Digital Commons Network^™

Comparative Study Of Transition To Democracy In Portugal And Iran, Loosineh Markarian Senagani

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The thesis compares the period of transition to democracy in Portugal and Iran after the collapse of the authoritarian regimes through revolutions in 1974 in Portugal and 1979 in Iran. Despite the similarities the cases share, the outcome of the transition in Portugal was a political democracy while Iran faced the rise of authoritarianism. The research compares the similar and dissimilar variables between Portugal and Iran such as the form of the break with authoritarianism and holding of initial elections, institutional design, involvement in wars, and popular mobilization. By keeping respecting factors as control variables, the thesis argues for the …

Understanding Norms Without A Theory Of Mind, Kristin Andrews

Sentience Collection

I argue that having a theory of mind requires having at least implicit knowledge of the norms of the community, and that an implicit understanding of the normative is what drives the development of a theory of mind. This conclusion is defended by two arguments. First I argue that a theory of mind likely did not develop in order to predict behavior, because before individuals can use propositional attitudes to predict behavior, they have to be able to use them in explanations of behavior. Rather, I suggest that the need to explain behavior in terms of reasons is the primary …

Reconceptualizing The 2006 Qdr Threat Categories, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Projections of the future national-security environment are always laden with uncertainty and ambiguity. However, they help to serve an early-warning function concerning emergent threats and the nationalist capabilities that will be required to respond to them. With this in mind, I would like to offer a reconceptualization of the 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review, or QDR, threat categories by viewing these threat potentials through a modified perceptual lens.

The Ties That Bind: An Examination Of Outgroup Relationships As A Deviant Behavior, Carrie L. Shamos

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Contact programs, such as Seeds of Peace, subscribe to the assertion that an essential element to co-existence between groups with a violent history is to provide situations in which out-group members are encouraged to form new relationships. Although the individual may have positive feelings toward out-group members at the conclusion of the program, he or she must return home to existing social networks, which may not hold the same tolerant attitudes. This research explores what happens when individuals present new out-group relationships to existing peer groups. Under what circumstances, if any, can participants sustain new relationships when they return to …

Communion In The South Union: An Archaeological Analysis Of A Shaker Colony, Daniel Tallent

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

Long Live Democracy: The Determinants Of Political Instability In Latin America, Luisa Blanco, Robin Grier

School of Public Policy Working Papers

In this paper, we investigate the determinants of political instability in Latin America. In a panel of 18 Latin American countries from 1971 to 2000, we find that democratic countries experience less average instability in the region, indicating that the move to increased democracy in the last couple decades may alleviate the persistent problem of instability in the area. We also find that income inequality and ethnic fractionalization are important determinants of instability. Countries with low levels of inequality also suffer less instability on average, while ethnic diversity has a non-linear effect on instability. Many macroeconomic variables commonly thought to …

Chinese Eyes On The Prize: Strategic Partnerships And Changing Priorities, Elizabeth O'Grady

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The overall theme of this paper is increasing knowledge of the evolution of Chinese priorities and strategy since the Korean War, and how the evolution of China's relationships reveals changes in priorities. Why were these partnerships entered into on the part of China? What was China's strategic thinking? How do strengths and weaknesses in these partnerships reflect China's changing priorities? To attempt to answer these questions, three case studies are used to reveal and analyze changes: Sino- North Korean relations since the Korean War, Sino-Russian relations after the end of the Cold War, and Chinese participation (relations with member states) …

Folklore And The Internet: Vernacular Expression In A Digital World, Trevor J. Blank

All USU Press Publications

Folklore and the Internet is a pioneering examination of the folkloric qualities of the World Wide Web, e-mail, and related digital media. It shows that folk culture, sustained by a new and evolving vernacular, has been a key, since the Internetýs beginnings, to language, practice, and interaction online. Users of many sorts continue to develop the Internet as a significant medium for generating, transmitting, documenting, and preserving folklore. In a set of new, insightful essays, contributors Trevor J. Blank, Simon J. Bronner, Robert Dobler, Russell Frank, Gregory Hansen, Robert Glenn Howard, Lynne S. McNeill, Elizabeth Tucker, and William Westerman showcase …

The New U.S. Doctrine Of Preemptive Warfare And Its Implications For Nuclear Deterrence And Disarmament, Erika Simpson

Political Science Publications

No abstract provided.

Most Downloaded Documents For December 2008, University Of Nebraska–Lincoln Digital Commons

Institutional Repository Information

Top 206 articles = 15,618 downloads
Other downloaded articles (14,462) = 81,236 downloads
Articles not downloaded this month (4,787)
Month total (19,455 open-access articles) = 96,854
Percent of open-access articles downloaded = 75.4%
Average downloads/article = 4.98

36 articles downloaded 90 or more times were:

Electronic Rodent Repellent Devices: A Review of Efficacy Test Protocols and Regulatory Actions|http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/nwrcrepellants/34|688
Wildlife Strikes to Civil Aircraft in the United States 1990-2005|http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/birdstrikeother/7|545
Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection Bibliography - Volume II: English and European Languages (2000)|http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/afghanenglish/13|454
The Constitutions of the Free-Masons (1734). An Online Electronic Edition.|http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libraryscience/25|373
Role of Esterase gp70 and Its Influence on Growth …

Political Theory Websites And Bibliography, Steven Alan Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Erik Von Kuehnelt-Leddihn: The Intelligent American’S Guide To Europe (1979) Study Guide, Steven Alan Samson

Faculty Publications and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Ethnic Politics, Political Corruption And Poverty: Perspectives On Contending Issues And Nigeria's Democratization Process, Dewale Adewale Yagboyaju

Ethnic Studies Review

It is common to interpret African politics in tribal or ethnic terms. In the case of Nigeria, the dominant political behaviour can be defined, on the one hand, in terms of "incessant pressures on the state and the consequent fragmentation or prebendalizing of state-power" (Joseph, 1991:5). On the other hand, such practices can also be related to "a certain articulation of the factors of class and ethnicity" (ibid). For a better understanding of the essentials of Nigerian politics and its dynamics, it is necessary to develop a clearer perspective on the relationship between the two social categories mentioned above and …

Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps (Njrotc): The Impact Of Njrotc Participation On Naval Accessions And Retentions, Phillip T. Angelini Edd

Dissertations

Officially, the Navy Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps' (NJROTC) mission is to educate high school students on the value of citizenship, public service, and personal responsibility. Since 1916, proponents and opponents have debated the value of the various Junior ROTC programs; however, there has been little empirical research that describes the extent to which these programs have actually benefited the services. As such, the purpose of this study was to examine the NJROTC program by analyzing the impact program participation has on Navy accessions and retentions from 2001 to 2005. The methodology used in this study was an exclusively quantitative …

A Preliminary Survey Of Lesser-Known Polyandrous Societies, Katie Starkweather

Nebraska Anthropologist

To challenge the common misconception that there are only four societies in the world that allow polyandry, this paper uses types of polyandry, suggested by Levine and Sangree (1980), to identify polyandrous societies from India, Africa, South America, and North America. Basic issues of these societies are examined within the context of four commonly cited attempts to explain the existence of polyandry. The goal of the paper is a preliminary look at the existence of polyandry around the world and an initial exploration of issues that mayor may not be associated with this form of marriage.

From Hiroshima To Baghdad: Military Hegemony Versus Just Military Preparedness, Harry Van Der Linden

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

In this paper I question the morality of U.S. military supremacy or hegemony in terms of what constitute the legitimate use of military force and the proper preparation for using such force. I first discuss in a somewhat synoptic fashion how American hegemonic military force (from its very beginning with the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima) has been justified in dishonest ways and wrongly executed. Next, I show that Just War Theory (JWT) needs to be revised in order to come to a convincing assessment of U.S. military hegemony and its use of military force. This leads me …

The Sino-Soviet Split: Cold War In The Communist World, Austin Jersild

History Faculty Publications

A reader of both Russian and Chinese, Lorenz M. Lüthi provides fascinating depth and detail to an unstable Sino-Soviet alliance shaped by strong and ambitious personalities, nationalist sensitivities, cultural misunderstandings, and the perhaps inevitable clash between two societies at very different stages in “socialist” history.

The Responsibility To Protect: A Policy Forum, Sarah Bania-Dobyns, Kathy Gockel, Kyle Matthews, Jodi Vittori

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Human Rights and Human Welfare is pleased to offer its first policy forum-a new type of review to add to our review essays, book notes and roundtable. In this policy forum we asked practitioners in the field to review a set of policy reports on the responsibility to protect. R2P, as practitioners and scholars alike have come to know this policy area, like many of the human rights concepts addressed by HRHW, is a multifaceted concept requiring perspectives from different fields and professions to address it comprehensively. Further, R2P is a quickly changing policy issue, and academics and practitioners …

A Symposium On Confronting Global Terrorism And American Neo-Conservatism: The Framework Of A Liberal Grand Strategy. By Tom Farer. Oxford, Uk: Oxford University Press, 2008., Richard Falk, Dino Kritsiotis, Paul Taylor, Tom Farer

Human Rights & Human Welfare

A review of:

Confronting Global Terrorism and American Neo-Conservatism: The Framework of a Liberal Grand Strategy. By Tom Farer. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Transforming Children Of War Into Agents Of Change, Brooke Breazeale

Human Rights & Human Welfare

Since the turn of the century, Sub-Saharan Africa has experienced the fastest growing rate of child soldiers. Consider the following statistics:

• An estimated 60 percent of child soldiers in Africa are fourteen years old and under (Singer 2006: 29);
• In Uganda the average age of personnel in armed forces is 12.9 (Singer 2006: 29);
• Since 1990, two million children have been killed in armed conflict, the equivalent of five hundred per day for ten years (Singer 2005).

The Methodists' Great 1869 Camp Meeting And Aboriginal Conservation Strategies In The North Saskatchewan River Valley, George Colpitts

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

George McDougall, chairman of the Methodist Missions to the Indians of the Northwest Territories, kept a large, black book in which he jotted sermon notes, references to classical and biblical literature and sometimes simply his itineraries by horseback from Victoria, the primary Methodist mission in the far British northwest. Under the "s" tab and labeled "Saskatchewan," he noted repeatedly in the 1860s the food crisis facing North Saskatchewan residents. In sum: ''A time of starvation. No buffalo."

In this article I analyze a buffalo hunt which occurred in 1869. That spring, many hundreds of Cree, Assiniboine, Stoney, and Metis hunters …

Review Of The Cherokee Nation And The Trail Of Tears By Theda Perdue And Michael D. Green, Rowena Mcclinton

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Past chief of the Cherokee Nation (1985-1995) and social activist Wilma Mankiller remarked, "We are still here." Facing rampant racism, a fraudulent treaty, and then dislocation from their homelands in the southeast, Cherokees not only survived but prevailed. Reflectively, Theda Perdue and Michael Green have summarized the complexity and cunning complicity surrounding the 1838-9 infamous Cherokee displacement known as the Trail of Tears, adding to the scholarship of Tim Garrison, Gary Moulton, Walter Conser, Mary Young, and the late William G. McLoughlin.

They juxtapose the remarkable lives of two adversarial Cherokee figures, Major Ridge (along with his son John Ridge, …

Review Of A Terrible Glory: Custer And The Little Bighorn-The Last Great Battle Of The American West By James Donovan; The Day The World Ended At Little Bighorn: A Lakota History By Joseph M. Marshall; Custerology: The Enduring Legacy Of The Indian Wars And George Armstrong Custer By Michael A. Elliott, Robert W. Larson

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

During the last few years a number of books on the Indian wars fought in the upper Great Plains have been published. The three under review here are among the best. Donovan's A Terrible Glory, the most ambitious, is a study of epic proportions involving the life of George Armstrong Custer and his military career, starting with his rather humble birth in Ohio and ending with his death at the Little Bighorn. Donovan does more than just focus on Custer and his tumultuous years with the U.S. Army, however. His first chapter, for instance, deals with the long and …

Archeological Interpretation Of The Frontier Battle At Mud Springs, Nebraska, Peter Bleed, Douglas D. Scott

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Between February 4 and 7, 1865, Cheyenne, Sioux, and Arapaho warriors engaged a force of U.S. Army soldiers at Mud Springs, Nebraska. Historical records from both sides indicate that this fight marked an early phase of the Indian Wars. Based on systematic metal detections, firearms identification, and terrain analysis, this paper adds archeological insights into the arms and tactics used by the opposing sides. Well-armed Native fighters used terrain to approach U.S. troops, who maintained a defensive posture. U.S. soldiers appear to have dug a rifle pit to see approaching attackers.

Domestic Violence And Women's Rights In Nigeria, Bazza

Societies Without Borders

Studies have shown that globally domestic violence accounts for nearly one quarter of all recorded crimes. Women have been subjected to various forms of violence ranging from rape, battering, trafficking and even murder. Although the degree differs from society to society, the occurrence has profound and destructive consequences including psychological, physical, emotional and social disorders. The fact that domestic violence prevails across all strata of the Nigerian society is no longer debatable. Despite the spirited efforts made by the world bodies such as the United Nations (e.g. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights) …

The Limits Of International Humanitarian Law, Melissa Eli

Human Rights & Human Welfare

The goal of international humanitarian law is to humanize war in an effort to minimize human suffering and the long-term negative consequences of war. However, despite the adoption by most countries of the Geneva Conventions and other relevant agreements, crimes of war occur in every conflict around the world on a regular basis. Additionally, as the form of warfare changes, so does the implementation and consequences of various war crimes. Genocide, systematic rape, and the use of child soldiers are three of the most significant war crimes facing sub-Saharan Africa today. Each has consequences so severe that specific international laws …

Jihad, Race And Western Media, Post-September 11, Tagg

Societies Without Borders

The article examines jihad within what is loosely referred to as “the Western imagination.” Through the analysis of both popular stereotypes and the broader historical context of religious antagonism and (neo)colonialism, the paper discusses both contemporary political rhetoric and a pair of liberal post September-11 political cartoons. While European and North American political leaders have often stereotyped Muslims in order to justify various “axis of evil” bandwagons and further political and economic interests throughout the Islamic Crescent, I argue here that the liberal media's critiques also often rely on fallacious embodied stereotypes. The pervasiveness of such representations has important implications …

Revisiting Human Rights In Latin America: Introduction, Christina Cerna

Human Rights & Human Welfare

This Topical Research Digest on revisiting human rights in Latin America covers a wide range of subjects, both country specific and thematic, but has as its underlying theme the necessary protection of the human rights of vulnerable groups, whether they are women, children, lesbians, gay men, indigenous peoples, landless peasants, etc. This survey of literature on revisiting human rights in Latin America includes a rich selection of documents from international organizations, international human rights non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and a plethora of American and foreign journals.

Working Hard And Barely Making It: Ideological Contradictions And The Working Poor, Wendi Kane

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The existence of large, relatively comfortable, middle and working classes is what has set the advanced capitalist societies apart from most societies throughout history. These classes, while not quite "privileged," offer the hope of opportunity and upward social mobility for those who work hard. Yet in the last 30 years a growing class of "working poor" has emerged who invest many hours working but at wages that keep upward social mobility beyond their grasp. The existence of the working poor, it seems, dispels a key element in the ideology of individualism; they work hard yet do not "get ahead." This …

Effective Timing Of Feedback During Scenario Based Team Training Within A Simulated Environment, Randolph Astwood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Scenario based training (SBT) allows organizations to train the competencies necessary for effective performance in an environment that replicates critical aspects of the transfer or operational setting. One of the most salient training features that can be delivered during SBT is feedback. Task feedback may be provided to trainees either during a training scenario (immediately following actions) or between training scenarios (after action review). However, little is known regarding the effects of immediate versus delayed feedback given to teams. Prior research on training individuals suggests that immediate feedback improves performance as assessed immediately after training (acquisition performance), however delayed feedback …