Los Zetas are considered by security analysts to be a transformative force within transnational criminal organizations (TCO), exporting their unique model throughout Mexico. Los Zetas’ idiosyncratic interventions include their diversification of criminal operations, professionalization of TCO security, sophisticated use of media and technology, extreme forms of violent coercion, and decentralized command structure. This project aims to complicate the narrative that Los Zetas emerged because of top leaders’ sadistic tendencies or due to an inherently violent culture in Mexico by reframing the group’s evolution within historical processes. Moving beyond Los Zetas, this project examines how persons affected by Los Zetas’ indiscriminate use of violence are forces of activism and social change, connecting opposition culture in Mexico to criminal impunity and resistance movements in Guerrero. Examining Los Zetas in connection with Cold War militarization in Latin America, processes of democratization in Mexico, and the neoliberal order, this analysis views Los Zetas as products and agents of structural inequities, destroying spaces of community cohesion to create spaces of elite economic growth.

This thesis examines the role of international intervention in the area formerly known as Yugoslavia during its collapse in the first half of the 1990s (1991-1995). The Cold War had just ended, and the United Nations (UN), NATO, and the nations they represented were reevaluating their roles in a world without competition between two superpowers. The collapse of Yugoslavia and ensuing civil war presented these international bodies with an opportunity to intervene and show that they were ready to take charge in future conflicts in pursuing and achieving peace. However, what followed revealed them to be short-sighted and ill-prepared for this role as the conflict quickly escalated leading to genocide again taking place in Europe. The country of Bosnia, which emerged as its own nation in the collapse of Yugoslavia, will receive special interest due to its place as the geographic and active center of most of the war and atrocities. The United States will also be examined in detail since it eventually played a key role in achieving peace with the Dayton Peace Accords. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the intervention in Bosnia and former Yugoslavia was implemented well. After examining primary documents from the United States, the UN, NATO and other organizations, as well as secondary documents in the form of journal articles and books, it became clear that the intentions of these groups were good, but their abilities in achieving peace were not. Many leaders were highly influenced by prior experiences in either World War II or Vietnam which made it difficult for them to see this new conflict in a different light. Thus, it was only when key figures in leadership changed that the situation in Bosnia was turned around and peace became attainable. Unfortunately, this peace was only achieved after hundreds of thousands had died and millions had been displaced creating a difficult rebuilding and reunifying process for those that remained or returned following Dayton.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War are widely recognized as watershed events in the history of world affairs. Decision-makers and scholars in many fields are only beginning to understand the profound shifts and realignments in global political and economic relationships in a post-Cold War world. An important link between the United States and the former Soviet republics is the foreign assistance program in the region, since assistance efforts often serve as an important lens through which to view strategic relationships between nations. This evaluative policy research explores that link through qualitative case studies of three US Agency for International Development (USAID) projects in the region. Each qualitative case study represents a distinct approach to foreign assistance delivery in the region: classical technical assistance (represented by ZdravReform in contracts with Abt Associates), formal site partnership (in cooperative agreements with the American International Health Alliance), and experimental technology (a cooperative agreement with the former Selentec, Inc.). Three policy context chapters (Chapters I, II, and III) introduce the case studies, in which historical trends of the assistance effort and of the domestic foreign policy-making framework in Washington, DC, are highlighted. A final chapter (VII) examines the findings from the study and recommends a refocusing of the foreign assistance effort in the NIS toward more long-term developmental strategies. Theoretical and methodological assumptions in the study are informed by the constructionist approach to policy evaluation described by Guba and Lincoln (1989). This broad approach assumes that different constructions or interpretations exist concerning the nature and goals of projects. Unlike typical project evaluations, this approach does not assume that stakeholders in projects share common perceptions of the expected goals for and outcomes of their projects. Constructionist approaches to qualitative study fall within the interpretative stream of social science explored by theorists and researchers from a number of disciplines (Geertz, 1973; Denzin, 1992; Hammersley, 1989; Bruner, 1990). More specific conceptual assumptions also are explored in Chapter I, drawn from the literature on institutional research . Emphasis is placed in the evaluative analysis on how effectively conflicts that arose among the multiple stakeholders in each project were addressed.

‘Just Like Hitler’ explores the manner in which Nazism is used within mass American culture to create ethical arguments. Specifically, it provides a history of Nazism’s usage as a metaphor for evil. The work follows that metaphor’s usage from its origin with dissemination of camp liberation imagery through its political usage as a way of describing the communist enemy in the Cold War, through its employment as a vehicle for criticism against America’s domestic and foreign policies, through to its usage as a personal metaphor for evil. Ultimately, the goal of the dissertation is to describe the ways in which the metaphor of Nazism has become ubiquitous in discussion of ethics within American culture at large and how that ubiquity has undermined definitions of evil and made them unavailable. Through overuse, Nazism has become a term to vague to describe anything, but necessary because all other definitions of evil are subject to contextualization and become diminished through explanation. The work analyzes works of postwar literature but also draws in state sponsored propaganda as well as works of popular culture. Because of its concentration on Nazism as a ubiquitous definition of evil, it describes American culture through a survey of its more prominent, popular, and lauded works.

The dissertation examines the Student Construction Brigade Movement (SCBM) in the context of Soviet internationalism and the Cold War and portrays it as one of the most unique youth movements in the world at that time. Under the umbrella of the SCBM and in the name of internationalism, students from both socialist and non-socialist countries voluntarily expressed a desire to engage in construction and agricultural work activities as well as cultural exchange. While examining these interactions, I argue that during the Cold War, global youth emerged as one key agent of internationalism through cooperative economic, political, and cultural activities on construction sites around the world. My research not only identifies the Soviet state’s goals in the SCBM (such as ideological indoctrination and demonstration of Soviet influence in beyond the country’s borders), but also reveals that the lived experience of the student exchange went far beyond politics or economics. Students of different nationalities and cultures directly communicated with each other, shared their worldviews, and created a positive basis for expanding their professional and personal contacts.

American Geopolitical Culture strongly rejects the concept of spheres of influence, but great power competition often dictates a tacit acceptance of rival powers' privileged zones of control. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union sought to maintain a sphere of influence along its border, and on multiple occasions resorted to the use of force to maintain control over foreign states. How did the United States react to the Soviet use of force in sovereign territory that fell within the Soviet privileged spheres of influence? This paper looks at three case studies, the Hungarian Revolution, the Prague Spring, and the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, and provides an analysis of the American foreign policy response, and the geopolitical and cultural values that informed policymakers' decision-making. Despite the limited interventions pursued by the United States, the United States constantly sought to undermine Soviet efforts to maintain a sphere of influence. In Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the United States prioritized long-term strategies on a global scale to weaken the Soviet Union in lieu of tactical interventions in opposition to the Soviet use of force. In Afghanistan, the United States continued to maintain its long-term strategies, while taking advantage of unique local factors to place additional strain on the Soviet Union. Across all three case studies the United States consistently pursued strategies that sought to weaken the Soviet Union as a whole, rather than just target individual spheres of influence. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation examines the American response to the Soviet use of force within its spheres of influence during the Cold War. American politicians have strongly rejected the validity of spheres of influence and consider them to be a form of imperialism that undermines a state's sovereign right to govern its own affairs. During the Cold War, the Soviet Union used military force to exert control over spheres of influence in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and Afghanistan. The American response to each of these case studies varied. In Hungary and Czechoslovakia, the United States actively avoided intervening against the Soviet invasion, while in Afghanistan the United States provided extensive aid in the form of weapons, training, and intelligence. What explains the difference in the American approach to each of these case studies? This dissertation argues Soviet sphere of influence dynamics were stronger in Hungary and Czechoslovakia, which acted as a deterrent to any American intervention. Rather than engaging the USSR in its established spheres of influence, the United States prioritized opposing Soviet expansion elsewhere while propagandizing Soviet brutality to sway world opinion away from the Soviet Block. In Afghanistan, Soviet influence was considerably weaker, allowing the United States greater opportunities to contest the Soviet invasion directly.

Das Working-Paper argumentiert für einen intensiveren Einbezug der Wechselwirkung von materieller Infrastruktur und sozialen Praktiken bei der Erforschung von Verräumlichungsprozessen während des sogenannten Kalten Krieges. Hierfür wird das Raumformat des „Sicherheitsraumes“ näher beleuchtet. Dieser entstand vor dem Hintergrund des durch die Systemkonkurrenz gesellschaftlich empfundenen Bedrohungsszenarios und die politisch initiierte Implementierung neuer Infrastrukturen entlang der neuen ideologischen und territorialen Grenze. Als Variante des Sicherheitsraumes wird anhand der Beispiele des innerdeutschen Grenzraumes und des privat organisierten Paketverkehrs zwischen der BRD und Polen zudem das Konzept des „Fließraumes“ diskutiert. Letzterer hebt auf die Etablierung gesicherter Verbindungen und Anschlüsse innerhalb des eher statischen – weil auf territoriale Begrenzungen bezogenen – Sicherheitsraumes ab. Obwohl Europa und insbesondere Deutschland während der weltpolitischen Spannungslage nach dem Ende des Zweiten Weltkrieges als besonders stark von Grenzen geprägt erschien, muss der „Eiserne Vorhang“ daher unter den Bedingungen der Globalisierung als eine letztlich anachronistische und in historischer Perspektive auch erfolglose Bemühung verstanden werden, der fortschreitenden räumlichen und ideologischen Verflechtung politischer Systeme entgegen zu wirken. / This working paper argues for a more intensive consideration of the interaction of material infrastructure and social practices in the study of spatialisation processes during the so-called Cold War. For this purpose, the spatial format of “Sicherheitsraum” (security space) is examined in more detail. It emerged against the backdrop of the context of a socially perceived threat scenario caused by system competition and the politically initiated implementation of new infrastructures along the new territorial border. As a variant of the security space, the concept of the “Fließräume” (spaces of flow) is also discussed using the examples of the inner-German border space and the privately organised parcel traffic between the FRG and Poland. The spaces of flow concept emphasises the establishment of secure connections and links within the rather static (because related to territorial boundaries) security space. Although Europe, and Germany in particular, seemed to have been particularly marked by borders during the world-political tensions after the end of the Second World War, the “Iron Curtain” must therefore be understood under the conditions of globalisation as an ultimately anachronistic and (in historical perspective) unsuccessful effort to counteract the progressive spatial and ideological entanglement of political systems.

Since the end of the Cold War, security and security threats have transcended beyond the traditional security aspects due to changed global interactions in the facets of economic, political, diplomatic and even domestic policies of individual states. The ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine has not only heightened defence and security concerns in Europe and globally but has also revived the Cold War security tensions in some way necessitating an understanding of how contemporary security threats and crisis preparedness are perceived by civilians in this modern day and age.  Building from Ontological Security theory which holds that when an individual's sense of self and stability is challenged, they experience enormous anxiety, this study examines the attitudes and perceptions of the youths (many of whom were born and raised in the post-Cold War era) on security threats as well as their knowledge and trust in the government's civil defence and crisis preparedness in Växjö, Sweden. The study's analysis concludes that, despite being barely informed on civil defence crisis preparedness, Växjö's youths regard the ongoing war in Ukraine as less threatening to their ontological security but rather other human security issues due to factors like the war's narrative bearing little relevance, youth's media scepticism and refraining from negative news. Furthermore, the findings present a dramatic range of trust among the youths in the government's competence to handle emergencies, reflecting on crisis preparedness knowledge among the youths in Växjö.

This study delves into the security and defense debates that took place on the Swedish island of Gotland during the closing years of the cold war, from 1987 to 1989. Gotland’s unique geographical position as a border zone during this era, facing the Soviet Union´s across the Baltic Sea towards the Baltics, made it a focal point in discussions surrounding Sweden´s geographical stance. This paper analyzes the newspaper articles, political statements and letters to the editor to shed light on how local and political actors perceived Gotland´s defense capabilities and its strategic significance within the broader geographical context. The research methodology involves close reading and textual analysis, with focus on the intertextual aspect of the chosen newspaper articles. The study examines articles from the gotlandic newspaper Gotlands Allehanda and Gotlands Tidningar, both of which remain influential on Gotland to this day. By contextualizing the articles within the historical context of the Cold War, this research aims to provide a deeper understanding of Gotlands role as a border zone and how it was influenced by and influenced the geopolitical dynamics of the time.

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