Why has Russia failed to establish air superiority over Ukraine despite its superiority in personnel and resources within the air force compared to Ukraine? Previous research mentions the failed SEAD/DEAD operations as a contributing factor, yet these studies have focused on the strategic and operational levels. This study examines the factors contributing to the failed SEAD/DEAD operations at the tactical level. This is conducted through a qualitative text analysis using a theoretical framework derived from Warden and Pape, as well as a study by Bucki. The factors examined in the operations include; high-technology combat aircraft and missiles, the ability to conduct low-altitude flying, the position of airbases relative to the operational area, disabling sensors, intelligence, and electronic warfare capabilities. The results indicate that Russia did not achieve any of these factors except for positioning. However, this did not prove advantageous as the ability to conduct longer low-altitude flights was limited.

This study examines representations of the ‘enemy’ found in the published and unpublished military narratives of the 6th, 7th and 8th Frontier Wars which took place in the Eastern Cape between 1834 and 1853. The Xhosa were most frequently represented as the ‘enemy’, however, there were also references to the Khoikhoi ‘rebels’ in the 8th Frontier War. It will be argued in this thesis that an elaborated discussion of military narratives could assist in an analysis of the complicated process of colonization and the establishment of British control at the Cape. The study pays attention to the accretion of representations of the Xhosa in the military narratives and it focuses on the formative military ideas which underpinned the delineation of the Xhosa and how writers adopted these ideas to describe the conditions of frontier warfare. The thesis does not focus only on the conflict it also asks how the regular army presented itself as a ‘knowledge-based’ institution. Further questions relate to what soldiers did besides fight and whether their ‘knowledge’ led to the power to enunciate on and control South Africa’s indigenous inhabitants. Some narratives, such as Harriet Ward’s and Edward Napier’s, were deeply tendentious especially in their opposition to contemporary ‘philanthropic’ ideas; these polemical interventions also will be traced. Furthermore, the study will argue that representations of the Xhosa were mobile and commentary on the frontier wars fed into the metropolitan publication circuit. The substance of the military narratives was heterogeneous and the publications included passages which conveyed evidence of pronounced forms of colonial violence and a distinctly racialized vocabulary. However, concomitantly, colonial, guerrilla warfare threw up reciprocities and borrowings in that both the Xhosa and the regular army exhibited flexibility in their tactics. This meant that the insights of soldiers in the narratives were often ambivalent: regular army protagonists asserted a sense of cultural superiority but intimations of vulnerability and alienation were also revealed in the texts. Keywords: Eastern Cape, frontier wars, representation, enemy, narrative, the Xhosa.

Along the shores of the Northern hemisphere Fucus (Phaeophyceae) species are a prominent presence, providing substrate, shelter, and food for many species. Fucus evanescens, a non-indigenous species (NIS) in Sweden, and F. radicans, a recently described species that so far has only been found inside the species poor Baltic Sea, are the focus of this thesis. Interactions with enemies (e.g. predators, herbivores, parasites) have been shown to play a role in the success of NIS. The low consumption of Fucus evanescens by the generalist gastropod Littorina littorea in Sweden was found to depend on high levels of chemical defense in the introduced population, not the failure of the herbivore to recognize F. evanescens as suitable food. A survey of the relative abundance of F. radicans and F. vesiculosus and the most common associated fauna along the Swedish Bothnian Sea coast showed that F. radicans and F. vesiculosus are equally abundant throughout the range of F. radicans. The most common associated fauna were found to be more abundant on F. radicans compared to F. vesiculosus.  In Sweden, where F. radicans had lower levels of defense chemicals than F. vesiculosus, F. radicans was grazed more than F. vesiculosus in bioassays. This could, together with other factors, influence the range of F. radicans. Fucus radicans and F. vesiculosus are closely related, recently separated, and growing sympatrically, therefore, possible reproductive barriers between F. radicans and F. vesiculosus were studied. In Estonia F. radicans and F. vesiculosus reproduces at different times of the year. No such clear reproductive barrier was found between the two species in Sweden where they reproduce at the same time and fertilization success and germling survival were the same for hybrids as for F. vesiculosus. Since the high clonality of F. radicans means that the gentic diversity in F. radicans populations is low I investigated how genetic diversity translates to phenotypic diversity in nine traits. Phlorotannin levels, recovery after desiccation, and recovery after freezing showed inherited variation, while the other six traits showed no variation related to genetic diversity. Phenotypic variation in populations of F. radicans will be higher in populations with higher genetic diversity and this might be beneficial to the community. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: Accepted.</p>

Following the events of September 11, 2001, we have seen a revival in American public diplomacy. I argue the U.S. continues to rely on similar rhetorical responses to crisis that are an essential part of American public diplomacy interconnected through history, from the birth of our country to the recent 2007 U.S. National Strategy for Public Diplomacy and Strategic Communication. Tracing this recurring rhetorical process from our founding to the Carter Administration illustrates our reliance on similar rhetoric despite changing contexts. I use Burke’s concept of identification and the interrelated use of ethos and enemy construction to demonstrate the rhetorical parallels between the Carter Administration’s 1979 Communication Plan with Muslim countries and the 2007 NSPDSC. This analysis not only contributes to the gap in public diplomacy research but provides insight into American public diplomacy since 9/11.

Why has some cyber-attacks been more successful than others? There has been in the near past examples of cyber-attacks used with different purposes. How do we understand these chosen targets and what result the attack accomplished? Research has discussed similarities between aviation warfare and cyber warfare, and how the first could explain what is happening in cyber warfare now. There is also opposing opinions whether cyber warfare should be seen as a method to alone force a will on your opponent or if cyber warfare should mere be supporting other military means. The essay test Warden’s theory “The Enemy as a System” capacity to explain why the effect of cyber-attacks can differ. It will also compare the effect in different cases based on standalone and supporting cyber-attacks. The essay concludes that Warden’s theory does not have any explanatory value but the difference in effective and ineffective cases is whether the cyber-attack was supporting other military means or a standalone attack.

Special Issue on Institution Design for Conflict Resolution and Negotiation : Theory and Praxis (February 1-2, 2014, Nagoya, Japan)

This study aims to examine how Daesh constructs the enemy images of their opponents and who the opponents are.  The study adopted enemy image theories as for the theoretical base to understand how Daesh constructs and propagates these enemy images. This study is carried out on qualitative abductive desk study with discourse analysis as the method and relied on Dabiq as the primary data.  Daesh employs enemy images to effectively paint a negative image of the opponent while calling for a variety of actions from their followers. The primary data shows some concepts and themes that are used in enemy image construction being present in Dabiq. The results of of the analysis show that Daesh uses the delimitation between them and us,  a set of values that separate the two groups. This is what has been described as "our" and "their" essence and the final aim which is legitimized war or violence is very clear in Dabiq. This thesis also suggests other ways of looking at the concept of enemy images suggesting further research areas where deemed necessary.

Invasive species are becoming more common as human interactions within coastal waters and the aquarium trade continues to increase. The establishment of the invasive lionfish complex Pterois volitans and P. miles from the Indo-Pacific to the Western Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea has had significant negative effects on reef fish biodiversity and economically important species. Their rapid colonization and success has been attributed to their biological and ecological life history traits as well as their absence of predation. Past research has highlighted these characteristics; however, there is a knowledge gap in lionfish parasitism. This research explored the enemy release hypothesis as a key success factor in rapid establishment in the invaded range on a biogeographical scale. The diversity of lionfish parasitism was compared among 15 geographically diverse sites within the invaded range, incorporating the time of introduction at each site. Eight new parasites are described for the first time in the invasive lionfish: (1) a Cymothoid isopod: Rocinela stignata, (2) four nematodes: Raphidascais sp., Contraceacum sp., Paracuria adunca and Hysterothylaceum sp., (3) one digenean: Tergestia sp., (4) two acanthacephalans: Serracentis sp. and Dollfusentis sp., and (5) two cestodes: Nybelinia sp. and Tentacularia sp. Lionfish from the east coast of Florida exhibited the highest abundance in parasite fauna while other invaded areas yielded low abundance and diversity. Comparisons between lionfish parasitism from the past native range studies and the invaded range suggest that vectors of time, life history traits, and trophic interactions structure the lionfish parasite community. Lionfish in the Western Atlantic and Caribbean were found to be host for generalists parasite species within the coastal ecosystem. Consequently, lionfish have relatively low parasite abundance, supporting the enemy release hypothesis and its direct relation to their invasion success.

This study aims to investigate how the mechanisms of discrimination, othering, prejudice and enemy imaging work in conflict and non-conflict zones. The study further explored if the informants stories differ when in conflict zones. Enemy images theories were used as the theoretical base to investigate how the Somali majorities construct the enemy image of the Somali minorities (The Somali Bantusand the occupational groups). The aim and research questions are answered through a comparative case study that focuses on interviewing two Somali minority groups (occupational groups and the Bantu Somalis) who have the experience and lived both in Somalia (conflict context) and Somaliland (non conflict context). The result sof the study show that the majority of Somali clans use the delimitation between “them and us” a set of values that separate the two groups and characterize the minority groups as slaves and people of low social, economic, and political status. The majority groups perceive the minority groups as a threat to their assets and corevalues. This is what has been described as "our" and "their" essence, and the final aim, which is to legitimize violence, is clear in the data. While on the other hand, the majority groups referred to themselves as superior. The results indicated that there were no differences and only similarities in the narratives of the minority groups living in both conflict and non-conflict zones. This was an interesting discovery which was against the known and expected ideal. This thesis also suggests other ways of looking at the concept of enemy images suggesting further areas of research where deemed necessary.

The thesis concerns itself with the discrepancy in the understanding of political and exception between Carl Schmitt and Giorgio Agamben. Interpretation of their selected works is accomplished through the employment of the hermeneutical method by Hans-Georg Gadamer, while the comparison is drawn along the lines of the comparative textual method by Kerry Walk. Thesis answers the question of posed conceptual discrepancy, as well as the question of validity of the use of the method of circular movement in the research of contemporary political science.