Ending civilian victimization has become a primary purpose for third-party intervening actors as the brutal violence i contemporary conflicts increasingly affects the civilian population. To mitigate the violence, third-party actors use conflict management tools such as mediation and peacekeeping. Previous research has excessively examined these tools in isolation from one another, however, their combined effect has been neglected. In seeking to explore further pathways to combat violence against, this study examines the combined effectiveness of peacekeeping and mediation. I argue that peacekeeping and mediation interact, enhancing the violence-reducing effect of the other, which creates a stronger reduction effect on violence against civilians. Using monthly data counting civilian casualties in all African intrastate conflicts between 1993-2007, I find that mediation and peacekeeping have an interactive effect on violence against civilians, which is both reducing and stronger in comparison to the independent effect of these tools. The theoretical implications extend to UN troops and UN police. However, they are not applicable for UN observers and non-UN troops. Additional implications of the findings indicate that mediation should be present as a conflict management tool first after a large size of UN troops or UN police forces are deployed to most effectively reduce the levels of violence against civilians in conflict.

The goal of this research is to construct a system with the ability of helping decision makers make decisions while facing emergency or disaster evacuation conditions, that is, to build a decision support system for mass evacuation and emergency management. By combining MASSVAC2 and HEUPRAE2 analysis models, shortest path finding technique, computer graphic display technique, data structure and processing algorithms, and interactive computer dialog method, a system named Transportation Evacuation Decision Support System (TEDSS) has been built to achieve the goal of the research. TEDSS has been proved to be very useful and practical after it is applied on the Virginia Beach City flood evacuation project and the Mexico City earthquake project. A description of the structure of TEDSS and the theoretical and technical aspects behind it is included. There is also a manual of how to use TEDSS can be found in chapter 5. / M.S.

Prior to this work, MASSVAC (MASS eVACuation) had evolved as a micro-computer simulation model for analysis and evaluation of areas facing natural disasters (hurricanes and floods). Conceptual and technical enhancements have been made to procedures within MASSVAC to deal with the special problems of evacuating around nuclear power stations. Its incorporation into TEDSS-3 (Transportation-Evacuation Decision Support System) has resulted in a powerful tool to assist development of evacuation plans for nuclear power plants. The computer package comprehensively provides for all functions related to evacuation planning such as development of a socioeconomic and highway network database, estimation of evacuation time and development/evaluation of traffic management strategies to reduce network clearance times and to improve highway network performance during evacuation. Primary focus is on the new features incorporated into MASSVAC, especially in the trip distribution and traffic assignment procedures. Significant improvements have been made to the software implementations of the Dial traffic assignment and other key algorithms used in MASSVAC. The information content of the model's output has been enhanced for better understanding of the evacuation process and presentation of results. / Master of Science

Catastrophic event emergency planning has emerged as one of the most important operations management areas. Much of the successes of a response plan rely on the ability to maintain an operating transportation infrastructure. In recent years urban areas have become susceptible to biological terrorist attacks due to their size and demographics. To mitigate the devastating effects of an attack, a comprehensive catastrophic event response plan is devised. The characteristics of the disease (dormant periods, signs/symptoms), daily traffic operations and trip distributions, patient-choice hospital modeling and emergency center corridor optimization are all elements of an effective response plan. Simulation and optimization modeling of this plan becomes a faster-than-real-time tool in replicating urban area degradation. Therefore, allowing planners to identify "worst case scenarios" within the network and implement Dynamic Traffic Assignment (DTA) techniques and a non-linear departure time slot allocation mathematical model ensuring infected populations receive treatment and/or vaccinations efficiently. / by William C. Degnan. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / System requirements: Adobe Reader.

Scholars have in the recent decades actively been searching for answers for why actors of war sometimes choose - and other times choose not - to direct violence against civilians. However, their focus has been largely on one-sided violence during wartime, and much less on post-conflict occurrences. This study aims to fill this research gap by examine in what way wartime livels of casualties affect post-conflict levels of one-sided violence. A total of 164 conflict episodes and their post-conflict periods between 1989 and 2016 show that there is a significant positive correlation between wartime one-sided violence intensity and post-conflict one-sided violence intensity. A similar correlation is not found between battle-related deaths and post-conflict one-sided violence, although the result shows that rebel groups are more prone to direct violence against civilians after high levels of wartime battle-related deaths than after low levels.

<p>Currently, one of the most dramatic threats to human security is constituted by internal armed conflicts. In 1998, violent conflicts took place in at least 25 countries. Of these armed conflicts, 23 were internal, engaging one or more non-State armed groups. A crucial feature of internal conflicts is the widespread violation of humanitarian law and human rights by armed groups, from rebel groups to private militias. This thesis aimed at identifying various ways of promoting a better implementation of the Geneva Conventions and its Protocols by NSAGs in the Great Lakes Region.</p>

This thesis examines the experiences and attitudes of civilians in Essex during the First World War, 1914-1918. Through these it explores the reasons for people’s continued support for the war and how public discourse shaped conceptions of the war’s purpose and course and what sacrifices were needed and acceptable in pursuit of victory. This combination kept the war comprehensible and enabled people to continue to support it. Vital to getting a picture of how the war was understood is an account of the role of the local elites that sought to shape popular knowledge and attitudes about the war. The narratives of the war, the discourse of sacrifice, and elites’ roles evolved with events at home and at the front. Chapter 1 deals with the initial reactions to the war and growing acceptance of the major war narratives. The second and third chapters address two of their major features: attitudes towards the enemy and volunteering for the armed forces. The fourth chapter addresses the changes to the war's narratives and ideas of sacrifice as casualties and hardships increased from 1916, while Chapter 5 provides an in-depth case study of local military service tribunals. The final chapter deals with the crises of 1917-18, which covered both the expected course of the war and the image of equal sacrifice, and how local and national elites overcame these problems. The successful depiction of the Great War as necessary, just, winnable, and fought against an evil enemy allowed civilians to accept sacrifices in order to win. An evolving discourse of sacrifice framed what was expected of and acceptable to civilians. Local elites played an essential role: advocating sacrifice and endurance for the national cause while also working to ensure that sacrifices were minimised and borne equally. This combination of framing the war and mitigating its effects was vital in maintaining civilian support for the war effort.

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Catastrophic events in the past revealed the need for more research in the field of emergency evacuation. During such a procedure, different problems such as congestion at the related traffic networks because of the large number of the evacuating vehicles can occur. Current best practices, in order to deal with such problems, suggest the further involvement of buses in evacuation operations. On the first part of this study after the accurate development of the related simulation model, the optimization of a selected bus system characteristics focusing on the vehicle routing parameter will follow through the development and the application of a non-linear cost minimization problem. On the second part, the potential use of the regular-everyday bus routes in a no-notice emergency evacuation in order to save time comparing to the time needed so as to assign the actual evacuation routes to the evacuation bus vehicles will be analyzed. / by Ioannis Psarros. / Thesis (M.S.C.S.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2012. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2012. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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