Military History Commons^™

A New Security Framework For Nato’S Eastern Flank, Matthew J. Kukla, Anna Batta

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article argues for a NATO-EU–led security strategy to achieve long-term deterrence in Ukraine after the end of the Russia-Ukraine War. Unlike existing analyses, this article straddles the strategic level of deterrence, outlining an operational road map. Its historical example of the Iraq War shows that long-term security requires the development of plans before a conflict ends, long-term commitments, and multilateral—not unilateral—security efforts. The proposed solution provides strategic planners and policymakers with a low-risk, high-reward approach that leverages burden sharing through a multinational framework.

Rethinking Power: E. H. Carr’S Enduring Lessons For Modern Strategists, Brian J. Hasse

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article argues E. H. Carr’s classic conception of power provides enduring lessons for national security, but these lessons are easily lost in application. Unlike much of the existing literature, this article emphasizes how modern conceptions of power convey an illusion of balance, while the national security bureaucracy constrains the effective synchronization of power. The analysis leverages both historical and contemporary case studies to identify what a balanced conception of power looks like in practice, with the hope of informing US national security strategy and policy in today’s complex security environment.

Geopolitical Chessboard: How Vietnam Shapes American-Chinese Competition, Kiet H. Lê, Hiep X. Trần

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

Vietnam’s geostrategic position—bordering China and commanding key South China Sea maritime routes—makes it a pivotal actor in shaping great-power competition in Southeast Asia. This article argues that the United States should support Vietnam’s neutrality and strategic autonomy as a means of countering Chinese influence. Unlike prior studies that portray regional states as passive players, this analysis highlights Vietnam’s active role in influencing regional dynamics. Through comparative analysis with the Philippines, using historical case studies, geographic assessments, and policy reviews, the article offers practical insights for military and policy practitioners on how geography shapes alliance formation and strategic competition.

Key Themes In Sino-American History, David J. Lorenzo, Ian Murphy

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article examines how historical narratives shape the messaging of the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Republic of China, particularly regarding Sino-American relations. It identifies three key historical themes—trade, discriminatory policies, and Taiwan—that are frequently invoked in China’s statements and information campaigns. By contextualizing these themes, the article argues that military and national security professionals need a deeper understanding of Sino-American history to interpret China’s messaging correctly and counter its influence effectively. The article advocates for the integration of Sino-American historical content into professional military education curricula to enhance strategic awareness and policy formulation.

How Is Going To War Like Buying A Car?: The Bargaining Model Of War, Richard R. Johnson

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

The bargaining model of war, a popular, yet complex international relations theory, emphasizes how nations communicate signals regarding military strength, resolve to fight, and foreign policy goals. Since the military plays a major role in communicating these signals, its leaders should understand this theory, despite its complexities. This article explains the model and its components through the used car sale bargaining process and supplements the analogy with real-world examples of international events. This article will help military and foreign policy professionals easily grasp the concepts of the model.

A Weapon Waiting To Be Used: The Strategic Importance Of The Women Airforce Service Pilots Of World War Ii, Piper Hanson

Student Scholar Symposium Abstracts and Posters

The Women Airforce Service Pilots, or WASP, were a group of women pilots who worked in a civilian capacity with the United States Army Air Force (USAAF) during World War II. The air war in both Europe and the Pacific Theaters was extremely deadly with high casualty rates, and the USAAF struggled to train new aircrews. Established in 1943, the WASP program aimed to free male pilots on the home front for combat duties by allowing women pilots to take over non-combat roles. WASPs ferried military planes from manufacturers to bases, test-piloted damaged or dangerous aircraft, and trained military personnel …

Nails In The Confederacy's Coffin: The Wilson Raid And The End Of The Civil War, Chad A. Bowen

History

Over the course of this thesis, I argue that the Wilson Raids of March-April 1865 played a decisive role in ending the Civil War and beyond it. With this raid, Wilson denied the Confederacy access to the last of its major industrial cities, forcing the Confederate government to concede defeat. The raid, however, faded into the background both due to the proximity of the events to the end of the war and the lack of reporting conducted on the operations. This led to the rise of two groups that sought to deliberately misinterpret events to garner support for Southern writers …

An Alternative To Armageddon: O.P. Weyland And The Development Of Tactical Air Power, Paul Wells

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Theorists and advocates of air power argued that aircraft, not ground forces, would become the dominant platform for victory in war. They promoted the concept of strategic bombing, using aircraft to bypass ground forces and directly attack a nation's industrial capacity to wage war, hoping to ensure quick victory and avoid a repeat of the prolonged slaughter in the trenches of WWI. In 1947, led by advocates of strategic bombing, the United States Air Force (USAF) became an independent and equal branch of the U.S. military. The USAF developed the Strategic Air Command (SAC) to meet the requirements of the …

“We Have Not Failed Our Country In The Past; We Shall Not Fail Her In The Future.”: The Army National Guard In Peace And War During The Interwar Period And World War Ii, Bearington C. Curtis

Dissertations

This dissertation explores one of the most fundamental questions in the War & Society field of American history: how the American people organize for war and how the citizenry has negotiated with themselves and their government to formulate a compromise that is culturally acceptable and militarily practical. Addressing such an elemental yet sweeping question of how a society organizes for war necessitates engagement with a broad swath of historiography, including institutional history, traditional and new military history, cultural assumptions of race and masculinity, politics, and civil-military relations. By taking a holistic approach, the various interests that shaped American military policy …

They Returned Fighting: World War I, Disillusionment, And The Remaking Of African-American Political Life In New York City, Michael Frank

Theses and Dissertations

They Returned Fighting examines how Black New Yorkers used World War I service, wartime activism, and postwar protest to press claims to citizenship and democracy, even as racial violence, discrimination, and contested public memory exposed the limits of that belonging in New York City and the United States.

Hitler's Foreign Legions: Non-German Recruitment And Formations In The Waffen Ss, Jacob O'Bannon

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the Nazi regime, the armed bodyguard of the National Socialist Party the, the SS grew rapidly and eventually recruited foreign manpower. This thesis analyzes the rapid expansion of the SS as an armed military force and traces their forays into non-German states to recruit as the demands of World War II increased. The SS fielded thirty-eight divisions by the end of the war with hundreds of thousands of members not being from Germany. This rapid expansion, undertaken with soldiers from a variety of backgrounds, created a series of fractures between the ideological tenets of the SS and their practices. …

Faith Under The Führer: Protestant Pastors In Nazi Germany, Katie Cassady

Senior Honors Theses

This research examines Protestant churches in Nazi Germany and their varied reactions to Hitler’s Third Reich, tracing the Nazi rise to power, the Kirchenkampf (Church Struggle), the Confessing Church’s resistance, and figures like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Niemoller, and Karl Barth. Hitler campaigned on a platform purporting to support religious freedom, but the state-sponsored persecution of Christian churches later revealed such promises as a facade. The Kirchenkampf exemplifies the reactions of Protestant German churches to Hitler’s rule: The German Christian Movement (GCM) endorsed Hitler’s radical racial theories, while the Confessing Church confronted the unbiblical rhetoric used by the GCM.

America’S Nazis: Denazification, Operation Paperclip, And The Cold War, Oliver L. B. Marcel

Departmental Honors & Graduate Capstone Projects

This essay examines how Operation Paperclip and the postwar recruitment of German scientists influenced American denazification policy during the Cold War. I argue that the United States’ pursuit of scientific and technological advancement repeatedly took precedence over moral and legal accountability. From the Truman and Eisenhower administrations to the Space Race and the creation of the Office of Special Investigations, federal policy reflected a consistent pattern of prioritizing progress over justice. The study demonstrates that Cold War imperatives fundamentally reshaped U.S. political identity and its relationship with former World War II enemies.

Historians At War: A Comparative Analysis Between Thucydides And Xenophon's Accounts Of The Peloponnesian War, Juleeanna S. Fuller

Caroliniana Undergraduate Research Journal

This essay analyzes Thucydides and Xenophon's accounts of the Peloponnesian War, reflecting on the intersection of historical narratives, personal bias, and political perspectives. Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War presents Athens’ decline through the lens of moral and political collapse, emphasizing human nature, rationalism, and realism. Despite his reputation for objectivity, his reconstruction of speeches and selective focus revealed an underlying critique of Athenian democracy, shaped by his own life experiences. However, Xenophon's Hellenica continues the narrative with a pronounced Spartan bias, depicting Spartan hegemony and the Thirty Tyrants in a largely favorable or justified light, while minimizing their brutality …

Memorial Amphitheater, No Author

Documents

Short news article about the Memorial Amphitheater

The Amphitheater Plays A Major Role At The College, Sara Spain

Documents

A feature from the editor of The Flor-Ala in 1956 about the Amphitheater

Proposed Memorial For Soldier-Students Of State Normal School, Mrs. Susan J. Price

Documents

A sketch and proposal for a memorial for soldier-students at State Normal School

Florence Gets Special Stage, Montgomery Alabama Journal And The Times

Documents

Memorial to Men Enlisted in World War Added to State Teachers College, 1930s

John V. Kendall Memoir, John V. Kendall

John Kendall Papers

Memoir Abstract

The John V. Kendall Memoir is a recollection of the Civil War era written in approximately 1902 that describes the experiences of a private in the Tenth Regiment Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. Throughout the memoir, Kendall discusses integral aspects of the life of a union soldier, such as drills, marches, and battlefield affairs. In addition, he intersperses his explanation of daily life with descriptions of key events surrounding the removal of the Sioux from Minnesota, and surrounding territories, with his own constant migration with the army. His specific attention to westward movements along the Mississippi River, as well marches …

John V. Kendall Memoir Transcript, John V. Kendall

John Kendall Papers

Memoir Abstract

The John V. Kendall Memoir is a recollection of the Civil War era written in approximately 1902 that describes the experiences of a private in the Tenth Regiment Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. Throughout the memoir, Kendall discusses integral aspects of the life of a union soldier, such as drills, marches, and battlefield affairs. In addition, he intersperses his explanation of daily life with descriptions of key events surrounding the removal of the Sioux from Minnesota, and surrounding territories, with his own constant migration with the army. His specific attention to westward movements along the Mississippi River, as well marches …

John V. Kendall Illustrations, John V. Kendall

John Kendall Papers

Memoir Abstract

The John V. Kendall Memoir is a recollection of the Civil War era written in approximately 1902 that describes the experiences of a private in the Tenth Regiment Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. Throughout the memoir, Kendall discusses integral aspects of the life of a union soldier, such as drills, marches, and battlefield affairs. In addition, he intersperses his explanation of daily life with descriptions of key events surrounding the removal of the Sioux from Minnesota, and surrounding territories, with his own constant migration with the army. His specific attention to westward movements along the Mississippi River, as well marches …

Collection Information, John V. Kendall

John Kendall Papers

Document describing the contents of the John Kendall Papers.

Memoir Abstract

The John V. Kendall Memoir is a recollection of the Civil War era written in approximately 1902 that describes the experiences of a private in the Tenth Regiment Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. Throughout the memoir, Kendall discusses integral aspects of the life of a union soldier, such as drills, marches, and battlefield affairs. In addition, he intersperses his explanation of daily life with descriptions of key events surrounding the removal of the Sioux from Minnesota, and surrounding territories, with his own constant migration with the army. His specific attention to …

Res Historica, Volume 5, Alpha Rho Epsilon Phi Alpha Theta, Lindsay Rae Smith Privette Phd

Res Historica

The 2026 journal of historical research by Anderson University students, Res Historica.

The editorial team for this edition of Res Historica was Dr. Lindsay Rae Smith Privette, Julia Ackerman, Callyn Wright, Logan Davis, and John Hinton. Cover art by Mary Beth Lee.

Bravery And Bayonets: The Nigerian Regiment And The Battle Of Bweho Chini, September 1917, Paul Cronin

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

The First World War in East Africa spanned the entirety of the war, from 1914 to 1918, and by the end of the war nearly all of the personnel on both sides were African. Understanding how the war in East Africa was different geographically and militarily from the western front helps to shed light on the unique experience of the men who fought there. My thesis builds on the thesis of Ibiang O. Ewa, that the Nigerian Regiment was crucial to allied victory in the campaign, in his chapter in Africa and the First World War: Remembrance, Memories, and Representations …

Back Matter

Tenor of Our Times

Back Matter

Faculty Spotlight: Dr. Jr Duke, David T. Richardson

Tenor of Our Times

Faculty Spotlight

Front Matter

Tenor of Our Times

Front Matter

Full Issue

Tenor of Our Times

Full Issue

Spotlight - Mecca Mejor, William Deloach

Tenor of Our Times

Staff Spotlight

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other: Differences Between The New Deal And Great Society, Brayden T. Gallagher

Tenor of Our Times

This paper examines the differences between the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the Great Society of Lyndon B. Johnson, challenging the prevailing interpretation that the latter administration was the logical continuation of the former. Through comparative historical analysis of policy and rhetoric, the research finds that, despite clear similarities such as expanded government involvement and social welfare programs, the two initiatives diverged significantly. The New Deal prioritized economic recovery through short-term job creation while often tolerating or reinforcing racial inequality. In contrast, the Great Society directly confronted systemic racism and struck at the roots of poverty through education, …