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Apotheosis Of The State And The Decline Of Civilization: A Systems Approach, Robert Bedeski

Comparative Civilizations Review

Humanity is undergoing a second Axial Age. The first, as described by Karl Jaspers, brought transcendence into the vision and self-understanding of humans and the world. The rise of secularism and “Death of God” is dissolving and fragmenting that transcendence — a vital subsystem of the civilization system. Economy, knowledge and government comprise three additional subsystems and have coalesced to form the modern sovereign state, diminishing the traditional place of religion, art and philosophy in civilizations. An example of a state lacking common institutions of transcendence was the Mongol empire. Ruling Russia for a quarter millennium, its state form was …

Analysis And Application Of The Offense-Defense Theory: Russia, Ukraine, And History., Kirby Ballard

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Political scientists and government advisors have long sought to understand what influences conflicts and how to predict them. Despite constant war, a commonly used empirical theory that can answer this question has not emerged. The majority of theories created are either conflict-specific or not empirically testable. Considering these factors, I sought out a theory that would help me better understand Russia's choice to invade Ukraine in the spring of 2022. I selected the offense-defense theory due to its many attempts to explain territorial conquest, the likeliness of conflict, and overall losses. The main focus of the theory is to explain …

Emotion Regulation And Cheap Talk As Signaling Strategies: Evidence From Crowdfunding For Ukraine, Alexandra Fischmann, Larry Zhiming Xu

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

Crowdfunding, as enabled by donors worldwide, has played a critical role in financially supporting military forces, NGOs, humanitarian groups, and civilians in the Ukraine-Russia Crisis. This global mobilization underscores the evolving dynamics in the modern geopolitical landscape, emphasizing the transformative power of online collective action in fundraising and organizing. This study draws on signaling theory to pinpoint success indicators in crowdfunding for Ukraine projects on GoFundMe. Recognized as an effective explanatory framework, signaling theory is used as it bridges fundraising tactics with donation behavior in crowdfunding contexts. Particularly, the research examines how emotions and semantics contributed to (or hindered) fundraising …

Assessing Victory: Did Different Measures Of Success Lead To An Extension Of The Vietnam War, Brian Althouse

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In his paper Exploring the Bargaining Model of War, Dan Reiter argues how “in some conflicts, militaries may have different measures of success; two opposing sides could conceivably observe the same battle outcome with both concluding that they were successful, coming no closer to agreement on the eventual outcome of the war” (Reiter 2003). Extrapolating on this point, he assesses how this theory could be one explanation for the Vietnam War. Reiter argues that within the conflict both US and North Vietnamese forces measured success through increases in enemy casualties, and that occurrence of combat and casualties on both sides …

Alliances And Partnerships In A Complex And Challenging Security Environment, Regina Karp (Editor), Richard Maass (Editor)

Political Science & Geography Faculty Books

This publication is a product of the Conference "Alliances and Partnerships in a Complex and Challenging Security Environment," organized by NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. The Conference, held in person on March 11-13, 2024, is part of a long-term cooperation among the two institutions, and it represents the eleventh iteration of ACT's Academic Conference series. The success of the event was due to the joint efforts of the two institutions, and the editors want to acknowledge ACT's Academic Outreach Team, in particular Dr. Vlasta Zekulic, Lieutenant Colonel Virginie Lotti, and Staff Officer Luisa …

Culture, Politics, And Economics: Alcohol And The Dynamic Social Environment Of Celtic Europe, Trevor Davidson

Undergraduate Student Work

Celtic culture in Iron Age Europe set the stage for many modern European nations and their cultural geographies. This paper seeks to question the connection between historical accounts of Celtic culture and the production and consumption of alcohol. In particular, the interactions between alcohol and the cultural, economic, and political of Celtic Age European populations is explored through modern archaeological sciences and geographic interpretation. From this research, a clear connection between regional environments and trends of alcohol production, trade, and flavor preference is demonstrated from thematic artifacts and bioarchaeological remains. Interactions between the southern Celtic tribes and Mediterranean cultures is …

State Institutions In Northeast Thailand: Lao Ethnics And The Thai Identity, Jacob Ricks

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this last chapter on state representation, we focus on a case where there has been an absence of demands. In Northeast Thailand, the large ethnic Lao population has not demanded cultural concessions from the state. In fact, not only have the demands been absent, but most people in the region see themselves as Thai (the broader national identity) or Isan (a moniker meaning “northeast”)—as opposed to ethnically Lao. The absence of the Lao identity has less to do with the absence of civic associations from the bottom up than with the absence of political representation from the top down. …

Steminism: Analyzing Factors That Improve Retention Of Women In Stem, Kira Carter, Jane Kelley, Jason Vasser-Elong, Rc Patterson

Dissertations

Our co-authored research ‘Steminism: Analyzing Factors That Improve Retention for Women as STEM Majors’ analyzed factors that contributed to the retention of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) programs at Missouri University of Science & Technology (Missouri S&T). Women make up half of the US population, and while careers in (STEM) are an integral part of the US economy, women are underrepresented in these career fields. The purpose of our dissertation is to address the underrepresentation of women in STEM majors. Our methodology included homogeneous sampling to collect qualitative data. More specifically, we consulted with academic advisors and …

Book Review: Small Armies, Big Cities: Rethinking Urban Warfare, John P. Sullivan

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Louise A. Tumchewics (editor)

Reviewed by Dr. John P. Sullivan, instructor, Safe Communities Institute, University of Southern California

Dr. John P. Sullivan gives an overview of Louise A. Tumchewics's anthology on the "persistent challenge" of urban warfare and highlights the work's strongest chapters and their value to "commanders and planners of future urban operations." Sullivan mentions chapter author Patrick Finnegan's discussion of "liminality" as particularly valuable and also calls John Spencer's siege discussion "one of the book's core contributions."

Self-Forgiveness As A Moderator Between Moral Injury And Posttraumatic Growth Among Veterans, Mario S. De Souza Ferreira

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The process of reintegration after military combat service is a difficult path for many veterans. Countless studies have been conducted examining the effects of trauma secondary to military service that result in posttraumatic stress disorder and other related consequences. However, moral injury (MI) related to the shame and guilt experienced by veterans has been of particular interest among mental health providers. Researchers have investigated the effects of forgiveness as a moderator between MI and posttraumatic growth (PTG). Gaps remain in the current mental health literature regarding the effect of self-forgiveness as a moderator between MI and PTG among combat veterans. …

The Arab Spring Uprisings In Geopolitical Context, Jake Alan Rutledge

Dissertations and Theses

The question of why revolts, civil wars, and social unrest occur is central in the field of political science. This paper asks that question in the specific context of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings as a revolutionary wave. Many theories of revolution and social unrest locate their causes in the internal characteristics of the country where they take place, such as the country's demographics or level of economic development. This paper examines the external situation of a country: its relationships with other states and the international community. This paper examines eighteen Arab countries in the Middle East and North Africa …

Cultural, Psychosocial, And Educational Factors In Relation To Ethnic Identity Among Cambodian High School Students In The United States, Traci L. Weinstein, Khanh Dinh, Tamara Springle

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This study examined the relationship between preferred ethnic labels an cultural, psychosocial, and academic variables in a sample of 174 Cambodian high school students in the U.S. Results indicated that participants who chose “American” ethnic labels reported higher scores on White/Anglo orientation and on English language usage and fluency, whereas participants who chose the “Cambodian” ethnic label reported more Khmer language usage and frequency. Students who chose the combined “Cambodian American” ethnic label reported stronger beliefs in the utility of education and higher academic aspirations. The findings from this study expand the research on ethnic identity by focusing on 2nd …

A Remote Sensing Investigation Of The 2022 Invasion Of Eastern Ukraine On Agricultural Landcover, Michael S. Agbozo, Luke J. Marzen, Chandana Mitra

The Geographical Bulletin

Ukraine-Russian political relations over the years have alternatively experienced periods of tranquility and turmoil with violent conflicts since 1917, including the events of the 2014 annexation of Crimea and the 2022 Russian invasion of the entirety of Ukraine. These conflicts remain developmental threats and their assessment requires multi-perspective analysis. Understanding the spatial dimensions of such conflicts and their consequences on physical and social spaces at varying scales could provide credible scientific impetuses on which targeted post-conflict remediations could be built. This preliminary study therefore takes advantage of the capabilities of satellite remote sensing, to provide quick and effective spatiotemporal analysis …

The Signs Of Cinema: Exploring The Effects Of Signifying God In Shadowlands, Bad Times At The El Royale, And The Tree Of Life, Eric Wescott Smith

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the cinematic semiosis of God, to understand how God is signified through the film medium, and to explore possible effects of this signification on the American Christian mythos. This qualitative study was conducted as an artifactual analysis study. The selected artifacts were three films and two works of literature. The film artifacts were Shadowlands, Bad Times at the El Royale, and The Tree of Life. The literature artifacts were A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis and The Book of Job. The practice of close reading was given to each artifact …

We Don’T Talk About Influence: An Analysis Of Disney’S Encanto & Its Influence On Viewers’ Perceptions Of Colombian Culture, Olivia Grace Keyser

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study, “We Don’t Talk About Influence: An Analysis of Disney’s Encanto & Its Influence on Viewers’ Perceptions of Colombian Culture,” was to analyze the way Colombian culture is presented in Disney’s Encanto as well as to determine whether viewers of Encanto learn and develop a favorable view of Colombia and Colombian culture after watching the film. In this qualitative research study, 20 participants completed two questionnaires, which were used to determine their perceptions of Colombian culture prior to and after watching Encanto. The collected data was analyzed through the lens of the communication strategy of entertainment-education. …

Understanding Complicated Grief, Resilience, And Coping Skills In African American Women: A Phenomenological Study, Gyna M. Grant

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Complicated grief can have an impact on the resiliency and coping skills of African American women in ways that can be damaging in their daily life routines. Research studies have focused on the female population affected by complicated grief, but none of these studies have looked specifically at the African American female population. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to examine the lived experiences and resiliency of African American women coping with complicated grief following significant loss utilizing an open-ended survey. The population for this study was African American women, living in the southern areas of Connecticut, who …

“Genocide Of The Soviet People”: Putin’S Russia Waging Lawfare By Means Of History, 2018–2023, Anton Weiss-Wendt

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

This article exposes the political underpinnings of the term “genocide of the Soviet people,” introduced and actively promoted in Russia since 2019. By reclassifying mass crimes committed by the Nazis and their accomplices against the civilian population—specifically Slavic—as genocide, Russian courts effectively engage in adjudication of the history of the Second World War. In the process, genocide trials, ongoing in twenty-five Russian provinces and five occupied Ukrainian territories, present no new evidence or issue new indictments, thus fulfilling none of the objectives of a standard criminal investigation. The wording of the verdicts, and a comprehensive political project put in place …

Environmental Terrorism Twenty Years On, Elizabeth L. Chalecki

Political Science Faculty Publications

In 2002, a few months after 9/11, I published one of the very first academic examinations of environmental terrorism: what was included in this term and what wasn’t, who might commit such terrorism, and what sorts of environmental resources were vulnerable. Since then, it has been the subject of academic and government analyses. Now, twenty years later, it is time to revisit the concept in light of worsening anthropogenic climate change, the rise of authoritarian states and ecofascism, and gray-zone conflicts in international relations.

Diversity On The Altiplano: Geochemical Perspectives On 3,000 Years Of Potting Practices In The Lake Titicaca Basin, Elizabeth Klarich, Abigail Levine, Andrew P. Roddick, Jennifer Zovar, Cyrus Banikazemi, Laure Dussubieux, Colette Gabler

Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Potters in the Lake Titicaca basin produced a wide variety of ceramic styles over the last 3000 years. Archaeologists have drawn on this variety across space and time to track processes such as the development of multi-community polities during the Late Formative (200 BC-AD 600), the origins and expansion of Tiwanaku (AD 600–1000), the creation and maintenance of political boundaries during the Late Intermediate period (AD 1000–1400), and the strategies of Inca conquest and consolidation (AD 1400–1534). We report on LA-ICP-MS research into Titicaca ceramics and clays conducted at the Field Museum’s Elemental Analysis Facility (EAF), and present the first …

The Concept Of The Devarāja In Leadership At The Royal Palace Of Yogyakarta, Ghilman Assilmi

International Review of Humanities Studies

The Yogyakarta Palace is one of the Islamic sultanates that still exists in Indonesia. Even though the Yogyakarta Palace has an Islamic style and has been influenced by modernization which has penetrated aspects of state and society, the embodiment of the God-King concept from ancient Hindu eras remains embedded in the power of the king, state life, and the obedience of the surrounding community to the palace system. This paper has a problem regarding how to apply the concept of politics and power in the Yogyakarta Palace. A historical approach is used to reveal the meaning of the palace in …

Image Building On European Security By France Through Military Officer Education Programme, Helmy Ariansyah, Henny Saptatia Drajati Nugrahani

Journal of Strategic and Global Studies

This study aims to explore image building activities carried out by France on European security through educational programs for military officers. In this education, military officers were envoys of various friendly countries of France. This military officers education is a forum where France can disseminate its national security vision and mission. France intension is to demonstrate its strong military traditions, as well as its solid doctrine and battle strategy in anticipation of regional and global threats. The programs offered by France in the education program are considered attractive to its partners. This study used participatory observation methods conducted to reconstruct …

When And Why Do Arabs Verify? Predicting Online News Verification Intention During The 2023 Gaza War, Menna Elhosary

Theses and Dissertations

Guided by the network gatekeeping and secondary gatekeeping theoretical frameworks, this study employed a 2 (news headlines: pro-Palestine/anti-Palestine) x 2 (news sources: the Times of Israel/Al-Jazeera English) experiment embedded in an online survey on a purposive sample of Arab social media users (N= 452), aiming to understand the antecedents of online news verification during the 2023 Gaza War1. The study investigated the motives that might have encouraged or discouraged Arabs from verifying the war-related news circulated on social media. A model was proposed to examine the role of confirmation bias in shaping perceptions about sources and messages, thereby impacting online …

Nigerian Politicians And Language Use During Political Compaigns: A Studi Of Select Speeches, Miriam Stephen Inegbe

International Review of Humanities Studies

This essay appraised linguistic features in selected utterances of some prominent and leading Nigerian politicians during political rallies held between October and December, 2022. These utterances, which serve as data for this paper were extracted from some Nigerian tabloids like NaijaNews.com, Opera News, Politic.nigeria.com, RealMedia, Vanguard News, Voice of the People (VoP) and www.thisdaylive.com. In linguistics, utterances are viewed as unit of speech. The significant meaning of speech, therefore, embeds in the utterance which may provide a basis for social positions and further interpretative actions or decisions by the listener. The data for this study were eleven (11) purposively selected …

Domestic And Foreign Policies Are Intertwined, Matthew Thomas Becker

Faculty and Student Publications

This guest editorial appeared in multiple venues:

1. Missoulian, 25 January 2024
2. The Oxford Eagle, 29 January 2024
3. The Panolian, 29 January 2024
4. Magnolia Tribune, 30 January 2024
5. The Laurel Leader, 31 January 2024
6. The Commercial Dispatch, 1 February 2024
7. The Daily Progress. 7 February 2024

Turkey Vs Italy: Gender And Cyber Security, Esra Merve Caliskan, Irem Itegin

Journal of Cybersecurity Education, Research and Practice

With the development of technology, security, a core human concern throughout history,has changed and branched out into new areas. Novel security concepts, including environmental security, economic security, and cybersecurity, have emerged as a result of these expanding areas. The importance of cybersecurity has increased in the linked world of today as a result of how prevalent technology is in our daily lives. This study looks at how the literature on international relations approaches the idea of cybersecurity, with an emphasis on the role gender dynamics play.

This study adopts a comprehensive strategy in recognition of the possibility that people of …

Performance Of Military Veterans In Law Enforcement Careers At A Midwest Law Enforcement Agency, Michael Timothy O'Neill

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

No abstract provided.

International Competition In The High North: Kingston Conference On International Security 2022

Books, Monographs & Collaborative Studies

The 16th annual Kingston Consortium on International Security conference, “International Competition in the High North,” took place on October 11–13, 2022, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. The conference examined the Arctic region in the context of ongoing climate change and against the backdrop of war in Ukraine. Over the past several years, the United States has acknowledged the growing importance of the Arctic as a strategic region, and the Department of Defense and each of the US military services have published Arctic policies or strategies. In addition, the Department of Defense has created a new regional study center, the Ted Stevens …

Book Review: Forging The Anglo-American Alliance: The British And American Armies, 1917–1941, Dean Nowowiejski

Parameters Bookshelf – Online Book Reviews

Author: Tyler R. Bamford

Reviewed by Dr. Dean Nowowiejski, professor and Ike Skelton Distinguished Chair for the Art of War, US Army Command and General Staff College

Professor and historian Dean Nowowiejski presents a thoughtful review of historian Tyler R. Bamford’s study on the “long-term impact of the interwar relationship between army officers” of the United States and Great Britain, which “endured despite tensions” and “despite the absence of guidance and in advance of the political approval that would later lead to the formal alliance.” Nowowiejski highlights Bamford’s emphasis on military exchanges, mechanization, military attachés, and intelligence sharing and notes …

Biographical Memoirs: Napoleon A. Chagnon, Raymond B. Hames

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Napoleon A. Chagnon (August 27, 1938–September 21, 2019), elected to the National Academy of Science in 2012. A Biographical Memoir by Raymond B. Hames, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Chagnon was a Renaissance anthropologist who made numerous fundamental contributions to anthropology. His films and ethnography have been viewed by millions around the world. He combined a humanistic eye in research with an unwavering scientific approach to human culture and behavior. He set multiple standards for long-term field research in terms of methodological rigor and refinement. He made some of the first tests of inclusive fitness theory in human behavior. And he was …

The Degradation Effects Of Targeted Drone Killings Against Al-Qaeda In The Arabian Peninsula, Isaac Oeltjen

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

One of the most significant national security threats of the 21st century is international terrorism from groups associated with the Global Jihadist Movement (GJM). Since the terrorist attacks on 9/11, this threat has been confronted through various counterterrorism measures accompanying the Global War on Terror (GWOT). One of the most widely used and controversial counterterrorism tactics that has been implemented is the targeted killing of terrorist leaders and facilitators using unmanned aerial drones. Often occurring outside legitimate theaters of war, targeted drone killings are heralded as an effective way to degrade the operational capability of terrorist organizations with minimal risk …