Emergency and Disaster Management Commons^™

Power Projection And Counter-Terrorism: Strategies For Small States Like Brunei Darussalam, Brice Tseen Fu Lee, Gulshan Bibi Ms

Journal of Terrorism Studies

This study delves into the intricacies of power projection strategies and counter-terrorism measures, emphasizing their relevance to small states, with a specific focus on Brunei Darussalam. Using a dual matrix model, the research categorizes various strategies based on risk-reward parameters, offering a structured insight into potential approaches these states can employ against potential aggressors. The counter-terrorism matrix is the initial focal point, recognizing the contemporary significance of terror threats and their unique challenges for small nations. Subsequently, the power projection matrix offers a broader view of defense tactics beyond counter-terrorism. By synthesizing information from primary academic sources, the study aims …

Servant Leadership And Violent Extremism: An Evaluative Framework, Eric J. Russell, Ardian Shajkovci

Servant Leadership: Theory & Practice

The following article presents a conceptual servant leadership framework for evaluating preventing violent extremism (PVE) policies and programs. The purpose of the work was to discover how servant leadership could strengthen existing PVE evaluative strategies. This article stems from work being done in servant leadership, counterterrorism, and countering violent extremism at Nichols College and Utah Valley University. The authors used a secondary analysis of empirical and literary servant leadership and PVE works to develop the framework. The analysis revealed a relationship between servant leadership’s commitment to the growth of people and building community and the need for PVE to be …

Historical Trauma: Literary And Testimonial Responses To Hiroshima, Mariam Ghonim

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of trauma is controversial in literature. While one may be able to come up with ways to describe trauma in fiction, representing historical trauma is a hard task for writers. Some argue that trauma can not be described through those who did not experience it, while others claim that, provided some elements are added, one can represent trauma to the reader. This thesis focuses on twentieth-century historical traumas related to a nuclear catastrophe and explores the different literary and testimonial responses to the catastrophic man-made event of Hiroshima (1945). In this thesis, Kathleen Burkinshaw’s historical fiction The Last …

Climate Security Insights From The Covid-19 Response, Mark P. Nevitt

Faculty Articles

The climate change crisis and COVID-19 crisis are both complex collective action problems. Neither the coronavirus nor greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions respect political borders. Both impose an opportunity cost that penalizes inaction. They are also increasingly understood as nontraditional, novel security threats. Indeed, COVID-19’s human cost is staggering, with American lives lost vastly exceeding those lost in recent armed conflicts. And climate change is both a threat accelerant and a catalyst for conflict—a characterization reinforced in several climate-security reports. To counter COVID-19, the President embraced martial language, stating that he will employ a “wartime footing” to “defeat the virus.” Perhaps …

The Higher Education Risk To National Security: A Case Study Of The University Of Akron, Anna Back

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There are numerous threats to U.S. National Security within higher education. Through this paper, I will provide an analysis of current and future threats using a literature review and informational interviewing. The literature review revealed four major National Security threats facing higher education institutions due to Foreign Intelligence Entities (FIE): foreign recruitment of faculty and students, increase in foreign students and screening difficulties, campus openness/easy access to facilities and information, and foreign funding for research. A set of informational interviews were conducted with The University of Akron faculty, employees, and partners to evaluate whether these same threats were present. The …

Contested Deployment, Bert B. Tussing, John Eric Powell, Benjamin C. Leitzel

Monographs, Collaborative Studies, & IRPs

As indicated in the 2018 National Defense Strategy and evolving Multi-Domain Operations doctrine, the assumption the homeland will provide a secure space for mobilization and deployment is no longer valid. This integrated research project goes beyond affirming this assumption and contributes to efforts to mitigate the concerns a contested deployment entails.

Following the introductory chapter, Chapter 2, “Army Deployments in a Contested Homeland: A Framework for Protection,” explores how current coordination and cooperation mechanisms between the DoD and state and local government may need realignment, with civil authorities preparing themselves to support military mobilization. Chapter 3, “Strategic Seaports and National …

Cannibalizing The Constitution: On Terrorism, The Second Amendment, And The Threat To Civil Liberties, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

This article explores the links between internet radicalization, access to weapons, and the current threat from terrorists who have been radicalized online. The prevalence of domestic terrorism, domestic hate groups, and online incitement and radicalization have led to considerable focus on the tension between counterterror efforts and the First Amendment. Many scholars recommend rethinking the extent of First Amendment protection, as well as Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendment protections, and some judges appear to be listening. Yet the Second Amendment has avoided this consideration, despite the fact that easy access to weapons is a necessary ingredient for the level of …

A Program Evaluation Of The Town Of Woodside, Plumas County Fire Safe Council, And Mountain Communities’ Fire Safe Council Defensible Space Projects, Mandeep Gill

Master's Projects

California is one of the most fire-prone regions in the world, with every passing year becoming more hazardous. With a tremendous amount of loss and damage occurring every year due to wildfires, property owners must prepare their homes and structures to withstand fires as much as possible. The best way to achieve this is by building and retrofitting homes with fire-resistant materials and creating defensible space around the property (Cal Fire, n.d.). Although it is the best way to protect one’s property, it is often times difficult for property owners to do so because of financial or physical limitations, or …

Undersea Cables: The Ultimate Geopolitical Chokepoint, Bert Chapman

FORCES Initiative: Strategy, Security, and Social Systems

This work provides historical and contemporary overviews of this critical geopolitical problem, describes the policy actors addressing this in the U.S. and selected other countries, and provides maps and information on many undersea cable work routes. These cables are chokepoints with one dictionary defining chokepoints as “a strategic narrow route providing passage through or to another region."

To New Geographies: Implementing U.S. Department Of Energy Order 151.1d, Comprehensive Emergency Management System, Eric B. Sussman

Capstone Collection

Emergency Management programs at National Nuclear Security Administration facilities are governed by federal policy directive Department of Energy Order 151.1D, Comprehensive Emergency Management System. The prescriptions within the Order are often at odds with industry-standard frameworks and vocabularies established by the Department of Homeland Security. Boleman and Deal’s Four Frame Model offers the tenets of the Political, Structural, Human Resource, and Symbolic lens perspectives to clarify the nature of disparate programs precipitant from disparate agency policies. This project utilizes a Phenomenological Interpretivist Framework for qualitative research to triangulate data across textual analyses, public perception, and practitioner experience, thus identifying …

Uri And Its Students: A Contract For The Provision Of A Safe Environment, Danielle Joan Beatrice

Senior Honors Projects

DANIELLE BEATRICE (English; Philosophy; Business) URI and Its Students: A Contract for the Provision of a Safe Environment

Sponsor: Judith Swift (Communication Studies, Coastal Institute)

When students begin to attend college, they expect to be consumed with busy schedules, heavy workloads, and an exciting social life. Students do not anticipate being in dangerous situations. However, this does not mean that such situations do not occur. Therefore, it is essential to teach students to be active participants in educating themselves and their peers regarding prevention and response to emergency situations. My Honors Project aims to increase the awareness of safety-related issues …

The Trouble With Numbers: Difficult Decision Making In Identifying Right-Wing Terrorism Cases. An Investigative Look At Open Source Social Scientific And Legal Data, Daniela Peterka-Benton, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Terrorism research has gained much traction since the 9/11 attacks, but some sub genres of terrorism, such as right-wing terrorism, have remained under-studied areas. Unsurprisingly data sources to study these phenomena are scarce and frequently face unique data collection obstacles. This paper explores five major, social-scientific terrorism databases in regards to data on right-wing terrorist events. The paper also provides an in-depth examination of the utilization of criminal legal proceedings to research right-wing terrorist acts. Lastly, legal case databases are introduced and discussed to show the lack of available court information and case proceedings in regards to right-wing terrorism.

The Trouble With Numbers: Difficult Decision Making In Identifying Right-Wing Terrorism Cases. An Investigative Look At Open Source Social Scientific And Legal Data, Daniela Peterka-Benton, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Terrorism research has gained much traction since the 9/11 attacks, but some sub genres of terrorism, such as right-wing terrorism, have remained under-studied areas. Unsurprisingly data sources to study these phenomena are scarce and frequently face unique data collection obstacles. This paper explores five major, social-scientific terrorism databases in regards to data on right-wing terrorist events. The paper also provides an in-depth examination of the utilization of criminal legal proceedings to research right-wing terrorist acts. Lastly, legal case databases are introduced and discussed to show the lack of available court information and case proceedings in regards to right-wing terrorism.

Shedding Of Marburg Virus In Naturally Infected Egyptian Rousette Bats, South Africa, 2017, Janusz T. Pawęska, Nadia Storm, Wanda Markotter, Nicholas Di Paola, Michael R. Wiley, Gustavo Palacios, Petrus Jansen Van Vuren

University of Nebraska's National Strategic Research Institute: Publications

We detected Marburg virus RNA in rectal swab samples from Egyptian rousette bats in South Africa in 2017. This finding signifies that fecal contamination of natural bat habitats is a potential source of infection for humans. Identified genetic sequences are closely related to Ravn virus, implying wider distribution of Marburg virus in Africa.

The genus Marburgvirus, family Filoviridae, comprises 1 species, Marburg marburgvirus, which comprises 2 marburgviruses, Marburg virus (MARV) and Ravn virus (RAVV) (1). Marburgviruses cause sporadic but often fatal MARV disease in humans and nonhuman primates (2). The Egyptian rousette bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) …

Analyzing Threat: Organized Extremist Groups Vs. Lone Wolf Terrorists In The Context Of Islamist Extremism, Adeline W. Toevs

The Commons: Puget Sound Journal of Politics

Lone wolf terrorism lends itself to the execution of large numbers of people and the spread of extremist ideology, but they pose less of a threat to Western nations than organized extremist groups. Lone attacks require less strategy and funding, fewer resources, are more difficult to target with state counterterrorism campaigns, and can penetrate ‘high security’ states more effectively than groups, so the attacks are more likely to succeed. Additionally, lone actors are highly susceptible to propaganda and messaging from extremist groups, and they are often radicalized online, making them difficult to track. Conversely, when organized extremist groups do manage …

Alternate Warfare: The Unseen Weapons Of Mass Destruction, Elyse Keener

Liberty University Journal of Statesmanship & Public Policy

Biological warfare is a national security concern that transcends centuries. In the current international climate, biowarfare is of particular interest due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This article seeks to follow historical cases of biological warfare and international response to these cases in order to understand the implications of COVID-19, if it were to be weaponized. Also covered is the current capabilities that Russia, China, and Iran are assessed to possess.

Coordination Of Inter-Agency Action For Nuclear Security In Uganda, Richard Sseggane

International Journal of Nuclear Security

Despite the dynamic threats to the nuclear security of the East and Central African region, and the decision of the Government of Uganda to embark on a nuclear power programme, there was not much put in place as a coordination and cooperation mechanisms among the stakeholders in the nuclear security activities.

This work confirmed the need in Uganda for the major nuclear security stakeholder agencies with roles and mandates for nuclear security including the regulator, security and intelligence agencies, police, border control, transport control, customs agencies and others to work together as necessary in the different nuclear security activities in …

Preventing School Shootings: The Interprofessional And Community Approach To Prevention, Heather C. Alonge, Constant P. Craig

Journal of Sustainable Social Change

This essay examined the issue of school shootings within the United States, to include a literature review and analysis of the current status of the issue on a national level. From the review and analysis, the essay provides the multidisciplines engaged in school safety issues with viable, workable, and quickly implementable solutions to address this serious national issue at the local school district and even school level of implementation. This analysis examined a multidiscipline and multiprofessional community approach using existing federal guidelines that address actionable intelligence (social media and human information/informants), school design and incorporation of safety and protective features, …

Integrating Aviation Technology, Emergency Services, And Human Resilience: Considerations From Social Scientists, Chelsea A. Lenoble Ph.D., Joel M. Billings Ph.D., Allison A. Kwesell Ph.D., Ray H. Chang Ph.D.

National Training Aircraft Symposium (NTAS)

Unmanned aerial systems (UAS) have a range of applications within the field of disaster response. This presentation offers a novel framework of psychosocial considerations designed to advance UAS and disaster management integration. Social scientists highlight important challenges to the effective integration of three primary entities: UAS, the team of teams that responds to disasters, and populations affected by disasters.

The presentation adopts an emerging theoretical perspective on the intersection between UAS capabilities and disaster phases and extends it by bringing necessary attention to social science issues. Specifically, the framework outlines psychosocial considerations and areas of improvement for preparation (training), response …

Towards An Experimental Testbed To Study Cyber Worm Behaviors In Large Scale Networks, Harish Kunta, Bhavya Induri, Anu G. Bourgeois, David Maimon, Ashwin Ashok

EBCS Presentations

A worm is a malicious agent that propagates across networks of devices creating negative impacts on the devices it is able to reach and infect. Currently, there is very limited information in cybersecurity research regarding worm behavior across real networks of devices, particularly in large scale networks (e.g. campus networks, office networks, IoT etc.). This paper positions an experimental testbed that can be used for studying worm behaviors in large scale networks. In particular, this research aims to setup an infrastructure to empirically study worm generation, propagation, attacks, policies and antidote (intervention) mechanisms through a unified experimental testbed. As a …

From The Legal Literature: The Threat And Promise Of Police Use Of Dna Databases, Francesca Laguardia

Department of Justice Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

No abstract provided.

City Of Camas City Hall Safety And Security Project Plan, Diane Dyra

CUP Undergraduate Research

This proposal is designed for the City of Camas as a means to create a culture of preparedness, improve safety and security, as well as build resilience. The current state of City Hall allows for the threat to the loss of life and property. Through preparation, education, training, crime prevention through environmental design, and structural improvements, a state of safety, security, and continued critical functionality for the community can be met. These improvements allow for the City of Camas to stand by their mission statement, committing to “preserving its heritage, sustaining and enhancing a high quality of life for all …

Banks Community Emergency Response Team (Cert) Project Proposal, Donna Vandendries

CUP Undergraduate Research

This proposal examines the challenges the Banks Fire District is faced with if a catastrophic event, such as a Cascadia Subduction Zone (CSZ) earthquake were to strike the Pacific Northwest. The District has concerns surrounding the potential response and recovery challenges during a major disaster. The District is open to expanding its jurisdiction's capabilities with a solution that would benefit the District and Banks community members without compromising the District mission and core values. The District realizes that due to the nature of a CSZ, it will not have the resource capability to respond to the emergency needs of the …

American Medical Response Active Shooter Project Proposal, Matthew Spong

CUP Undergraduate Research

American Medical Response (AMR) Tukwila is the hub of its Western Washington operations. With over 400 employees and multiple customers and guests at any given time, they must have measures in place to ensure the safety and security of those on the premises. In the summer of 2019, AMR Tukwila experienced a possible active shooter incident. While this is a low occurrence event it proves the need for having a plan and procedures in place. Active shooter situations have steadily risen over the years and can happen without warning. This proposal identifies problems and solutions so that AMR Tukwila employees, …

Bandon Dunes Golf Resort Emergency Response And Preparedness Project Proposal, Georgia Williams

CUP Undergraduate Research

Bandon Dunes Golf Resort has the priority of keeping their employees and guests safe on the property. This means the Resort must understand, plan, and respond to various threats in the area. Bandon Dunes Golf Resort is located along the Oregon coast just outside of the City of Bandon. The Resort must be prepared to respond to more common business disruptions and threats to the hospitality industry or private sector as well as infrequent catastrophic threats like an earthquake/tsunami on the Cascadia Subduction Zone. This catastrophic earthquake has been looming for years and would have a great effect on the …

Police Medical Field-Screening Proposal Plan, Logan Stevens

CUP Undergraduate Research

This proposal document examines the collaboration between the Bend Police Department, Deschutes County Sheriff’s Office Jail, and St. Charles Medical Center Emergency Department and takes into consideration the professional opinions of all stakeholders who currently serve the community of Central Oregon in a variety of different capacities. The Bend Police Department (Bend PD) would like to see a solution that would benefit the citizens served by the department, while supporting the department’s core values of teamwork, integrity, and excellence. Bend PD is concerned about officer efficiency because it is critical for the department to strive to be good stewards of …

Lassa Virus Circulating In Liberia: A Retrospective Genomic Characterisation, Michael R. Wiley, Lawrence S. Fakoli, Andrew G. Letizia, Stephen R. Welch, Jason T. Ladner, Karla Prieto, Daniel Reyes, Nicole Espy, Joseph A. Chitty, Catherine B. Pratt, Nicholas Di Paola, Fahn Taweh, Desmond Williams, Jon Saindon, William G. Davis, Ketan Patel, Mitchell Holland, Daniel Negrón, Ute Ströher, Stuart T. Nichol, Shanmuga Sozhamannan, Pierre E. Rollin, John Dogba, Tolbert Nyenswah, Fatorma Bolay, César G. Albariño, Mosoka Fallah, Gustavo Palacios

University of Nebraska's National Strategic Research Institute: Publications

Background An alarming rise in reported Lassa fever cases continues in west Africa. Liberia has the largest reported per capita incidence of Lassa fever cases in the region, but genomic information on the circulating strains is scarce. The aim of this study was to substantially increase the available pool of data to help foster the generation of targeted diagnostics and therapeutics.

Methods Clinical serum samples collected from 17 positive Lassa fever cases originating from Liberia (16 cases) and Guinea (one case) within the past decade were processed at the Liberian Institute for Biomedical Research using a targeted-enrichment sequencing approach, producing …

Stovepiped In Silence: The Growing Threat Of White Supremacy Extremism In The Pacific Northwest, Dacia J. Grayber

CUP Undergraduate Research

The purpose of this practicum proposal is to address the growing threat of White Supremacy Extremism (henceforth referred to as “WSE”) in the Portland Metro region and explore the barriers to identifying WSE and obstacles with information sharing. By understanding current conditions and leaning forward with proactive and holistic approaches to education and information sharing, on a local and regional level we may be able to interrupt the cycle of proliferation and interdict future bias and hate crimes in our communities.

The Regional Disaster Preparedness Organization (RDPO) is one of several local agencies that could potentially serve as a possible …

Bridging Gaps Between Constituents And Policymakers In Climate Policy In Washington State, Rebecca Dickson

Global Honors Theses

Climate change is one of the preeminent concerns of our time. As nation-states around the world face rising sea levels, pollution, political instability, and a rise of national security concerns due to climate instability, greater international cooperation is needed in order to target and adapt to cross-border issues. However, international political action is often reliant upon a national support for that action, especially when national officials rely on the support of their citizenry, such as in democracies, like the United States.

In order to understand how countries such as the United States make decisions on the domestic and international level, …

Czar 52; A Case Study Of Failed Leadership, Samael O'Brien

CURCE Annual Undergraduate Conference

This breakdown of proactive, effective leadership is certainly worth further analysis and investigation. The military operational climate, even though thoroughly enforced, has a myriad of examples where rules are metaphorically bent. In the Fairchild Air Force Base incident, we find a prime example of such mishap and ultimately see a command structure which frequently neglected concerns. The nature of their mission ultimately speaks to how far the operational risk and guidelines can be stretched, evaluations differ from higher headquarters missions, and airshows likewise are subjected to a different operational climate. Decision making can become gray when ego-driven personnel and nepotistic …