Throughout the Second Reich’s short life, military affairs were synonymous with those of the state. Indeed, it was the zeal and blood of Prussian soldiers that allowed the creation of a unified German empire. After solidifying itself as a major power, things grew more complicated as the Reich found itself increasingly surrounded by hostile rivals. To the west, French humiliation over their catastrophic defeat in 1870-71 continued to fester while, in the east, Russian sympathies for the new empire waned. The finalization of a Franco-Russian alliance in 1894 meant Germany faced formidable adversaries along her eastern and western borders. That unsettling realization dictated the empire’s military policy until its downfall in 1918. Drawing from the writings and speeches of Wilhelmine Germany’s military and political leaders, this work seeks to examine and analyze the Second Reich’s military policies and decision-making processes over the three decades preceding the First World War.

abstract: Digital media refers to any form of media which depends on electronic devices for its creation, distribution, view, and storage. Digital media analytics involves qualitative and quantitative analysis from the business to understand users’ behaviors. This technique brings disruptive changes to many industries and its path of economic disruption is getting wider and wider. Under the context of the increasingly popular digital media market, this dissertation investigates what are the best content delivery strategy and the new cultural phenomenon: Internet Water Army. The first essay proposes a theory-guided computational approach that consolidates distinct data sources spanning unstructured text, image, and video data, systematically measures modes of persuasion, and unveils the multimedia content design strategies for crowdfunding projects. The second essay studies whether using the Internet Water Army helps sales and under what conditions it helps. This study finds that the Internet water army helps product sales at both post-level and fans-level. The effect is largely reflected by changing the number of emotional fans. Furthermore, the earlier to purchase the water armies, more haters, likers, and neutral fans it can attract. The last essay builds a game model to study the trade- off between honestly promoting the product according to their evaluation and catering to the consumer’s prior belief on the product quality to stay on the market as long as possible. It provides insights on the optimum usage of promotion on social media and demonstrate how conventional wisdom about negative reviews will hurt business may be misleading in the presence of social media. These three studies jointly contribute to the crowdfunding and social media studies literature by elucidating the content delivery strategy, and the impact and purchasing strategy of the Internet Water Army. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Business Administration 2020

The theoretical part of the diploma thesis is focused on t he s election of research methods, a description of the process of modernization of electronic marketing both in general in the public s ector and especially in the r ecruitment of milita ry personnel t o t he C zech Army. Specifically, it is a description of modernization and the goals of recruitment to the AČR as such. The theoretical part concludes with a description of the relevant personnel aspects - the specifics and human limits of recruitment to the AČR. In t he m ethodological p art of t he di ploma t hesis, pa rtial r esearch segments are ana lyzed. Quantitative analyzes of the success of advertising campaigns and recruitment websites are complemented by observation of the attitudes of relevant officials in the issue, reflecting the atmosphere and preferences i n the r elevant representatives. T he s ub-research areas are: technical a nalysis of modernization of w ebsites a nd c onstruction of ne w w ebsites f or recruitment to the AČR; quantification of running results a fter m odernization a nd quantification of results after the start of running of the new website; analysis of preparations for advertising campaigns; quantitative specifics of the development and especially the results of advertising campaigns for recruitment to...

World War II was the most devastating war in human history in terms of loss of life. The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, plunged the United States into war. Less than seven thousand military nurses were on active duty at the time of the attack. By the end of the war, there were over fifty-thousand active-duty nurses. The army nurses performed under fire in field and evacuation hospitals, on hospital trains and ships, and as flight nurses on medical evacuation transport aircraft. The skill and dedication of the Army Nurses Corps insured a 95% survival rate for the wounded soldiers who received medical care in a field or evacuation hospital. Two hundred and one nurses lost their lives during World War II and sixty-seven nurses were captured and held as prisoners of war. Sixteen hundred medals, citations and commendations attest to the nurses’ courage and dedication.

Les protectores diuini lateris Augusti, soldats de haut rang attestés dans l’armée romaine entre le IIIe siècle et le VIe siècle, ont été considérés tour à tour par les historiens comme des gardes du corps impériaux, des officiers d’état-major, ou les successeurs des centurions. Mais ces interprétations soulèvent bien des contradictions que cette étude d’histoire militaire et sociale, appuyée sur un corpus prosopographique, vise à résoudre. Les évolutions du recrutement, des carrières et des fonctions des protectores sont révélatrices des recompositions du commandement de l’armée romaine tardive. L’analyse ouvre également une fenêtre sur l’environnement social et culturel de ces soldats privilégiés, amenés à fréquenter tant les champs de bataille que la cour impériale. Enfin, en plaçant au centre de la réflexion la relation de ces soldats avec l’empereur, à la fois chef de l’armée et garant de l’ordre social et symbolique du monde de l’Antiquité tardive, on comprend comment les protectores s’inscrivaient, aux yeux des Romains, au sein d’un ordre terrestre des dignités reflétant la hiérarchie céleste. / The protectores diuini lateris Augusti, high-ranking soldiers attested in the Roman army from the 3rd c. to the 6th c. AD, have been alternately defined by historians as imperial bodyguards, staff officers, or centurions under a new name. This study, based on a prosopography, aims to resolve the contradictions raised by these interpretations, from a military and social point of view. The evolutions of these soldiers’ recruitment, careers and functions, reflect deep changes in the command structure of the Late Roman army. The analysis also sheds light on the social and cultural background of these privileged soldiers, who were familiar with both the battlefield and the imperial court. By focusing on their privileged relationship with the emperor, who was at the same time general in chief and responsible for the social and symbolic order of the Late Antique world, we can finally understand how the protectores were part, in the eyes of the Romans, of an earthly order of dignities reflecting the celestial hierarchy.

This thesis addresses accountability for mass atrocities. It presents a case study of Uganda that has undergone a two-decade conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) insurgent group and the national army, the Uganda People’s Defence Armed Forces (UPDF). The government of Uganda has initiated various accountability measures that include international and domestic prosecutions, truth telling, reparations and traditional justice to address international crimes and other human rights violations committed during the conflict. The thesis in particular investigates how all these mechanisms could be used in a way that ensures that Uganda fulfils its international obligations and that the different measures complement each other. The thesis traces the background to the conflict that began in 1986 and explores the consequences of the conflict on the civilian population in Uganda. It alludes to its spread from Uganda to South Sudan and since 2008, to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Central African Republic. It argues that the significant and continuous involvement of the government of Sudan from 1994 to 2005 internationalised the LRA conflict. It further finds that both the LRA and the UPDF perpetrated war crimes and crimes against humanity during the conflict. The thesis further discusses the international obligation of Uganda to prosecute, punish and extradite persons responsible for the commission of international crimes and to ensure remedies to victims of such crimes and other human rights violations. It finds that the lapse of Part II of the Amnesty Act that allowed for a ‘blanket amnesty’ leaves room for Uganda to fulfil its international obligations. The thesis further investigates the Agreement on Accountability and Reconciliation and its Annexure reached between the government of Uganda and the LRA in Juba that ushers in the various accountability pursuits in Uganda. It argues that the implementation and successes of the Agreement depends on the consultations, legislations, policies and the establishment and workings of the institutions envisaged that could lead to justice, truth and reparations in Uganda. The thesis finds that the different accountability measures that Uganda is pursuing correspond to the political, social and historical conditions in Uganda, in particular, decades of armed conflict and human rights violations with impunity of perpetrators. It concludes that the success of the accountability undertakings will largely depend on the high calibre of officials and staff of the different institutions and their ability to deal wisely with challenges that will inevitably arise. It further finds that a political will and commitment is essential to ensure adequate investment in technical, material and financial resources and that non-interference of the government in the work of the institutions will ensure success. It concludes that such a political will and commitment, a robust consultation with stakeholders including victim groups and the creation of alliances locally, nationally, regionally and internationally, Uganda’s accountability pursuits will lead to the desired justice, truth and reparations. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

Deploying soldiers in foreign missions undoubtedly represents a significant burden associated with the risk of harm to their physical and mental health. Regarding the mental health, stress represents the most significant risk factor traditionally associated with the deployment. In fact its influence during the deployment tends to be continuous since the amount of different stressors is plentiful. Traditionally, the attention of clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and researchers associated with foreign operations and their possible consequences was targeted mainly on (the) PTSD, depression or addictions. However, it appears that the soldiers also suffer from other mental health disorders. This thesis is focused not on disorders but their partial symptoms, predominantly neurotic. Initial research hypothesis presumes that if we compare the population of soldiers who have been deployed in a foreign mission with those who have not been deployed we will find (the) significant differences between the groups. We expect those who have been deployed to show a higher rate of psychopathological symptoms, probably subclinical and therefore discrete, but still more prevalent comparing to those who have never experienced the military mission environment. The data have been collected through the questionnaire...

Master thesis entitled "The Israeli Druze: Military Service as a Tool to Influence Domestic and Foreign Policy" regards the relations of the Israeli Druze Community and the State of Israel. Druze people live also in Lebanon and Syria and are usually categorized as an ethno-religious and transnational group. They are distinctive for their secretive and esoteric religion and tightly-knit social bonds. The Israeli Druze community (composing less than 2 % of the Israeli population) is specific for its mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces, which marks a difference from other Arabic speaking citizens of Israel. The service in the Israeli army implies that the Israeli Druze people are loyal both to the state and the transnational Druze community. Using the framework of a theoretical concept of Strategic Military Refusal by Udi Lebel, the goal of the thesis is to examine whether the Israeli Druze community was able to influence domestic and foreign policy of the State of Israel in order to reach its own political goals, whether these efforts were intentional, strategic and successful. Alongside, it is also identified which factors may influence the loyalty of the Israeli Druzes towards the State of Israel. To achieve this goal, two cases are analyzed: 1) the reaction of the Israeli Druze...

The topic of smoking in the 20th century wasn't properly researched yet, especially in Czech Republic. Publications that would take into account any influences like army environment, propaganda, advertisement and other, are basically non-existent. This thesis is aimed to cover at least a part of this neglected phenomenon in a given period of time. It pursues mostly the relationship between smoking and the state or society, with special attention to conflicts and soldiers in general. The research of archive sources, medical statistics, legislation or regulations is combined with the testimony of sources of a personal nature, photographs and preserved visual materials. It will also be supplemented by findings from the fields of medicine, sociology and psychology. Keywords war; tobacco; cigarettes; smoking; army; society; 20th century

The aim of the thesis is a reflection of the phenomenom military service in the Czechoslovak People's Army in the seventies of the twenties century in the men's collective memory who fulfilled military service in these times. The research was based on a narrative analysis data which have been obtained during oral history interviews with contemporary witnesses. Then, the data were compared with written historical sources. The thesis is focused on a soldier's everyday routine in the military service. The empirical part is focused on the reflection of the military service from the view of narrators.