Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Among the many challenges facing military marriages, one of the most pressing is maintaining healthy relationships during the hardship of separation due to deployment. Spouses are confronted with the demands of coping not only with time and distance apart, but the uncertainty of regular communication opportunities, and the anxiety involved in the dangerous nature of the deployment situation. The present study sought to examine how marital couples maintain their relationships during deployment through communication. The following sections present the conceptualization of relational maintenance and a review of previous studies on maintenance strategies. The content of deployed marital couples’ communication was analyzed using relational maintenance strategy categories. In accordance with Stafford and Canary’s (1991) typology, the strategies of assurances, positivity, and openness were observed. However, moving outside of the typology, the category of small talk emerged as a prevalent part of relational maintenance among the current sample of deployed couples. The findings also indicated the possible mutation of sharing tasks and social networking due to the constraints of the deployment situation. The current study provides a preliminary picture of relationship maintenance patterns for those experiencing this special type of long-distance relationship. Further studies involving larger samples are necessary to validate the findings.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The history of United Nations peacekeeping is largely one of failure. The causes are endemic, persistent and unlikely to be remedied. It is reasonable to consider two improvements. First, whether ad hoc peacekeepers might be augmented or even replaced in the field by competent contract labour. Corporations already provide logistics and technical support in both UN and non-UN operations. Second, UN members might contemplate paying well-trained contractors to subdue by force those who inflict gross human rights abuses on others. Alternatives to ad hoc forces are not conceptually new. But theoretical substitutes have not been evaluated alongside the merits of a private corporation supported by a business model. Military and security contractors are frequently misrepresented as an affront to states’ authority. This is misleading. There has never been a clear divide between public and private resources in armed conflict and states have always employed both. The UN Security Council is competent to devise suitable agency arrangements consistent with existing Charter powers. Resulting contracts would echo historically ubiquitous agreements amongst UN members and their more ancient predecessors. An integral requirement would be a wholly new criminal justice apparatus, something crafted to encourage corporate adherence to ethical conduct. It is well known that desirable standards have been imperfectly observed by certain PMSCs in today’s conflict zones. By the same token, a UN criminal justice proposal would be considerably superior to the unsatisfactory legal regime under which sovereign troops serve the UN today. The new structure would be accompanied by third-party assessments of corporate performance in addressing shareholder interests, crime control and mandate criteria. Overall, this approach would build on the inherent UN strength in multi-lateral legitimacy, free of repetitious attempts to overcome an inherent weakness in ad hoc recruitment.There remain formidable hurdles. Some are persuasive. A corporate agent would not be a panacea for the entirety of that human misery laid at the door of the Security Council. But the deployment of disciplined, professional contractors under rigorous conditions may offer improvements on present standards of peacekeeping. International humanitarian intervention would also become a less remote aspiration in terms of the means by which unconventional legal doctrines might be given practical form. Both would enable the Security Council to better address its Charter responsibilities and in particular the Preamble and its admonition on war.

Publication Type: Poster
Abstract: Justice systems are a central part of the relationship between the modern state and society, and in democracies, reflect the delicate balance between legitimate state authority and the protection of civil and political rights of individuals or communities. It is therefore not a coincidence that the actions and behaviors of the justice apparatus are viewed as a central measure of the quality of democratic governance. In particular, the development of justice systems in countries transitioning to democracy has become especially relevant to understanding this relationship, especially with the advent of the “Third Wave” of democratizations and liberalizations beginning in the mid-1970s. To ascertain the relationship between justice institutions and processes of democratization, this study analyzes the deployment orientations of police tactical commanders from twenty-two transitioning nations in the context of democratic consolidation theory using both hierarchical linear modeling and trajectory analysis. Specifically, 315 commanders were probed (in each of their own languages) as to their preference for consensus-based over authoritarian deployment models to test whether police from countries of different stages and levels of democratization differed in their tactical preferences. In total, the results suggest that different justice outputs such as police deployment orientations can emerge at different stages of democratization.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Popular media and formal academic works have been caught in a trend of Pax Americana in the post-Cold War era without much more than assertion and a few case studies to back up the claim while other authors claim the new stage of American grand strategy i

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: We formally model the effect of troop rotations on counterinsurgency operations. It is widely acknowledged that local insurgents possess important informational advantages over invading, or occupying, militaries. Our paper considers the role of regular troop rotations in hindering the ability of counterinsurgent forces to overcome their informational disadvantages. We find that incorporating the informational effects of troop rotations improves the explanatory power of existing models in the counterinsurgency literature. We elaborate and test our model through a case study of US military operations in Iraq.