Public Affairs, Public Policy and Public Administration Commons^™

Ethnic Conflict: An Organizational Perspective, Victor Asal, Jonathan Wilkenfeld

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

To talk about the behavior of others is to generalize especially if that behavior is perceived to be negative. As researchers who have studied ethnic discrimination and ethnic conflict for close to two decades, we have noticed, anecdotally at least, that this penchant for generalization is rampant in discussions of ethnic politics. Journalists and academics tend to talk about one or another ethnic group’s involvement in violence without specifying a political organizational agent. This kind of generalization is a serious obstacle to understanding conflicts and identifying solutions because it prevents policymakers and academics from getting at the messy reality of …

When States Mediate, Molly M. Melin

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Militarized conflict is one of the most devastating of all human activities. The international community’s response to conflict occurrence can significantly affect the number of casualties, the extent of resulting devastation and even the outcome of the conflict. State responses range from conflict management, whereby third parties actively engage in resolving the conflict; joining, whereby states become an additional disputant; or remaining uninvolved. One of the most common active third-party responses is to act as a mediator, a role using consensual, nonbinding and nonviolent means of conflict management and resolution. This paper explores the policy of state-led mediation, its strengths …

The Politics Of International Arbitration And Adjudication, Stephen E. Gent

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Arbitration and adjudication have proven to be effective means of producing long-lasting settlements on contentious issues, but states are generally reluctant to use such legal forms of dispute resolution, especially in resolving issues of national security. To understand when policymakers can and should promote the use of legal mechanisms, they need to understand the political reasons behind the reluctance of states to use these forums. This essay identifies five factors that significantly influence the willingness of states to relinquish decision control and pursue arbitration or adjudication: third-party bias, salience, uncertainty, bargaining power, and armed conflict. To promote the use of …

Using The Right Tool For The Job: Mediator Leverage And Conflict Resolution, Kyle Beardsley

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

In international dispute mediation, a one-size-fits-all view of mediation may actually inhibit effective conflict resolution. Mediators must especially tailor the level of leverage to the needs of the situation. This essay first considers existing studies that have found both potential benefits and risks of heavy-handed third-party involvement as a conflict-management strategy. It then considers a few illustrative cases to demonstrate the importance of making sure that the tools of mediation fit the context. Finally, it concludes with a discussion of how sustained post-conflict peacekeeping and peacebuilding can reduce the risks of leverage in mediation.

Intractable Syria? Insights From The Scholarly Literature On The Failure Of Mediation, J. Michael Greig

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

The conflict in Syria has been ongoing since March 2011, but to date has resisted third-party diplomatic efforts. This failure of mediation is despite the fact that numerous actors in the international system have interests both in Syria and the Middle East at large. The human toll of the conflict, which has produced large numbers of civilian casualties and considerable human suffering, creates even deeper urgency for effective conflict management in Syria. In this paper, I apply insights drawn from the scholarly literature on conflict management and civil wars to the Syrian conflict to explain why mediation efforts have thus …

Who Should Be At The Table?: Veto Players And Peace Processes In Civil War, David E. Cunningham

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

Civil wars contain a set of actors that have the ability to block settlement and continue the war on their own. When they contain more “veto players,” conflicts are much longer and negotiations are more likely to break down. The rate of success of international efforts to resolve multi-party civil wars is much lower than when there is only one rebel group fighting the government. This article discusses implications for peacemakers designing responses to conflicts with multiple veto players. Negotiations in these conflicts are most likely to lead to a peace agreement that successfully ends the war if they include …

Deceptive Results: Why Mediation Appears To Fail But Actually Succeeds, Scott Sigmund Gartner

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

International disputes receiving third-party mediation are less likely to result in peace treaties than those negotiated bilaterally between the disputants. When belligerents do settle, mediated agreements are more likely to fail. Is mediation detrimental to conflict resolution? No. Third-party mediation represents a highly effective, but costly, means of peacemaking. Disputants recognize its costs and only employ mediation when they are unable to resolve a conflict between themselves, creating a “selection effect.” As a result, mediators are selected for the toughest cases – those least likely to end peacefully and mostly likely to result in fragile agreements. When the difficulty of …

Research On Bias In Mediation: Policy Implications, Isak Svensson

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

One of the most important and disputed questions within the field of international mediation concerns the issue of bias. The question of bias cuts to the core of what mediation is and the ways in which mediators can help the parties reach peace. Focusing on research on the role of neutrality and bias in international peace diplomacy in civil wars, this article draws out the policy implications of my own empirically-based work on the role of bias in the mediation of internal armed conflicts. This article suggests that neutrality should not be part of the definition of mediators, …

The Lack Of Coordination In Diplomatic Peacemaking, Birger Heldt

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

The increased number of peacemaking actors during the past twenty years is accompanied by an increased amount of peacemaking, but also a low success rate. This article focuses on recent emerging conflicts. It finds that peacemaking is prevalent, but is often not coordinated with regard to choice of tools (mediation, arbitration, etc.), or the agenda or the issues of the talks. This lack of coordination has for many years been recognized as detrimental and may partly explain the low success rate. The article suggests that policymakers need to have a long-term strategy to address the coordination problem, part of which …

Foreword, I. William Zartman

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

No abstract provided.

Translating Scholarship Into Policy, Scott Sigmund Gartner, Amy C. Gaudion

Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs (2012 - Present)

There is an ever widening gap between conflict resolution policy makers and scholars—a tragedy given practitioners’ dire need for new ideas to help resolve deadly conflicts and the growing knowledge researchers have to share. Research tends to swing like a pendulum between analytic and rigorous methods and accessible and relevant approaches. We reject this tradeoff. We believe that research can be simultaneously rigorous and relevant, and analytic and accessible. Given the devastating loss of life associated with armed conflict, the need for translating research results into policy prescriptions is especially strong in peacemaking. The goal of this issue of the …

Sam Gen Ms 01 Jean Byers Sampson Papers Finding Aid, John D. Knowlton, Susannah Clark

Search the Manuscript Collection (Finding Aids)

Description:

Jean Byers Sampson was a 1944 graduate of Smith College. Early in her post-Smith career, she conducted and wrote the 1947, “A Study of the Negro in Military Service,” which contributed to President Harry Truman’s decision to desegregate the armed forces. Sampson moved to Maine in the early 1950s with her husband, Richard Sampson, a Bates College mathematics professor, and she played a unique and critical role in the state until her death in 1996. Over the course of her life in Maine, she served as the founder of the first chapter of the NAACP in Maine, local and …

The Octofoil, April/May/June 2013, Ninth Infantry Division Association

The Octofoil

The Octofoil is the offical publication of the Ninth Infantry Division Association, Inc., an organization formed by the officers and men of the 9th Infantry Division in order to perpetuate the memory of fallen comrades, preserve the esprit de corps of the Division, promote peace and serve as an information bureau about the 9th Infantry Division. The Association is made up of 9th Infantry veterans from WWII and Vietnam, spouses, widows and lineal descendants.

News - Georgia State University - Gsu Library Receives $210,000 Neh Grant, Christian J. Steinmetz

Georgia Library Quarterly

Georgia State University Library recently received a $210,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities for “Planning Atlanta: A New City in the Making, 1930s – 1990s”, submitted by librarian Joe Hurley (Principal Investigator) and history professor Kate Wilson (co-PI).

Wpa Projects In Anaheim, Ca, During The Great Depression, Laura Enomoto

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

The Works Progress Administration (WPA), served as a catalyst for public works programs, specifically in the area of providing work to the unemployed. In cities all over the nation, the WPA provided grants that either paid employees directly or allocated funds to private firms. These programs were fundamental not only to the individuals they employed, but to the future of the cities themselves. Through the construction of public buildings, art projects, parks, and roads, American cities endured, remained intact, and even flourished as a result of the WPA.

The Use Of Rhetoric In Anti-Suffrage And Anti-Feminist Publications, Artour Aslanian

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

After decades of struggling to gain the right to vote, women were finally granted that right with the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment on August 18, 1920. While it would seem that most, if not all, women would be in favor of gaining the right to vote, the women’s suffrage movement did not represent the wishes of all women within the United States. Scholarship in this area largely focuses on the historical developments of the suffrage movements, with the presence of female opponents of suffrage and anti-suffragist organizations receiving less attention.1 These anti-suffragists were vocal in their opposition to the …

Disinvestment Trifecta: Parking, Highways, & Urban Renewal In Minneapolis An Historical Analysis Of The Gateway District, Scott Vargo

The Macalester Review

Minneapolis, like many post-industrial cities, went through a massive land transformation in the decades following WWII. While the factors behind this transformation are numerous, this paper will hone in on several inter-related developments that had significant detrimental effect on the vitality of Minneapolis: parking lots, the interstate highway system, and the never ending quest to vanquish traffic jams. Viewed through the lens of “urban renewal”, and focusing on the Gateway District of Minneapolis, this paper will examine how and why the combined forces of economics, suburbanization, and misdirected city planners converted a once vibrant neighborhood into a sea of asphalt …

Rethinking The Utility Of Nuclear Weapons, Ward Wilson

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Drone Wars: Risks And Warnings, Alan W. Dowd

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Drones: What Are They Good For?, Jacquiline L. Hazelton

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

From The Editor, Antulio J. Echevarria Ii

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Parameters Spring 2013, Usawc Parameters

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Drones Over Yemen: Weighing Military Benefits And Political Costs, W. Andrew Terrill

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Drones: Legitimacy And Anti-Americanism, Greg Kennedy

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Reaffirming The Utility Of Nuclear Weapons, Bradley A. Thayer, Thomas M. Skypek

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Recalibrating American Grand Strategy: Softening Us Policies Toward Iran In Order To Contain China, Samir Tata

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Book Reviews, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Article Index, Usawc Press

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

American Landpower And Modern Us Generalship, David G. Fivecoat

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

"The Strange Voyage": A Short Précis On Strategy, Richard D. Hooker

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.