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Cyber Deterrence Against Cyberwar Between The United States And China: A Power Transition Theory Perspective, Yavuz Akdag

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In the last three decades, states and societies have increasingly been connected to each other through Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) such as satellites and the Internet, thus expanding the sphere of influence of cyberspace. While offering numerous economic and security benefits, this increased global connectivity also poses various security challenges and threats at the national and international level. In particular, the threat of cyberwar has become one of the top national security issues in both the United States and China, as reflected in an increasing number of cyber disputes between the two nations recently. In the wake of this …

Will War's Nature Change In The Seventh Military Revolution?, F. G. Hoffman

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article examines the potential implications of the combinations of robotics, artificial intelligence, and deep learning systems on the character and nature of war. The author employs Carl von Clausewitz’s trinity concept to discuss how autonomous weapons will impact the essential elements of war. The essay argues war’s essence, as politically directed violence fraught with friction, will remain its most enduring aspect, even if more intelligent machines are involved at every level.

Expansibility And Army Special Operations Forces, Eric P. Shwedo

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article examines how Army Special Operations might prepare to expand in the event of a major war by resolving impediments to growth, improving recall procedures, and developing plans to expand training capacities.

Lessons Unlearned: Army Transformation And Low-Intensity Conflict, Pat Proctor

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article examines the US Army’s experiences and lessons learned during military interventions in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo. It explores why these lessons did not affect the Army transformation, directed in the late-1990s by James M. Dubik, John W. Hendrix, John N. Abrams, and Eric K. Shinseki.

The Geopolitics Of Rare Earth Elements: Emerging Challenge For U.S. National Security And Economics, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Rare earth elements (REE) contain unique chemical and physical properties such as lanthanum, are found in small concentrations, need extensive precise processes to separate, and are critical components of modern technologies such as laser guidance systems, personal electronics such as IPhones, satellites, and military weapons systems as varied as Virginia-class fast attack submarines, DDG- 51 Aegis destroyers, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and precision guided munitions. The U.S. has some rare earth resources, but is heavily dependent on access to them from countries as varied as Afghanistan, Bolivia, and China. Losing access to these resources would have significant adverse economic, …

A Wide Anticommunist Arc: Britain, Asean, And Nixon's Triangular Diplomacy, Wen-Qing Ngoei

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

President Richard Nixon’s triangular diplomacy succeeded because a “wide anticommunist arc” of U.S. allies in Southeast Asia had confined the influence of both China and the USSR to the Indochinese states. Beijing and Moscow welcomed détente with Washington in order to accommodate to de facto U.S. hegemony in the region.

Continued Perseverance: What Causes Hamas To Stand Despite Constant Opposition, Matthew Jacobs

The Eastern Illinois University Political Science Review

The author uses qualitative methods to examine the reasons why Hamas has endured, despite facing constant military pressure from Israel and suffering substantial casualties. The author finds that the organization has survived because it has been underestimated and dealt with improperly. Now that it has experienced relative success, Hamas has succeeded in discrediting, to a certain extent, the Israeli government. The author recommends that Israel find more effective ways to turn Hamas’s supporters against it in order to weaken the organization and ensure its defeat.

Review Of "The Generals", Crystal Trotter

The Eastern Illinois University Political Science Review

The author reviews Thomas Rick’s book, The Generals.

The Way Of The Knife: The Cia, A Secret Army, And A War At The Ends Of The Earth, Mariah Wallace

The Eastern Illinois University Political Science Review

The author offers her views and thoughts on Mazzetti’s book and its implications for the future of American foreign policy.

Cia: The Critical Years, Ryan Freer

The Eastern Illinois University Political Science Review

Our foreign policy agenda in the Middle East is attributed to the decisions of the CIA's Director's of Intelligence (DCI) and the President's they served. The author examines how two DCI's, an a third to a lesser degree, have impacted the agency during their tenures, and how the operations of the CIA in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iran in the decades leading up to the attacks of 9/11 culminated in this tragedy.

Dangerous Crossings: Voices From The African Migration To Italy/Europe, Robert M. Press

Faculty Publications

Africans continue to migrate across the Sahara and the Mediterranean Sea, where tens of thousands have drowned. In Libya, many suffer enslavement and other harsh treatment as they flee persecution or poverty, or both. Yet there have been few studies of their journey. This study, based primarily on some sixty interviews by the author in 2014–2016 with African migrants in Italy and France, provides a portrait of resilience, courage, and strategic decisions that differs sharply from media images of helplessness. It suggests reconsidering migrant networks and typologies in view of the breakdown and attempted repair of networks on these journeys, …

Acquiring The Tools Of Grand Strategy: The Us Navy's Lcs As A Case Study, Sean P. Murphy

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Grand strategy is about how states allocate resources and employ these resources to achieve desired political conditions. In examining the match between desired ends and available ways and means, an often-overlooked subject is how the specific tools of grand strategy are forged. One of these tools is the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), a Major Defense Acquisition Program (MDAP) that started in 2000. LCS remains a controversial and often unpopular program with many stakeholders to this day. This study examines how the means of grand strategy, in this case a new ship class, are acquired. It also looks at how these …

Scriptural Justification For The American Revolution, Samuel Ewing

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis will seek to examine the intention of the Founding Fathers regarding their decision to break from England in what became the American Revolution. On July 4^th, 1776, fifty-five men gathered to sign the defining document of their cause – the Declaration of Independence. As the document presents the climactic argument against the English crown, this thesis will seek to analyze its writers’ intentions, presuppositions, and rationalizations. Ultimately, this thesis will demonstrate that the Founders not only sought biblical justification for their actions and opinions, but followed the letter of biblical and common law in order to …

Language, Race, And Integration: A Comparative Exploration Of The Sub-Saharan Migrant Experience In Morocco, Madeline Davison

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper uses a qualitative approach to explain the divide between local and migrant populations in the Moroccan context. This divide is primarily influenced by “feelings of otherness” and is triggered first and foremost by differences in physical appearance—easily identifiable differences upon first impression. Though inspired by a nearly instantaneous arrangement, this divide is fueled further by an inconsistency of language usage between groups. Because there is a wide variety of migrant experiences in this context, it is important to identify some of the differences between these lived experiences. Upon observation, the question, “What are the fundamental differences between migrants’ …

Russia's Northern Rook: Nord Stream 2 On The European Energy Chessboard, David E. Wilson

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The Nord Stream 2 pipeline proposes to connect Germany to the world’s largest natural gas reserves in Russia, allowing the state-owned Russian energy behemoth Gazprom to double its export capacity through the ‘Northern Corridor’ transit route to Europe. This project has been the subject of sharp disapproval from Central and Eastern European countries, as well as the United States, which fear the prospect of increasing dependence on gas imports from a Russia perceived as politically aggressive and unreliable. This paper will identify the geopolitical and geoeconomic implications involved in the construction of Nord Stream 2 by adopting a geostrategic worldview …

A Cross-Disciplinary Approach To The Maritime Security Risk Of Piracy And Lessons Learned From Agent-Based Modeling, Joanne Marie Fish

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation takes a cross-disciplinary approach to understanding pirate activity. Maritime piracy presents a dynamic ever-evolving problem. In today’s globalized world, contemporary maritime piracy presents a transnational threat. It is a complex socio-economic and political problem which the modern world considers to be criminal activity. Like all complex problems it must be deconstructed to fully comprehend it.

All criminal activity, maritime piracy included, has certain elements of supply and demand. For the activity to occur there must be a certain level, or supply, of targets. At the same time, we can posit that there must be a lack of other …

Finding The Limits Of France's State Of Emergency, Filip G. Bozinovic

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

Since 2015, France has experienced a particularly high number of terrorist attacks. This paper examines the French state response to such events and analyzes its effect on the relationship between civil liberties and national security. The activation of the state of emergency – as an exceptional measure that suspends warranted searches and certain freedoms – highlights a potential impediment to reconciling France’s national values such as liberté with the urgent need to mitigate terrorist activity. Following the fifth consecutive renewal of this exceptional measure in December 2016, a close scrutiny of its legitimacy, its effectiveness, and its objectives is …

Integration Policy And Outcomes For The Russian-Speaking Minority In Estonia, Silviu Kondan, Mridvika Sahajpal

Claremont-UC Undergraduate Research Conference on the European Union

Estonia’s integration policy vis-à-vis its Russian-speaking residents was developed and reformed several times since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. While comparative data from the international community certainly indicates that Estonia has progressed in the realm of social, political and societal integration, the ‘success’ for each individual policy is now increasingly measured—and contested— within broader considerations of geopolitical security and minority rights. The authors converge interview-based data compiled from various representatives and scholars of nongovernmental organizations, government agencies, and think tanks with secondary research on the topic of Russian minority integration in Estonia. The report will seek to …

Bargaining Theory, Civil War Outcomes, And War Recurrence: Assessing The Results Of Empirical Tests Of The Theory, Caroline A. Hartzell

Political Science Faculty Publications

Once ended, a significant number of civil wars recur. One influential empirical international relations theory on which scholars have drawn in an effort to provide an explanation for this phenomenon is the bargaining model of war. Devised initially for the study of interstate war, the theory posits that bargaining problems may prevent belligerents from reaching a deal that enables them to avoid a costly war. Bargaining problems also have been identified as contributing to the recurrence of armed intrastate conflict. Working within the framework of bargaining theory, a number of scholars have claimed that the most effective way to inhibit …

Stayin' Alive: Transnational Sanctuary And Insurgency, Matthew Murray

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The conventional wisdom of counterinsurgency runs that insurgent groups with bases in neighboring states (transnational sanctuaries) are relatively more difficult to defeat than comparable groups without such bases. Insurgents with transnational sanctuaries benefit from relative protection from attack by counterinsurgents, they may recruit, train, and arm safely in their sanctuaries, transmit propaganda into their target state, and use these sanctuaries as staging points for infiltration or raids into their target state. Counterinsurgents have gone to great lengths to disrupt or destroy insurgent bases in neighboring countries based on the belief that this is necessary to defeating insurgents. However, several groups …

The Bourgeois Crown: Capitalism And The Monarchy In Thailand, 1946–2016, Puangchon Unchanam

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In the age of capitalism, monarchy has been treated as if it were an irrelevant institution. Once capitalism becomes the dominant mode of production in a state, it is argued, monarchy must be either abolished or transformed into a constitutional monarchy, a ceremonial institution that plays no significant role in a capitalist state that is ruled by the bourgeoisie. The monarchy of Thailand, however, fits neither of those two narratives, as it enjoys hegemonic status in the capitalist state, preeminent status in the market, and popular support from the urban bourgeoisie. What explains the resilience of the Thai monarchy in …

Introducing International Relations: Placing “Disability”, Art Blaser

Political Science Faculty Articles and Research

I base this paper primarily on my teaching of introductory international relations since 1979. Introductory international relations instructors need to give disability issues more attention. First, I look at participants in international relations: states and their leaders; global governance—particularly the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; and transnational actors-particularly Disabled Peoples’ Organizations (DPOs). I then examine issues: rights, war and peace, and development. Second, I examine two approaches from the disability studies literature: disability as a deficit demographic category (based on a medical model), and disability as the basis for a social movement (based on a social model). …

Full Issue: Spring 2017, Editorial Board

Swarthmore International Relations Journal

No abstract provided.

The War On "Killer Robots": Goals And Strategies In The Transnational Campaign Against The Offensive Use Of Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems, John Fan

Swarthmore International Relations Journal

No abstract provided.

Invisible Precedents: The U.S. Drone Strike Program Under The Obama Administration, Ava Shafiei

Swarthmore International Relations Journal

No abstract provided.

Confronting (Neo)Imperialism: The Resurgence Of Bolivarianism, Chelsea Richardson

Swarthmore International Relations Journal

No abstract provided.

Editor's Note, Elizabeth Tolley

Swarthmore International Relations Journal

No abstract provided.

Do Weapons Make Warfare? An Instrumental Variables Approach Towards Investigating The Relationship Between Small Arms Abundance, Civil Conflict Onset, And Civil Conflict Intensity, Gabriel S. Barrett

Political Science Honors Projects

Scholars, journalists, and policymakers frequently attribute the intensity and onset of civil conflict to the abundance of small arms. However, the direction of causality has been difficult to assess due to a lack of data on the illicit small arms market and the plausibly endogenous relationship between the abundance of weapons and civil conflict. Using a new dataset of estimated small arms prices, I determine that a decrease in the price of small arms is significantly and negatively correlated with an increase in the intensity of conflict in the following year. I also determine that small arms prices increase in …

Proxy Conflict Turned Civil Crisis: Understanding Syrian Political Movements To United States Foreign Policy, Katherine Barymow

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The Syrian crisis in terms of its crimes against humanity has surpassed most politicians’ wildest expectations: it seems that with every passing news cycle the west is informed of new atrocities commited against innocent Syrian civilians, in addition to violence perpetrated by Syrian Islamists themselves against westerners in ill-advised cries for help. The extent of bloodshed can be both horrifying and mystifying to the average American. How is it possible that the international community allows these crimes to proliferate and self-perpetuate in this modern day-in-age? Hearts sink with every image of a child in dire straights as a result of …

Zero Textbook Cost Syllabus For Plsc 2260 (Introduction To Comparative Government), Anh Tran

Open Educational Resources

Why do states wield violence against its citizens? Does the expansion of state power always threaten individual freedom? When do ordinary people create social change peacefully, and when do they go to war? Is democratization an inevitable force in our world? Is there a trade-off between economic growth and economic equality? These are the types of puzzles we will be exploring through various theoretical and methodological lenses. We will compare variations in political behaviors, processes, and structures at work in different countries around the world. Each week, we focus on a different topic in comparative politics, then dig deeper into …