Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Association Of Skin Cancer Prevention Knowledge, Sun-Protective Attitudes, And Sun-Protective Behaviors In A Navy Population, Rachel Newnam, Uyen Le-Jenkins, Carolyn Rutledge, Craig Cunningham

Nursing Faculty Publications

Introduction: U.S. Navy service members are primarily between the ages of 18 and 30 years and often required to be outside for extended periods of time in geographical locations with increased and often unfamiliar ultraviolet indexes that collectively increase their risk for skin cancer. Skin cancer is the country's most common form of cancer, yet there is a paucity of skin cancer prevention literature, especially within the U.S. Navy. The purpose of this study was to describe skin cancer risk and skin cancer prevention "cues-to-action" and to determine if skin cancer prevention knowledge was associated with sun-protective attitudes (e.g., prevention …

China’S Future Military Capabilities, Roger Cliff

Monographs, Collaborative Studies, & IRPs

The 2022 National Defense Strategy of the United States of America identifies China as the “pacing challenge” for the US military. This monograph examines the process by which China’s military capabilities are developed, the capabilities China’s military is seeking to acquire in the future, and the resulting implications for the US military. To date, all the extant studies have merely described the capabilities the People’s Liberation Army is currently acquiring. This monograph goes further by drawing on the Chinese military’s publications to identify and discuss the capabilities the People’s Liberation Army seeks to acquire in the future. The monograph finds …

A Hard Look At Hard Power: Assessing The Defense Capabilities Of Key Us Allies And Security Partners—Second Edition, Gary J. Schmitt Mr.

Monographs, Collaborative Studies, & IRPs

With the United States facing two major revisionist powers, Russia and China, as well as additional security threats from North Korea, Iran, and jihadist terrorism, a critical advantage for the United States is its global network of alliances and strategic partners. As the 2018 National Defense Strategy states, “Alliances and partnerships are crucial to our strategy, providing a durable asymmetric strategic advantage that no competitor or rival can match.”

The advantage of having military allies and partners is enhanced by the core capacity of the American military having remained largely the same over the past decade, though the global security …

Educating Strategic Lieutenants At West Point, Scott A. Silverstone

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article argues West Point responded to the changing strategic environment from the end of the Cold War through the post-9/11 period by innovating its curriculum. Over the past several decades, however, the academy’s educational model has remained remarkably stable, rooted in an enduring commitment to a rigorous liberal education as the best preparation for officers confronting the inherent uncertainties of future wars.

Us And The Cold War In Latin America, Thomas Field

Publications

The Cold War in Latin America had marked consequences for the region’s political and economic evolution. From the origins of US fears of Latin American Communism in the early 20th century to the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, regional actors played central roles in the drama. Seeking to maximize economic benefit while maintaining independence with regard to foreign policy, Latin Americans employed an eclectic combination of liberal and anti-imperialist discourses, balancing frequent calls for anti-Communist hemispheric unity with periodic diplomatic entreaties to the Soviet bloc and the nonaligned Third World. Meanwhile, US Cold War policies toward …

H-Diplo Article Review 831- Field Jr. On D’Haeseleer. “American Civic Action: The National Campaign Plan And The Failure To Win ‘Hearts And Minds’ In El Salvador.”, Thomas Field

Publications

The author - Dr. Thomas Field - reviews Brian D’Haeseleer's article “American Civic Action: The National Campaign Plan and the Failure to Win ‘Hearts and Minds’ in El Salvador.” This article appeared in Diplomacy and Statecraft, issue 26:3 (2015), on pages 494-513. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09592296.2015.1067527.

Mackinder And The Arctic's Emerging Geopolitics: Recommendations For The U.S. And Its Nato Allies, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

This presentation shows how Halford Mackinder (1861-1947) described Canada and the Arctic region in his geopolitical writings. It goes on to stress how the Arctic is becoming increasingly important in international geopolitical policymaking due to its significant oil and natural gas resources, how warming temperatures are increasing international access to its waters, and the how countries as diverse as Canada, China, Russia, and the U.S. see the Arctic region in their strategic policymaking. It concludes by stressing that the Arctic can no longer be viewed as a region immune from international conflict and presents recommendations for the U.S. and its …

Deterrence & Security Assistance: The South China Sea, Tommy Ross

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

This article identifies how the United States can apply security assistance to support regional security in the South China Sea in order to counter China’s assertive expansion strategy.

The Generals: An Examination, Mariah Wallace

The Eastern Illinois University Political Science Review

The author examines the book The Generals: American Military Command from World War II to Today by Thomas Ricks and several journal articles related to the book in order to examine issues relating to military attitudes, internal army relations, the civil-military gap, and upper-division military officers. It is found that Ricks’ work supports the findings of the journal articles discussed in this essay on the current state of the United States military.

Leadership And The American Military, Crystal Trotter

The Eastern Illinois University Political Science Review

The author takes a look at the interplay between leadership and the American military. The author examines and considers views from many great American military minds on how leadership plays an absolutely vital role in the effectiveness of the American military.

The Way Of The Knife: The Cia, A Secret Army, And A War At The Ends Of The Earth, Mariah Wallace

The Eastern Illinois University Political Science Review

The author offers her views and thoughts on Mazzetti’s book and its implications for the future of American foreign policy.

Military Transitioning Programs And Civilian Life Preparedness: A Phenomenological Study About The Process Of Transitioning Out Of The Military And Into The Civilian Life, Wilisha Daniels

Graduate Research Symposium (GCUA) (2010 - 2017)

In recent years, there has been an increase in transitioning programs for military personnel. Since the September 11, attacks on America, millions of U.S. troops have been deployed to the Middle East. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have jointly proved to be the longest running conflicts/campaigns in the history of the U.S. Over the past 15 years, approximately, 2.3 million sevicemembers have served in the U.S. military during this conflict.

This study will investigate the process of transitioning of servicemembers from a perspective of acculturation. By exploring the lived experience of veterans, this study will attempt to gain a …

The East China Sea In Dod China Military Power Reports, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The National Defense Authorization Act of 2000 saw Congress require the Department of Defense (DOD) to prepare an annual report on Chinese military power. This report contains classified and unclassified editions. Documenting Chinese military developments, strategy, and trends are critical parts of these reports. Beijing’s military activities in the East China Sea (ECS) are important report components. This work explains the importance of these and other DOD reports for those studying ECS developments, examines how DOD has documented Beijing’s military activities within these publicly accessible reports, and describes how members of Congress have reacted to ECS developments during the Obama …

Geopolitical Implications Of The Sino-Japanese East China Sea Dispute For The U.S., Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

Much analysis on Asian strategic challenges facing the U.S. has justifiably emphasized the South China Sea (SCS). This has also been reflected in 2016 presidential campaign debate on the SCS as an emerging area of U.S. foreign and national security policy concern. The East China Sea (ECS) is at least as important for the strategic interests of the U.S. and its allies given the tension between China and Japan over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands, potential energy resources in this body of water, increasing defense spending by adjacent geographic powers, the area’s importance as a maritime international trade route, and the possibility …

Aloha ʻĀina: The United States Military And Its Controversial Use Of Hawaiian Land, Kai Bernier-Chen

Senior Projects Spring 2016

In this senior project, I examine the United States military’s controversial use of Hawaiian land. Following the islands’ annexation to the United States in 1898, a growing number of political and legal disputes concerning the use of Hawaiian lands for military training purposes have arisen between members of the native Hawaiian community and the United States military. As both the island of Kaho’olawe and the Pōhakuloa Training Area have shown, the military’s management of these lands has left much to be desired as the sites have suffered significant cultural and environmental damages. Through its continued leasing of these sacred lands …

The Role Of Iran Policy The Saudi-American Rift, Christopher Parmly

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores what effect Saudi and American policy differences towards Iran have had on their bilateral relations. It is based on the recent thaw in Iran-U.S. relations, and the critical reaction of the Saudi government towards this policy. The question has two components – first, how severe the current Saudi-American rift is, and second, to what extent it can be traced to their differences over Iran. The topic will be addressed through process-tracing methods.

The thesis concludes that there is indeed a rift in Saudi-U.S. relations marked by an increasingly assertive and independent Saudi foreign policy, though its alliance …

China's Nine-Dashed Map: Maritime Source Of Geopolitical Tension, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Scholarship and Research

The South China Sea (SCS) is becoming an increasingly contentious source of geopolitical tension due to its significance as an international trade route, possessor of potentially significant oil and natural gas resources, China’s increasing diplomatic and military assertiveness, and the U.S.’ recent and ongoing Pacific Pivot strategy. Countries as varied as China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia and other adjacent countries have claims on this region’s islands and natural resources. China has been particularly assertive in asserting its SCS claims by creating a nine-dash line map claiming to give it de facto maritime control over this entire region without regard to …

The State Partnership Program: States As Global Actors: The Implications Of Nonaggressive National Forces, Ellen Ahlness

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States sought to increase its influence in Western Europe and Central Asia. The primary military mechanism used to increase presence and ideological influence was the State Partnership Program. This program, modeled heavily after the Norwegian Reciprocal Troop Exchange, used reserve forces instead of active duty forces to lessen the aggression levels perceived by Russian command. This use of reserve forces gave individual American states a greater degree of involvement in international military operations. Since the creation of the State Partnership Program, 65 state/country partnerships have been established. The goals have also …

Voices From D-Day, June 6, 1944, Musselman Library

Other Exhibits & Events

Seventy years on from D-Day, we still marvel at the stoic heroism of the men who contributed to the success of what remains the greatest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare. The Normandy campaign would, in one way or another, prove a pivotal moment in the ongoing world war. A disaster in the campaign to liberate France would set back Allied hopes for crushing Nazism in Western Europe. It would also fray the alliance with the Soviet Union that was essential to defeating Hitler’s forces. By contrast, success would mark not just the end of the beginning of the …

Recent Documents From The Department Of Defense, Minnesota State University, Mankato

Democracy/Government

Bibliography and photographs of a display of government documents from Minnesota State University, Mankato.

The Effectiveness Of The United States Air Force Developmental Teams, Jason Michael Newcomer

Aeronautics, Undergraduate Studies - Worldwide

The Results-Based Leadership Group surveyed 470 companies and discovered that the top 25companies with effective leadership practices dedicated twice as much effort to leadership development as did other companies, indicating a strong relationship between success and leadership development. The problem explored in the current study was the lack of qualitative analyses of the U.S. Air Force Development Team processes. The purpose of the case study was to survey Development Teams at the U.S. Air Force in Washington, DC to explore how effectively the teams’ processes resulted in identification, selection, and/or development of leaders who meet strategic needs of the service. …

Nuclear Arms Control: Challenges And Opportunities In 2013, Steven Pifer

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

U.S. nuclear arms control policy must address numerous factors, including our strategic relationships with Russia and China, the potential for future nuclear weapons reductions--including non-strategic nuclear weapons, and the offense-defense relationship, given concerns that missile defense developments could in the future affect the nuclear balance. Washington DC must also consider its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, how to dissuade new countries from joining the nuclear weapons ranks, and what to do about the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the United States has signed but not ratified. This presentation will explore challenges and opportunities facing Washington DC in the aftermath of …

Army Transformation: What Does It Mean?, David Jerome

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The way in which senior U.S. Army leaders such as the chiefs of staff define transformative change is important, especially if the meaning of that term is to be interpreted as originally intended by Army field grade officers. An Army chief of staff is responsible for creating a vision and establishing goals for the future, and field grade officers are responsible for pursuing that vision and those goals by implementing objectives that endeavor to arrive at the desired ends. By using both qualitative and quantitative methods, this research analyzes what each of the three chiefs of staff, who have served …

Rules Of Engagement: Seeking Moral And Legal Sufficiency In The 21st Century, Tanner Williams

Global Tides

Modern conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan has proved to be unlike any other conflict in history. United States and Coalition forces are faced with an insurgent enemy that defies all pre-established Laws of Armed Combat. As we transition from a wartime operations to a peacekeeping environment, it is important to reflect upon the moral and legal struggles that our soldiers face in the line of duty. Certainly, it cannot be easy to distinguish between lawful or unlawful combatants and innocent civilians in a war that lacks a clearly defined enemy. As a result, it is necessary to examine our rules …

Wars Against Civilians Are Unjust Wars, Richard A. Falk

Human Rights & Human Welfare

For those of us old enough to recall the anti-war testimony of Vietnam vets during the early 1970s, reading the chilling report by Hedges and Al-Arian on the attitudes of Iraq war vets is shocking, and yet not surprising. It is shocking because of the eyewitness confirmation of cruelty and lethal brutality on a regular basis in the interactions between the coalition army of occupation and Iraqi civilian society. Sadly, it is not shocking because of the nature of the violent resistance to occupation being encountered by American forces in Iraq, giving rise to a Vietnam-style mentality of counterinsurgency in …

Facing Up To The Truth, Susan E. Waltz

Human Rights & Human Welfare

American GIs who liberated Dachau from the Nazis in April 1945 exist in our collective memory as iconic representations of the American soldier-hero: competent and capable, disciplined, principled and fundamentally good. From their collective example, we expect American soldiers to reveal, report, and excoriate war crimes. This makes it difficult to acknowledge that Americans may also commit war crimes—and on a regular basis.

September Roundtable: Introduction

Human Rights & Human Welfare

An annotation of:

“The Other War: Iraq Vets Bear Witness” by Chris Hedges and Laila Al-Arian. The Nation, July 30, 2007.

Occupational Hazard, Michael Goodhart

Human Rights & Human Welfare

“The Other War” describes how the patrols, supply convoys, checkpoints, raids, and arrests, which make up the daily routines of U.S. soldiers in Iraq, sometimes involve degrading and abusive treatment of Iraqi civilians. Through interviews with some of those soldiers, the article portrays the everyday tragedy of the Iraq war and demonstrates how the very policies used to “secure” the country are creating greater insecurity and sparking Iraqi resentment of the occupation. The authors’ main point is that such abuses are inevitable under what they call “misguided and brutal colonial wars and occupations” like Iraq, “the French occupation of Algeria… …

Bad Apples Or Bad Policies?, Daniel J. Whelan

Human Rights & Human Welfare

In a scene from the Woody Allen film Hannah and Her Sisters, the haughty and cantankerous character Frederick (Max von Sydow) is telling his girlfriend (Barbara Hershey) how he spent the evening flipping through channels on television. Ever the arrogant social critic, Frederick remarks,

You missed a very dull TV show on Auschwitz. More gruesome film clips. And more puzzled intellectuals declaring their mystification over the systematic murder of millions. The reason they can never answer the question: “How could it possibly happen?” is that it’s the wrong question. Given what people are, the question is: “Why doesn't it happen …

The Justice Of War On Iraq, Brian Stiltner

Philosophy, Theology and Religious Studies Faculty Publications

The author argues that the U.S. and its partners have rightly arrived at war on Iraq as a just and necessary last resort. The potential problems with the just-war case are notable, particularly concerning the after-effects of the war, but they do not incurably undermine the case for going to war. Instead, both supporters and critics of the war around the world should strive to keep their governments committed to post-war reconstruction and a transition to a free and stable government in Iraq. Several just war criteria, particularly as these are articulated in the Catholic tradition, are used to assess …