Digital Commons Network^™

The Spiritual Significance Of ¿Plata O Plomo?, Pamela L. Bunker, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

A recent insight, gained by the authors after the conclusion of a major research project on Mexican drug groups, is that this insurgency has at its basis a spiritual, if not religious, component that threatens the underlying foundations of our modern Western value system. This component is derived from the well known cartel technique of offering an individual ¿Plata O Plomo?—take our silver or we will fill you with our lead. As a tactic taken by groups with a theological bent, such as La Familia, this offer becomes Faustian, join us and in the process give up your soul or …

Challenges For Human, Social, Cultural, And Behavioral Modeling, S. K. Numrich, Andreas Tolk

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

Today's military focus has moved away from the force-on-force battlefield of the past century and into the domain of irregular warfare and its companion security, stability, transition and reconstruction missions. With that change in focus has come a need to examine the operational environment from a wider perspective, one that includes the whole range of human experiences and circumstances. As the set of factors and list of players expands, the need for reliable modeling and simulation increases, if for no other reason than to help the human decision maker make sense of this expanded decision space. However, to do this, …

The Moral And Legal Basis For Sanctions, Anthony D'Amato

Faculty Working Papers

In order to analyze the moral and legal basis for sanctions in international relations, we have to begin at a stage where there is no centralized government in place. We first need to get a picture of the range of possible sanctions. Next, we need to see what role sanctions play in the international system. Finally, we turn to the intertwined moral and legal considerations that make well-designed sanctions efficacious in today's world. The fundamental objective of sanctions in interstate relations is to make it expensive for a target state to refrain from doing what the sanctioning state wants it …

Terrorism Conflict: How The United States Responds To Al Qaeda Violence And Expressed Grievances, Richard Craig Rosthauser

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study analyzes how the United States responds to Al Qaeda's messages and expressions of grievances and how America's responses escalate the conflict between the United States and Al Qaeda.

After its first two attacks against America, Al Qaeda devised a strategy to draw America into a guerrilla war in Afghanistan, stating its intentions in its "Declaration of War" in 1996. Before this declaration, Al Qaeda worked from the shadows and denied reports it was either funding terrorism or participating in terrorism. Bin Laden continued his denials but took responsibility for some terrorist acts in his messages. President Clinton did …

Deconstructing Collective Identities And Violence: Analytical Perspectives From Indonesia, Brandon Scott Sternquist

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The goal of this study is to establish a more applied, analytical approach to analyses of collective identity and violence while providing insights into the dynamics of the regions of Indonesia considered. By focusing on two regions of Indonesia - Aceh and Kalimantan - which are populated by distinct peoples and have experienced violence in contemporary times, this study contributes to the expanding literature on the social dynamics of identity and violence. To ensure a more practical approach within the study, concepts and frameworks which have contributed to discussions of the nature of identity and acts of violence are utilized. …

Fostering Global Security: Nonviolent Resistance And Us Foreign Policy, Amentahru Wahlrab

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation comprehensively evaluates, for the first time, nonviolence and its relationship to International Relations (IR) theory and US foreign policy along the categories of principled, strategic, and regulative nonviolence. The current debate within nonviolence studies is between principled and strategic nonviolence as relevant categories for theorizing nonviolent resistance. Principled nonviolence, while retaining the primacy of ethics, is often not practical. Indeed, most nonviolent movements have not been principled, or solely principled. Strategic nonviolence is attractive because it does not require any individual or group to believe in a particular faith or ethical tradition. However, strategic nonviolence is problematic as …

Images Of Sub-Saharan Africa And Africans In Western Media, Cherice Joyann Estes

Theses Digitization Project

This study will show that news coverage of Africa is very limited and not proportional to either the continent's population or the number of African countries. Popular culture tends to portray Africa and Africans as primitive and uncivilized. This thesis will show how these representations have severe political consequences in a case study of the Rwandan Genocide. The Western media's portrayal of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide was mischaracterized by the use of old colonial tropes that facilitated western countries' failure to act.

The Principled Case For Employing Private Military And Security Companies In Humanitarian Interventions And Peacekeeping, Deane-Peter Baker, James Pattison

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The possibility of using private military and security companies to bolster the capacity to undertake humanitarian intervention has been increasingly debated. The focus of such discussions has, however, largely been on practical issues and the contingent problems posed by private force. By contrast, this paper considers the principled case for privatising humanitarian intervention. It focuses on two central issues. First, is there a case for preferring these firms to other, state-based agents of humanitarian intervention? In particular, given a state’s duties to their own military personnel, should the use of private military and security contractors be preferred to regular soldiers …

Ua60/3/1 Applied Arts & Health Military Science Publications, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Publications created by the department of Military Science.

Ua60/3/2 Applied Arts & Health Military Science Correspondence, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Correspondence regarding the administration and activities of the WKU Military Science department.

Expanding Opportunity Structures: Parental Investments In Education, Migration, And Extrinsic Risk Reduction Among Indo-Fijians, Dawn B. Neill

Social Sciences

Parental investment strategies are contingent on parental capacities and ecology. Parental embodied capital may be important in aspiration construction and investments in children’s human capital, which is especially important in urban environments where skills are directly tied to wage income. For Indo-Fijians, rural ecology strongly limits opportunities. Here this limitation is conceptualized as extrinsic risk and immune to reduction through enhanced parental investment. Urban migration is interpreted as a risk reduction strategy, given an expanded urban opportunity structure (lower extrinsic risk). Qualitative and quantitative data from 678 Indo-Fijian children suggest that, contingent on parental capacities, parents migrate in response to …

The Rhetoric Of ‘Military Readiness’: Public Discourse, Whales And Navy Sonar, Terence Check

Strategic Communication Studies Faculty Publications

On November 12, 2008, the Supreme Court decided a significant case involving the use of mid-frequency active sonar in the waters off the coast of Southern California. In the decision, Winter v. NRDC, the High Court ruled that the Navy‘s need to conduct military training using active sonar outweighed the interests of environmentalists, who had contended that sonar results in devastating effects on marine mammals. This paper examines the public and legal discourse related to the case, arguing that the Navy invoked an ideograph of that valorized military technology and expertise at the expense of the natural environment. The paper …

Tale Of Two Afghanistans: Comparative Governance And Insurgency In The North And South, Neil A. Englehart

Political Science Faculty Publications

Afghanistan is often depicted as a failing state, but its failures display distinctive patterns over time and space. Regional variations in governance have been important in shaping the ways the Afghan state has failed and the consequences of these failures. This article argues that a history of better governance in the north facilitated the disarmament of militia warlords and comparative stability. By contrast, the south has a long history of minimal formal governance, creating opportunities for increased Taliban insurgency.

Stupider And Worse?, Nick Smith

The University Dialogue

No abstract provided.

The Ugly Truth: Insurgencies Are Brutal, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The intent of this short essay is to move past the hype, rhetoric, and passions of the moment and get to the core of the issue at hand. The ugly truth has nothing to do with who released the documents, why they were released, or even what political outcomes and potential policy fallout will occur after the dust settles. The core issue at hand is that insurgencies, by their very nature, are inherently brutal. This point was recently driven home after doing a considerable amount of research and reflection on issues pertaining to insurgent use of targeted killing, via both …

Transpersonal And Other Models Of Spiritual Development, Harris Friedman, Stanley Krippner, Linda Riebel, Chad Johnson

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This chapter focuses on exploring various models of spiritual development. It first addresses

philosophical dilemmas underpinning the concept of spiritual development by questioning

whether these can be addressed without metaphysical assumptions embedded in religious

worldviews and thus understood in any consensual way across different historical and

cultural contexts. Traditional models of spiritual development are then reviewed, drawing

from indigenous, Eastern, and Western cultures. Integrative-philosophical and scientific

models, including those from the psychology of religion, transpersonal psychology, and

neurobiology, are then presented. The chapter concludes by noting the complexities involved

in understanding spiritual development accompanied by suggestions on future directions

for …

The Self And The Great Chain Of Being: Interview With Robert Bolton, Samuel B. Sotillos

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Relational Spirituality, Part 2 The Belief In Others As A Hindrance To Enlightenment: Narcissism And The Denigration Of Relationship Within Transpersonal Psychology And The New Age, Gregg Lahood

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The aim of this paper is to tease out from the New Age religion and religious transpersonal psychology a more relational spirituality. Humanistic and transpersonal psychologies were important forces in the emergence of the social phenomenon of the New Age. New Age transpersonalism leans toward a restrictive non-relational spirituality because of its historical affirmation of individualism and transcendence. Relational spirituality, which is central to the emerging participatory paradigm, swims against strong and popular currents in New Age transpersonal thinking which tend to see spirituality as an individual, personal, inner pursuit, often into Eastern/Oriental nondualism. Whatever the merits of impersonal Advaita …

Military Innovation In Russia And Japan During The Interwar Years: A Relevant Case Study In Strategic Analysis, Leonard Lira

Faculty Publications

This article looks at military innovation through a political, social, and economic lens. Contrasting Japan and Russia in the interwar years as case study, it demonstrates the importance of political, social, and economic variables as the critical determinants. This begs the question of how these factors affect U.S. military innovation in the coming years.

Foreign Affairs And Party Ideology In America: The Case Of Democrats And World War Ii, Robert P. Saldin

Political Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Gender Differences In Severity And Symptoms Of Post War Trauma And The Effects Of Persisting Psychological Trauma On Quality Of Life Among Bosnian Refugees Living In The United States, Irina Bransteter

ETD Archive

Bosnian refugees, living in Cleveland Ohio, completed questionnaires during the months of March and April of 2009. This study sample consisted of 41 participants, 21 males and 20 females, who have lived in Bosnia for any duration of time during the civil war that took place between May of 1992 to November of 1995. This study employed several assessment measures: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist (PCL), Impact of Event Scale-Revised (IES-R), Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R) and Multidimensional Index of Life Quality (MILQ). The Following hypothesis were proposed: 1) Manifestation of PTSD symptoms of post war trauma will be significantly higher amongst the …

Strategies For The Scientific Progress Of The Developing Countries In The New Millennium: The Case Of Serbia In Comparison With Slovenia And South Korea, Vuk Uskoković, Milica Ševkušić, Dragan P. Uskoković

Pharmacy Faculty Articles and Research

The underlying premise of this essay is the hypothesis that quality and significance of scientific research in any given society could be used as mirrors reflecting its true prosperity. By comparing the two cases of comparatively prosperous scientific management of South Korea and Slovenia, with the example of Serbia, illustrating the poor scientific and industrial productivity typically faced by the developing countries, a few general guidelines for the evolution of a society towards higher scientific and social prominence are outlined. It is argued that the most favourable pattern of growth should be based on the parallel progress in control of …

Resilience & Recovery After War: Refugee Children And Families In The United States, Katherine Porterfield, Adeyinka M. Akinsulure-Smith, Molly A. Benson, Theresa Betancourt, B. Heidi Ellis, Maryam Kia-Keating, Kenneth Miller

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Introducing Purchase On Demand @ Scribner Library, 2009-2010, Andy Krzystynaik

Upstate New York Science Librarians Conference

No abstract provided.

The Civilizing And Sportization Of Gaelic Football In Ireland: 1884–2009, John Connolly, Paddy Dolan

Articles

Over the course of the last 125 years the sport of Gaelic football in Ireland has undergone a sportization and civilizing process as the rules governing the sport became stricter and players developed greater levels of self-control. However, the civilizing of Gaelic football was a particularly fragile and uneven process. The growing social desire to diminish displays of violence was moderated by ambivalence towards violence. Gradually the external social controls on players increased and, greater and more stable levels of internalization occurred reflected by more advanced levels of player self-restraint in the control of violence. At the same time the …

Africentrism And Africentric Rituals: Their Role In Jamaican Male Motivation To Pursue Higher Education, Totlyn A. Oliver

Contemporary Issues in Juvenile Justice

This academic research presents the case for Africentrism and its attendant rituals for the African Diaspora to aid in the motivation and inspiration factor in the male's choice to pursue higher education in Jamaica. The paper discussed Africentric rites of passage against the background of pre-emancipation and post-emancipation education in Jamaica. It also analyzed the current educational system for male nationals along with the implications for applying Africentrism to theories and practice of education for male stu-dents. The major concern precipitating this study was the low levels of male enrolment in institutions of higher learning, as the female population far …

Blood In The Wells: The Troubled Past And Perilous Future Of U.S.-Saudi Relations, Maxwell Czerniawski

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

Perhaps no region other than the Near East plays a more important role in the shaping of both the foreign and domestic policies of the United States. The 9/11 terrorist attacks and subsequent deployment of hundreds of thousands of US soldiers to Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the massive budgetary burden placed upon the United States government (and, by extension, its citizens) as a result of the War on Terror, lay heavily upon the consciousness of the media and the concerns of the American people. Much recent focus has also been placed on the impact that the need for …

Arbitrary Arrest And Detention Of Human Rights Defenders In Iran: Subduing The Voices Demanding Rights, Sachchi Karki

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Arbitrary arrest and detention, oftentimes used to curtail the freedom of opinion and expression, as well as the right to association and peaceful assembly, has continued to characterize Iranian regimes since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Such arrest and detention of human rights defenders (HRD)–who individually or with others act to protect and promote human rights—has demonstrated the repressive nature of the Iranian regime. Human rights lawyers, civil society representatives, journalists, and women’s rights movements and trade union activists are among the most commonly targeted HRD.

Marten Zwanenburg On Killer Robots: Legality And Ethicality Of Autonomous Weapons. By Armin Krishnan. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009. 240pp., Marten Zwanenburg

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Killer Robots: Legality and Ethicality of Autonomous Weapons. By Armin Krishnan. Farnham: Ashgate, 2009. 240pp.

Beyond The Brink: Somalia’S Health Crisis, Bryson Brown

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Somalia is approaching a daunting anniversary: in 2011, the country will begin its twentieth consecutive year without an effective centralized government. The fall of the Soviet supported Siad Barre government in 1991 created a power vacuum that was filled by warlords, clans and, most recently, Islamists. Fourteen interim governments have failed to supplant those forces. Health infrastructure and the general health of the population have been devastated as a result. Precious few organizations are still providing health-related services. Unfortunately, recent events suggest that this crisis is going to get worse before it gets better.