
feelings of alienation and isolation (Boydell et al., 2000). The same
study also demonstrates how the stigmatization faced by the homeless
community manifests into barriers that impede homeless individuals’
75
ability to overcome substance addictions and abuse. Thus, the first step
to creating solutions to homelessness is by understanding the way it is
being framed — a narrative that would convince the general public
and institutions to cooperatively foster a more comprehensive approach
to the issue (Jacob et al., 2003). The question comes to: do narratives
actually construct social problems? What kind of narratives are
circulating about homelessness?
Professional Media: A Tool to Shape Reality?
The Media and Public Perception
As the world grows increasingly connected, yet somehow
everso polarized through the development of technology, the media
holds the power to frame, assimilate, and structure information about
social problems now, more than ever. Hence, the news acts both as
an information source and a reflective agent of public interests (Wahl
et al., 2002). A study by Iyengar and Kinder (2010) indicates that
depending on the cultural and financial background and needs of
certain communities, information on news sources often circulates
around “echo chambers.” This phenomenon may become dangerously
blindsiding unless individuals consciously seek out opinions opposing
the main sources of news they consume. Thus, it is extremely important
to understand what is being reported in the media as it holds leverage
to mobilize public support for solutions and policy making.
The Media and Policy Impacts
Although there has been a lack of research specific to the
media portrayal of homelessness and policy impacts, a study in the
United States examined the relationship between news sources from TV
media and political participation using structural equation modeling
(SEM) (Jo¨reskog, 1993). The study concluded that media bias plays
different roles in different contexts, but confirmed a certain extent of
political influence enforced by the media. Despite the obvious differing
political, social, and cultural climates between the United States and
Canada, these results serve as a reference in solidifying the question:
does the media shape political outcomes in a democracy? Although
there has been no definite answer to this query, the influence of public
opinion in a democratic social system pushes the importance to study
the relationship between media and public perception to a greater
extent.
Indigenous Homelessness in Academic Literature
Indigenous homelessness, specifically in Canada, has mainly
been studied with the goal of understanding the unique circumstances
surrounding Canada’s Colonial history. Christensen (2017) challenges
the singular definition of homeless, especially in the context of
76
Indigeneity, as the word “home” itself evokes emotions and sentiments

that make it impossible to merely conceptualize “homelessness” as
the state of not being sheltered. Many of the problems society often
associates Indigenous communities with, such as substance abuse,
often find roots in their disconnect from their desire to feel a sense
of belonging (Stewart, 2016). Through connecting with their land
spiritually and culturally, Indigenous communities establish meaning
and identity. Yet, this way of living has been stripped from them, often
leading to street life and perpetual cycles of poverty. In Canadian
academia, there has been a literature gap on the effects of media
portrayal of Indigenous homelessness. Based on the review of the
limited literature on the topic of Indigenous homelessness, this study is
developed based on the following hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1:
Indigenous homelessness is negatively addressed in professional
media through newspaper articles due to the structural barriers built
upon the existing judicial and social systems, which further perpetuates
negative stereotypes of this community.
Hypothesis 2:
Professional media strongly impacts public perception on
Indigenous homelessness, which will be reflected on Twitter (i.e., similar
themes will be discussed in newspaper articles and tweets).
Methodology:
Research Design
This study consists of professional and social media content
analysis. The content analysis focused on contributing factors of
Indigenous homelessness in its historical, political, social, and urban
contexts. The collection of newspaper articles was sourced from the
database, ProQuest, while tweets were directly sourced from Twitter.
The search terms “Indigenous OR Aboriginal OR First Nations AND
Homelessness” are applied for newspaper article collection, while the
hashtags #IndigenousHomelessness and #AboriginalHomelessness
were used to search Twitter. The use of tweets to access public opinion
was previously done in a study by Cohen (2020), who argued that
tweets are an imperfect substitute for well-collected polling data and
surveys. The use of Twitter data in this study is adopted due to the
time and financial constraints imposed by an 8-week timeline and the
single-researcher-led nature of the study. NVivo was used to code dates
and common themes in the depictions of the homeless community
within both the newspaper articles and the tweets. The application of
content analysis in this study applies both quantitative and qualitative
procedures. The categorization of themes and interpretation of such
77
being positive, negative, and neutral are subjective. However, this
subjectivity can be better understood through critical analysis of the
emotional and rational responses elicited in the context in which each
theme is described.
Sample
Newspaper articles were sourced from 12 Canadian news
publishers in the time frame of 2017-2021. This is a Canadian
nationwide study, not restricted to any specific region, so newspaper
publishers were inclusive of newspaper publishers located across
Canada. These newspaper sources were chosen based on their highest
total number of published articles compared to other sources. Chosen
newspaper sources include The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, The
Winnipeg Sun, The Brandon Sun, Calgary Herald, Edmonton Sun,
Edmonton Journal, Vancouver Courier, Vancouver Sun, Times -
Colonist, The Winnipeg Free Press, and the Waterloo Region Record.
A total of 250 newspaper articles and 250 tweets are included and
analyzed in this study.
Coding System
The development of the coding framework took reference
from Chen and Lawries’ (2021)Newspaper depiction of mental and
physical health and Richter et al. (2011)’s Homelessness Coverage
in Major Canadian Newspapers, 1987-2007. The former provides
insights for the categorization of positive, negative, and neutral themes
in the assessment of the sentiment newspaper articles are written in.
In particular, the impacts of phrases focusing on physical and mental
health are categorized according to the associations that would elicit
various emotional responses from readers. Instances suggested in the
study include vocabulary such as “cure” that would be categorized as
positive, “death” as negative, and “trial drug” as neutral. Richter et al.’s
organization of sub-themes also informs the categorization of certain
phrases under the main themes, such as “housing-related issues,”
“economic factors,” “illegal activity,” and so on.
The categorization of keywords or phrases that would fit into
this coding system is also determined based on the context in which
they are described. However, the assumption that a newspaper article or
tweet would only consist of one of the three themes does not stand as
a newspaper article or tweet may simultaneously contain a positive and
negative theme. Moreover, the time and resources this study possesses
do not have multiple researchers discerning whether a newspaper
article or tweet should fall under the positive or neutral category in the
case of it having two positive themes and two neutral themes. Hence,
the number of themes would be calculated relative to the total of
78
positive, neutral, and negative themes per year and per the total articles
between 2017-2021. These percentages are the primary agents of data
analysis.
Positive themes in this study are categorized by an emphasis
on a structural or sociological approach to the issue of Indigenous
homelessness. In other words, positive themes are those that elicit
affirmative perceptions of Indigenous homelessness as a complex
issue with a tremendous amount of historical and structural reasons
behind it, and it should not be defined by the simple explanation of
individual responsibility. Neutral themes include general causes of
and information about Indigenous homelessness that the public would
benefit from knowing. Lastly, negative themes include events and social
phenomena that would lead the readers to associate the Indigenous
homeless population to that are generally labeled as criminal-like or
unwanted, which would generate significantly negative emotions such
as anger and disgust, as found by a study by Park (2015). This coding
system is more elaborately demonstrated in Table 1.
Table 1: Coding system for newspaper articles and tweets
Tone Source Date Theme Description
Positive A ‘forward 03/30/2017 Calls For “Just as government
focused’ look at Government has played a role in
indigenous Action creating dispiriting
homelessness policies that
Author: effectively destroyed
Theobald, indigenous culture,
Claire Thistle said there is
Publisher: room for government
Edmonton Sun to support indigenous
communities in
rebuilding.”
Neutral Wintry weather 11/09/2017 Shelters “Staff at Canada’s
puts chill on largest homeless shelter
homeless are assembling kits to
shelters; ward off frostbite, as
Numbers the return of colder
of destitute weather brings a rise in
needing a shelter use in the city.”
place to sleep
climbs as the
temperature
drops
Author: Bill
Kaufmann
Publisher:
Calgary Herald
79
Negative Homeless 10/05/2017 Addiction “A high proportion of
‘pinch’ hits homeless women live in
women in the Fraser Valley and
Fraser Valley resource workers in the
Author: Nick region say there is a
England dire need for affordable
Publisher: The and supportive housing
Province for those fleeing abuse
with their children
or struggling with
addiction.”
Positive Twitter Author: 12/06/2017 Colonization “Shaking Off the
David Rider and #Colonial Inheritance:
Username: @ Residential #Homeless
dmrider Schools #Indigenous #Youth
Impact Resist, Reclaim
and Reconnect, @
homelesshub : http://
ow.ly/k8w230c MajM”
Neutral Twitter 05/26/2020 Covid-19 “#Montreal’s
Author: reopening increases
Jane George #COVID19 risks
Username: @ for homeless, says
sikugirl #Indigenous coalition
| Nunatsiaq News”
Negative Twitter 12/31/2020 Poverty “Not to mention the
Author: LJP cutting of #jobseeker
Username: to below the poverty
@ line, the number of
LJP4abetterOz #homeless, state of
#INDIGENOUS
people and the #jobless
all leading to issues of
#publichealth.”
Findings:
As seen in Table 2, the tone of newspapers on homelessness
in Canada are mainly positive. More specifically, positive themes
comprised 46.4% of the total themes among all articles from 2017-
2021 compared to negative themes, which comprised 18.9% of the
total themes, and neutral themes, which comprised 34.7% of the total
themes. When assessing how the tone of articles has changed over
time, however, we notice a 9.1% decrease in positive themes in articles
between 2017 (50.9%) and 2021 (41.8%). This 9% decrease in positive
themes was driven by a 10.7% increase in neutral themes (from 27.1%
in 2017 to 37.7% in 2021) and a 1.5% increase in negative themes over
the same period (from 22.0% in 2017 to 20.5% in 2021).
80
Table 2: Tone of articles over time (number of themes in each category)
Tone 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Row Total
Positive 1091 136 116 135 92 588

(50.9%)2 (50.0%) (42.3%) (46.8%) (41.8%) (46.4%)
Neutral 58 89 92 118 83 440

(27.1%) (32.7%) (33.6%) (41.0%) (37.7%) (34.7%)
Negative 47 47 66 35 45 240
(22.0%) (17.3%) (24.1%) (12.2%) (20.5%) (18.9%)
Total 2143 272 274 288 220 1268

(100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%)
Goal: What is the distribution of positive, neutral, and negative themes in newspapers. How has that
changed over time.
Moreover, the tone of newspaper articles moves away from

positive between 2017 to 2019: we see a 8.6% decrease in positive
themes, a 6.5% increase in neutral themes and a 2.1% increase in
negative themes. However, the data suggests that COVID stalled the
trend with a significant increase in neutral themes: we see a 7.4%
increase between 2019 and 2020, which contributes to an overall
increase of 13.9% between 2017 and 2021. Negative themes also
dropped by 11.9% from 2019 to 2020 while a slight (4.5%) increase is
seen in this time period. By 2021, the trend’s prior course is continued,
as positively themed articles fell back to 41.8%, closer to the 42.3% seen
in 2019, neutral themes fell by 3.3% to 37.7% in 2021, negative themes
rose up to 20.5%, closer to the 20% range in 2019.
These trends are explained by a significant increase of
“Covid-19” related themes categorized under neutral. As publishers
and journalists of newspaper sources witness while reporting the ways
Covid-19 impacted Indigenous homelessness in 2020, it could be due to
heightened “journalist empathy” (Sillesen et al., 2015) that they would
shift focus on reporting ways Indigenous homelessness can be and have
been supported, which explains the increase in positive themes, such as
“call for government action,” while negative themes such as “prisons”
would be less of a concern in these years, leading to specifically
decreased negative themes.
1 Number of positive themes mentioned in newspaper articles in 2017

2 Percentage of positive themes relative to the total of all positive, negative and neutral themes
mentioned in newspaper articles in 2017
3 Total of positive, negative and neutral themes found in newspaper articles in 2017
81
Table 3a: Positive themes mentioned in newspaper articles over time (Ranked
from most to least, referring to how many articles mention them.)
Positive Themes 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Total
Call for Government Actions 22 10 11 13 9 65

Humanizing Indigenous Stories 7 17 16 23 1 54
Quotes Supporting Indigenous 16 8 3 13 11 51

Homelessness
Federal Budget 6 15 8 5 7 41
Past Government Injustices 15 4 3 7 10 39
Government Pledge 4 10 8 9 7 38
Debunking Racism4 5 7 8 13 1 33
Reconciliation 6 3 9 5 7 26
Addressing Racism 5
5 5 6 9 1 26
Victim 4 4 7 4 2 25
Work done by Government 5 3 3 5 8 24
Efforts Supporting Issue 0 13 2 3 6 24
Colonization and Residential 4 3 5 4 5 21
Schools Impact
Addressing Systemic Issues 0 6 0 4 0 20
Barrier Breaking Descriptions 3 3 3 2 4 15
Humanizing Descriptions 2 5 3 4 0 14
Federal Investment 2 5 2 1 4 14
Anti-Stereotypes 0 3 3 5 3 14
Call For Policy Changes 1 6 3 1 2 13
Urge For Individual Actions 1 2 3 2 4 12
Discrimination 0 3 5 1 0 9
Collaborative Initiatives between 1 1 2 1 0 5
Indigenous and Gov
Indigenous Led Approach 0 0 2 0 0 2
Call for NGO Actions 0 0 1 1 0 2
Goal: Table 1a describes the general trends of differently tone, as interpreted by themes in newspaper
articles, this is being more specific about what themes in each category (+, -, 0) are being used, whether
they are changing over time.
4 The theme “Debunking Racism” include explanations of how racism contributes to worsened
Indigenous homelessness as well as the perception of such
5 The theme “Addressing Racism” includes descriptions of racist events and actions that would worsen
Indigenous homelessness as well as the perception of such
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Positive themes mentioned in newspaper articles are mainly

comprised of two large umbrellas of topics: government related
topics and structural causes of Indigenous Homelessness specific to
Indigenous peoples.
The theme “Call for Government Actions” was mentioned
in 65 articles from 2017 to 2021, ranking first among all positive
themes. This theme, along with other government-related themes,
including “Federal Budget,” “Government Pledge,” “Work Done By
Government,” “Federal Investment,” “Call for Policy Changes” and
“Collaborative Initiatives between Indigenous and Government”, are
mentioned in a total of 200 articles. These themes mainly address
Indigenous homelessness in relation to the government, implying a
heavy role of responsibility held by the government in aiding this
issue. More specifically, the majority of these themes are related to
financial decisions made by the government such as the distribution
of tax dollars. Much of the government’s role is to reconsider the
ways Indigenous homelessness, or broadly, Indigenous communities
are funded. A possible explanation could be the expectation that the
Canadian Liberal Party, which had been in power in the 2017 to 2021
time frame would make efficient use of its progressive tax system
(Making Sure Everyone Pays Their Fair Share, 2022) in supporting
social issues in urgent need in Canada.
On the other hand, themes reporting structural causes of
Indigenous Homelessness specifically to the history of Indigenous
peoples include “Humanizing Indigenous Stories,” “Quotes Supporting
Indigenous Homelessness,” “Past Government Injustices,” “Debunking
Racism,” “Reconciliation,” “Addressing Racism,” “Colonization and
Residential Schools Impact,” “Addressing Systemic Issues,” “Barrier
Breaking Descriptions”. “Anti Stereotypes”, “Discrimination” and
“Indigenous Led Approaches”. These 12 themes were mentioned
in 349 newspaper articles between 2017 and 2021. These themes
emphasize Indigenous Homelessness as a structural issue, with many
social systems that perpetuate the disadvantages of historically drawn-
back communities. The large proportion of these themes indicates
Professional Media’s emphasis on creating a more empathetic approach
towards understanding the unique issue of Indigenous homelessness,
which bridges the gap of misunderstanding between the general
public and the Indigenous homeless and, more generally, Indigenous
communities as a whole. As Jacobs (2021), a United Nations worker
specializing in initiatives with Indigenous women, emphasizes, “Racism
is just a lack of education”; these themes serve as a source of education,
83
for which a deeper dive into the alternate reasons for Indigenous
homelessness that may not come first to the mind of the general public
are explored.
The third category of positive themes include general
attempts to humanize Indigenous homelessness, but not as specific to
the historical and structural causes of such. For instance, “Victim,”
appeared in 25 newspaper articles, and “Humanizing Descriptions,”
was mentioned in 14 articles between 2017 and 2021.
The last category includes the relationship between Indigenous
Homelessness and public responsibility. These themes include “Efforts
Supporting Issue,” which discusses Individual and NGO actions that
spoke up or acted upon bettering the Indigenous homeless situation,
appearing in 25 articles between 2017 and 2021. Other themes include
“Urge for Individual Actions,” mentioned in 12 articles and “Call for
NGO Actions,” mentioned in two articles between 2017-2021. These
themes both create a space for which individuals are encouraged to
think about Indigenous Homelessness not as an out-of- reach social
issue, but rather as something that they can contribute to supporting,
whether if it means from a distance or directly through volunteering.
84
Table 3b: Neutral themes mentioned in newspaper articles over time (Rank,
from most to least. Referring to how many articles mention them.)
Neutral Themes 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Total
Shelters 22 12 18 20 24 94
Pointing out that Indigenous are 11 13 9 22 5 60
Overrepresented Among Poor
and Homeless
Addressing Indigenous 3 13 11 11 18 56
Homelessness Specifically
Mental Health 12 9 12 7 7 47
Housing 4 10 19 9 2 44
COVID-19 0 0 0 25 18 43
Youth 0 12 5 6 2 25
Police 0 13 10 5 0 28
Finance 5 6 2 2 5 20
Public Health 1 1 5 11 2 20
Public Safety 0 0 1 0 0 1
Goal: Table 1a describes the general trends of differently tone, as interpreted by themes in newspaper
articles, this is being more specific about what themes in each category (+, -, 0) are being used, whether
they are changing over time
Mentioned in 94 articles between 2017 and 2021, the neutral

theme, “Shelters” is significantly represented among neutral themes
describing Indigenous homelessness. The goal of newspaper journalists
here is mainly to inform the public about the conditions of shelters,
who stay in shelters, why or why not homeless individuals decide to
stay in shelters, as well as what shelters that have an overrepresented
Indigenous population are essentially like. These descriptions remain
neutral in tone due to them being descriptive, which effectively educates
the public on social realities that they may not be exposed to regularly
unless they consume news and media reporting related information.
In total, the next category mentioned across 169 articles
include “Pointing out that Indigenous are Overrepresented Among
Poor and Homeless,” “Addressing Indigenous Homelessness
Specifically” (categorized an article addresses normal homelessness,
but parts focusing on indigenous specific statistics and facts this
sample size does not include newspaper articles that only address
homelessness without the keyword Indigenous), “Youth” and “Police.”
85
These themes specifically address groups affected by and involved in
the issue of Indigenous homelessness. For instance, the proportion
of Indigenous peoples among homeless individuals, and the fact that
youth significantly comprise a percentage of the Indigenous homeless
population. On the other hand, the police, as a force anointed with
responsibility to maintain social order is also a group that is directly
involved in this issue, leading to reflections such as: are the police
trained specifically to cope with Indigenous homelessness?
Further, neutral themes, such as “Mental Health,” “Housing,”
“Covid-19,” and “Finance” are, in a total, mentioned in 154 articles
between 2017 and 2021. These themes speak to the potential causes of
Indigenous homelessness that are generally motivated by unexpected
social events or social climates specifically to the different state of the
world. Specifically, we see a spike of “Covid-19” in 2020, from 0 to
being mentioned in 25 articles in 2020 and 18 articles in 2021. This is
due to the obvious beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, and
journalists mentioning Indigenous homelessness in the context of this
urgent and impactful time.
Lastly, “Public Health” and “Public Safety” are, in total,
mentioned in 21 articles between 2017 and 2021. These themes
describe Indigenous homelessness as a “tragedy of the commons”
(Hardin, 1968). They serve to remind readers that Indigenous
homelessness is an issue with far-reaching impact that could be
experienced by anyone in the general public. For instance, the
increased homeless rate is often shown to be positively correlated with
the likelihood of victimization (Roebuck, 2018). In addition, not only
are Indigenous homeless individuals especially at risk for Covid-19
infections, the fact that this virus is highly transmittable indicates that
the spread of the virus within this population does not necessarily
stop within this borderless community who are unable to “stay home”
(Population At-Risk, 2020).
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Table 3c: Negative themes mentioned in newspaper article over time (Rank,
from most to least. Referring to how many articles mention them.)
Negative Themes 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Total
Addiction 13 10 12 6 13 54
Substances 8 8 13 12 9 50
Poverty 13 4 9 2 3 31
Violence 7 5 8 7 11 30
Murder 1 4 7 1 4 17
Prison 0 3 8 3 0 14
Mental Illness 3 4 3 1 0 11
Welfare 0 5 2 0 3 10
Death 1 0 4 3 1 9
Unemployment 1 4 0 0 1 6
Goal: Tables 1a and 1b are general trends, this is being more specific about what themes in each
category (+, -, 0) are being used, whether they are changing over time
Discussion
Negative themes mentioned in newspaper articles between
2017 and 2021 can mainly be grouped into two categories: potential
consequences of Indigenous homelessness that would be labeled as
socially unacceptable and unwanted, which would elicit negative
emotions being one, and what people may perceive as the negative
causes of Indigenous homelessness that are generally rooted in biases.
Negative themes such as “Addiction,” “Substances,”
“Violence,” “Mental Illness,” and “Unem-ployment” are common
keywords that may appear in the media, associated with Indigenous
home-lessness and other socially undesirable states of being. They
are often provided as some of the general causes of Indigenous
homelessness. These mentions often associate the subject of discussion,
in this case, Indigenous homelessness, with feelings of alienation and
dis-gust. These themes are mentioned across 151 articles in total
between 2017 and 2021.
“Poverty,” “Murder,” “Prison,” “Welfare,” and “Death,” on
the other hand, are mentioned in 81 articles in total between 2017
and 2019. As this category of negative themes mainly discuss the
consequences of Indigenous homelessness. They would unsurprisingly
elicit negative reactions or negative associations from readers as they are
reminiscent of criminalization and the associa-tion of lacking wealth.
87
Table 4: Tone of articled and tweets over time (number of themes in each
category)
Tone 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Row
Total
Positive Articles 109 136 116 135 92 588
(50.9%) (50.0%) (42.3%) (46.8%) (41.8%) (46.4%)
Tweets 22 20 24 12 20 98
(55.0%) (47.6%) (72.7%) (36.4%) (50.0%) (52.1%)
Neutral Articles 58 89 92 118 83 440
(27.1%) (32.7%) (33.6%) (41.0%) (37.7%) (34.7%)
Tweets 12 17 7 14 14 64
(30.0%) (40.5%) (21.2%) (42.4%) (35.0%) (34.0%)
Negative Articles 47 47 66 35 35 240
(22.0%) (17.3%) (24.1%) (12.2%) (20.5%) (18.9%)
Tweets 6 5 2 7 6 26
(15%) (11.9%) (6.1%) (21.2%) (15.0%) (13.8%)
Total Articles 214 272 274 288 220 1268
(100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%)
Tweets 40 42 33 33 40 188
(100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%)
Goal: What is the distribution of positive, neutral, and negative themes in newspapers and tweets.
How has that changed over time. How are these related (if they even are).
Similar to newspaper articles on Indigenous homelessness

in Canada, the tone of tweets is, for the most part, positive. More
specifically, there is a 52.1% of positive themes are among all themes
in the total tweets between 2017-2021, 13.8% of negative themes, and
34% of neutral themes. The percentage of positive themes in tweets
is 5.7% more than the percentage of positive themes in newspapers,
(52.1% in tweets compared to 46.4% in newspapers). The percentage
of neutral themes in tweets is marginally less than in newspapers
by 0.7% (34.0% in tweets compared to 34.7% in newspapers). The
percentage of negative themes in tweets is 5.1% less than newspapers
(18.9% in newspapers compared to 13.8% in tweets).
Overall, positive themes constitute the majority of the themes
in both newspapers (46.4%) and tweets (52.1%); neutral themes make
up a secondary percentage in both newspapers (34.7%) and tweets
(34.0%); negative themes constitute the least percentage among the
total, comprising 20.5% in newspapers and 15.0% in tweets.
From 2018 to 2019, we see a significant 25.1% increase in
positive themes mentioned in tweets (47.6% in 2018 to 72.7% in 2019).
88
A possible explanation could be Scheer’s defeat in the 2019 Canadian

Federal Elections. Conservative voters could have been fatigued from
this result and taken a backseat, whereas liberal voters, voting for
Trudeau’s 2019 Liberal Campaign’s more progressive tax system, were
in full force celebrating this victory. Thus, the substantial increase of
positive themes in 2019 is most likely reflective of the large portion of
positive themes focusing on the government’s financial role on this issue.
In 2020, the percentages of neutral themes in both newspaper
articles and tweets rise to a very similar percentage (41.0% for
newspaper articles and 42.4% for tweets), and the trend continuing
throughout 2021, when neutral themes dropped in both newspaper
articles and tweets, (37.7% for newspaper articles and 35.0% for tweets).
The percentage of neutral themes in both newspaper articles and
tweets may be an indicator that the Covid-19 pandemic was an urgent
issue to both newspaper journalists and publishers as well as the general
public who may or may not be consuming media from newspaper
articles, as both of these parties are living through the pandemic with
feelings of uncertainty and fear.
Yet, we see a drop of 11.9% in negative themes for newspaper
articles from 2019 to 2020, versus a 15.1% increase in negative themes
for tweets in the time period. There is also a significant shift in positive
themes in tweets, which dropped 36.3% from 2019 to 2020 (72.7%
in 2019 and 36.4% in 2020). Conversely, newspaper articles have a
mild (4.5%) increase in positive themes from 2019 to 2020. A possible
explanation would confirm the assumption that Twitter users may
not be consuming newspaper articles. While they may be adopting a
scarcity mentality, they freely express their feelings on social media,
perhaps anger and frustration towards the government’s increased
financial support towards Indigenous homelessness instead of them,
who may also be experiencing unemployment and other crises during
this difficult time. On the other hand, newspaper journalists may be
observing the challenges experienced by the Indigenous homeless
community firsthand as they are reporting, which would lead to them
leaning towards positive rather than negative descriptions. Thus, this
would suggest that hypothesis two is spurious, as a causal relationship
between newspaper articles and tweets is not suggested by this data set.
89
Table 5a: Positive themes mentioned in newspaper articles and tweets
over time (Rank, from most to least. Referring to how many articles/tweets
mention them, not including how many times mentioned within article/
tweet.)
Positive Themes 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Total
Call for Articles 22 10 11 13 9 65

Government
Tweets 1 2 1 0 1 5
Actions
Humanizing Articles 7 17 16 23 1 54
Indigenous
Tweets 5 4 5 4 2 20
Stories
Quotes Supporting Articles 16 8 3 13 11 51
Indigenous
Tweets 1 1 2 1 2 7
Homelessness
Federal Budget Articles 6 15 8 5 7 41
Tweets 1 1 0 1 1 4
Past Government Articles 15 4 3 7 10 39
Injustices
Tweets 0 0 1 0 1 2
Government Articles 4 10 8 9 7 38
Pledge
Tweets 0 0 0 0 0 0
Debunking Racism Articles 5 7 8 13 1 33
Tweets 0 1 2 1 1 5
Reconciliation Articles 6 3 9 5 7 26
Tweets 1 0 1 0 0 2
Addressing Articles 5 5 6 9 1 26
Racism
Tweets 0 0 1 0 0 1
Victim Articles 4 4 7 4 2 25
Tweets 0 0 0 0 1 1
Work Done by Articles 5 3 3 5 8 24
Government
Tweets 0 1 0 1 0 2
Efforts Supporting Articles 0 13 2 3 6 24
Issue
Tweets 3 3 2 0 2 10
Colonization and Articles 4 3 5 4 5 21
Residential
Tweets 2 0 2 1 1 6
Schools Impact
Systemic Issue
Tweets 0 0 0 1 0 1
90
Barrier Breaking Articles 3 3 3 2 4 15

Descriptions
Tweets 1 0 0 0 0 1
Humanizing Articles 2 5 3 4 0 14
Descriptions
Tweets 3 1 2 0 2 8
Federal Articles 2 5 2 1 4 14
Investment
Tweets 0 0 0 0 0 0
Anti Stereotypes Articles 0 3 3 5 3 14
Tweets 0 1 0 0 1 2
Call for Policy Articles 1 6 3 1 2 13
Changes
Tweets 0 1 1 0 1 3
Urge for Individual Articles 1 2 3 2 4 12
Actions
Tweets 1 1 0 0 2 4
Discrimination Articles 0 3 5 1 0 9
Tweets 1 1 1 1 0 4
Collab Between Articles 1 1 2 1 0 5
Indigenous and
Tweets 0 0 1 1 0 2
Gov
Indigenous Led Articles 0 0 2 0 0 2
Approach
Tweets 2 1 2 0 1 6
Call for NGO Articles 0 0 1 1 0 2
Actions
Tweets 0 1 0 0 1 2
The number of positive themes most mentioned in newspaper

articles is not reflected in tweets from 2017 to 2021. For instance,
although “Call For Government Action” was mentioned a total of 65
times from 2017 to 2021 in newspaper articles, it was only mentioned
a total of 5 times in tweets during the same time period. Due to the
nature of each tweet being shorter in length compared to newspaper
articles, each tweet often includes fewer themes than a newspaper
article. Hence, the same sample size of tweets has a smaller number of
themes mentioned in each category, as reflected in the table 4a, 4b and
4c. Due to the smaller number of tweets that mentioned each theme,
themes from each category are emphasized if they meet the threshold
of being mentioned in 5 tweets.
Positive themes in tweets that reach the threshold of being
mentioned in a minimum of 5 tweets include “Humanizing Indigenous
Stories,” “Efforts Supporting Issue,” “Humanizing Descriptions,”
91
“Quotes Supporting Indigenous Homelessness,” “Colonization and
Residential Schools Impact,” “Indigenous Led Approach,” and
“Debunking Racism” (the order of mentions is ranked from most to
least tweets). These themes emphasize shedding light on allowing an
empathetic understanding of the structural and historical reasons
for Indigenous homelessness while fostering an attempt to view each
Indigenous individual as a human being of dignity, whether they are in
a leadership position, leading their communities towards betterment,
or are homeless and in need of support. The number of tweets
mentioning positive themes, as opposed to newspaper articles, thus,
does not reference the government’s role in Indigenous homelessness
substantially. Therefore, the data suggests that there is not a causal
relationship between positive themes mentioned in newspaper articles
and tweets.
Table 5b: Neutral themes mentioned in newspaper articles and tweets over
time (Rank, from most to least. Referring to how many articles/tweets
mention them, not including how manty times mentioned within article/
tweet.)
Theme 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Total
Description of Articles 22 12 18 20 24 94
Shelters
Tweets 1 2 1 1 1 6
Pointing out that Articles 11 13 9 22 5 60
Indigenous are
Overrepresented
Among Poor and Tweets 2 3 1 2 1 9
Homeless
Indigenous
Homelessness
Specifically Tweets 2 1 1 2 3 9
Mental Health Articles 12 9 12 7 7 47

Tweets 2 2 0 1 2 7
Housing Articles 4 10 19 9 2 44
Tweets 3 2 1 2 0 8
COVID-19 Articles 0 0 0 25 18 43
Tweets 0 0 0 1 2 3
Youth Articles 0 12 5 6 2 25
Tweets 1 2 1 1 1 6
92
Police Articles 0 13 10 5 0 28
Tweets 0 4 2 3 1 10
Finances Articles 5 6 2 2 5 20
Tweets 0 1 0 0 2 3
Public Health Articles 1 1 5 11 2 20
Tweets 1 0 0 1 1 3
Public Safety Articles 0 0 1 0 0 1
Tweets 0 0 0 0 0 0
Goal: Tables 3a are general trends, this is being more specific about what themes in each category (+, -,
0) are being used, whether they are changing over time.
Neutral themes mentioned in Tweets between 2017 and

2021 that meet the threshold of 5 tweets are “Pointing out that
the Indigenous populations is “Overrepresented Among Poor and
Homeless,” “Addressing Indigenous Homelessness Specifically,”
“Police,” “Mental Health,” “Youth,” and “Description of Shelters”
(the order of mention is ranked from most to least tweets). The ranking
of these neutral themes creates a specific trend or picture as it did in
newspaper articles. There are three evident groupings of neutral themes
here. The first group that is mentioned in the most tweets are “Pointing
out that Indigenous are Overrepresented Among Poor and Homeless,”
and “Addressing Indigenous Homelessness Specifically,” “Police”
and “Youth,” which specifically addresses groups that are affected by
and involved in the issue of Indigenous homelessness; this group was
mentioned in 34 tweets in total. Secondly, “Housing” and “Mental
Health,” which describe the general causes of Indigenous homelessness,
are mentioned in a total of 15 tweets. Lastly, “Description of Shelters”
alone was mentioned in six tweets. The neutral themes mentioned
most in tweets, although, is not the “Description of Shelters” like it
is in newspaper articles, but the ones that reach the threshold of five
tweets are all themes that are mentioned in most newspaper articles.
Thus, there may be potential influences between newspaper articles’
portrayal of neutral themes about Indigenous homelessness with that of
the expression of these tweet publishers, but the current data set is not
comprehensive enough to determine this relationship with certainty.
These numbers reflect that Twitter users who tweet regarding
Indigenous homelessness are most concerned or expressive about
Indigenous homelessness in the larger social context. In other words,
these tweets establish the understanding that Indigenous homeless
individuals are part of a larger group of the homeless population,
93
while there are Indigenous specific issues that have to be addressed.
In addition, the fact that Indigenous youth homelessness and the
Indigenous homeless community’s interaction with the Police should
also be brought to attention by the general public via this social media
platform. The second and third grouping of themes also reveal the
Twitter users who published these tweets wish to inform the general
public about their personal knowledge, be it from personal encounter or
word of mouth the reasons why this social issue is present as well as the
ways some Indigenous homeless individuals are living under the shelter
system.
Table 5c: Negative themes mentioned in newspaper articles and tweets
over time (Rank, from most to least. Referring to how many articles/tweets
mention them, not including how many times mentioned within article/
tweet.)
Theme 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Total
Addiction Articles 13 10 12 6 13 54
Tweets 1 1 0 1 1 4
Substances Articles 8 8 13 12 9 50
Tweets 0 0 0 1 0 1
Poverty Articles 13 4 9 2 3 31
Tweets 2 2 1 1 2 8
Violence Articles 7 5 8 7 11 30
Tweets 1 1 0 2 0 4
Murder Articles 1 4 7 1 4 17
Tweets 0 0 0 0 0 0
Prison Articles 0 3 8 3 0 14
Tweets 1 1 0 2 1 4
Mental Illness Articles 3 4 3 1 0 11
Tweets 0 0 0 0 0 0
Welfare Articles 0 5 2 0 3 10
Tweets 0 0 0 0 0 0
Death Articles 1 0 4 3 1 9
Tweets 0 0 1 0 1 2
94
Unemployment Articles 1 4 0 0 1 6
Tweets 1 0 0 0 1 2
Goal: Tables 3a are general trends, this is being more specific about what themes in each category (+, -,
0) are being used, whether they are changing over time
Negative themes are mentioned significantly less than positive

and neutral themes among tweets between 2017 to 2021, similar to
what we saw in newspaper articles. Only one theme — “Poverty”
reached the threshold of 5, being mentioned in a total of 8 tweets
between 2017 to 2021. The other negative themes hover between the
range of 2 to 4 tweets, with “Murder,” “Mental Illness,” and “Welfare”
being mentioned in 0 tweets. Thus, the publishers of these tweets
strongly emphasized the lack of financial ability of the Indigneous
homeless but did not show the same emphasis as newspaper articles
did on negative themes such as “Addiction” and “Substances”, which
are common causes of homelessness. The causal relationship between
negative themes mentioned in newspaper articles and tweets, again,
appears spurious as reflected in this data set.
Conclusion
Hypothesis 1
Firstly, this study concludes that Indigenous homelessness
is, for the most part, positively discussed in both professional media,
through newspaper articles and social media, through Twitter.
Although positive themes are moving towards a decreasing
trend going into 2019 for newspaper articles, the Covid-19 pandemic
substantially increased the percentage of neutral themes and slightly
increased the percentage of positive themes in 2020, revealing
Canadian journalism’s empathetic lean when reporting on this issue
during a challenging and uncertain time in Canada. Professional
media tremendously emphasizes the Canadian government’s role in
supporting Indigenous homelessness, especially in terms of finances and
public policy, as well as the structural causes contributing to Indigenous
homelessness. Particularly, Colonial histories and systemic structures
are often discussed to humanize the Indigenous homeless population
and explain their overrepresentation of the homeless. The call for
individuals and NGO to act upon this issue is secondary in comparison
to that of the government. Shelters and the social groups involved in
the issue of Indigenous homelessness dominate the neutral category,
with Covid-19-related issues significantly taking up neutral themes
despite only being mentioned for two years after the pandemic began
95
in 2020. Negative themes mainly discuss some of the negative causes of
Indigenous homelessness, such as substances and addiction, along with
negative consequences, such as death and murder.
Twitter users who tweet regarding Indigenous homelessness
mainly write about positive themes, similar to professional media.
Tweets in this data set primarily discuss stories that humanize and
support Indigenous homeless individuals against racism but rarely
address government responsibility for this issue. Tweets also tend to
address Indigenous homelessness as part of the larger social context,
including its general causes and different groups that interact with the
Indigenous homeless. Negative themes are mentioned substantially less
compared to positive and neutral themes. This, however, could be due
to a less comprehensive sample size in this study owing to the limited
hashtags used to populate the data set.
Hypothesis 2
Despite positive themes being discussed as the majority in
both newspaper articles and tweets, trends of themes being discussed in
these two mediums do not consistently match with one another. Thus,
professional media either insignificantly or inconsistently influences
public perception of Indigenous homelessness. However, these results
could be due to a non-comprehensive sample size, as well as limited
time and resources due to the Project’s singular researcher-led nature.
Therefore, the relationship between professional media’s portrayal and
public perception of Indigenous homelessness must continue to be
investigated in future studies, with a larger sample size of newspaper
articles, tweets and a larger time frame.
96
About the Author:

Shiri Yeung is a second-year student at the University of Toronto,
studying Sociology and Urban Studies. Her research interests include
the intersections between media framing of social issues, collective civic
action, and policy-making. She would like to present her most sincere
gratitude to Dr. Mitchell McIvor, associate professor at the University
of Toronto’s Sociology department for his invaluable guidance and
support throughout this project.
97
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The Journal of Politics and

The Journal of Politics

Eleonora Julmy Corinne Miller

Jess Costakis Kaylee Jennings

Elizabeth Apple Darian Rostam

Tristan Miller Jacob Masterson

The Dragon Lady: Reinterpreting 29

Technology as a Factor of State 49

The Word on Tweets: An investigation 73

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COPYRIGHT © 2023 THE OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY

We are pleased to present the Spring 2022 edition of the Journal

Our Journal, revived in 2011 by a group of Ohio State undergraduate

Eleonora Julmy & Corinne Miller

All views and opinions expressed the respective authors in

Chinese foreign policy Stadium

S tadium Diplomacy is a Chinese foreign policy where China gifts a

Discovering if a third-world country is economically dependent on

Costa Rica’s imports of Chinese products increased after

Senegal has recognized the One China policy twice. The

country becomes economically dominated by China. The purpose

The Dragon Lady:

North. Yet, in anticipation of Việt Minh plans to reunite the country

Assembly’s makeup of pro-Diệm politicians and few independents was

its permissiveness of polyamory and entertainment that encouraged

FIGURE 1: PICTURES OF MADAME NHU’S PARAMILITARY

However, VWSM activities did not meet the claims Madame

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Western media and inform opposition to US involvement in Vietnam

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This marked the height of American public hatred towards

public. In a political cartoon by Herbert Block, Figure 4, though

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U.S. Department of State. (1964). Foreign Relations of the United

Technology as a Factor of State

Technological Shock and the Incentive for Consolidation:

I n 1853, when commodore Matthew C. Perry approached Japan for

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overcoming topographical barriers by increasing the strength of

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events as early as the expedition on native Taiwanese, the annexation of

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Table 2: Tone of articles over time (number of themes in each category)

Tone 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Row Total

Positive 1091 136 116 135 92 588

Neutral 58 89 92 118 83 440

Total 2143 272 274 288 220 1268

Moreover, the tone of newspaper articles moves away from

1 Number of positive themes mentioned in newspaper articles in 2017

Call for Government Actions 22 10 11 13 9 65

Quotes Supporting Indigenous 16 8 3 13 11 51

Positive themes mentioned in newspaper articles are mainly

Mentioned in 94 articles between 2017 and 2021, the neutral