Defense and Security Studies Commons^™

Nuclear Disarmament And The Erosion Of Deterrence Effectiveness Case Study: Ukraine, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

The invasion of Ukraine demonstrates an interesting security paradox between nuclear disarmament norms, territorial integrity and deterrence in a self-help unpredictable international environment. Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons under the Budapest Memorandum in order to receive security guarantees resulting in brutal betrayal by nuclear armed Russia. The research investigates how Russia maintains an effective nuclear deterrence capability against other nuclear powers in the region through threats despite challenges on the battlefield. Through the combination of military resistance, strategic partnerships and robust combat methods, Ukraine has established an unmatched ability to deter a nuclear-armed enemy - Russia. This research ponders …

Upending The International Order: Russia’S War Against Ukraine, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 shook the foundations of the global order. It exposed just how fragile international security, economic stability, and old geopolitical alliances really are in a tense self-help security environment. This analysis looks at how the conflict started, tracing it back to years of tension between Russia and NATO, especially around Ukraine’s desire to move closer to the West. The war has made it clear that international rules are only as strong as countries are willing to follow them, and that global organizations like the UN often fall short in preventing these wars as Russia ignored …

Enhancing Cyber Situational Awareness Through Dynamic Adaptive Symbology: The Dass Framework, Nicholas Macrino, Sergio Pallas Enguita, Chung-Hao Chen

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The static nature of traditional military symbology, such as MIL-STD-2525D, hinders effective real-time threat detection and response in modern cybersecurity operations. This research introduces the Dynamic Adaptive Symbol System (DASS), a novel framework enhancing cyber situational awareness in military and enterprise environments. The DASS addresses static symbology limitations by employing a modular Python 3.10 architecture that uses machine learning-driven threat detection to dynamically adapt symbol visualization based on threat severity and context. Empirical testing assessed the DASS against a MIL-STD-2525D baseline using active cybersecurity professionals. Results show that the DASS significantly improves threat identification rates by 30% and reduces response …

The Digital Battlefield: Extremists On Social Media, Daniel P. Shanks

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The rise of social media has transformed the battleground for extremist groups like ISIS and the Taliban, enabling them to reach global audiences with unprecedented ease. This dissertation investigates the social media strategies employed by the Taliban and ISIS. These social media strategies are used to further their strategic objectives in propaganda, recruitment, and operational coordination. Through a comprehensive analysis, the study explores how these extremist groups adapt their digital tactics in response to evolving military and political landscapes. Utilizing case studies from key military engagements and applying theoretical frameworks of rational actor theory, social identity theory, and finite and …

The Place Of Nuclear Weapons In Russian Identity: An Ontological Security Analysis, Peter Ernest Yeager

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

On May 9, 2008, Russia’s Victory Day, four 14-wheeled MAZ-7917s drove through Red Square carrying Topol intercontinental ballistic missiles. This was the first time nuclear weapons had been paraded through Moscow since before the end of the Cold War. The previous August, Russia had resumed nuclear-capable bomber patrols, and in January, 2007, President Putin acknowledged Russia had begun to build new nuclear weapons. These remarkable events were met with little acknowledgement in the West, as if they were completely normal. Instead, they represented a major evolution in the bilateral relationship between the United States and Russia. Sixteen years of fitful …

Alliances And Partnerships In A Complex And Challenging Security Environment, Regina Karp (Editor), Richard Maass (Editor)

Political Science & Geography Faculty Books

This publication is a product of the Conference "Alliances and Partnerships in a Complex and Challenging Security Environment," organized by NATO Allied Command Transformation (ACT) and Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia. The Conference, held in person on March 11-13, 2024, is part of a long-term cooperation among the two institutions, and it represents the eleventh iteration of ACT's Academic Conference series. The success of the event was due to the joint efforts of the two institutions, and the editors want to acknowledge ACT's Academic Outreach Team, in particular Dr. Vlasta Zekulic, Lieutenant Colonel Virginie Lotti, and Staff Officer Luisa …

[Review Of The Book African Security: Local Issues And Global Connections, By A. B. Bah], Christopher Korkor

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

The article focuses on how the Basketball Africa League (BAL) utilizes Instagram to shape its public image and promote its players within a growing continental sports league. Topics include the league's strategic use of social media content—primarily game highlights and player achievements rather than sponsorship or social initiatives—the framing of athlete nationality in promotional material, and the broader tension between showcasing African talent and appealing to international audiences.

Autonomous Strike Uavs In Support Of Homeland Security Missions: Challenges And Preliminary Solutions, Meshari Aljohani, Ravi Mukkamala, Stephan Olariu

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) are becoming crucial tools in modern homeland security applications, primarily because of their cost-effectiveness, risk reduction, and ability to perform a wider range of activities. This study focuses on the use of autonomous UAVs to conduct, as part of homeland security applications, strike missions against high-value terrorist targets. Owing to developments in ledger technology, smart contracts, and machine learning, activities formerly carried out by professionals or remotely flown UAVs are now feasible. Our study provides the first in-depth analysis of the challenges and preliminary solutions for the successful implementation of an autonomous UAV mission. Specifically, we …

Can’T Let Go: Anxiety, Ontological Security, And French Foreign Policy Decision-Making During The Hollande Administration, Peter D. Langley

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Why does France continue to intervene militarily in sub-Saharan Africa despite repeated commitments, both in practice and in rhetoric, to disengage and adhere to strict non-intervention? Although many accounts of France’s African security policy have been put forth, few have analyzed French foreign policy choices through the decision-making process itself, let alone exclusively applied International Relations (IR) theories to understand those decisions. Synthesizing a narrative approach with an ontological security interpretation, which understands states as having identity security needs on top of their physical ones, I propose an alternative framework for understanding France’s security-seeking, threats to identity, and how they …

Potential Chemical Risks From Tattoos And Their Relevance To Military Health Policy In The United States, James D. Blando, Blas A. Guigni

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

We summarize and consolidate disparate sources of information about the practice of tattooing and its potential implications for military population health and policy. Each branch of the United States military has policies about tattoos for service members, but these have varied over time and do not cover health protection. The number of veterans receiving disability payments and the cost of those payments has been rising over time; the broad category of skin conditions accounts for 11% of disability claims. Any additional factor, such as tattoos that may increase the occurrence of adverse skin reactions, can substantially impact veteran benefit expenses …

International Intrigue In The American Colonies, Arianna Vicinanza

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

Spies have always been a subject of intrigue, nowadays we are surrounded by films, tv series, and books based on undercover business. Usually espionage is associated with WW2 or the Cold War, two periods of times in which espionage and secret agencies were essential in order to gather critical information about the enemy. Despite common belief that secret services developed one century ago, espionage and Spy Rings are as old as time. Espionage is the oldest profession in the world, kings used spies to monitor the enemy or to discover plots going around the royal court. In the American Revolution, …

Ddr, Cassandra Jagroop

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) has been a facet of post-conflict resolution since the 1980s. DDR seeks to address a wide range of issues varying from security to human rights, law, elections, and governance. One of the major issues arising from a conflict region are armed groups involved in the fighting and how to handle them. These armed groups represent the deep insecurity and lack of faith the population has in the state mechanism (Rondeau 2011, 654), thus in order to move ahead in the post-conflict situation the issue of armed groups needs to be tackled. The evolution of warfare …

Russia-Ukrainian War 2022: Battle Of Hostomel, Arthur Borsuk

Graduate Research Conference (GSIS)

On February 24, 2022, the Russian Federation began the active phase of a full-scale invasion of the territory of sovereign Ukraine. This invasion was preceded by the recognition of the independence of the quasi-republics in the occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions (located in the east of Ukraine) and the introduction of a large group of troops into their territory. The invasion began with a massive missile and air strike against critical infrastructure, military units, civilian facilities and air defense positions. At the same time, the ground troops of the Russian Federation crossed the border in all border …

S-400s, Disinformation, And Anti-American Sentiment In Turkey, Russell "Alex" Korb, Saltuk Karahan, Gowri Prathap, Ekrem Kaya, Luke Palmieri, Hamdi Kavak, Richard L. Wilson (Ed.), Major Brendan Curran (Ed.)

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

As social and political discourse in most countries becomes more polarized, anti-Americanism has risen not only in the Middle East and Latin America but also among the U.S. allies in Europe. Social media is one platform used to disseminate anti-American views in NATO countries, and its effectiveness can be magnified when mass media, public officials, and popular figures adopt these views. Disinformation, in particular, has gained recognition as a cybersecurity issue from 2016 onward, but disinformation can be manufactured domestically in addition to being part of a foreign influence campaign. In this paper, we analyze Turkish tweets using sentiment analysis …

Racialization And International Security, Richard W. Maass

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Racialization—the processes that infuse social and political phenomena with racial identities and implications—is an assertion of power, a claim of purportedly inherent differences that has saturated modern diplomacy, order, and violence. Despite the field's consistent interest in power, international security studies in the United States largely omitted racial dynamics from decades of debates about international conflict and cooperation, nuclear proliferation, power transitions, unipolarity, civil wars, terrorism, international order, grand strategy, and other subjects. A new framework lays conceptual bedrock, links relevant literatures to major research agendas in international security, cultivates interdisciplinary dialogues, and charts promising paths to consider how overt …

Exploring Blockchain Adoption Supply Chains: Opportunities And Challenges, Adrian V. Gheorghe, Omer F. Keskin, Farinaz Sabz Ali Pour

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

In modern supply chains, acquisition often occurs with the involvement of a network of organizations. The resilience, efficiency, and effectiveness of supply networks are crucial for the viability of acquisition. Disruptions in the supply chain require adequate communication infrastructure to ensure resilience. However, supply networks do not have a shared information technology infrastructure that ensures effective communication. Therefore decision-makers seek new methodologies for supply chain management resilience. Blockchain technology offers new decentralization and service delegation methods that can transform supply chains and result in a more flexible, efficient, and effective supply chain. This report presents a framework for the application …

Biocybersecurity: A Converging Threat As An Auxiliary To War, Lucas Potter, Orlando Ayala, Xavier-Lewis Palmer

Engineering Technology Faculty Publications

Biodefense is the discipline of ensuring biosecurity with respect to select groups of organisms and limiting their spread. This field has increasingly been challenged by novel threats from nature that have been weaponized such as SARS, Anthrax, and similar pathogens, but has emerged victorious through collaboration of national and world health groups. However, it may come under additional stress in the 21st century as the field intersects with the cyberworld-- a world where governments have already been struggling to keep up with cyber attacks from small to state-level actors as cyberthreats have been relied on to level the playing field …

Systemic Methodology For Cyber Offense And Defense, C. Ariel Pinto, Matthew Zurasky

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper describes a systemic method towards standardization of a cyber weapon effectiveness and effectiveness prediction process to promote consistency and improve cyber weapon system evaluation accuracy – for both offensive and defensive postures. The approach included theoretical examination of existing effectiveness prediction processes for kinetic and directed energy weapons, complemented with technical and social aspects of cyber realm. The examination highlighted several paradigm-shifts needed to transition from purely kinetic-based processes and transition into the realm of combined kinetic and cyber weapons. Components of the new method for cyber weapons are cyber payload assessment, effects identification, and target assessment. The …

Design For Sustainment: Governance Engineering In Major Acquisition Programs, William Baker, Kaitlynn M. Castelle, Joseph M. Bradley, Lucas C. Marino

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

During acquisition for a sustainment-dominated, major capital asset, decision-making and action to develop the sustainment system must begin early in the acquisition process to sufficiently align the necessary integrated logistics support demanded by these systems. Effective governance improves the likelihood of success for delivery of the asset and accompanying sustainment system to ensure the asset meets expected performance and remains functional over its planned decades-long service life. The service life of a Navy vessel can range from 25 to 50 years. In this case study, we examine the operation of the governance system for major maritime acquisitions, wherein a fleet …

The Trojan Horse In Your Head: Cognitive Threats And How To Counter Them, Lora Pitman

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Vulnerabilities of the human mind caused by the way it is designed to process information have always been exploited in warfare, since the dawn of humanity. History is marked with frequent use of deceits and manipulations over the centuries, with examples ranging from the use of the Trojan Horse to Facebook’s user-profiling. While largely used over time, these tactics, that I call cognitive threats, have not been collectively examined. I hypothesize that they pose a security issue to which prevention strategies on different levels could be successfully applied. The research questions that this study asks are what the characteristics of …

Risk-Based Performance Metrics For Critical Infrastructure Protection? A Framework For Research And Analysis, Eric F. Taquechel, Marina Saitgalina

School of Public Service Faculty Publications

Measuring things that do not occur, such as “deterred” or “prevented” terrorist attacks, can be difficult. Efforts to establish meaningful risk-based performance metrics and performance evaluation frameworks based on such metrics, for government agencies with counterterrorism missions, are arguably in a nascent state. However, by studying program theory, logic models, and performance evaluation theory, as well as studying how risk, deterrence, and resilience concepts may be leveraged to support antiterrorism efforts, one may propose a framework for a logic model or other performance evaluation approach. Such a framework may integrate these concepts to help proxy performance measurement for agencies with …

A Systems Theory Based Examination Of Failure In Acquisition System Reform, Charles B. Keating, Joseph M. Bradley, Polinpapilinho F. Katina, Craig Arndt

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The defense acquisition system has been the source of intense scrutiny and calls for reform for over four decades. This research is to examine the contributions of Systems Theory to enhance prospects related to acquisition reform. Systems Theory offers a set of principles, laws, and concepts that explain the behavior of complex systems. Although the acquisition system and constituent programs have been critiqued and examined from multiple perspectives, they have never been the subject of exploration from Systems Theory. Recent advances in Systems Theory have identified 83 different potential system pathologies that can result in degraded system performance or outright …

Chapter 7: Human View, Holly A.H. Handley

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Introduction: Metrics, Modeling And Simulation For Cyber Physical Systems, Barry Ezell, Luanne Burns

VMASC Publications

[Introduction] In recent years, there has been a massive increase in cyber crime. Cyber breeches have become ubiquitous. The US government is attempting to adapt through legislation and policy. For instance, business in the defense industrial base must be in compliance of NIST 80-71 by 31 December 2017. Insurance companies as well are beginning to build actuaries on cyber risk. Along with NIST, there are many cyber frameworks that exist, each with their own following. Recently, companies have sought mapping from one framework to another but this is imperfect solution because some frameworks are exclusively technical control measures with very …

A Cross-Disciplinary Approach To The Maritime Security Risk Of Piracy And Lessons Learned From Agent-Based Modeling, Joanne Marie Fish

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation takes a cross-disciplinary approach to understanding pirate activity. Maritime piracy presents a dynamic ever-evolving problem. In today’s globalized world, contemporary maritime piracy presents a transnational threat. It is a complex socio-economic and political problem which the modern world considers to be criminal activity. Like all complex problems it must be deconstructed to fully comprehend it.

All criminal activity, maritime piracy included, has certain elements of supply and demand. For the activity to occur there must be a certain level, or supply, of targets. At the same time, we can posit that there must be a lack of other …

Armed Humanitarian Intervention: The Role Of Powerful Leaders In Framing And The National Security Decision Making Process, John Marshall Callahan

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

This study identifies and analyzes the decision making and framing processes for selected cases of armed humanitarian intervention by the United States in the post-Cold War Era. It fills a gap in the literature on decision making, focusing on the role of the powerful individual leader in national security decision making and the framing of interventions to the U.S. public and other stakeholder audiences. An examination of extant literature on the subject of U.S. foreign policy decision making, and development and implementation of framing strategies is used to determine the role of the individual leader in those processes using three …

U.S. Military Aid And The Role Of Foreign Armies In Civil Politics, Jennifer Jones Cunningham

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

The recent expansion of the Egyptian military's role in civil politics has led to uncertainty regarding the relationship between U.S. military aid and democratization. However, studies focusing on the link between foreign aid and democratization often exclude military aid from their analyses. This omission is particularly problematic given that civilian control over the military is a vital precondition for democratic consolidation, and a high percentage of U.S. military aid recipients are not yet consolidated democracies. Proponents of military aid point to the role security cooperation can play in diffusing democratic norms of professionalism. Critics worry military aid strengthens an institution …

Merging Two Worlds: Agent-Based Simulation Methods For Autonomous Systems, Andreas Tolk

Computational Modeling & Simulation Engineering Faculty Publications

This chapter recommends the increased use of agent-based simulation methods to support the design, development, testing, and operational use of autonomous systems. This recommendation is motivated by deriving taxonomies for intelligent software agents and autonomous robotic systems from the public literature, which shows their similarity: intelligent software agents can be interpreted as the virtual counterparts of autonomous robotic systems. This leads to examples of how simulation can be used to significantly improve autonomous system research and development in selected use cases. The chapter closes with observations on the operational effects of possible emergent behaviour and the need to align the …

Reducing Uncertainty In Technology Selection For Long Life Cycle Engineering Designs, Halil I. Ozdemir, C. Ariel Pinto, Resit Unal, Charles B. Keating, Colin Britcher, Sila Çetinkaya (Ed.), J. K. Ryan (Ed.)

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Faculty Publications

The best capabilities are usually achieved by having the latest technologies in defense systems. However, including the new, usually immature, technologies in a system design does not always easily result in achieving the capabilities at the right level, at an affordable cost, and in a timely manner. Many programs have suffered from immature technologies as cost overruns, late or no deliveries, and poor performance levels. Another impact of technology selection appears as obsolescence after the deployment of systems, or even before the deployment of the system. As the technologies of a system become obsolete, the cost of maintaining the system …

Ritualized Rhetoric And Historical Memory In German Foreign And Security Policy, Sara A. Hoff

Graduate Program in International Studies Theses & Dissertations

Recent changes in German foreign policy behavior have led to questions about Germany's European vocation. At the center of this inquiry is Germany's struggle to resolve the intersection between historical memory and present day international responsibility, especially in cases involving the use of force. This dissertation examines how and when historical memory has influenced, shaped, and informed contemporary German foreign and security policy and rhetoric by examining cases within two policy areas: out of area operations and nuclear nonproliferation. Focusing on the case of Libya, this dissertation also considers the cases of Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan. Nuclear nonproliferation, a global …