Digital Commons Network^™

From Concert To Confrontation : The Ideational Motives Of Russia's Wars With Georgia (2008) And Ukraine (2014), Inguna Miller

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation examines the ideational background of Russian foreign policy, with a particular focus on ideas relevant to Russia’s conflicts with Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine in 2014. Two broad approaches to Russian foreign policy – nationalism and pragmatism – present distinct views on Russia’s international role. Nationalism incorporates strong anti-Western and neo-imperialistic ideas with emphasis on Russia’s unique international mission and advocates a confrontational stance. Pragmatism conceptualizes Russia as a great world power but proposes a concert-based foreign policy that avoids a direct military confrontation. Both schools of thought are prevalent in Russia’s foreign policy discourse, and their ideas …

The Terrifying Convergence: A Legacy Of The U.S Far-Right’S Leaderless Resistance In The Twentieth Century, Ryan Szpicek

History Honors Program

A former Klansman and Aryan Nations ambassador named Louis Beam argued that right-wing activists would need to go to war with the U.S. federal government to preserve their culture. He updated an organizational theory known as “leaderless resistance” to prepare the right-wing militants for war. His version of leaderless resistance called for a decentralized communication network that allowed right-wing activists to exchange knowledge about engaging in independent violence. Aryan Nations brought leaderless resistance theory to life through their Aryan Liberty Network, which debuted in 1984 and enabled previously isolated right-wing groups in the United States to communicate with one another. …

Judge, Jury, And Executioner: Drone Warfare And The Expansion Of American Executive Authority (2001-2020), Joseph Pignataro

History Honors Program

This paper examines how the United States’ proliferation of unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), or drones, have allowed the executive branch to concentrate its power to wage the post-9/11 War on Terror. This paper will examine the proliferation of drone warfare during the George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Donald Trump presidential administrations and how they have expanded executive authority. Although historians have emphasized the moral and legal consequences of drone warfare such as its civilian casualties and potential violations of U.S. and international law, they have paid little attention to its impact on the distribution of power among the …

The Materiality Of Metaphor In Mayan Hieroglyphic Texts : Metaphor In Changing Political Climates, Rebecca Ann Dinkel

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Recent research on the discursive and rhetorical forms of Mayan hieroglyphic texts has demonstrated how language and writing were used to frame, not just represent, Pre-Columbian Mayan history. Research on the role of metaphor in this framing has only just begun, and despite the well-known multimodal character of Mayan hieroglyphic texts, research on the role of metaphors in pictorial images has been even more limited. Previous research has not fully documented metaphor variation, particularly as it materializes across different modalities, media, places, and times. Doing so will allow for more subtle and elaborate interpretations of metaphor use and meaning in …

Journeying To A Third Space Of Sovereignty: Explorations Of Land, Cultural Hybridity, And Sovereignty In Ceremony And There There, Jillian Eve Sanchez

English (MA) Theses

In Native American literature, there is a discourse that solely focuses on the relationship between Indigenous people and the land. This relationship is vital to understanding the traditions, rituals, storytelling, and practices of Native Americans. The presence of settler colonialism changes the relationship, effectively changing the nature of cultural and spiritual relationships as well. Indigenous literature provides examples of the modern relationship Native people have with their land; an example of this is Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony and Tommy Orange’s There There Despite modernity, assimilation, and ways of life introduced by settler colonialism, Native people maintain a relationship to the …

The United States And Its Coercive Democratization Attempts In Japan And Iraq, Noah Shepardson

College Honors Program

The United States engaged in coercive democratization (bringing democracy to a country via coercive measures such as occupation) endeavors in both Japan and Iraq, achieving drastically different results. The democratization of Japan is typically regarded as the gold standard of coercive democratization due to Japan’s rapid social and economic development following the United States’ occupation of the country in the years after World War II. The United States’ democratization effort in Iraq, on the other hand, has failed to create such prosperous conditions and has arguably made Iraq more unstable. This thesis seeks to identify why coercive democratization worked in …

Weird And Cosmic Short Horror Fiction And The Illustration Of Existential Fears, Brianna Williams

Honors Theses

The literary genre of horror fiction is uniquely capable of presenting its readers with the horrific, terrifying, and repulsive while remaining an acceptable and sought-after genre. Moreover, the horror genre is also often able to serve as a type of lens through which readers can recognize socio-historical and cultural fears. Within the many subgenres of horror, cosmic and weird horror continue in this ability, but are able to present their readers with more abstract, existential fears. This research is an exploration and analysis of the ability of cosmic and weird horror to reveal the real, personal existential fears of their …

Apostolic And Prophetic Leadership In The Contemporary Church: Applied Study Of The Early Church Model, Jordanna Marie Taffel

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The research addresses the application of apostolic and prophetic governance in church plants. Research methods include surveying and interviewing pastors from Every Nation, the researcher’s local church senior and senior associate pastors, and church plant lead pastors. Every Nation is a “global movement dedicated to church-planting churches, reaching the next generation on the campus, and preaching the gospel to every nation.” The sample size is thirteen pastors. The setting was in person and/or via video call. The research includes current, historical, and scholarly literary resources, the Bible, and the local church’s planting materials. The idea of what it means to …

Overcoming The Lack Of Expressive Worship In The Haitian Seventh-Day Adventist Church, Yoner Valmyr

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Many Haitian Seventh-day Adventist members are not pleased with the Haitian Seventh-day Adventist Church’s lack of expressive worship. According to research, Haitian church members are unable to freely express themselves in corporate worship due to rationalistic, as oppose to kinesthetic worship practices. During worship services, Haitian Seventh-day Adventist members, young and old, are afraid to have an authentic demonstrative worship experience because of “soma phobia,” the fear of letting themselves or their bodies get out of control. Because of a traditional European cultural ethos that still exists, there is a fear that others may look upon them as ungodly. When …

Defending A Nation: Synthesizing Geographic Information System Analysis And Ground Penetrating Radar To Locate Battlefield Features Associated With The 1780 Siege Of Charleston, Lisa Gardiner

All Theses

Common methods used to locate battlefield features have not been utilized extensively on the Charleston peninsula. This thesis explores methods used to locate battlefield features and their effectiveness on the Charleston peninsula. The methods were utilized in areas related to the Siege of Charleston in 1780 during the American Revolution. These methods include research into historic accounts of battlefield features, geographic information systems (GIS) to georeference historic maps of the Charleston peninsula, LiDAR to detect the topography of the land and locate any changes to the land over time, and finally ground penetrating radar (GPR) to locate any battlefield features. …

Military Working Dogs: Tracking Their Journey From Equipment To K-9 Heroes, Virginia Thomas

Library Scholarly Publications

The author surveys the history of legislation governing the lives and uses of military working dogs (MWD).

Failoure On All Fronts: The United States Army In The First Year Of The War Of 1812, Gary H. Nobbs Jr.

History Theses

The United States declared war on the United Kingdom in the hopes of defending the nation's national honor. However, the United States Army was unprepared to go wage war. The army's supply system, militia system, and field commanders failed and led to a disastrous first year of conflict.

Measuring The Range Of Attention To Preview And Its Momentary Persistence In Simulated Driving, Tyler N. Morrison, Richard J. Jagacinski, Jordan Petrov

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2021

Participants used a position control system to track the center of a simulated winding roadway with preview that ranged from 0.3 to 1.0 s. Participants’ spatial distributions of attention were measured by perturbing the roadway with different frequency sinusoids at different roadway positions and then measuring the degree to which those frequencies were present in their tracking movements. Participants exhibited a continuous range of attention, and it lengthened with the amount of displayed preview. When preview disappeared for 5 s, longer time to regress to feedback control was strongly correlated with the amount of preview that was withdrawn. During preview …

A Model Of Space Operator Training Motivation Using Serious Games, Foster E. Davis, Michael E. Miller

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2021

Services provided by spacecraft, including communications and global positioning, are integral to small businesses, multinational corporations, and the United States Department of Defense. United States rivals recognize the advantage provided by the space domain and are exploring ways to degrade these services in their warfare doctrine. In response, the United States requires space systems suited to counter these threats and personnel who are trained to respond to the newly contested environment. Training research has shown that trainee characteristics, including motivation, can significantly impact training outcomes. Beyond the training literature, guidelines have been developed for motivating game play which might apply …

Modern Practices For Flightcrew Training Of Procedural Knowledge, Nathan Sonnenfeld, Blake Nguyen, Class Tido Boesser, Florian Jentsch

International Symposium on Aviation Psychology - 2021

Instructional systems utilizing electronic and distance learning approaches (E&DL) have advanced the accessibility and capabilities of training in aviation and other industries. The aviation industry is particularly interested in how to extend the use of E&DL from training facts and information to training procedures, and how to integrate E&DL into existing training. We reviewed a corpus of literature including over 1,200 scientific, regulatory, and technical documents—across domains including aviation, defense, healthcare, and education—focusing on the effectiveness of E&DL for training procedures and the design, development, and evaluation of E&DL. We received input from subject matter experts with respect to contemporary …

Lessons Learned: A Successful And Balanced Framework For Post-Conflict Transitional Justice In Myanmar, Joanna Gisel

University of Dayton Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Error Of The Paquete Habana: U.S. Naval Forces In The Safe Harbor Of Commander-In-Chief Discretion And The Law Of War, T. Nelson Collier

St. Mary's Law Journal

Abstract forthcoming.

Habitation And Interaction In The Lower Illinois River Valley: A Case Study On Household Structure And Ceramics At The German Site (11c377)., Catherine Zoe Doubles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to investigate the less understood narrative of the Late Woodland peoples at the German site within the Lower Illinois River Valley. In order to determine the extent of Mississippian cultural interaction with the Jersey Bluff Phase, Late Woodland, peoples, I will examine the houses and artifacts found during the 2019 field season by the Centre for American Archeology. Data from the geophysical surveys, notes from the site excavations, and ceramic analysis will be used to place the German site within the theoretical framework and archaeological context of the region. In the end, the objective …

Determination Of The Biological Functions Of Undefined Domains Of Veev Nsp2., Andrew Michael Skidmore

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Alphaviruses are positive sense, single strand, RNA viruses. These viruses occur on every populated continent. Alphaviruses are divided into two clades, the New-World and Old-World viruses. The New-World viruses include Eastern (EEEV), Western (WEEV), and Venezuelan equine encephalitis viruses (VEEV), and cause neuroinvasive disease. The Old-World viruses include Chikungunya (CHIKV) and Ross River viruses (RRV), and typically cause multijoint arthralgia. There are currently no approved antiviral therapeutics or vaccines for any alphavirus, making them a high priority for antiviral drug design and discovery. A benzamidine inhibitor (ML336) of VEEV was characterized, and determined to inhibit replication of VEEV RNA during …

Restoring The Public In Public Policy: Lessons From Lasch, Arendt, And Rawls, Anthony M. Barr

Pepperdine Policy Review

Contemporary political debates on the Left about equality tend to emphasize either equality of opportunity or equality of outcome. Neoliberals focus on market-based interventions that can increase individual upward mobility while Social Democrats call for state-based interventions that result in equitable distribution of resources. In this article, I challenge both of these conceptions, arguing that an overreliance on both the free market and the administrative state can undermine individual agency and exclude everyday citizens from political deliberation and decision-making. I argue that a better aspirational model is equality of participation in political deliberations and processes. Drawing on Christopher Lasch, Hannah …

Maximum Pressure With Minimal Success: Recognizing Iranian Resolve In Pursuit Of A Revised U.S. Foreign Policy, Alexine D. Carr

Pepperdine Policy Review

The relationship between the United States and Iran, specifically regarding Iran's nuclear program, offers a case study for a calculated approach to cross-border conflict management. In considering a range of options for mitigating the conflict, it is prudent to weigh alternative dispute resolution procedures (mediation, arbitration, and negotiation) with more forceful measures such as coercive diplomacy or the use of military intervention. By evaluating multiple approaches and assessing risk, a better understanding of the overall situation and insight into the validity of using ADR as a mechanism to manage complex, intractable conflicts is developed. The purpose of this paper is …

The Rwandan Genocide: A Study For Policymakers Engaged In Foreign Policy, Diplomacy, And International Development, Emily A. Milnes

Pepperdine Policy Review

Over a period of 100 days between April and mid-July of 1994, the Rwandan genocide claimed the lives of approximately 800,000 Rwandans and caused the displacement of an estimated two million refugees into surrounding nations (UNHCR). The eruption of fear, brutality, and violence as Rwandans massacred Rwandans stemmed from decades of civil war fueled by intractable existential, political, and socioeconomic conflicts between Tutsis and Hutus. After the genocide ended and the United Nations’ investigative task force began sifting through brutally macheted bodies in churches, stadiums, rivers and roadsides, the international community and policymakers began to ask what they could or …

Performance Evaluation And Review Framework Of Robotic Missions (Perform): Autonomous Path Planning And Autonomy Performance Evaluation, Allisa Dalpe

Doctoral Dissertations

The scope of this work spans two main areas of autonomy research 1) autonomous path planning and 2) test and evaluation of autonomous systems. Path planning is an integral part of autonomous decision-making, and a deep understanding in this area provides valuable perspective on approaching the problem of how to effectively evaluate vehicle behavior.

Autonomous decision-making capabilities must include reliability, robustness, and trustworthiness in a real-world environment. A major component of robot decision-making lies in intelligent path-planning. Serving as the brains of an autonomous system, an efficient and reliable path planner is crucial to mission success and overall safety. A …

Positive Rhetoric, Prejudiced Policy: The Contradiction Of Islamophobia In American Government After 9-11., Molly Bilz

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

Following the tragic terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, local and national leaders responded to the security crisis by uniting the country under the American ideals of freedom and democracy while condemning the Islamic terrorist group responsible. With beliefs rooted in historical American and European prejudice, Western scholarship promoted a “clash of civilizations” between Islam and the West wherein the cultures’ supposed irreconcilable differences would inevitably lead to warfare. Simultaneously, many Americans grew suspicious of Muslims after the attacks, including government officials. As hate crimes against Muslim and Middle Eastern Americans soared in the U.S., government leaders used positive rhetoric …

The Development Of International Civil Aviation Regulations, 1899-1944, Jordan Bruce

History Honors Theses

The International Civil Aviation Organization is the modern day arbiter of aviation regulations. Affairs between nations, principally between the United States and Great Britain, but also between other world powers at various points throughout history, dictated how the ICAO came to be a child organization of the United Nations and the impact created regulations had on the conduct of civil aviation between nations of the world between the first powered flight and the conclusion of World War II. The creation of the ICAO serves as a reminder of the power of foreign collaboration toward a shared goal, even at times …

Cross Domain Iw Threats To Sof Maritime Missions: Implications For U.S. Sof, Gary C. Kessler, Diane M. Zorri

Publications

As cyber vulnerabilities proliferate with the expansion of connected devices, wherein security is often forsaken for ease of use, Special Operations Forces (SOF) cannot escape the obvious, massive risk that they are assuming by incorporating emerging technologies into their toolkits. This is especially true in the maritime sector where SOF operates nearshore in littoral zones. As SOF—in support to the U.S. Navy— increasingly operate in these contested maritime environments, they will gradually encounter more hostile actors looking to exploit digital vulnerabilities. As such, this monograph comes at a perfect time as the world becomes more interconnected but also more vulnerable.

The Kararaô Of Central Brazil By Gustaaf Verswijver, John Hemming

Tipití: Journal of the Society for the Anthropology of Lowland South America

No abstract provided.

Analysis Of Ship Airwakes Using Modal Decomposition, Nicholas Zhu

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The three-dimensional, unsteady, and turbulent airwake produced by a scaled model of a generic Navy ship (Simple Frigate Shape No. 2) was investigated in a low-speed wind tunnel. Stereoscopic, time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TR-PIV) measurements were made at six different crosswise planes over the flight deck region of the ship model, with and without the effect of a simulated atmospheric boundary layer (ABL).

Spatiotemporal analyses of the TR-PIV measurements were performed using modal decomposition, and the modes were decomposed further based on the frequency contents of their time dynamics. This approach allowed an inspection of the individual scales of the …

Ephemeral Existence: Tracing Early Twentieth Century Tattoos And Perceptions Of Identity Within The New Orleans Police Department Mugshot Collection, Kaylie M. Mccarthy

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

People have long used tattoos as markers of identification. However, there remain limited scholarly studies on the history of tattoos within the city of New Orleans. This thesis argues that through analysis of the tattoos recorded in the New Orleans Police Department Mugshot Collection, it is possible to situate the early twentieth century arrested population within a greater societal context, allowing for the intimate details of individual lives and personal stories to come to the forefront. Through the synthesis of demographic data from the 152 mugshots that pertain to tattooed arrestees, and three case studies on arrestees with patriotic, nautical, …

Constructing History: Richard Iii And The Wars Of The Roses: A Teaching Unit, Lawson Hammock

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The entirety of modern academia is founded on some form of historical authentication and interpretation. Historical exploration, in fact, represents the necessary element for the cognitive linking of interdisciplinary learning. At essence academic historiography is first - the product of intrigue - and then its contemporary expression. But though the field of academic history poses the perfect union of science and literary arts, modern instruction has sometimes grappled with finding and striking the optimal balance for effectively teaching historical authentication and its interpretation. Recognition and application of both aspects are essential to the effective demonstration of history as a viable, …