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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

The Other Forgotten War: Understanding Atrocities During The Malayan Emergency, Christi Siver Sep 2009

The Other Forgotten War: Understanding Atrocities During The Malayan Emergency, Christi Siver

Political Science Faculty Publications

In this chapter, I briefly outline the dependent variable in this case, the various units actively engaged in combat in Malaya between 1948 and 1952. I then explore the most common explanations for the Scots Guards’ actions and reveal why they are not helpful in explaining why other units did not similarly kill civilians. To better understand this variation, I explore three alternative explanations: Did the military socialize units in the laws of war and appropriate behavior toward civilians? Did government leaders encourage units to kill civilians? Finally, did different units’ subcultures make them more likely to kill civilians? I …


Reflections On The Cuban Revolution, Gary Prevost Mar 2009

Reflections On The Cuban Revolution, Gary Prevost

Political Science Faculty Publications

When I visited Cuba in the first few days of 1992, it was not clear that the revolution would survive. Food was in relatively short supply and electricity blackouts were common. Even long-time supporters of the revolution were pessimistic about the future. Everything that had been accomplished in its first 32 years seemed in jeopardy when the Soviet Union went out of existence at the end of 1991 and canceled most of its trade deals with Cuba. The country’s gross domestic product was in the process of shrinking by 50 percent. How did the Cuban Revolution survive that shock, and …


The Dark Side Of The Band Of Brothers: Explaining Unit Participation In War Crimes, Christi L. Siver Jan 2009

The Dark Side Of The Band Of Brothers: Explaining Unit Participation In War Crimes, Christi L. Siver

Political Science Faculty Publications

On July 25, 1950, an American infantry unit killed a large number of refugees near the South Korean village of No Gun Ri. On December 12, 1948, a British patrol killed twenty-five civilians near the Malayan village of Batang Kali. On March 16, 1993, members of the Canadian Airborne Regiment beat a Somali teenager to death. While each of these events is horrific, they also represent only one side of the story; many units in these conflicts, facing similar threats, did not kill civilians. This variation raises a critical question: why do some units participate in war crimes while others …


The Limits Of Self-Reliance: Emerson, Slavery, And Abolition, James Read Jan 2009

The Limits Of Self-Reliance: Emerson, Slavery, And Abolition, James Read

Political Science Faculty Publications

In the 1841 essay “Self-Reliance” Ralph Waldo Emerson presupposed a democratic society of free and equal individuals – an idealized America with a veil drawn over racial slavery. As his own commitment to the antislavery cause deepened over time Emerson sought to reconcile his ideal of self-reliance with organized political action necessary to fight slavery.

Recent scholarship has corrected the previously dominant image of Emerson as detached from politics and indifferent to abolitionism. But even as he participated in it, Emerson saw antislavery activism as a distraction from his own proper work of freeing “imprisoned spirits, imprisoned thoughts, far back …