Digital Commons Network^™

Review Essay: Encyclopedia Of The Great Plains, William Ferris

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

How proud Ellison would be to see his work and that of so many other distinguished artists, writers, and musicians recognized in the Encyclopedia of the Great Plains. The Great Plains roots of Ralph Ellison, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, Cornel West, Ornette Coleman, Charlie Parker, and Jay McShann make emphatic the region's importance in African American history and culture. Like their counterparts in the American South, these artists migrated to Chicago and New York where they became leaders in the nation's cultural life.

German Heritage And Culture In Louise Erdrich's The Master Butchers Singing Club, Thomas Austenfeld

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Reid's discussion of the formal properties of Erdrich's work helps explain the author's popular appeal. Mewing easily between urban and rural settings, between reservation culture and mainstream culture, Erdrich has been evoking the various sets of social and historical circumstances that define the lives of contemporary Native Americans in the Great Plains. In The Master Butchers Singing Club (2003), Erdrich turns her attention explicitly to her own part-German ancestry and fictionalizes it, thereby bringing a n element of both thematic and autobiographical relevance into prominence.

Book Review: Halfbreed: The Remarkable True Story Of George Bent - Caught Between The Worlds Of The Indian And The White Man, Lincoln Faller

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In the last two decades of his life Bent became a prolific letter-writer as well; more than five hundred of his letters survive in various archives. His chief correspondents were Grinnell, with whom he collaborated in shaping the foundational texts of Cheyenne history and ethnography, and George Hyde, who also worked with Grinnell and supplied him with a great deal of information gleaned from his own far more extensive correspondence with Brent. Bent's letters to Hyde became the basis for Hyde's Life of George Bent: Written from His Letters (essentially completed by 1916, hut not published until 1968), which Halfbreed …

Polemics In The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Jerome Slater

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2003. 264pp.

and

Beyond Chutzpah: On the Misuse of Anti-Semitism and the Abuse of History by Norman G. Finkelstein. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005. 332pp.

Human Rights In El Salvador, Tait Robinson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Between 1979 and 1991 El Salvador was embroiled in a civil war that claimed over 70,000 lives. Longstanding socio-economic inequality between the rich and poor led to government-backed human rights abuses dispensed by the military. These ranged from denials of freedom and civil liberties to village massacres.

Human Rights In Guatemala, Jennifer Archibald

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Thirty six years of civil war affected human rights negatively in Guatemala. Many actors that violated human rights were also victims of human rights violations; a complex series of events that has still not been fully resolved today.

Human Rights In Honduras, Andrea Degaetani

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Honduras’ history of human rights violations is rooted in a political culture of militarization. Following a military coup in 1963, Honduras faced strengthened military authority and a decade of harsh military rule. It was also during this time that the United States used the country as a base for Contras fighting leftist Sandinistas in Nicaragua. In 1981 Honduras returned to a parliamentary democracy, electing Roberto Suazo Cordova as president. However, by then the process of militarization had been so heavily funded by the U.S and had made such a significant impact on public policy that little changed for the better. …

Southeast Asian Warfare, 1300-1900, Handbook Of Oriental Studies, Section Three: South-East Asia, Volume 16 By Michael W. Charney [Book Review], Tobias Frederik Rettig

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

The Emergence Of Corporate Forms In China, 1872- 1949. An Analysis On Institutional Transformation, Wai Keung Chung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

How To Understand China: The Dangers And Opportunities Of Being A Rising Power, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

china’s situation lends itself to hyperbole. the people’s republic of china (prc) has the largest population in the world, the fastest growing economy in the world, the largest army in the world, the largest middle class in the world, a permanent seat on the united nations security council, a manned space programme, a nuclear arsenal, and so on. but analysts, commentators and policymakers have yet to decide just how to understand china.

Religious Schools: For Spirit, (F)Or Nation, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this paper I draw attention to the study of 'unofficially sacred' sites in geographies of religion, which provide significant insights into the construction of religious identity and community, and the intersections of sacred and secular. I show that such sites deserve as much attention as places of worship (the more conventional focus in the geographical study of religion) in our understanding of the place of religion in contemporary urban society. In particular, using the case of Islamic religious schools in Singapore, I examine how Muslim identities and community are negotiated within multicultural and multireligious contexts, and particularly within one …

Russian Organized Crime And The National Security Of The United States, Jessica Nelson

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

This thesis examines the impact of Russian organized crime on the national security of the United States. It begins by defining why Russian organized crime should be of concern to U.S. policymakers addressing the effects of Russian organized crime on the U.S. economy, national security, and domestic law enforcement. The thesis then analyzes the evolution of Russian organized crime from its emergence during the Soviet Union, through its growth during privatization, to its structural transformation in the modern era. This analysis establishes the fundamental principles of any potential U.S. policy on Russian organized crime and prompts several policy recommendations for …

Jennie Lebl, Chronicler Of The Holocaust In The Balkans - Review Article, Paul Mojzes

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

"Vanishing" Indians? Cultural Persistence On Display At The Omaha World's Fair Of 1898, Josh Clough

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Nebraska's Indian population exploded in the summer of 1898, but it was not due to natural increase. More than 500 Indians representing twenty-three tribes came to Omaha as part of the United States Indian Bureau's exhibit at the Trans-Mississippi Exposition. During their three-month stay at the world's fair, Indians engaged in dancing, feasting, visiting, and earned money performing sham battles. In doing so they demonstrated not only the vibrancy and resilience of Native American cultures, but also the ineffectiveness of the government's assimilation policy. The Indian Bureau spent $40,000 for the Indian Congress (as this gathering of Native peoples came …

"No Dogs Or Chinese Allowed": Globalization And China, Lawrence C. Reardon

The University Dialogue

No abstract provided.

Book Review: Harm's Way: Disasters In Western Canada, Patricia E. Roy

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Anthony Rasporich says that a "sense of struggle, of painful discovery, and loss of innocence" in the face of disasters is "embedded in the Canadian consciousness" with the same sense of urgency felt south of the border but with "a different collective sense." Some essays in this collection on the Prairie West do allude to that comparison. Hugh Dempsey shows that nineteenth-century smallpox epidemics did not respect the border and weakened the ability of the Native peoples to resist European settlement. Janice Dickin's analysis of the Spanish Flu Epidemic of 1918-19 in Calgary, however, only suggests that Canadians and Americans …

Review Of Native North American Armor, Shields, And Fortifications By David E. Jones, Robert Fields

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

David Jones's purpose is to fill the curious gap in studies of the armor used in raids and warfare by the Native peoples of North America. Lacking iron and steel technology, Native Americans constructed their armor of "wood and bone (hard armor), leather (soft armor), and combinations of hard and soft materials."

The need for armor, Jones states in his introduction, preceded European contact, since "warfare was endemic among the North American Indians." He goes on to maintain that the superiority of European technology made Indian defeat inevitable, despite whatever improvements in armor production Indians might have made. "If Native …

Neotrusteeship In Afghanistan, Melanie Kawano

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Afghanistan is currently under the tentative rule of an international administration, or neotrusteeship, thereby restricting its national sovereignty. However, self-determination and nonintervention have never been persistent features of Afghanistan. Foreign interventions, invasions and great power showdowns on its territory have made a truly autonomous Afghan state a shortlived phenomenon. The outcome at each stage of Afghan history has been an unstable state that seems to invite even more external involvement.

State-Building In Afghanistan, Melanie Kawano, Amy Mcguire

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Since the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan in late 2001, Afghan citizens and members of the global community have been grappling with the question of how to build a state that can fill the void created by decades of conflict and violence. However, the concept of “state-building” is complex. The term describes both an internal process and international assistance; it requires short-term action as well as a long-term vision. While no precise formula for state-building exists, there are historical precedents and “models” of state-building expressed by great powers and multilaterals. In reality, however, these are based on best guesses that fail …

State-Building In Bosnia, Chris Saeger

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Although the idea of state-building is at least as contentious as the idea of the state itself, international technocrats and foreign policymakers remain resigned to this project. International state-building has been conceived of as maintaining intermestic social order, protecting individual rights, and consolidating transnational linkages of power. Yet whatever the motive, effect or standard form of state-building, some political organization called “the state” is a necessary condition for membership in international society, if not for protecting individual human rights.

Structures Of Violence: The Proliferation Of Atrocity Environments Under The Brazilian Military Government And The Bush Administration, Kara Martinez

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Violence Workers: Police Torturers and Murderers Reconstruct Brazilian Atrocities by Martha K. Huggins, Mika Haritos- Fatouros, and Philip G. Zimbardo. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2002. 293 pp.

Sri Lanka, Amanda Donahoe

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Sri Lanka has been entrenched in a civil war for two decades. As in ethnic conflicts in many other post-colonial countries, the different groups of Sri Lanka give loyalty primarily to the group, rather than to the entire country. The Sinhalese majority have slowly populated the government and treated the Tamil minority as a threat to national stability, instead of as candidates for conciliation and power sharing. Consequently, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) has taken up arms against the Sinhalese controlled government to fight for an independent homeland in the north and north-east parts of the country in …

The Continuous Struggle For Representation In The Venezuelan State, Gabriel Reyes

Honors Theses

One definition of democratic participation is a process whereby citizens influence or control those who make major decisions affecting them. Throughout Venezuela’s history, citizens have suffered under governments that aimed to limit their participation in the state. This research argues that the current Chávez regime, though seeking to concentrate power for itself in the executive branch, has also forged a space for democratic participation through its Barrio Adentro program.

In its introductory chapter, this paper examines Venezuela’s political development through a comparative lens and aims to situate Barrio Adentro within the country’s unique history. First, it shows how the political …

Disaster Relief And Governance After The Indian Ocean Tsunami: What Role For International Law?, David P. Fidler

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The tsunami in the Indian Ocean at the end of 2004 has produced heightened scrutiny of how international disaster relief is supplied and governed. This scrutiny connects to arguments by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies that more effective and efficient disaster relief requires the significant development of international law on disaster relief. This commentary analyses the historical and current relationship between international law and disaster relief and challenges the arguments that more international law on disaster relief is needed.

State-Building In Iraq, Hafsteinn Hafsteinnsson

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Whether the 2003 invasion of Iraq was principally strategic or humanitarian, the United States’ involvement in Iraq has become a complex state-building mission. While there is agreement within the international community on the importance of rebuilding a democratic Iraq, there are many conflicting viewpoints on how this operation should proceed.

Afghanistan, Greg Sanders

Human Rights & Human Welfare

After September 11, Afghanistan became the first battleground of the War on Terror when the Taliban government refused to turn over Osama Bin Laden and other Al Qaeda members. Human rights concerns about these events fall in two areas. First, did the United States violate human rights when it launched Operation Enduring Freedom to overthrow the Taliban and during the subsequent occupation? Second, have the occupation forces and new regime of under the leadership of Hamid Karzai done enough to improve the previously miserable human rights situation in Afghanistan?

Chechnya, Kelley Laird

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The root of animosity between Russians and Chechens extends for more than a century, beginning when Chechens opposed Russia’s conquest of the Caucasus between 1818 and 1917. Tension reached an apex in the 1940s when Stalin deported thousands of Chechens to Siberia and East Asia in fear that they would collaborate with German Nazis.

Colombia, Travis Ning

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The events of September 11 continued of the pattern of redefinition in the conflict in Colombia. The complex war of today actually began decades ago as a small political struggle, which has gradually developed into a large-scale civil war. The continuation and growth of civil strife in Colombia witnessed the emergence of several organized anti-government guerrilla movements. Some of these groups have since been defeated or have integrated themselves into the recognized political system. Others have continued to violently challenge Colombian government authority. Currently, the two most significant anti-government insurgency groups are the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) and …

Pakistan, Susannah Compton, Toni Panetta

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Following armed hostilities in 1947-1949 between India and Pakistan, the region once known as the Princely State of Jammu and Kashmir was divided. The disputed territory continues to split relations between Pakistan and India and the threat of war has been a daunting force as recently as 2002.

Shrader's "The Muslim-Croat Civil War In Central Bosnia – A Military History, 1992-1994" - Book Review, Tal Tovy

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.