Public Policy Commons^™

The Logic Of America’S Defense Strategy, Elbridge A. Colby

Joint Force Quarterly

In this address at the National War College, Elbridge A. Colby, Under Secretary of War for Policy, explores the strategic logic underlying the 2026 National Defense Strategy. He argues that renewed major power rivalry, military competition, and the risks posed by nuclear-armed adversaries require the United States to align its military objectives, methods, and resources with concrete political goals and American interests. Colby presents a three-part framework for doing so: denial defense, which seeks to prevent an aggressor from seizing and holding key allied or partner territory; favorable escalation management, which places the burden and risks of escalation on the …

Joint Force Quarterly, Issue 120, 3rd Quarter 2026, National Defense University Press

Joint Force Quarterly

Joint Force Quarterly 120, 3rd Quarter 2026, focuses on contemporary defense strategy, joint warfighting, professional military education, operational innovation, and military sustainment. The issue opens with Under Secretary of War for Policy Elbridge A. Colby’s discussion of the logic underlying the 2026 National Defense Strategy and an executive summary reflecting on the 40th anniversary of the Goldwater-Nichols Act and the future of jointness. Forum articles address analytic superiority in warfare, the development of operational objectives, and new evidence concerning the Lavelle Affair. Contributions on joint professional military education explore defensive cognitive warfare, strategist development, and cyberspace collaboration for homeland defense. …

From Disaster To Resilience: Developing Smart Settlements In The Himalayas, Keshav Bhattarai, Ambika P. Adhikari

Himalayan Research Papers Archive

Nepal’s catastrophic 26 August 2026 Bhote Koshi–Trishuli flood should be understood not only as a humanitarian tragedy but also as a potentially major turning point in updating national settlement and reconstruction policy. Engineers and scientists have described the floods as a glacier–bedrock collapse that triggered an ice-rock avalanche and debris flow. As per the live updates on September 7, 2026, the total death toll was 1,355, and 4,996 people were missing (The Hindu, 2026). Indian and Nepali rescuers worked urgently to locate and rescue people buried under hydropower tunnels, buildings, mud, and landslide debris.

UN News reported on September 3, …

Average Earnings Of Undergraduate Certificate Graduates In The Mountain West, 2024, Devin Streuter, Kahlen Coss, Kevin Yang, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Higher Education

This fact sheet presents data on the average earnings of undergraduate certificate program graduates in 2024 dollars compared to the average earnings of high school (HS) graduates in five Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah. The fact sheet reports information on the number of undergraduate certificate programs, number of graduates, the most popular certificate programs, and earnings premiums for each state. Published by Open Campus in collaboration with The Higher Education Analytics (HEA) Group, the fact sheet reports data originally published through the “Certificate Earnings Explorer."

Fastest-Warming States And Cities In The Mountain West, 2025, Maisoon Faris, Kahlen Coss, Kevin Yang, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Environment

This fact sheet presents data published by Climate Central on the change in average annual temperatures for the five Mountain West states of Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah and 15 Mountain West cities from 1970 to 2025. City-level data are derived from Applied Climate Information System (ACIS) operated by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), state-level data are derived from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI).

From Today's Prices To Tomorrow's Investments: A Guide For Child Care Providers On Why The Market Rate Survey & Narrow Cost Analysis Matter, Jess Carson

New Hampshire Early Care and Education Research Consortium

No abstract provided.

From Structure To Experiences: How Facility Capacity And Staffing Shape The Adoption And Impact Of Lgbt-Affirming Policies In Long-Term Care, Andrew Alberth

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

Long-term care (LTC) settings – including nursing homes (NHs) and assisted living facilities (ALFs) – provide necessary care for individuals with extreme health and functioning limitations. Sexual and gender minority (LGBT) older adults report challenges receiving effective, person-centered care LTC. Some LGBT older adults may hide their sexual orientation and gender identity when entering LTC settings or delay seeking needed LTC fearing discrimination from staff and other residents. Furthermore, staff in LTC settings indicate little awareness of LGBT-residents and possess inadequate LGBT-cultural competency necessary for providing person-centered care. Therefore, LGBT-residents LTC experiences remain underexplored in the broader research. Adopting LGBT-affirming …

The Effect Of State Policy On Individuals With Mental Illness In Nursing Homes: A Multilevel Analysis, Adrita Barooah

Graduate Doctoral Dissertations

ABSTRACT

THE EFFECT OF STATE POLICY ON INDIVIDUALS WITH MENTAL ILLNESS IN NURSING HOMES: A MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS

August 2026

Adrita Barooah, B.Sc., University of Delhi, India

M.S., University of Massachusetts Boston

Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Boston

Directed by Professor Pamela Nadash

The proportion of individuals living with a mental illness in U.S. nursing homes has grown substantially over the past few decades (Fashaw et al., 2020), raising serious concerns about care quality, resource adequacy, and costs to both nursing homes and government payers. The lack of adequate resources and knowledge has resulted in sub-par mental health care (O'Connor et al., …

Socioeconomic Determinants Of Malaria Infection Among Pregnant Women In Cameroon, Sub-Saharan Africa, Arnold Akosah Muluh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Malaria during pregnancy is a significant public health issue in Cameroon, affecting maternal health and birth outcomes. Despite preventive measures, disparities exist among socioeconomic groups and between urban and rural areas. The study was guided by the social-ecological model and explored how socioeconomic factors and geographic location influence malaria infection in pregnant women. Specifically, the impact of wealth index, maternal education, and healthcare access on infection rates, considering maternal age, parity, and residence, was examined. Quantitative data from the Cameroon DHS Phase 8 were used (N=1204). The sample included pregnant women with valid malaria test results. Chi-Square tests and binary …

Do Nonprofit Ratings Help Donors Make Better Decisions?, Ashraf Haque

Center for Policy Research

Nonprofit organizations depend on donations to fulfill their missions, but donors choosing among 1.8 million U.S. public charities often lack the time or capacity to evaluate which organizations are actually performing well. This brief summarizes findings from a study that used a five-year panel dataset of over one million nonprofit-year records from GuideStar (2014–2018) to examine how transparency seal ratings affect donation behavior. The author finds that having any GuideStar seal increases donations by about 7% compared to having no seal, and that platinum-rated nonprofits receive 34% more in donations than unrated organizations, regardless of actual organizational quality. Donors do …

Exploring The Perspectives Of Individuals Who Were Formerly Incarcerated To Determine The Barriers And Facilitators To Successful Reentry Programs In Maryland, Ansu Sawi Momoh

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Due to persistently high rates of incarceration and recidivism, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services developed policies and programs geared towards reducing recidivism. Existing literature indicated that successful reentry depends on access to coordinated support services, there was a lack of qualitative studies that explored the perspectives of individuals who were formerly incarcerated, specifically in the state of Maryland. The purpose of this generic qualitative research was to understand the reentry process from the perspective of 12 individuals who were formerly incarcerated. Semi structured interviews were used to explore the barriers and facilitators within the re-entry programs …

Antiterrorism Policies And Curbing Youth Involvement In Violent Extremism In Nigeria, Timothy Melaye

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nigeria continues to face significant challenges from extremist groups such as Boko Haram, unidentified militia groups, and bandits. The radicalization of youths has played a central role in the country's ongoing violent extremism and general insecurity. Efforts to curb youth radicalization remain largely unsuccessful and pose a major challenge in the country. The existing literature on curbing youth violent extremism focuses on the use of force, while other scholars argue for a complex interplay among economic, social, political, and environmental factors. They also considered that high illiteracy, lack of religious understanding, poverty, unemployment, psychological factors, and unstable family environments contribute …

Can The Safety Net Support Families Through Childbirth?, Hyojeong Kim, Colleen Heflin, Taryn Morrissey

Center for Policy Research

Childbirth is a life event that often disrupts maternal employment and household earnings just as family expenses increase. In the United States, families do not have access to a national paid parental leave program and must rely on a patchwork of safety net programs that were not designed specifically to support households during pregnancy and the immediate postpartum period. This brief uses linked administrative data from the Virginia Longitudinal Data System (2016–2021) to describe changes in household earnings and social welfare benefits before and after childbirth among low-income mothers receiving the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance for …

Examination Of The Bureau Of Indian Affairs Public Policy Implementation In Support Of Sovereign Tribal Nations, Erna Mae Faber

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Social and economic disparities in the Midwestern Reservation Community have persisted for more than five decades despite the enactment of federal Indian policy designed to address them. Based on the existing research, the Bureau of Indian Affairs’ (BIA’s) failure to effectively administer programs addressing health care, housing, and economic opportunity has perpetuated systemic inequities that disproportionately affect tribal nation members. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore how members of the Midwestern Reservation Community viewed the implementation of BIA public policies intended to support tribal nations through the lens of the resource dependence theory, the narrative policy …

Southeastern Michigan Firefighters’ Experiences With Their Organization’S Employee Assistance Program, Angela Patricia Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Mental health challenges among first responders require coordinated stakeholder efforts. Although employee assistance programs (EAPs) are commonly offered as workplace benefits, little is known about firefighters’ experiences with these programs and how they can be tailored to meet their unique needs. Existing literature suggested that EAP utilization among firefighters is influenced by program awareness, confidentiality concerns, organizational support, stigma, and the extent to which services are tailored to first responders’ needs. Using a generic qualitative design and policy feedback theory, this study explored southeastern Michigan firefighters’ experiences with EAPs. Purposive sampling was used to recruit 11 firefighters for semi structured …

We Don't See Race, We See Blue: A Case Study Of Police Unions As Racialized Organizations, Sarahfina Aubrey Peterson

Dissertations and Theses

In the late 1960s, police began to unionize. Today, they are the most well-organized labor force in the United States, with 70% to 80% of sworn officers now represented by a union. Though it has been decades, little scholarship has developed about how police unions affect policing. Much of the research that does exist uses race-neutral frames to address an organization steeped in racial history. This study aims to address this gap in scholarship, in part, by introducing race as a motivation for and explanation of organizational output.

This research applies Victor Ray's racialized organizations theory to police unions. I …

Trapped In Transition: Structural Change And Political Dynamics In Middle-Income Countries, Gabriel Duvidovich

Dissertations and Theses

The middle-income trap literature has examined why relatively few middle-income countries transition to high-income status. A range of explanations has been proposed, but the political dimension has often been overlooked. Studies that take a political perspective often focus on institutional form rather than the state’s ability to effectively implement policy. This study addresses this gap by bringing political capacity to the center of the analysis. It argues that political capacity appears important for the productive upgrading required for sustained growth in middle-income economies and shapes economic growth trajectories across countries at different income levels.

The empirical analysis uses country-period panel …

Gross Metropolitan Product (Gmp) And Gross State Product (Gsp) In The Mountain West, 2024, Devin Streuter, Phillip Seo, Zafeen Boulware, Caitlin J. Saladino, William E. Brown Jr.

Economic Development & Workforce

This fact sheet presents 2024 Gross Metropolitan Product (GMP) and Gross State Product (GSP) data for five Mountain West states: Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, and selected metros in these states. The data are derived from a report by the United States Conference of Mayors titled, “U.S. Metro Economies Annual Report and Forecast June 2025."

Genocide By Algorithm In Gaza: Artificial Intelligence, Countervailing Responsibility, And The Corruption Of Public Discourse, Branislav Radeljić

The Journal of Social Encounters

The accelerating integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into military systems[i] raises major concerns across fields such as security studies, international public law, and critical technology studies. As warned in 2023, “[t]he world’s major military powers have begun a race to wire AI into warfare. […] No one is inviting AI to formulate a grand strategy, or join a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. But the same seductive logic that accelerated the nuclear arms race could over a period of years, propel AI up the chain of command.”[ii] In the military domain, algorithmic systems function as epistemic …

Pol/His 3005: Social Welfare Policy In The United States, Oswaldo A. Mena Aguilar

Open Educational Resources

The United States is one of the richest countries in the world, yet poverty, hardship, and inequality remain central features of American life. This course begins with that paradox. Why does a country with so much economic capacity tolerate so much poverty? Why does its welfare state protect some risks generously while treating other forms of need as individual failure? Why are benefits for the poor so visible, stigmatized, and administratively demanding, while benefits for the affluent are often hidden in the tax code, treated as private achievement, and politically protected? The course is organized around a sequence of questions. …