Political Science Commons^™

A Place Like This: An Environmental Justice History Of The Owens Valley - Water In Indigenous, Colonial, And Manzanar Stories, Monica Embrey

Pomona Senior Theses

This text provides an environmental justice analysis of the stories of the people who lived in the Owens Valley, who watered its land and cultivated its crops—pine trees, apple trees, and kabocha alike. Telling the personal stories of challenge and resistance that manifested alongside the oppressive forces of military and state domination provides the opportunity to align forcibly relocated, exploited and incarcerated people’s struggles throughout time. This text starts with The Nü’ma Peoples who were the first humans to live in the Owens Valley and continues with the struggle for empire between rival colonial empires of agriculture and distant urban …

Domestic Radical Islamic Insurgency By Ones And Twos And The Politics Of Self-Delusion, Robert J. Bunker, Hakim Hazim

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The contention being made is that governmental officials are downplaying a threat to the US homeland—that compromised of a small, yet virulent, component of domestic radical Islamic insurgency derived from the actions of one and two man cells. While a well intended policy, such actions may be in actuality setting up our nation for some sort of disaster down the road.

Violent Non-State Actors In 2030: Suggested Dutch Armed Forces Response, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

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.

Jeane Kirkpatrick And The End Of The Cold War: Dictatorships, Democracy, And Human Rights, Ilan Wurman

CMC Senior Theses

Part I: An Intellectual and Political History. Chapter One: Cold War Consensus Shattered. Chapter Two: Dictatorships and Double Standards. Chapter Three: The Carter Years: Was Kirkpatrick Right? Part II: Kirkpatrick and the Reagan Administration Chapter Four: The Kirkpatrick and Reagan Doctrines Chapter Five: Putting Policy to Practice: Chile and El Salvador

Advancement Of The Adivasis: The Effect Of Development On The Culture Of The Adivasis, Jantrania Akta

CMC Senior Theses

Laws and policies have created a legal context aimed at allowing the adivasis to develop socioeconomically while retaining the aspects of their culture that they value the most. While the adivasis still face numerous challenges, it is evident that many have achieved successful economical advancement as a result of the legal framework established upon independence in 1947. Yet, it has also been acknowledged that economic advancement can undermine aspects of culture that are essential to the identity and dignity of the adivasis. Such a loss can result from exogenous factors such as government policy and the actions and beliefs of …

The Persistent Problem: Inequality, Difference, And The Challenge Of Development, Aseema Sinha, John Echeverri-Gent, Leslie Elliott Armijo, Marc Blecher, Daniel Brumberg, Valerie Bunce, Kiren A. Chaudhry, John W. Harbeson, Evelyne Huber, Bronwyn Leebaw, Susanne Hoeber Rudolph, Loren Ryter, Susan L. Woodward

CMC Faculty Publications and Research

This report highlights the complex, multidimensional nature of inequality in the era of globalization. It documents that despite the impressive strides by nations like China and India, absolute inequality between the richest and poorest countries is greater than ever before in history. It demonstrates that the rise of China and India creates a new dimension to the persistent problem of inequality.

German Banks In The Global Economy: Global Pressures And Public Sector Banking, Jason A. Gorn

Pitzer Senior Theses

German banking is distinguished from neighboring European banking systems by the influence of its public sector banks. Nearly 50 percent of German banking is carried out by government owned state banks (ländesbanken) and regional savings banks (sparkassen) whose roots date from the 18 th century. German banks play a particularly important role in the economy and exert more control over firms and corporations than do their American counterparts. German banks tend to be less profitable than foreign counterparts. German public banks were originally founded to foster local and regional business. However, the operations of German public sector banks now extend …

Laser Weapons: An Emerging Threat, Robert J. Bunker, Dan Lindsay

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Laser and beam weapons have been the stuff of science fiction lore for many years. Good science fiction, however, is based on some kind of science fact and, if done properly, will become less implausible over time. This now is occurring with lasers--both when used in an improvised weaponry role and when produced as dedicated laser weapons.

Convergence: The Changing Missions Of Police And The Military, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The continued convergence of policing and military missions represents the new world in which we increasingly find ourselves. The need for such convergence can be explained at both the operational and strategic levels of analysis. This document will use four conceptual figures to aid understanding of the convergence.

Mathematics Of Voting, Darryl H. Yong

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

Voting theory is a fascinating area of research involving mathematics, political scientists, and economists. The American Mathematical Society, the American Statistical Association, the Mathematical Association of America, and the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics chose mathematics and voting as the theme for Mathematics Awareness Month 2008. There is more information on mathematics and voting at www.mathaware.org/mam/08/. It is a mathematical topic that is rich yet accessible to students, pertinent to their lives, especially during this election year, and has the potential to draw students who may not have a strong affinity for mathematics to become interested in mathematics.

Confrontation Cinema In The Age Of Neoliberalism; Where Brazil And The United States Meet, Rachel F. Rosenfeld

CMC Senior Theses

Contents: Introduction; The Smell of Revolution and Popcorn; Filling the Gaps: Historical Context; Brazilian Cinema in the Age of Neoliberalism and Political Discourse of the New Brazilian Left; US Films and the Iraq War: This isn’t my America; Epilogue

Good Nietzsche, Bad Nietzsche: The Role Of Friedrich Nietzsche In Richard Rorty’S Political Thought., Paul A. Snell Jr.

CMC Senior Theses

Richard Rorty found Friedrich Nietzsche’s critique of epistemology (perspectivism) to be a helpful tool in getting us to stop thinking of knowledge as something we find, and instead as something that we create. He also found perspectivism to be a helpful tool in that of the private sphere, of private self-creation. The Nietzsche that provides perspectivism is “The Good Nietzsche”. Rorty, however, conceived of Nietzsche’s ideas as being absolutely useless when it comes to politics, along with his ideas regarding morality, the Will to Power, and the Übermensch. These are the ideas of “The Bad Nietzsche”. Rorty’s actual usage of …

Will Another White Male Be Elected President In 2008?, David E. Drew, Hedley Burrell

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Barack Obama. Hillary Rodham Clinton. Bill Richardson. The field of minority and female candidates for president has never been so strong. But the question remains: Despite the expected presence of an African- American, a woman, and a Latino, will America in 2008 elect yet another male president of northern European descent?

No one can say for certain, but we hope this streak ends soon, because it's important that America elect its leaders from the full breadth of talent available in its diverse population.

Iraq And The Americas: 3 Gen Gangs Lessons And Prospects, Robert J. Bunker, John P. Sullivan

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Third Generation Gang Studies: An Introduction, John P. Sullivan, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This paper reviews the literature and research related to third generation street gangs. Widely known as third generation gangs (3 GEN Gangs), these complex gangs operation with broad reach—often across borders—and have mercenary and at times political and potentially terrorist objectives. These are frequently identified as transnational gangs, known as Maras, and occupy the 3 GEN niche. The typology of the three generations of gang revolution, based on the interaction of three factors: politicization, internationalism, and sophistication found in the literature is also described. Finally, future research and security concerns are identified.

Are We Prematurely Designating Iran's Revolutionary Guards As Criminal-Soldiers?, Robert J. Bunker, Hakim Hazim

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The recent U.S. consideration to designate the 125,000 person strong Revolutionary Guard of Iran as a "specially designated global terrorist" (per Executive Order 13224) has quite a few international security implications. (1) On the most basic level, it highlights growing U.S. and Iranian tensions over Iran's nuclear weapons program and Iranian involvement—via its Quds Force belonging to the Revolutionary Guard—in both fermenting and supporting terrorist and insurgent activities in Lebanon, Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan.

What may be far more significant, however, is the U.S. designating the military branch of a sovereign state as a terrorist organization. In the past, such …

Congressional Testimony: Beijing, Unrestricted Warfare, And Threat Potentials, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This is a transcript of a hearing on "China’s Military Modernization and Its Impact on the United States and the Asia-Pacific, Panel II: Beijing’s Doctrine on the Conduct of 'Irregular Forms of Warfare'" before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Senturion: Predictive Political Simulation Model, Mark Abdollahian, Michael Baranick, Brian Efird, Jacek J. Kugler

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

This paper summarizes work utilizing the Senturion predictive analysis software at the National Defense University (NDU). The Center for Technology and National Security Policy (CTNSP) at NDU has been testing the Senturion capability since 2002, and has begun to support the application of this new technology in DOD. In this paper, we begin by describing the methodology underlying the software, and then provide an overview of three case studies that used the software: a predictive analysis of the stabilization and reconstruction phase of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), the run-up to the Iraqi elections in January 2005, and the leadership transition …

Reverse Engineering Asymmetric Warfare: Applying Space-Time, Matter-Energy And Organizational-Doctrinal Analysis To Al Qaeda Operations, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

The ‘crime-war’ operational environment, found in failed and failing-states dominated by non-state (criminal) soldiers, has been increasing in scope for decades. This trend is viewed as part of the process of transition from the modern (Third) to the post-modern (Fourth) epoch. Within this environment, non-state entities utilize asymmetric warfare against nation-states. The most dangerous of these opponents are those whose approach is asymmetric by nature (due to their network-type organization) and who thereby represent a direct challenger to the nation-state form. Al Qaeda fits both of these conditions and enough is known about its operations and structure to allow its …

Combatants Or Non-Combatants?: Where Private Military Companies Fit In Modern, Classical And Legal Definitions, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Many perspectives exist for why private military companies have emerged over the last decade or so: cost-effectiveness, fact reaction cycles, lack of will or inability of governments to send their own troops into peace operations. This short essay will not attempt to debate these traditional reasons given for PMC growth and operational fielding. Rather, it will make some basic observations concerning the changing nature of warfare, attempt to place PMC ascendancy within the historical context, and make some policy suggestions concerning the relationship of PMCs to international law and the state.

National Law Enforcement And Corrections Technology Center System, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Suicide Bombings In Operation Iraqi Freedom, Robert J. Bunker, John P. Sullivan

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Suicide bombing is the act of blowing oneself up in order to kill (destroy) or injure (damage) a target. The target may be military or civilian or both. Typically, the killing or physical destruction of the target is less important than the terror generated by undertaking the act. This ultimately makes suicide bombing a “disruptive firepower” capability (based on Bond-Relationship Targeting) utilized by opposing forces (OPFORs) which lack traditional destructive firepower.

Understanding Policy Change In Developing Countries: The Spheres Of Influence Framework, Paul F. Steinberg

All HMC Faculty Publications and Research

National policy reform is a prerequisite for improved stewardship of the global environment and figures prominently among the goals of international environmental diplomacy and transnational advocacy campaigns. Yet research on global environmental politics has proceeded absent models of policy change in developing countries, where most of the planet's people, land, and biological diversity are found. In this article I present a theoretical framework to explain the domestic responses of developing countries to global environmental concerns. Drawing on research in Costa Rica and Bolivia, I situate the impact of global environmentalism in the context of complex, decades-long domestic struggles to create …

Mortars, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Mortars are normally employed when artillery and air strikes are either impractical and/or unavailable. Two families of mortars exist: essentially, early and modern.

Unarmored Fighting Vehicles, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Unarmored fighting vehicles are a form of military fighting vehicle used in scouting, raiding, perimeter defense, terrain seizure, ambushes, and, in some instances, indirect artillery support. They are also used in noncombat roles such as personnel and cargo transport, ammunition resupply, and general hauling.

Grenades, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Grenades have been in existence since the 15th century and are generally used in tandem with infantry small arms for siege (trench) and urban warfare. These devices also provide the basis for numerous forms of booby traps used in both conventional and unconventional warfare.

Martin Van Creveld On Men, Women And War, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

I was at first apprehensive when approached about writing a review essay on Martin van Creveld’s new book, Men, Women & War: Do Women Belong in the Front Line?¹ The topic was not a key interest of mine, and more pressing real-world needs required my attention. While the sporadic conversations I have had with van Creveld over the last couple of years made me aware of his growing interest and deep fascination with the topic of women in general, this work seemed a diversion from his repertoire of such seminal works as Supplying War: Logistics from Wallerstein to Patton …

Analyzing The Success Of The Usaid-Funded Empleando Futuros And Crime And Violence Prevention Projects In Reducing Emigration From The Northern Triangle To The United States, Sofia M. Munoz

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper explores the role of USAID-funded projects focused on the root causes of migration in the Northern Triangle as a U.S. immigration prevention strategy. Through analyzing the Empleando Futuros activity in Honduras and the Crime and Violence Prevention Project in El Salvador, I found that the projects followed an overly simplistic approach to migration based off of neoclassical economic theories of migration. When compared to alternate migration theories and empirical evidence from the region, I found that the individualistic and employment-based approaches utilized by these projects do not have the desired effect of majorly decreasing someone’s propensity to migrate …

Psychological Warfare, Japanese, Robert J. Bunker

CGU Faculty Publications and Research

Japanese psychological warfare operations were modeled on campaigns conducted by the British in World War I and the Germans in World War II. The Germans established a branch of their propaganda ministry in Japan, which resulted in close psychological warfare collaboration between these two Axis powers. As a result, their propaganda themes, such as both nations having divine or semidivine rulers and being populated by super races whose destiny was to rule the world, were strikingly parallel.