Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This thesis applies the ontological turn to the war fiction of veteran authors, Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O’Brien. It argues that some veteran authors desire to communicate truth through fiction. Choosing to communicate truth through fiction hints at a new perspective on reality and existence that may not be readily accepted or understood by those who lack combat experience. The non-veteran understanding of war can be more informed by entertaining the idea that a multiplicity of realities exists. Affirming the combat veteran reality—the post-war ontology—and acknowledging the non-veteran reality—rooted in what I label “pre-war” or “civilian” ontology—helps enhance the reader’s understanding of what veteran authors attempt to communicate through fiction. This approach reframes the dialogic interaction between the reader and the perspectives presented in veteran author’s fiction through an emphasis on “radical alterity” to the point that telling and reading such stories represent distinct ontological journeys. Both Kurt Vonnegut and Tim O’Brien provide intriguing perspectives on reality through their fiction, particularly in the way their characters perceive and express morality, guilt, time, mortality, and even existence. Vonnegut and O’Brien’s war experiences inform these perspectives. This does not imply that the authors hold an identical perspective on the world or that combat experience yields an ontological understanding of the world common to every veteran. It simply asserts that applying the ontological turn to these writings, and the writings of other combat veterans, reveals that those who experience combat first-hand often walk away from those experiences with a changed ontological perspective.

The organization of the Emergency Conservation Work was found to possess many faults. The Seventy-Fifth Congress, taking cognizance of some of the more glaring imperfections, approved a measure reorganizing and re-establishing the Emergency Conservation Work under the name of The Civilian Conservation Corp. The bill eliminated many of the defects of the former organization, and invested authority and defined duties and regulations in such a manner that a more efficient institution resulted.

Master of Science / Department of Journalism and Mass Communications / Thomas H. Gould / This case study explores the gap in attitudes, information and contact between soldiers and civilians and what Army public affairs officers do to try and bridge that gap. The study was exploratory and as such, brought up more questions than it answered. In-depth interviews were conducted with three Army public affairs officers from three different Army installations. A total of five community leaders from towns surrounding the installations also were interviewed. Most of the comments from public affairs officers and community leaders were positive. While the public affairs officers felt they could do a better job telling the Army’s story if they had more resources, the community leaders didn’t necessarily feel they were missing out on information. Some stereotypes or biases were detected in comments suggesting the Army was only interested in helping itself and on the flip side that there are just some things civilians would not understand. Further research on the military-civilian gap, particularly the gaps between certain demographics, would be usefully not only in helping public affairs officers target their messages but also in helping military recruiters better connect with possible enlistees.

Advances in airpower and bombing capabilities have brought airpower to the forefront of military strategy. Four cases are examined to explain the historical uses and goals of strategic and morale bombing of enemy civilian populations: Germany, Japan, Vietnam and Iraq. This historical data is complemented by psychological theory that helps to predict the effectiveness of these bombing campaigns on the civilian will to resist. This paper argues that strategic and morale bombing on civilian populations does not decrease the enemy will to resist.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / This thesis examines civil-military relations during the critical moments of the Czechoslovak history, particularly during the deep political and societal crises in 1938, 1948, 1968, and 1989. Such a method offers an opportunity to analyze civilian control of the military under a situation when the civil-military relations are in deep crisis. By concluding that even under such conditions there were stable civil-military relations in former Czechoslovakia, this thesis affirms the theory of military professionalism as a crucial factor in civil-military relations, as presented by Samuel P. Huntington. Thus, the study of civil-military relations in crises of the Czechoslovak history provides an exceptional opportunity to test the Huntington's model of the equilibrium of objective civilian control in the circumstances of profound societal disturbances. In accordance with the Huntington's theory of stable civil-military relations, this thesis attests that a strong military professionalism, typified by the bonds of traditions, obedience, and patriotic loyalty, plays crucial role in determining stability of civil-military relations, i.e. an objective civilian control of the military. Subsequently, by following this reasoning this thesis also justifies assumption of permanently stable civil-military relations in Czechia, because it intentionally concentrates only on the continuum of the Czechoslovak and the Czech civil-military relations. / Lieutenant Colonel, Czech Air Force

Enclosed herein, in accordance with the requirements of the Department of English, College of Humanities and Sciences, and the VCU Graduate School, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Virginia, regarding thesis submission, arrangement, and abstraction, is the novel entitled Skyline, in which one Jameson Price, of Fredericksburg, Virginia, aged 19, embarks upon a journey of self-exploration, financial gain, and physical labor, and experiences for the first time (or maybe second) the tumults of love. Upon his enrolment in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in 1936, he is taken to Camp Saddleback, near New Puckett, Virginia, situated on the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east of the Shenandoah Valley. Here he assists in the creation of the Shenandoah National Park, and develops and explores relationships with fellow CCC boys and local residents—both positive and negative relationships, all with consequences that will affect all of their lives, forever.

This thesis The Role of the Interpreter in Conflict Zones presents a general overview of some basic characteristics of interpreting in conflict zones. The theoretical part characterizes historical development of interpreting in conflict zones and describes the legal status of interpreters working in such an environment based on the international humanitarian law. The following section describes the use of interpreters in the Czech Army, examines the language training of the Czech soldiers and defines a summary of the past and current missions of the Czech Army. These descriptions serve as a basis for the empirical section of this thesis which analyzes responses of Czech soldiers represented in the questionnaire survey that aimed to clarify their experiences with interpreting in foreign missions of the Czech Army. The survey shows that the Czech soldiers appreciate the quality of interpreting in foreign missions and prefer to use the local civilian interpreters. Key words: interpreter, conflict zone, civilian, combatant, Czech Army.

5 ABSTRACT The rules governing the protection of children in armed conflicts has undergone an extensive evolution over the last few years. From the beginning of 20th century when the first international instruments for acknowledging children as a specific group requiring better attention and a special approach started to form, through the boom in the 1980 when the binding Convention on the rights of the child was dedicated solely to children and children's protection became the key question for many international participants, till the 21th century where the protection of children began to be oriented towards the balance between accepted obligations and their realization. Today, many international documents deal with the protection of children; however, their implementation and realization is often lacking. Armed conflicts are no longer of a traditional international character today and the norms, which dealt with relations between states, are no longer valid and need to be reassessed. Mixed and internal armed conflicts prevail and the attention is focused on civilian children included as an easy targets. In this kind of situation, children are particularly vulnerable for various reasons. First, many children live in a large-scale poverty and any kind of participation in an armed conflict allows them to...

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / Since 1989 the study of democratic civil military relations has undergone a revival of the formation of new theory. These concepts deal with civilian control of armed forces at a national level. Since after the end of the Cold War, the European employment of military forces within a multinational framework became a regularity, it is now pertinent to ask whether and how these concepts fit at the international level. The construction of Europe and the rise of new security challenges raises the issue of democratic civil military relations in the European Union. The present thesis analyses classical and new theories of civil military relations and applies these to the current issue of security policy and the formation of strategy for a supra-national European Union. / Lieutenant Colonel, Austrian Army

Doctor of Philosophy / Security Studies Interdepartmental Program / Emizet F. Kisangani / Attacks against nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in high-risk conflict zones have increased exponentially over the last two decades. However, the few existing empirical studies on NGO insecurity have tended to focus on external factors influencing attacks, with little attention paid to the actions of aid workers themselves. To fill this gap, this dissertation theorizes that aid workers may have contributed to their own insecurity by engaging in greater political action. Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used to assess the impact of political activity by NGOs on the insecurity of aid workers. The quantitative analyses test the theory at two levels. The first is a large-N country-level analysis of 117 nations from 1999 to 2015 using panel corrected standard errors. The second is a subnational-level statistical analysis of four case studies: Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and Colombia from 2000 to 2014. Both the country- and provincial- level analyses show that the magnitude of aid tends to be a significant determinant of aid worker security. The qualitative methods of “structured-focused comparison” and “process tracing” are used to analyze the four cases. Results show that aid workers are most likely to be victims of politically-motivated attacks while in-transit. Consistent with the quantitative findings, it is speculated that if workers are engaged in a large-scale project over an extended period of time, attackers will be able to monitor their daily activities and routines closely, making it easier to orchestrate a successful ambush. Furthermore, the analysis reveals that political statements made by NGOs—regardless of their sectors of activity—have increased insecurity for the broader aid community. These results dispel the myth that humanitarian activity has historically been independent, impartial, and neutral. Several NGOs have relied on this false assumption for security, believing that adherence to core principles has contributed to “humanitarian space.” The results also dispel the popular NGO assumption that targeted attacks are not official tactics of organized militants, but rather the result of criminality or mistaken identity. In fact, the overwhelming majority of aid workers attacked in high-risk conflict zones have been targeted by political actors.