This thesis is divided into two chapters. In the first chapter, I analyze Michael Walzer's account of the moral legitimacy of states. In the second chapter, I analyze his account of the morality of killing in war. I begin the first chapter by contrasting Walzer's account of state legitimacy and humanitarian intervention with that of David Luban. Next, I develop a Rawlsian account of state legitimacy and humanitarian intervention and argue that this account is more plausible than both Walzer's and Luban's accounts. The second chapter is divided into two parts. In the first part, I argue that Walzer's account of the distinction between combatants and noncombatants is misleading because it gives the impression that all and only infantry soldiers are combatants and that all and only civilians are noncombatants. In the second part of the second chapter, I describe an account of the morality of killing in war developed by Jeff McMahan that is based on an analogy with the morality of killing in domestic society and argue that this account is more plausible than Walzer's account of the morality of killing in war. I also suggest a way that McMahan's account could be improved. / Master of Arts

The introduction of social media presented a significant challenge to the often secretive culture of the U.S. military. DoD struggled with publishing a social media policy forcing the armed services to develop their own policies, which were all inconsistent. When DoD finally established a social media policy in 2007, certain social media sites were banned from the Services' networks for a variety of reasons -- the one most often quoted was risk. In February 2010, DoD completely reversed its policy and embraced social media. The new policy required the military to allow open access on the networks to social media for all employees, despite much resistance from internal stakeholders. In this dissertation, I research three significant events during the development of the DoD Social Media Policy: (1) the pre-policy environment, including actions to restrict social media on the DoD networks (2) coming to closure on the current policy and how DoD made its decision to open the networks to social media, and (3) the post-closure period and its ongoing and new tensions. This research project is a qualitative study of the evolution of social media (pre- and post a formal policy) within the DoD through the lens of social construction of technology (SCOT) and a discourse analysis of the policy formulation. My findings indicated that references to security and privacy risk, sociotechnological inevitability, responsible online behavior and youth were particularly important to the military discourse on social media. The study concludes the risk is worth to benefit to service members who want to use social media. Service members accept the sociotechnological inevitability of social media and feel they are responsible enough to use it wisely. The issue of youth was found to be not really a concern and leadership emerged as a discourse and is often referenced to solve any issue that may arise from the use of social media within the military environment. / Ph. D.

A study of the history of Germany as a militaristic country.

Thesis (Master of Military Studies)-Marine Corps Command and Staff College, 2008. / Title from title page of PDF document (viewed on: Jan 8, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Master of Military Studies)-Marine Corps Command and Staff College, 2008. / Title from title page of PDF document (viewed on: Jan 5, 2010). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. in Defense Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, Dec. 2004. / Thesis Advisor(s): David C. Tucker. Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-143). Also available online.

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1984 H36 / Master of Arts

The global trade in weaponry has created an environment in which states are now utilizing arms transfer agreements to bolster their own domestic defense industry aspirations. Previous research concerning arms transfers has suggested that a state may alter its behavior depending on its level of dependency on foreign sourced weapons. However, previous scholarship primarily examined the effect from importing arms and not the effect that military industry will have upon state behavior. Since the number of states possessing domestic defense industries has risen by 250% since 1950, it is paramount that we understand the effect of a domestic military industry on state behavior. To explore this problem, this dissertation utilizes militarized interstate dispute and arms procurement data. 3 primary independence variables are created, all of which measure military independence in different ways. These variables include, military industry presence, arms supplier diversification, and foreign dependence on military goods. The dissertation hypothesizes that the level of military independence will have an effect on the probability that a state will be involved, initiate as well as decrease dispute duration.

No description available.

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts