Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / This thesis compares the effects of Marine Corps graduate education programs, categorized as either Professional Military Education (PME) or Non-PME, on officer performance. The intent of the thesis is to provide empirical evidence to support or refute Marine Corps cultural perceptions that PME improves officer performance more than Non-PME graduate education. A performance index (PI) is derived from the current Marine Corps fitness report system and averaged before and after graduate education for PME and Non-PME graduates and for a group of officers without graduate education (NOS). Data from the Marine Corps Total Force Data Warehouse are used to assess the marginal effect of graduate education in models that also included demographic, affective and cognitive traits. ANOVA results for O4s show significant improvement in performance over time for all groups (PME, Non-PME and NOS), with the largest improvement for PME and the smallest for NOS, although differences between groups are not significant. Multivariate regressions indicate that, after accounting for other influences, the post-education performance of those with graduate education is not significantly different from those without (NOS). The change in performance between before and after receiving graduate education is not significantly different for PME and NOS, while it is slightly lower for Non-PME than for NOS (significant at .10 level). A limitation of the study is that the data only covered four years of fitness reports. Thus, we were not able to assess the long-run effects of graduate education on officer performance. / Major, United States Marine Corps / Captain, United States Marine Corps

Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / W. Franklin Spikes / This exploratory study applies lived experience phenomenological theory from the human science academic literature to understand the nature of Post 9-11 era Army veteran’s transition experience to life and work after the military. The purpose of this study was to determine the original meaning of this unique life event of transition of contemporary Army veterans. Also, this study sought to develop a better understanding of possible ways in which this life event of transitioning can be enhanced. Using primary data from in-depth, semi-structured interviews with eight Army veterans in transition, a structural analysis was performed to identify original meaning structures and a narrative description of this human life event. Findings from this study indicate that five original themes exist that convey the original meaning of this phenomenon. Post 9-11 Army veterans’ transition was found to be a situated and dynamic life event which affects one’s mobility to cross boundaries from military to civilian life. It is a socially mediated effort that involves reconstruction of personal identity through the process of self-realization and reformation or non-formation of one’s personal mindset and socialization to form new social bonds.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of History / Donald J. Mrozek / After the Second World War, the leaders of the Department of the Army (DA) worked to inform those in the service that they had a duty to help the American people understand what the Army was doing to provide security for the nation. Their goal was for the public to have, at a minimum, the same amount of understanding of the Army as it had during World War II. To achieve this goal they believed that the officer corps had to be convinced that explaining to the public what the service was doing was in the best interest of the Army. The effort of the leaders to convince the officer corps was conducted by two primary means. First, the leaders made many public statements announcing that the Army would continue to inform the American people. Second, they added a requirement for those setting the curricula at the senior two schools of the service to provide instruction about the program that the Army had, which had three sub-programs, to update the American public. Between AY 1947 and 1989, the leaders continued to talk about the importance of informing the public. However, those approving the curricula at the two Colleges of the Army placed decreasing emphasis on educating students about what public affairs was and how to conduct it. This assertion is based on three primary findings. First, there is a clear decrease in the number of hours allocated to teaching about public affairs. Second, over the course of this period students were provided with fewer chances to apply what they were learning. Third, the coverage of the instruction went from covering at least two of the components of the Army’s program to at best only one. In the end a gap is clearly visible between what the leaders of the Army were saying regarding the importance of educating officers about public affairs and what was included in the curricula of these two schools: deeds did not match words.

Thesis advisor: Eve Spangler / The Department of Defense not only acknowledges the current ramifications of climate change but also recognizes the threat it poses to U.S. national security. The Department of Defense is a major domestic and international organization, and despite the Department’s impact in many areas, including the environment, the relationship between national security and environmental concern has not been studied nearly to the extent it could. Furthermore, no study using data from a large military organization exists that could help the Department of Defense progress toward the sustainability it desires. This dissertation addresses this problem by reviewing the U.S. Army’s greening directives and initiatives and providing a short history of these efforts at the United States Military Academy. It examines how and why attitudes, intentions, and behavior regarding the environment differ among military, both ROTC and West Point cadets, and civilian college students, and whether they view environmental problems to be a threat to our national security. This project has five broad findings of interest. First, the relationship between environmental attitudes and environmental behaviors and intentions remained as predicted and was always strongly significant. Second, ROTC cadets were never significantly different in their survey responses when compared with civilian students, and USMA cadets were rarely different. Third, civilian students’ political views were almost never significantly related to their environmental attitudes, behaviors, or intentions, while military cadets’ political views were always significantly related to lower scores on the environmental attitude scale. Fourth, being a U.S. Military Academy cadet, compared to civilian students, was significantly related to stronger agreement with the statement that the so-called ‘ecological crisis’ facing humankind is a threat to the United States’ national security. Fifth, women were more likely than men to report higher scores on the environmental attitude scale and make a special effort to recycle but also more likely than men to express weaker agreement with the statement that the ecological crisis is a threat to national security. This project has the potential to inform the military’s conservation policies and programs, while the military is uniquely positioned to be an agent of change in the efforts to combat climate change. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Sociology.

This study of civil control of the military in Zambia was undertaken in order to ascertain why in contrast with many other former British colonies in Africa such as Ghana and Uganda the military in that country has consistently supported the ruling elite and not sought to obtain political power for itself. In answering the question why this was the case, this study used the qualitative methods and analytical concepts of coercive and consensual measures of control, although the two types of measures are often used in combination, as the main tools that determined civil control of the military in four periods, namely the colonial period, the immediate post-independence period, the period of one-party rule, and the period of reinstated multiparty democracy. Using either coercive or consensual measures as our tools of analysis, comparative profiles were constructed of the nature, character and degree of civil control of the military in each period, and how these were reconfigured by the different political transitions that ushered in the four periods. This assisted in ascertaining which elements of civil control of the military remained constant, and which changed. Data was collected from primary and secondary sources, and verified in in-depth interviews with 20 role players. The main findings are that Zambian governments used two main methods to exert civil control over the military. During the colonial period (1900–1963), the dominant method was coercive measures which was reflected in the policies of racial discrimination and implemented through racialised structures like parliament, the executive and the judiciary. Consequently, relations between the government, the military, and white settlers were harmonious, while those with Africans were antagonistic and explosive. Under the Independence Constitution of the First Republic (1964–1972), the use of consensual measures was manifested in the normative frameworks found in non-racial multiparty democracies and spelt out in the constitution and other specific legislation. In the Zambian case, this was supported by the new government’s motto of ‘One Zambia, One Nation’. Under the One-Party Constitution of the Second Republic (1973-1990), the dominant method was largely through the use of coercive measures characteristic of one party states in terms of which military and civil intelligence officers monitored the political activities of all military personnel as well as ordinary civilians. This helped to remove all anti-government elements from the military. Under the Multi-Party Constitution of the Third Republic (1991-2004), the dominant methods were a combination of all good practices inherited from the previous republics but largely through consensual measures which were manifested in the reintroduction of strong parliamentary and executive oversight over defence expenditure and activities. This study concludes that stable civil control of the military in Zambia in the 20th century was as a result of effective use of either coercive or consensual measures or the mixture of the two and this sets Zambia apart from many other African countries. Further more, it is important to emphasize one point on the relevance of this study’s findings for the study of civil-military relations. This is that despite that both these types of measures worked as a solution for Zambia, upon closer scrutiny, civil control of the military cannot be indefinitely secured by coercive means, and that the only sustainable way of securing civil control of the military is to maintain consensual relations between the core ‘triumvirate’ namely: the political authorities/government/ruling elite; the military and military elite; and the citizenry

The period 1960-63 saw the independence of many African countries. Since then, the continent has experienced numerous military coups, attempted coups or military interference in politics. Consequently, many countries have found it important that the power of the military be used responsibly and for the benefit of the society. To achieve this they opted for subordination of the military to civilian authorities, yet coups and coup attempts have persisted. In contrast to this scenario on the continent there has not been a coup d’etat, attempted coup d’etat, or any form of unacceptable influence over the political process by the military in Namibia since independence in 1990. The purpose of this study was to determine the political institutions in the country that are necessary for democratic civil-military relations and how they have effectively contributed to the prevailing peace and stability in Namibia. Much has been written on civil-military relations; however, very little research has been produced on democratic civil-military relations in Namibia since independence. This thesis is a study of how Namibia took the path of democratic civil-military relations that have ensured civil control over the military. The research was informed by examining the generally held assumptions about civil-military relations as espoused in the literature to better understand the phenomenon of civil-military relations in Namibia that has ensured civil supremacy over the military. In this regard, the study was a qualitative method of research. This method helped to describe the concepts of civil-military relations using the guiding theoretical framework and thereafter helped to examine civil-military relations being applied in Namibia. One of the main findings of the research was that civil-military relations in Namibia are characterised by Western liberal civil-military relations traditions. The nature of civil-military relations in Namibia was influenced by factors such as historical legacy, the liberation struggle experience and the international context that shaped the Namibian state. It was also established through this study that the two main shortcomings of civil-military relations in the country were the inadequacy in parliamentary oversight of the defence and security, and serious deficiencies with regard to limited participation of civil society.

No description available.

This thesis investigates the epidemiology of lifestyle behaviours and training injuries among British Army infantry recruits. In Study 1, the Military Pre-training Questionnaire (MPQ) was developed to assess multiple risk factors for injury (smoking; alcohol consumption; physical activity; diet; and injury history). Its feasibility and test-retest reliability was demonstrated in a representative sample (n = 58) with no evidence of systematic bias between administrations. The MPQ was subsequently completed by a large cohort of infantry recruits before commencing initial training (n = 1,960). This enabled its validity to be assessed in Study 2, which revealed that a simple, single-item measure of pre-training physical activity was a strong predictor of initial physical fitness levels and likely training outcomes. In Study 3, cross-sectional analyses of MPQ responses enabled the prevalence, co-occurrence and clustering of unhealthy lifestyle behaviours to be assessed. Although physically active, the majority of recruits entering infantry training smoked, drank hazardously and had low fruit and vegetable consumption. Six percent of recruits reported no unhealthy lifestyle behaviours, 20% reported one, 35% reported two, 31% reported three and 8% reported all four. Paired combinations of unhealthy behaviours were strongly associated, particularly smoking/drinking, smoking/inactivity and diet/inactivity. Finally, in Study 4, a high incidence of overuse injuries in infantry recruits was observed using a prospective study design. Recruits with lower pre-training fitness levels, low body mass and past injuries were exposed to a higher risk of sustaining a training injury, while there was no evidence to suggest that engaging in unhealthy lifestyle behaviours increased injury risk. Collectively, the four studies have enabled, for the first time, a comprehensive analysis of lifestyle behaviours and training injuries among British Army infantry recruits. The findings have important implications for military health improvement and injury prevention strategies.

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<p> This study examines the <i>Feres</i> doctrine, the judicial policy that immunizes service members from civil liability when causing harm to each other. Created by the Supreme Court nearly 70 years ago, the insulation from judicial review is practically absolute, applying to nearly every variety of intra-military harm, from a negligent delivery that leads to the mother&rsquo;s death to intentional, abhorrent wrongdoing such as sexual assault. The doctrine bars service member suits across the board. The study traces the doctrine&rsquo;s theoretical and philosophical roots, assessing its historical development and documenting its current state. A comprehensive legal analysis, not only is every Supreme Court decision in the <i>Feres</i> context considered, account is taken of most lower court decisions as well as the academic scholarship. Significant findings include the fact that the doctrine, while receiving near universal criticism, has been dramatically expanded by lower courts. Today, immunity applies to wrongdoing where the &ldquo;military aspect&rdquo; of the activity is remote, such as malfeasance during off-duty recreational activities. It was also found that the judges applying the doctrine likely sustain moral injury as a consequence. Viewing the policy as unjust, judges violate deeply held beliefs when dismissing service members&rsquo; claims, claims civilians in similar situations are allowed to bring. Finally, the study found that most courts also dismiss ancillary suits stemming from intra-military harm, including state-level claims filed against wrongdoers personally. The result is that military survivors of non-duty-related misconduct, such as survivors of sexual assault, are &ldquo;effectively denied any civil remedy against a wrongdoer who was <i>not</i> acting within the scope of his military employment&rdquo; (<i>Day v. Massachusetts</i>, 1999, p. 684 [italics in original]). The study concludes with a recommendation for curing the doctrine of its most objectionable aspects, a proposal intended to bring the policy into better alignment with traditional notions of justice and fair play.</p><p>