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Insurgency has two main strategies, guerrilla warfare and terrorism, which should be treated as linked, but distinct, strategies. This thesis examines the role of incumbent violence in leading insurgents to select one, or both, of these strategies. It argues that incumbent violence can create support for insurgency by causing fear and a desire for revenge and reshaping the social structures of a community. It also argues that incumbent violence increases popular support for terrorism in particular by creating outbidding incentives and desires to respond in kind to civilian deaths and as a way of punishing norm violations against attacking civilians on the part of the incumbent. The paper tests this theory with a qualitative case study of the conflict in Northern Ireland during the 1970s and a quantitative analysis of insurgent violence in the Kirkuk, Diyala, Babylon, and Salah al Din provinces during the 2003-2009 Iraq conflict

This thesis investigates the historic and architectural significance of the Buchanan House in Bells Bend, Nashville, Tennessee, in hopes that it will be protected and conserved. Artifacts from the University of Tennessee surveys conducted by David Anderson and Derek Anderson in 2009 and 2010 were used to establish whether or not there were any intact American Civil War period deposits. Spatial analysis was used to identify locations of activity areas. Historic documents were used to establish the occupants of the Buchanan House. This thesis concluded that while there were no definitive Civil War period deposits, the Buchanan House still provides an ideal spot for a museum commemorating the Battle of Bells Bend, owing to its close proximity to the battle, and because it offers a unique perspective on the civilian experience during the Civil War, one that demonstrates a long history of resistance and resilience.

The 2021 military coup in Myanmar is part of a much bigger trend towards democratic regression in Southeast Asia where military influence has played an important role. Previous research on the SEA region suggests that the citizenry has been overlooked in understanding how civil-military relations have been shaped. Rebecca L. Schiff’s concordance theory presumes that when concordance, i.e., agreement, between the military, political leadership, and the citizenry exists on the four indicators (1) social composition of officer corps, (2) political decision-making procedures, (3) recruitment method and (4) military style, military intervention in domestic politics is less likely to occur. The aim of this thesis is to conduct a comparative case study of Myanmar and Indonesia to understand how the three actors have shaped their respective civil-military relations. By applying concordance theory, a comparison is made to assess the theory’s predictive and explanatory power of the two cases. Results suggest that the two cases' political developments are in line with the theory. Indonesia demonstrates a higher degree of concordance among all indicators and has not experienced a military intervention in the studied time period. Comparatively, Myanmar demonstrates a low degree ofconcordance among all indicators and subsequently, military intervention in domestic politics is common. However, a lack of data on some indicators questions the strength of these claims. Collecting primary material for future research is suggested to analyse the concordance of all four indicators in depth and ensure an accurate representation of the citizenry for both cases.

There is much debate among genocide scholars as to the causes and even accurate definitions of genocide. Early warning developed to address the increasing need for humanitarian intervention in violent conflicts around the world. As a subset of genocide studies, early warning seeks to go beyond explaining the causes of genocide. The early warning model created here uses six indicator variables - government, leaders/elites, followers, non-followers/bystanders, outsider group, and environment - to detect the likelihood of genocide within a given case study. Four cases were chosen - Kenya, Nigeria, Yemen, and Ethiopia - and analyzed using the indicator variables to determine if these violent conflicts may already be or may become genocides. Preliminary findings show that the civilian outsider group is a vital component when determining whether or not a conflict is or may become a "limited-genocide" and that genocides are a function of the interaction of the six indicator variables and not just their presence. Other implications for sovereignty and humanitarian intervention are discussed.

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No description available.

Criminal organizations have been commonly associated with violence and disorder. Despite there being truth in that, what is more concerning is their growing influence. Criminal violence has exceeded traditional forms of political violence in the world. In the wake of the signing of the Peace Accord on November 26, 2016, between the Government of Colombia and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — People’s Army, the disarmament and demobilization process created an institutional and security vacuum in rural regions of Colombia. These rural regions currently experience partial peace, with violence levels peaking under the competition of criminal organizations and other non-state armed groups to govern abandoned territories and communities over the pursuit of illicit markets and trade routes. This study focuses on a more profound understanding of the micro-dynamics between criminal organizations territorial control, governance, and its effects on violence against civilians in rural and post-conflict contexts. This thesis contributes to this research gap by asking why do criminal organizations territorial control affect violence against civilians? Through a qualitative study using the method of structured focused comparison and selecting a most similar research design, the period of study covers September 1, 2017, to June 30, 2022. The municipalities selected were Tarazá and Zaragoza, in the department of Antioquia. The findings seem to suggest that it is more likely that a criminal organization that has or in this case the Gaitanist Self-Defense Forces of Colombia that progressively achieved segmented territorial control would have the incentives to monopolize all functions of governance and to their capacity establish a public goods-based legitimacy governance system reducing the cost of social control and criminal violence against civilians in Tarazá and Zaragoza.

The scope of this research deals with the notion that military service yields higher levels of earnings for individuals who successfully transition into the civilian labor force. Through the Human Capital Theory (HCT) lens, this study assessed the relationship between military connection and civilian labor force economic outcomes for women. The results of this study inform policy makers, military recruiters, civilian employers, and college administrators, with insights into how to support military connected women’s transition into the civilian workforce. This study hypothesized that military service along with the attainment of at least a bachelor’s degree would serve as a bridge to higher pay for women after transitioning into the civilian labor force. Drawing on data from the 2017 National Survey of College Graduates (NSCG), the focus of this quantitative study was to investigate how a college education affects civilian earnings. This study compared labor market outcomes between military connected women and non- military connected individuals who have earned at least a bachelor’s degree to determine if military service yields an earnings premium. This analysis determined that in general military connected women do not experience an earnings premium over military connected men and non- military connected individuals when combining military service and education after transitioning into the civilian labor force. Furthermore, this study revealed military does not act as a bridge to higher civilian labor force earnings for women. This suggests that a bridging environment from military service does not exist for women. Overall this study found that an individual’s military connection does not hinder their ability to successfully transition into the civilian labor force. However, it does suggest that military service does not act as a mechanism to move military connected job candidates to the front of the line. / Educational Leadership