The modern battlefield is a changing environment where new ideas and technology are being tried and implemented. One such technology that has brought recent changes to the battlefield is the Unmanned Aerial Combat Vehicles (UCAV), commonly (and often incorrectly) referred to as “drones”. UCAV can be considered the new weapon of choice to deal with irregular opponents or terrorist organisations, such as those in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, the use of UCAV is not without contradictory elements and leads to debate. It is within this debate that this study takes foothold. This study will be analysing the debate and issues surrounding this by evaluating four contrasting variables, measuring impact through different means and aiming to increase the understanding of UACV in the field. There are several crossovers in the analysis of all four variables citing the strengths and weaknesses of UCAV provisions in conflict. The analysis, however, conclude that a sole, holistic use of UCAV strikes would not resort in a termination of threats, such as the Taliban or Al-Qaida. This means that both the positive and the negative aspects of UCAV are seen in the conflict and do not contradict one another. Regretfully, this implicates that even if the Taliban and Al-Qaida becomes less effective due to the UCAV strikes, they will not perish.

M.A. (English) / This dissertation aims to examine the nature of the unique creative response to the prison experience. Different modes of artistic expression will be analyzed to show that there is no single literary response to incarceration, and to demonstrate the truth of Oscar Wilde's assertion that "technique is really personality".' To this end, autobiographical and existential elements inherent in selected prison writings will be the main focus of this study, since the concern of both the autobiographer and the existential philosopher is with the dynamic, emergent personality. The totalizing prison situation is totalitarian in essence, since this kind of prison regime assumes responsibility for all aspects of the imprisoned human being, its aim being to annihilate the individual self. In the face of this threat, a human being often feels the need to assert his humanity and selfhood. The creative response can provide a means of reinstating the self. The autobiographer, who concentrates upon the 'becoming' self, must needs be a philosopher, existential in essence, in the search for the 'autos', the self, in relation to the 'bios', one's life. This is realized through 'graphe', language, which enables the writer to probe his/her depths and order his/her disparate experiences into some kind of balance, merging past and present. The fragmented world of the prisoner particularly lends itself to creative expression as the writer attempts to impose some order upon his/her broken life.

Sanmao (1943-91), author of over 19 books, is well known in Chinese-speaking communities for her travel writing. The present work offers a critical introduction to Sanmao’s life and work as well as an English translation of three selections from her most recognized travelogue, among both general readers and critics, Stories of the Sahara (1976). This text recounts her experience of travelling in the Western Sahara with her husband José María Quero y Ruíz from Spain. Chapter 1 introduces Sanmao’s career, her travel narratives, and the extant scholarship on her work to the English-speaking audience. More specifically, it highlights her time living in the Western Sahara among three cultures and languages—Chinese, Spanish, and Sahrawi—and contextualizes Stories of the Sahara, especially drawing attention to moments that require special care when the text is moved from Chinese to English. Next, this chapter focuses on the central role that language and translation play in Sanmao’s travel writing. This analysis is informed by Roman Jakobson’s classification of translation as used to study travel literature by Michael Cronin. I provide a discussion of my choices concerning translating the texture of the Western Sahara and the linguistic aspects of Sanmao’s writing, as well as the characteristics of Sanmao’s legacy that I attempt to emphasize through my translation. Chapter 2 includes my English translation of three texts from Stories of the Sahara. A brief introduction and a short conclusion open and close this thesis.

This manuscript is a study of the Thirty-Third Infantry, United States Volunteers, a regiment that was recruited in Texas, the South, and the Midwest and was trained by officers experienced from the Indian Wars and the Spanish-American War. This regiment served as a front-line infantry unit and then as a constabulary force during the Philippine War from 1899 until 1901. While famous in the United States as a highly effective infantry regiment during the Philippine War, the unit's fame and the lessons that it offered American war planners faded in time and were overlooked in favor of conventional fighting. In addition, the experiences of the men of the regiment belie the argument that the Philippine War was a brutal and racist imperial conflict akin to later interventions such as the Vietnam War. An examination of the Thirty-Third Infantry thus provides valuable context into a war not often studied in the United States and serves as a successful example of a counterinsurgency.