ISA Deborah Gerner Innovative Teaching Award

Study Abroad, European Studies, University of Amsterdam, 1998.

How do international norms evolve? In the modern era, the critically important norm of sovereignty has evolved from a norm once considered absolute to one deemed conditional-to the point where states now risk external intervention if they flout other core norms of national conduct.  In Changing Norms through Actions, Jennifer Ramos argues that commitment to international norms depends on the result of actions taken on their behalf. Focusing on the norm of sovereignty, she argues that where intervention does occur, the implications for sovereignty depend on the outcome of the military action. Examining several cases of intervention in support of counterterrorism and human rights, Ramos finds that even when a major power acts primarily out of its own self-interest, the action can unintentionally modify the normative environment within which other states act. Even more surprising, Ramos shows that an arduous military involvement actually strengthens an intervener's commitment to the norm of limited and conditional sovereignty that justified the action. Changing Norms through Actions clearly and skillfully examines the profound international implications of our shifting understanding of sovereignty.

Changing Norms through Actions: The Evolution of Sovereignty

iPolitics provides a current analysis of new media's effect on politics. Politicians rely on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to exercise political power. Citizens around the world also use these tools to vent political frustrations, join political groups, and organize revolutions. Political activists blog to promote candidates, solicit and coordinate financial contributions, and provide opportunities for volunteers. iPolitics describes the ways in which new media innovations change how politicians and citizens engage the political arena.  Most importantly, the volume emphasizes the implications of these changes for the promotion of democratic ideals. Among other things, contributors to this volume analyze whether the public's political knowledge has increased or decreased in the new media era, the role television still plays in the information universe, the effect bloggers have had on the debate and outcome of healthcare reform, and the manner in which political leaders should navigate the new media environment. While the majority of contributors examine new media and politics in the United States, the volume also provides a unique comparative perspective on this relationship using cases from abroad.

iPolitics: Citizens, Elections, and Governing in the New Media Era

More so than in the past, the US is now embracing the logic of preventive force: using military force to counter potential threats around the globe before they have fully materialized. While popular with individuals who seek to avoid too many “boots on the ground,” preventive force is controversial because of its potential for unnecessary collateral damage. Who decides what threats are ‘imminent’? Is there an international legal basis to kill or harm individuals who have a connection to that threat? Do the benefits of preventive force justify the costs? And, perhaps most importantly, is the US setting a dangerous international precedent?  In Preventive Force, editors Kerstin Fisk and Jennifer Ramos bring together legal scholars, political scientists, international relations scholars, and prominent defense specialists to examine these questions, whether in the context of full-scale preventive war or preventive drone strikes. In particular, the volume highlights preventive drones strikes, as they mark a complete transformation of how the US understands international norms regarding the use of force, and could potentially lead to a ‘slippery slope’ for the US and other nations in terms of engaging in preventive warfare as a matter of course. A comprehensive resource that speaks to the contours of preventive force as a security strategy as well as to the practical, legal, and ethical considerations of its implementation, Preventive Force is a useful guide for political scientists, international relations scholars, and policymakers who seek a thorough and current overview of this essential topic.

Preventive Force: Drones, Targeted Killing, and the Transformation of Contemporary Warfare

Loyola Marymount University is a top-ranked national university by U.S. News and World Report, which places LMU among the top six Jesuit universities in the country and in the top six private universities in California. Founded in 1911, LMU is a Catholic, Jesuit, and Marymount university with more than 7,100 undergraduate students and more than 3,000 graduate and law students. LMU offers 56 undergraduate majors and 56 minor programs, along with 46 master’s degree programs, three doctorate programs and 12 credential/authorization programs. LMU’s intercollegiate athletics teams compete in the West Coast Conference with 14 Division I varsity sports.

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Loyola Marymount University

Intro to International Relations

International Security

Peace and Reconciliation

U.S. Foreign Policy

International Affairs and Social Justice

Ethics and Peace Building

Jennifer M. Ramos is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Loyola Marymount University. Her research focuses on understanding the causes and consequences of political change, with an emphasis on the role of ideas, norms, and identity. Her current research interests include peacebuilding in divided societies, the globalization of the far right, and the preventive use of force.

Professor Ramos' work includes an edited volume, Preventive Force: Drones, Targeted Killing and the Transformation of Contemporary Warfare (NYU Press, 2016), with Kerstin Fisk. Her previous books include Changing Norms through Actions: The Evolution of Sovereignty (Oxford UP, 2013) and an edited volume, iPolitics: Citizens, Elections and Governing in the New Media Era (Cambridge UP, 2012) with Richard L. Fox. Her other scholarly work has appeared in Journal of Politics, Public Opinion Quarterly, Journal of Political Ideologies, Human Rights Review, and International Studies Perspectives.

With a passion for international relations, she has lived, worked, researched and studied in a number of countries, including The Netherlands, Austria, France, Germany, Croatia, and Mexico. Her recent experiential learning courses include immersion trips to the United Nations in New York to study human rights, and to Belfast, Northern Ireland to examine the process of peace and reconciliation.

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