No description available.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / The 1991 Gulf War caused massive environmental damage in Kuwait. Deposition of oil and soot droplets from hundreds of burning oil-wells created a layer of tarcrete on the desert surface covering over 900 km'. This research investigates the spatial change in the tarcrete extent from 1991 to 1998 using Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery and statistical modeling techniques. The pixel structure ofTM data allows the spatial analysis of the change in tarcrete extent to be conducted at the pixel (cell) level within a geographical information system (GIS). There are two components to this research. The first is a comparison of three remote sensing classification techniques used to map the tarcrete layer. The second is a spatial-temporal analysis and simulation of tarcrete changes through time. The analysis focuses on an area of 389 km' located south of the Al-Burgan oil field. Five TM images acquired in 1991, 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1998 were geometrically and atmospherically corrected. These images were classified into six classes: oil lakes; heavy, intermediate, light, and traces of tarcrete; and sand. The classification methods tested were unsupervised, supervised, and neural network supervised (fuzzy ARTMAP). Field data of tarcrete characteristics were collected to support the classification process and to evaluate the classification accuracies. Overall, the neural network method is more accurate (60 percent) than the other two methods; both the unsupervised and the supervised classification accuracy assessments resulted in 46 percent accuracy. The five classifications were used in a lagged autologistic model to analyze the spatial changes of the tarcrete through time. The autologistic model correctly identified overall tarcrete contraction between 1991-1993 and 1995-1998. However, tarcrete contraction between 1993-1994 and 1994-1995 was less well marked, in part because of classification errors in the maps from these time periods. Initial simulations of tarcrete contraction with a cellular automaton model were not very successful. However, more accurate classifications could improve the simulations. This study illustrates how an empirical investigation using satellite images, field data, GIS, and spatial statistics can simulate dynamic land-cover change through the use of a discrete statistical and cellular automaton model.

Critical discourse analysis (CDA) is an interdisciplinary approach that studies the relationship between power, language, ideology, and social structures in the various forms of discourse.  Fairclough’s three-dimensional model was employed as the foundation and van Dijk’s ideological square as an assist to deepen the analytical focus on the speeches held by George H. W Bush addressing Somalia and Kuwait. The size of conflict and period differ, this study sees the relevance of comparing the two speeches since they were given by the same person during his period as presidents of the United States and Commander in Chief. The results have shown how Bush uses language to lay arguments for U.S. military action in the out-group nations. By employing concepts such as national self-glorification, empathy, lexicalization, victimization, and polarization: He lay the grounds for the U.S. interventions through language. The results show that representing the United States in a positive light and the out-groups in a negative light e.g. as threat leads to the justification for U.S. intervention but also exposes the underlying power structures and inequality of power.

This dissertation seeks to explain why states sometimes produce disintegrated wartime grand strategies; doing so is of both scholarly and policy importance because wartime grand strategy is a key component of military effectiveness, and therefore has a vital role to play in military victory or defeat. To do so, this dissertation explores the link between militarism, civil-military bargaining, and the formation of integrated—or disintegrated—grand strategy. I hypothesize that civilians and military leaders possess divergent preferences over the use of force that are exogenous to any one conflict, and represent enduring, rational preference divergences between civilian and military positions on the use of force. Under conditions of militarism, defined as high levels of societal admiration for the military, the civil-military bargaining space will be distorted in favor of military preferences, with the military having more power in the civil-military negotiating process due to its potentially outsized ability to shape public opinion compared to civilians. This will lead to the formation of disintegrated grand strategy—one which does not balance civilian and military preferences—which has been shown in the literature to be linked to reduced military effectiveness. I provide evidence for my hypotheses in the form of two case studies which are examined via process-tracing methodology—the United States performance in the 1991 Gulf War, and the United States performance in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. I conclude that under conditions of militarism, states produce disintegrated wartime grand strategies.

A standing phenomenon exists in the fields of both political science and communication studies regarding the impact that the news media have on public opinion. This study recognizes the average American citizens' reliance on the press to gain information about international conflicts. Hence, it is theorized that news reports on a political occurrence could very well influence the mass-level opinion of an event such that positive news stories generate positive public opinion, and vice versa. Since foreign crises define a presidency in the public's minds, presidential approval ratings determine the degree to which the news media manipulate public opinion. Specifically, news media coverage of two international conflicts, the Vietnam and Persian Gulf Wars, are analyzed in light of their effect on American citizens' public opinion of Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and George H. W. Bush, respectively.

The ‘91 Roos is a sports documentary focused in Killeen, Texas. exploring the 1991 Killeen Kangaroos high school football team and their journey to their city's one and only state championship in football. Killeen is a small central Texas town that is directly adjacent and provides support to Ft Hood, one of the world's largest military bases. With the Persian Gulf War raging in 1991, soldiers that lived in Killeen were being sent off to fight, leaving the city almost like a ghost town. In October 1991, the Luby's Massacre occurred in Killeen, bringing the already depleted city further down by tragedy. At the time, this was the worst mass shooting in US history. This high school football team went on a fairy tale type of run during their 1991 season, resulting in winning a state title and bringing big hope back to a small town in need. Using direct interviews, narration and archival footage, this film provides an emotional yet inspirational look at a small town football team and their improbable season.

No description available.

No description available.

The origins of the just war theory date back to medieval times, with the early Catholic scholars, Augustine and Aquinas, and have continued into modem times, with revisions of the theory by Elshtain and Walzer. So why is a new just war theory needed? The primary problem with the old theories is not the concept of the theory itself, but the questions that prior theories of just war leave unanswered. The just war theory of today continues to be unspecific, and does not deal with contemporary issues, such as nuclear, chemical and biological weapons; terrorism; and discrimination between combatants and noncombatants in an age of airborne warfare. In the years since September 11 th, and following the 2003 invasion of Iraq sans the support of the United Nations, the concept of the just war has gained prominence in political theory and commentary. In a twofold manner, this thesis deals with the problems left unanswered by current just war theory. First, a new just war theory is proposed, which addresses many of the abovementioned issues that remain unsolved by former theories. Second, this theory is tested through application to the 1991 Persian Gulf War; the decade after the war in which economic sanctions were placed against Iraq; and the three-year period directly after the September 11th attacks, in which the world again entered into conflict with Iraq. The classic just war theory template is used, with the war and the decade-long period following it classified under the traditional jus ad bellum (just cause ),jus in bello (just conduct), and conclusion categories. The post September 11th period is dealt with using the jus ad bellum template, as a precursor to the 2003 Iraq War. This thesis tests the applicability of the new just war theory in the face of modem wartime considerations, such as advanced weapons technology, wartime military conduct, military occupation, and civilian welfare. The new just war theory has been designed to take these issues into consideration, and as such, it accommodates the just limitations of war (what a state can and cannot do in the course of a conflict), while still defining what is and is not a just cause to go to war. There is also new consideration given to the conclusion of the war, and specifically, the rights and responsibilities of both the occupied and the occupying parties, as well as the issue of rebuilding and recovery in the country or countries involved in the conflict. These are considerations that are new to war, and were not considered previous to the past century of conflict. As such, older just war theories do not adequately discuss these responsibilities, and the new theory strives to fill this gap.

The First Gulf War that took place in Kuwait in 1991 resulted in one of the worst environmental disasters in the history of mankind. Extreme pollution affected the soil, waters, and the air in Kuwait. In this research I try to look into how the Kuwaiti government reacted to those disasters policy wise since the end of the war. To assess the reaction of the Kuwaiti government I applied the concept of sustainable governance for its comprehensive nature that captures the complexity of environmental problems. The concept of sustainable governance has four objectives: Social objectives that aim at investing in human capitol and social capitol, Economic objectives that aim at forming economic policies in an environmentally friendly way, Environmental objectives that aim at implementing policies to protect the environment, and institutional objectives that aim at ensuring equality in government institutions. After surveying policies from the past 20 years, I conclude that the number of policies that were adopted by the Kuwaiti government to serve the 4 objectives of sustainable governance is small in size and substance. The Kuwaiti government failed to establish a policy regime to put Kuwait on a sustainable trajectory. / Graduation date: 2012