Preparing for the operational environment is a fundamental principle of military doctrine. This thesis looks at current and historical military practice and aims to determine future training initiatives to help better prepare the soldier for conflict conditions. Whilst the future of military conflict will always be determined by politics, the potential reaction time can be very short, so we must be in a position of continuous training for operations, with optimum ramp up opportunities for readiness. During operations in Afghanistan the campaign Formation Operational Readiness Mechanism (FORM) Fitness Doctrine (CFFD) provided guidance for the physical preparation of all ranks, tailored to the specific requirements for Operation HERRICK. Building on the success of CFFD, we must re-analyse our physical preparation for operations philosophies to align them with the requirements of contingency. Whilst the exact physical requirements for future operations are inherently unknown, it is essential that we derive appropriate physical training (PT) philosophies and methodologies to efficiently and effectively promote physical fitness and injury resilience.

Thesis (M.S. in Defense Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2006. / Thesis Advisor(s): Kalev Sepp. "December 2006." Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-87). Also available in print.

The Civil War battle of Natural Bridge was a Southern victory that resulted in Tallahassee being the only Southern capital that did not fall into Union hands. Natural Bridge is an important Florida landmark and the battle serves as a significant part of Southern culture and heritage. Previous surveys at the Natural Bridge Battlefield Historic State Park yielded several categories of Civil War and prehistoric artifacts. A study of the private collection of the Gerrell family, who has lived on the battlefield land and surrounding properties for several generations, was conducted, and the artifacts were catalogued. The collection of 95 artifacts contains items such as buttons, cannon balls, and case shot. The goal of this project was to provide a catalog of the Civil War artifacts so the family could continue to lend the items out to museums for the use in exhibits pertaining to the Civil War. / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Anthropology in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Science. / Spring Semester, 2011. / November 18, 2010. / Civil War, historical archaeology, Natural Bridge, Tallahassee / Includes bibliographical references. / Glen H. Doran, Professor Directing Thesis; Lynne A. Schepartz, Committee Member; Rochelle A. Marrinan, Committee Member.

Since the United States’ founding, the national government has required that its military officers and enlisted personnel take oaths. Addressing issues of support, loyalty, diligence, and obedience, these oaths developed differently even though they were shaped by the same circumstances such as existing in a society that historically valued an oath’s effectiveness to accomplish a specific purpose. What purpose did US leaders believe military oaths fulfilled? This thesis argues that the oaths always served the same primary purpose to help sustain civil control of the armed forces. For the nation’s founders, the oaths essentially served as a symbol that embodied the republican ideal of “due responsibility.” Always connected with responsibility, however, was the issue of loyalty. Whenever the nation experienced pivotal events, such as its establishment or civil war, national leaders substantially modified the oaths to account for shifting allegiances. Ultimately, then, examining the society from which the oaths developed and the specific episodes when the oaths were created or changed, such as congressional debates, provides needed context to understand the oaths’ current significance to the nation and its armed forces. / History

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This thesis examines Northern and Southern Rhodesia's history through the formation and development of their police and military units from the time Rhodesia was created in 1890 until the end of the Second World War. Southern Rhodesia, founded after a series of short and bloody frontier wars, was a self-governing British colony under a white minority and centered its peace-time security efforts around keeping an eye on potential uprisings from the African majority. White Northern Rhodesians viewed the African majority with similar suspicion although they were never able to exclude Africans from territorial defense. Northern Rhodesia was governed from London and ultimate power did not lie with the settler community. The importance of the Second World War for Southern Rhodesia is that, because of British strategic policies, Rhodesians received perhaps the widest possible military exposure of any allied nation of the War. Because of a lingering hostility and suspicion by the Union of South Africa, Britain's prewar plans for defending their African empire were centered on making use of the skilled white manpower of Rhodesia and Kenya. Added to this was the willingness and apparent positive reception by white Rhodesians of black units in the Southern Rhodesian army, a break with the exclusively all-white tradition that prevailed up until then. The political capital accrued to Southern Rhodesia because of its close cooperation with Britain was perhaps the significant factor in the establishment of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953 which included Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland. The Federation was Southern Rhodesia's supreme political achievement and the closest it came to legal independence and international respectability.

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<p> This dissertation explores U.S.-Brazilian relations through the prism of naval diplomacy between 1893 and 1930. Broadly, this dissertation explains the growth of U.S. naval involvement in Brazil, emphasizing the motives of Brazilian and American policymakers, and the role of naval officers in strengthening bilateral relations. This study begins by examining the Brazilian Navy Revolt of 1893-94, contextualizing it within the formative years of the Brazilian Republic, while discussing U.S. naval intervention in the conflict. It then explores U.S.-Brazilian naval relations in the early twentieth century, explaining the growing association between the two countries&rsquo; navies after the turn of the century. That collaboration culminated in cooperation during World War I, and with the establishment of an American Navy Commission to teach at the Brazilian Naval War College. Finally, this dissertation explores the dynamics of the U.S. Navy Mission in Brazil during the first formative years after its establishment in 1922. Introducing naval diplomacy to the historiography of U.S.-South American relations illuminates the origins of American influence in Brazil, including the crucial role of Brazilians in pursuing closer ties, as well as the development of a U.S. policy focused on reducing European influence, promoting regional security, and increasing U.S. commercial power in the region.</p>

<p>When addressed with military strategy the first thought is to drift towards the big name battlefields: Shiloh, Perryville, Stones River, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga. Our obsession with tactics and outcomes clouds our minds to the social, cultural, and political factors that took place away from the front lines. Less appealing, but no less important to understanding the war as a whole, this study incorporates non-military factors to explain the shift of Confederate military strategy in the Western Theater. Southern citizens experienced a growth of military awareness, which greatly influenced the military policies of Richmond, and altered how Confederate generals waged war against Union armies. The geography of Mississippi and Tennessee, and the proximity of these states to Virginia, also forced Western generals to pursue aggressive military campaigns with less than ideal military resources. Finally, the emotions and personal aspirations of general officers in the Army of Tennessee, and the Western Theater as a whole, produced a culture of failure, which created disunion and instability in the Western command structure. Confederate generals pursued aggressive military campaigns due to a combination of social, cultural, political, and military factors.

This dissertation is a study of the New Order (Nizam-i Cedid) army and the opposition it triggered during the reign of Selim III (1789-1807). It aims to present an alternative perspective on the Ottoman military reform and its implications for the course of the imperial transformation. It hopes to contribute to the social history of Ottoman military reform through an investigation of the challenges the state faced as well as the motivations of political, military, economic, and social groups in opposing the new army. This period represented a moment of crisis of great magnitude for the Ottoman imperial center. However, in military and financial terms, it was also a moment of reconfiguration and restructuring of Ottoman state power. Constant contestation and continuous renegotiation of state power occurred between the state elites and various societal actors. These actors did not necessarily have a fixed position on military reform. In fact, the military reform measures were part of the bargaining process and both the state elites and different political actors shifted their positions depending on the circumstances. This study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the causes of resistance by various groups such as the janissaries, local notables, and common people. It argues that their resistance shaped the possibilities of the Ottoman military reform by challenging the centralized, rationalized, disciplined, and bureaucratic new logic of the modern state.