Digital Commons Network^™

Parameters Autumn 2024, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Welcome to the Autumn 2024 issue of Parameters. The Autumn issue consists of a special piece from the US Army War College Commandant and Provost on their strategic vision for the college, three In Focus special commentaries, three forums (Cooperative Partnerships, Professional Development, and Historical Studies), two regular forums (A Major’s Perspective and the Civil-Military Relations Corner), and a review essay focused on strategy in India.

Book Reviews, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Jimmy And Rosalynn Carter: A Moral Compass That Established An American Political System, Rebecca Hodnett

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The 1970s brought an economic, social, and political change in America. Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter created a new wave of traditional, moral ideologies that shaped America for generations. As a Washington outsider, the Carter team swept through Washington, bringing reforms based on honest integrity, social restructuring, and moral underpinning that challenged the established broken political system of the Nixon/Ford years. Relying on their strength with one another, they reimagined domestic and foreign policies by strengthening the office of First Lady, giving a voice to minorities, establishing various new positions, taking on Congress, and creating a hallmark of peace arrangement with …

Question Of Revolution In The Carolinas And Georgia From Colonial Times To The Time Of The Early Republic, Megan Shirley

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The American War of Independence was not and unlimited revolutionary event. More correctly it was a limited revolution. The ideologies, legal codes, and events that formed the basis for justification had historical precedent in English and ancient history. Women and people of color experienced a counter revolution with regards to their rights and liberties after the conflict known as the American Revolution. Although women participated in the conflict did not experience a progression in rights and freedoms. People of color, free and enslaved, certainly experienced a different outcome. They became citizens of a new nation but were denied equal freedom …

Lanthorn, Vol. 59, No. 02, August 26, 2024, Grand Valley State University

Volume 59, August 5, 2024 – April 14, 2025

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Military, Political, Cultural, And Societal Implications Of The Islamic Republic Of Iran’S Passive Defense Strategy, Aaron R. Pilkington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Why did the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) adopt a passive defense strategy? This dissertation is the first to trace the institutional development of the IRI’s passive defense strategy and its two Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)-led executive bodies: the Permanent Committee for Passive Defense (PCPD) and the National Passive Defense Organization (NPDO). Passive defense can be defined simply as defense without weapons, which includes all precautionary actions other than using weapons to minimize the effects of enemy hostile operations that increase deterrence, reduce vulnerability, sustain essential activities, promote national stability, and facilitate crisis management in the face of enemy …

Settler Colonialism And Refusal Through Indigenous Eyes, Charlie Amáyá Scott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The educational system within the united states has benefited and continues to benefit from the structures and systems of settler colonialism. Yet, despite such colonizing goals of displacement, removal, and genocide, Indigenous Peoples are still here. This critical Indigenous qualitative research study sought to understand descriptions and interpretations of settler colonialism from the perspectives of Indigenous undergraduate students and how they have, refused settler colonialism while navigating their undergraduate journeys. Indigenous ways of knowing and ways of being were centered and cited in a manner that made this dissertation more than just a research study; it became a home where …

Heroes Of The Memphis Civil Rights Movement: Maxine A. Smith And Russell B. Sugarmon, Jr., Elizabeth Gritter

Heroism Science

Two intertwined leaders of the modern civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s in Memphis, Tennessee, were Maxine Atkins Smith and Russell B. Sugarmon, Jr., both of whom were African American. Both were born in Memphis in 1929, and they shared commonalities in their personal histories and rose to become key leaders of the Memphis movement. Along with displaying courage and persistence, they were true pioneers in the Black freedom struggle in Memphis and Shelby County who employed organizational skills and community involvement as key to their social activism. This article examines their early activism from the mid-1950s until …

The Use Of Space And Place In The Civil Rights Discourse Of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Pamelia Adams

Communication Theses

This thesis, The Use of Space and Place in the Civil Rights Discourse of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., analyzes the academic literature on the social change agent. The study provides a deeper understanding of the relevance of place/location, where Dr. King delivered his civil rights message nationally and internationally. Three historically significant sites and the events impacting the civil rights movement, in the cities of Washington, D.C. and Birmingham, Alabama, are examined. The three sites included in Chapter 2: The Jail Site, Chapter 3: The Bombing Site, and Chapter 4: The March Sites as examples. The main findings of …

Institute Of Enslavement: Enslaved Lives At South Carolina College, Jill Found

Theses and Dissertations

“Institute of Enslavement: Enslaved Lives at South Carolina College” argues that enslaved people used the structure of the school, their own knowledge, and connections to other individuals and institutions to negotiate the terms of their enslavement. It examines how enslaved people on campus influenced their daily lives to the best of their abilities, in ways that were similar and different to other forms of enslavement. “Institute of Enslavement” considers how the unique structure of enslavement on a college campus, with multiple potential masters creating inconsistent authority for the school officials over enslaved people, created opportunities as well as moments of …

The Impact Of H. L. Hunt's Contribution To The East Texas Oil Boom: Exhibit Planning And Fabrication, Ashley N. Watson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The East Texas Oil Boom was a major event in Texas history that elevated the oil industry in Texas to new levels. It brought new jobs, and a new style of work and living to the state. The boom attracted businessmen such as H. L. Hunt and Clint Murchison. H. L. Hunt was a prominent figure in the East Texas Oil Boom, who established a multifaceted corporation and influenced statewide legislation for hot oil and proration. Hunt, who chose to make money at any cost, was often viewed as untrustworthy and deceptive but his business practices were lucrative, and he …

Adam Ornelas' Barbershop Group Interview, Csusb

South Colton Oral History Project Collection

No abstract provided.

Cold War Merchants And The Commercialization Of Space, Sandra Jeneane Piseno

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

During the Cold War, several merchants commodified space exploration and human spaceflight. Beginning with defense contractors who supported the development of missiles for national security and artificial satellites for the International Geophysical Year (IGY), industry and government collaborated to form consortiums which promoted U.S. dominance in space. The initiatives resulted in research and development of innovative technology which the U.S. government used to propel hegemony, leading to commercial industries taking an active role in space. The impact of Sputnik created a new competitive environment in which Western economic methods facilitated the commercialization of space, capitalizing on market-based production of goods …

Print Culture In New York: The Essence Of The Benevolent Empire From 1816 To 1837, Merritt Morgan

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Print Culture in New York: The Essence of the Benevolent Empire from 1816 to 1837 is a story that places technological and organizational business innovations at the center of the American evangelical print culture of the "Benevolent Empire" during the Early Republic. After about 1815, during the "market revolution" (western expansion, eastern urbanization, and boom in trade and manufacturing), the business of benevolence boomed in religious publishing that inspired American merchants and prominent businessmen to consolidate hundreds of missionary, Bible, and tract societies. The consolidation process resulted in the creation of national benevolent societies that produced the first wave of …

Thinking Blue / Writing Red: Marxism And The (Post)Human, Stephen C. Tumino

Publications and Research

Thinking Blue/Writing Red interrogates contemporary culture across a range of texts, from the pandemic (‘Covid’ and ‘Trump Speak’) to high theory (Melville's narratives) and popular culture (Beyoncé's ‘Formation’ and Super Bowl performance, Twin Peaks , metamodern ‘cli-fi’ films). Inspired by Derrida’s idea of the secret, Tumino examines the significance of social movements (Black Lives Matter, Occupy, alter-globalization) and naïve art (Darger, Ryden) to argue that these texts speak of the secrets that capitalism cannot speak. Contending that the cultural surfaces narrate only the ‘nonsecret,’ that to see the social logic of the culture one must dig into what Bruno Latour …

Batavia In The19th Century: A Russian Diplomat's Criticism Of The Capital Society And The Colonial System Of The Dutch East Indies, Ahmad Fahrurodji

International Review of Humanities Studies

ABSTRACT This article analyzes the traces of diplomatic relations between the Russian Empire and the Dutch East Indies in the late 19th century. The views and criticisms of the Russian Consul in Batavia became one of the important milestones of cultural relations between the two nations in the future. This research is a cultural history research using historical research method and structural approach. The documents used are diplomatic reports that have been published in the original language (Russian). By using the theory of hermeneutics, this article aims to see how Batavia and the people in it interacted and acted from …

Ada News - 08/05/2024, American Dental Association, Publishing Division

ADA News

Established in 1970 as the official newspaper of the American Dental Association, the ADA News serves practicing dentists and others allied to the dental profession in the U.S. and internationally. It is the No. 1 source of news and information about the many benefits and services the ADA delivers to members daily as well as timely information on scientific, social, political and economic developments affecting dentistry and health care.

Lanthorn, Vol. 59, No. 01, August 5, 2024, Grand Valley State University

Volume 59, August 5, 2024 – April 14, 2025

Lanthorn is Grand Valley State's student newspaper, published from 1968 to the present.

Spending The Peace Dividend: Nato And The Failures Of American Diplomacy, Caleb Batman

Theses and Dissertations

Recent years have seen a massive increase in available resources pertaining to US-Russian diplomacy in the years immediately following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Using these newly available resources including diplomatic cables, declassified transcripts, and personal correspondence between President Clinton of the United States and President Yeltsin of the Russian Federation the author attempts to illustrate how the White House missed a chance for reconciliation with Russia during the first Clinton term. Additionally, this paper illustrates how it was not merely bad diplomacy that led to a resumption of Cold War hostilities, but willful policy in Washington that sought …

Self-Defense In The Face Of Genocide: A Comparative Study Of The Rwandan Patriotic Front And The March 23 Movement, Frank Okyere Osei, Samuel Budoi

The Microdynamics of Mass Atrocity Working Paper Series

This paper examines the narratives underpinning two cases of self-defense in response to the threat or occurrence of genocide. It delves into the nuances of two movements: the Rwandan Patriotic Front in Rwanda (RPF) and the March 23 Movement (M23) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Both movements emerged in response to perceived genocidal threats and adopted self-defense narratives to justify their actions. The paper traces the historical contexts, key actors, and agendas that shaped these movements, highlighting the RPF's evolution from a military group into a dominant political force in Rwanda, and the M23's role in protecting Tutsi communities …

In Defense Of Identity: A Comparative Analysis Of Indigenous Self-Defense Movements In North America, Chloe Cairncross, Dana Dougherty

The Microdynamics of Mass Atrocity Working Paper Series

This paper conducts a comparative analysis of two significant historical events of Indigenous resistance in North America: the Northwest Rebellion of 1885 in Canada and the Wounded Knee Occupation of 1973 in the United States. The Métis during the Northwest Rebellion and the Lakota Oglala along with American Indian Movement activists during the Wounded Knee Occupation both sought to assert their rights against encroaching government policies and settler expansion. By examining the actors, agendas, actions, and outcomes of these movements, the paper explores the nuanced nature of self-defense within a settler-colonial context. Comparative analysis highlights the persistent efforts of Indigenous …

Profiled Pickpockets: Seattle's Black Community & 1890s Habeas Mobilization, Zoë Williams

Digital Legal Research Lab

The Petitioning for Freedom project examines habeas corpus in the American West, 1812–1924 to highlight the legal mobilization of marginalized people. This study uses habeas petitions to identify Black people's response to racial profiling in Seattle.

Research poster titled Profiled Pickpockets: Seattle's Black Community & 1890s Habeas Mobilization; presented via the Digital Legal Research Lab NSF REU Site, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, August 2024.

Advisors: Katrina Jagodinsky and William Thomas

The Architect Of The Past: Heinrich Himmler's Remaking Of Germany's History., Chad M. White

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the complex interplay between historical narratives, ideological manipulation, and cultural artifacts in Heinrich Himmler’s efforts to reshape Germany’s history during the Nazi regime. The study shows how Himmler used historical revisionism to mythologize Germanic history to support Nazi ideology. Himmler used the Ahnenerbe, an SS organization, to research and propagate distorted narratives, fabricating artifacts to legitimize the Aryan myth and assert Germanic superiority. Influenced by movements like the Völkisch Movement, Himmler's ideology relied on pseudo-historical narratives to shape public perception and Nazi policies. The study analyzes Himmler's writings and the spatial transformation of sites like Wewelsburg Castle …

Japan’S “Big Lie": The Negation Of Oral Testimony Of Sexual Violence, Robert O'Mochain, Yuki Ueno

Dignity: A Journal of Analysis of Exploitation and Violence

In recent years, powerful actors in Japan’s political elite have consistently denied the oral testimony of so-called “comfort women.” The denial of this and related historical crimes is made in the service of a claim we denote here as the “big lie.” This is the erroneous assertion that the Asia-Pacific War was a straightforward war of liberation by the Japanese Imperial Army, inspired by a blameless Emperor and carried out by morally exemplary military forces. This denial of historical realities, especially those related to “comfort women,” has constituted a contributory factor for a pattern of denial regarding all historical crimes. …

A Retrospective Of “Comfort Culture:” A Paradigmatic Study On The Creation Of The “Comfort Women” System Constructed By The Imperial Japanese Military From 1932 To 1945, Emma Nicolini

All Theses

From 1932 to 1945, the Imperial Japanese military sexually enslaved approximately two hundred thousand Asian women from Japan, Korea, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, and the Philippines. This institution was known as the comfort women system, which the Imperial Japanese government created to ensure the sexual and mental health of Imperial Japanese military personnel. This provision of comfort for Imperial Japanese military personnel was enabled by cultural influences introduced in the Early Modern period of Japan, which normalized a contemptuous attitude toward sexual labor. This blend of Early Modern Japan, as well as the beliefs that facilitated the need for comfort women, …

On The Varieties Of Religious Experience In Latter-Day Saint Temples, 1836–1940, Jared Gage Bennett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

From 1836 to the present, the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have constructed and undertaken rituals in buildings called temples. In the first temple in Kirtland, Ohio, its 1836 dedication was the scene of visions and speaking in tongues, much like those the apostles had at Pentecost in Acts 2. The second temple in Nauvoo, however, had none of these, and the third set of temples built in Utah, with the first completed in 1877, again saw a number of religious experiences but of a radically different form: mainly the appearance of the spirits of …

Illuminating Women’S Interwar Australian Ghosts Stories In A Tabletop Roleplaying Game - Methods, Processes And Aesthetics, Matthew Sparksman

Postgraduate

Australian voices are underrepresented in international media, particularly in the medium of Tabletop roleplaying games. Women’s voices and access to publishing media were rapidly retaken by men after the Great War, including the mediums of Ghost Stories, Film, and other media (Handasyde, 2017, p.18; Ohri, 2018, p.386). This can also be illustrated in the shift in archetypes of ghostly tales to be dominated by that of the “suffering and sacrificed male exiled to death far from home” (Kelly cited in Carleton, 2015, p.21; Kelly, 2007, 18). It is therefore important that we seek to find and value such artefacts that …

Displacement, Social Justice, And The Right To The City: A Review And Critical Reflections In The 21st Century, Tara Fitzgerald, Brij Maharaj

Midwest Social Sciences Journal

This paper aims to review the literature and themes relating to displacement, social justice, and the right to the city in the 21st century. Displacement, in its various forms, is central to understanding the human rights abuses and livelihood implications when urban rights are revoked, forcing inhabitants to the periphery, and is the focus of this paper. Whereas the city’s services, resources, and opportunities should be a collective right advanced by local authorities for all who occupy urban space, displacements lead to resettlement and impoverishment, especially as livelihoods are disrupted. Urban renewal, through mega-projects, clean-up campaigns, and speculative gentrification processes, …

Constructive Instability And Operation Unified Protector: The Destruction Of The United States-Led World-System, Devin Bryant Gillen

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In 2011, NATO ended the 42-year-long rule of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, and plunged the country into over a decade of unending strife, while an arc of crisis emanating from Libya struck much of the region. This study examines the United States' geostrategic approach in the Libyan intervention to illustrate the dialectic intersectional relationships between processes of globalization, American hegemony over the world-system, and American foreign policy in the post-Cold War period (1992-2024) with consideration to world-systems analysis to characterize the United States post-Iraq warfighting strategy in Libya as an adaptation of the purposeful destabilization of Afghanistan and cultivation of an …

Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology And Art, Lina Pilar Tejeda

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

After assisting in the curation of Fire Kinship: Southern California Native Ecology and Art, I can assert that I have gained ample experience in exhibition curation. I have gained the necessary skills to work with a subject or concept, perform essential research to become thoroughly informed on it, and network to access relevant people for exhibition advising. I learned steps to creating the exhibition from beginning to end; identifying objects and curating an object list that best told the story we sought out to share with the public. Through Fire Kinship, I have demonstrated my abilities to not only …