For the 8th consecutive year, IBEI has granted the Final Research Project Awards. The winners of the awards receive €200. This year there are two ex aequo awards which will receive €100.

The committee for the selection of the IBEI Final Research Project Awards 2017-2018 agreed to award the prize to students Maria Nizzero, Anna De Marchi and Rosemary Tasker, and two awards ex aequo for Benjamin Jance and Fabian Steuer.

Furthermore, 3 Final Research Projects have been awarded a diploma and a qualification of distinction, stated in the academic transcripts.

Final Research Project Awards

• Maria Nizzero (Master’s in International Relations), Ungoverned spaces: Why some jihadist groups engage in public service delivery more than others
• Anna De Marchi (Master’s in International Security), Yes We Fear: An issue saliency analysis of the impact of terrorist attacks on electoral campaigning rhetoric in Europe
• Rosemary Tasker (Master's in International Development), Child Marriage Amongst Syrian Refugees: A Rational Response?

Final Research Project Awards ex aequo​

• Benjamin Jance IV (Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Public Policy (Mundus MAPP)), Rapid buses, rapid opinions. A frame analysis of the media coverage surrounding bus rapid transit (BRT) systems in Bogotá, Colombia and Jakarta, Indonesia
• Fabian Steuer (Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Public Policy (Mundus MAPP)), Machine Learning for Public Policy Making. How to Use Data-Driven Predictive Modeling for the Social Good

Final Research Projects with Distinction

• Vera Pober (Master’s in International Relations), Gender-Specific Migration Patterns in the Context of Political and Economic Upheaval: The case of Tunisia
• Caio Cesar Paccola Jacon (Master's in International Development), Increasing freedoms in Sao Paulo: Promoting Development through decentralization and participation

Final Research Project Awards

• Olwen Smith (Master’s in International Relations), Winds of Change? An Analysis of Regional Variations in Corporate Discourse on Climate Change
• Filippo Ristoldo (Master’s in International Security), Attacks against Cultural Property as a weapon of war: An exploratory case study
• Lyuba Golovina (Master's in International Development), Measuring the Effects of Foreign-Educated Leaders on Government Education Expenditure in Sub-Saharan Africa

Final Research Project Awards ex aequo​

• Ann-Kathrin Beck (Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Public Policy (Mundus MAPP)), Climbing the Ladder of Participation. Non-State Stakeholder Involvement in the Negotiation Process of the Vietnam Voluntary Partnership Agreement under the EU FLEGT Action Plan
• Oliver Rix (Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Public Policy (Mundus MAPP)), Beyond the Crisis: The Reproduction and Transformation of Long-Term Care Practice and Policy in England

Final Research Projects with Distinction

• Janina Kempf (Master’s in International Relations), On the Road to Wider Divergence? Ethnocentrism and its Drivers in Germany, Post-Refugee Influx 2016
• Shelina Assomull (Master’s in International Relations), How has Gibraltar’s position within Britain’s military structure impacted on the role of women in Gibraltar Society?
• Stefania De Santis (Master’s in International Security), When do Ethnic Organizations Resort to Violence in Democratic Countries? The Mapuche case
• Diewertje Hendriks (Master's in International Development), Is Distributive Justice Sufficient for a Climate Finance Regime? A Climate Justice based approach to Climate Funds

Best Dissertation Award

• Susanne Karine Gjønnes (Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Public Policy - Mundus MAPP), Mobilising for development: Assessing the impact of public saving institutions in determining national savings levels
• Austin Ruckstuhl (Master’s in International Relations), The Blurring of Insiders and Outsiders: The TPP Transparency Campaign
• Andrew Sprague (Master’s in International Security), Russian Meddling In Its Near Abroad. The Use of Frozen Conflicts as a Foreign Policy Tool

Master Dissertations with Distinction

• Nicholas Langridge (Master’s in International Relations), Is there a choice when it comes to ethical-trade? An examination of coffee production in Nicaragua
• Valentina Restrepo (Master’s in International Relations), La desecuritización de una amenaza multisectorial e institucionalizada: el caso del conflicto armado con las FARC en Colombia
• Natalia Umansky Casapa (Master’s in International Security), What is the effect of terrorist attacks on the securitization of migration? Case studies from the UK and Spain
• Lara Sampaio (Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Public Policy - Mundus MAPP), Beliefs, dissents and policy change: An application of the advocacy coalition framework to the drug policy debate in Brazil

Best Dissertation Award

• Miguel Alberto N. Gomez, Arming Cyberspace: The Militarization of a Virtual Domain

Master Dissertations with Distinction

• Aude Voortman, Terrorism in Europe. Explaining the disparity in the number of jihadist foreign fighters between European countries
• Lisa Stegall, Immigration and asylum policy in Europe. Explaining the variation in recognition rates regarding applications for asylum across different European destination countries in the light of the current refugee crisis
• Jessica Hyne, Region, rights and religion: Cross-national determinants of abortion laws
• Jesús Manuel Ares Mújica, The dramatic increase of violent crime in Venezuela since 1999: The Relationship between homicide and the country's new role in drug trafficking
• Celeste Saccomano, The causes of femicide in Latin America
• Myles O. Stiffler, Fiscal Federalism and Insolvency: Contrasting Cases of the U.S.A. and Germany. Case Study Analysis of Subnational Debt Frameworks and Insolvency Mechanisms

Best Dissertation Award

• Torsten Mix, Lethal Repression of Peaceful Protest in Africa. Why Do (non-) Accountable and Military Regimes Shoot

Master Dissertations with Distinction

• Alexandra Ingvarsson, Migrants and the welfare state. An examination of variation in migrants’ access to social benefits
• Aleksandra Piletic, Emergence, Evolution and Entrenchment of Neoliberal Processes. New York City and London 1970s to the present
• James Wilhelm, Drivers and Brakemen: Explaining Cross-National Variation in Support for European Foreign Policy supranationalisation
• Paula Sanchez Mejorada Ibarra, Remesas colectivas y desarrollo local: Análisis de la participación de los municipios marginados en el Programa 3x1 para Migrantes en México

Best Dissertation Award

• Sara Nikolic, In Search of Reasoned Consensus: the Influence of Non-State Actors within International Environmental Negotiations
• Enrique Wedgwood Young, The Infrastructure of Violence? Investigating Variation in the Intensity of Civil Conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa

Master Dissertations with Distinction

• Marta Sanchez Dionis, Bridging the Gap between Commitment and Compliance: State Capacity and Human Rights in Guatemala
• Jesse Harber, The Malevolent Invisible Hand: Evolving Institutions of Social and Labour Control in Apartheid and Post-Apartheid South Africa
• Anna Isabel Duch, The Political Economy of EU-Developing Countries Preferential Trade Agreements in Services: The role of transparency, relative factor endowments and bargaining power
• Eugenio Díaz Llabata, Instituciones Políticas y Terrorismo. La excepción de Oriente Medio

Best Dissertation Award

• Alena Jabarine, Unity Despite Separation? The Impact of Territorial Separation on National Identity: Comparing Political and National Perceptions and Attitudes of Palestinian University Students in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank

Master Dissertations with Distinction

• Cassia Casagrande, The impact of public discourse on the securitization of the asylum law (LAsi) and policies in Switzerland
• Rachel Meyer, Peace Without Tranquility. A comparative analysis of two causal explanations of persistent violence in El Salvador and Honduras
• Saskia Widenhorn, Braving the storm: How are global biofuel policies sustained despite being contested? An analysis of the biofuel discourses of the EU, Brazil and Mozambique
• Marta Forns, Hollywood Films in the Non-Western World: What Are the Criteria Followed by the Chinese Government When Choosing Hollywood Film Imports?
• Jan Philipp Gausmann, A Game-Theoretic Approach to Cooperation in the European Gas Market. Why a Gas Exporters’ Cartel Has Not Yet Materialized

Best Dissertation Award

• Penelope Kourtellidou, The Impact of Education in Sustaining/Transcending Ethnic Conflict. Evidence from Two Post-Conflict Fragmented Societies: Cyprus and Northern Ireland

Master Dissertations with Distinction

• Cristina Gonzalez, Political Violence and Inequality in Latin America During The Cold War
• Yauheniya Nechyparenka, Democratic Transition in Belarus: Cause(s) of Failure
• David Zrost, Why states pursue nuclear weapons programmes? The Iran case
• Juan Masullo, Sobre el poder blando y el biopoder. Evaluando el potencial impacto y limitaciones de M. Foucault en las RI