Military Background Research Articles

A good manager or a bad agent? Military CEOs and tunneling

The literature on tunneling generally suggests that controlling shareholders expropriate minority shareholders by assuming executives play an assistant role in the process. We explore whether the military background of CEOs makes a difference in tunneling. The findings suggest that firms with CEOs who have served in the military exhibit less tunneling than those whose CEOs did not have previous military experience. Additional analysis suggests that the negative relation between military CEOs and tunneling is more salient for firms with large shareholding controlling shareholders, without seasoned equity offering (SEO) plans, audited by non-Big Four accounting firms, or have fewer analysts following them. Interestingly, we find that, by restraining a controlling shareholder’s tunneling, a military CEO firm has better firm value, lower perk consumption, and more positive media coverage. However, the military CEO also pays the price of being more likely to get dismissal than a non-military CEO. Hence, our evidence suggests that CEOs, especially those with military background, may not always follow controlling shareholders to expropriate minority shareholders.

National Question: Attack on Liberty and Faith in Nigeria (2015 – 2023)

Purpose: The value of the citizens’ liberty in Nigeria and their freedom of worship became greatly assaulted during the twin-light of the Jonathan administration by insurgency of the Boko Haram genre in the north east leading to the administration’s defeat in the 2015 general election. But the attacks became accentuated and worse when the Buhari administration took over on the promise of using his military background to confront the crisis having done so previously during the Maitasene riot in 1983. But since 2015 countless lives have been lost in all fronts in the country with the administration and its security architecture being held responsible for colluding with the insurgents, bandits or terrorists.
 Methodology: This paper which adopts the doctrinal method, surveyed, studied and examined the crisis of the breach of the constitutional and fundamental rights to personal liberty and freedom of worship during the Buhari administration and came to the conclusion that they degenerated to the lowest ebb, making the study necessary in order to highlight the failings of the administration and the exasperation of the citizens. The main sources of materials in this study are newspapers and other documentary reports.
 Findings: It found that the life of an ordinary citizen no longer mattered and that his freedom of worship was so endangered (as exemplified in the bombing of the church in Owo by the terrorists) that the administration threw up its constitutional responsibility in abdication. Peaceful co-existence and the place of religion in the stability of the nation were called into question and the worthlessness of the liberty of the Nigerian citizen raised the issue of the National Question in an era of wanton extra-judicial killings.
 Unique contributions to theory, practice and policy: The study recommends enhanced religious tolerance and bringing criminals to justice.

The association of military sexual assault and nonsuicidal self-injury in U.S. Gulf War-I era veterans

ABSTRACT Military sexual assault (MSA) is a prevalent issue among military personnel that has been linked to adverse mental and physical health outcomes, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The present study sought to investigate the relationship between MSA and nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) in a national sample of Gulf War-I Era U.S. veterans. The study analyzed data from 1,153 Gulf War-I veterans collected through a cross-sectional survey that assessed demographic information, clinical outcomes, military background, and history of MSA and NSSI. MSA was found to be significantly associated with NSSI at the bivariate level (OR = 2.19, p < .001). Further, MSA remained significantly associated with NSSI (AOR = 2.50, p = .002) after controlling for relevant demographics and clinical outcomes. Veterans with a history of MSA were approximately two and half times more likely to engage in NSSI than veterans who had not experienced MSA. The present findings provide preliminary evidence linking MSA and NSSI. Further, the findings highlight the importance of assessing MSA and NSSI in veteran populations, particularly among those seeking treatment for PTSD.

Leader characteristics and constitutional compliance

While research in constitutional economics has made important progress in recent decades, the factors determining whether a constitution is complied with have only received scant attention. We contribute to that narrow literature by studying how personal traits of political leaders are associated with constitutional compliance. Compliance levels of 943 political leaders between 1950 and 2010 can be explained by their education, entry into office, political experience, military background, and whether they are members of extreme left-wing parties. Specifically, under former military officers and Communist leaders, constitutional compliance is significantly lower. The combined effect of these two traits corresponds to the difference between democracy and nondemocracy. This implies a difficult normative question, which we discuss in our conclusion: Should constitutions set entry barriers for high political offices that are based on leader characteristics?

“Why Do People Hate You, Mommy?” Militarized Masculinities and Women in Postwar Kosovar Politics

ABSTRACT Scholarship on gendered political inequality after war pays surprisingly little attention to an otherwise ubiquitous concept in feminist security studies: militarized masculinities. Through qualitative fieldwork in Kosovo, I trace the ways through which militarized masculinities negatively influence women’s postwar political participation. However, I also find that the hegemony of militarized masculinities recently started to be contested as military backgrounds increasingly become associated with negative, instead of heroic, attributes. While this creates a competition for hegemony, it does not constitute a shortcut to emancipation. Instead, I find that militarized masculinities created path dependencies that uphold patriarchal domination beyond the hegemony of militarized masculinities.

THE ROLE OF TURKEY IN THE SECOND KARABAKH WAR AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR CENTRAL ASIA

The role of the Turkey and the reasons for the support of Azerbaijan in the Second Karabakh war are under consideration. The armament provisions and the regular joint exercises showed the military support of Turkey for Azerbaijan as well as the opportunity for Turkey to demonstrate its military and technological capabilities in the Second Karabakh war. It is determined that the Turkish weaponry showed the weakness of the military planning and technologies of russia. It is suggested that using of the Turkish drones in the Karabakh war changed the concept of war. It is established that Central Asian nations are beginning to view Azerbaijan as a bridge to the West and as a matter of outstanding role of Turkey in the Second Karabakh war this new image of Azerbaijan will only increase Turkey’s advances in the Turkic republics of that area. It is determined that Turkey can expand eastward over the Caspian Sea thanks to Azerbaijan's geographic position, which will be important in stabilizing Turkey's approach to Central Asia. The most vivid example of this is the planned corridor that passes from southern Azerbaijan to Nakhichevan, an exclave of Azerbaijan. The Second Karabakh War's aftermath and the Turkish leadership's sequential official travels to Central Asian nations are instructive of the growing importance of the Central Asia for Turkey. The institutional and military backgrounds of increasing cooperation with Central Asian countries is revealed as well. It is concluded that nationalistic and panturkic rhetoric and practice being currently on the agenda of foreign policy of Turkey aimed at Central Asia. If previously Turkey cooperated with Central Asia on the low politics, after the Second Karabakh war Turkey turned to high politics questions, using the low politics as the background for high politics issues. Based on their shared language and racial heritage, Turkey and Central Asian nations are forming a strategic, security, and military partnership. The emergence of political dimension in the cooperation is illustrated by the Turkic unanimity in the position paper “Turkic World Vision – 2040”.

Exploring Why Police and Military Commanders Do What They Do: An Empirical Analysis of Decision-Making in Hybrid Warfare

In this study, a total of 102 high-ranking commanders from a military and police background were included in a simulation involving hybrid attacks on Norway. The aim was to explore the commanders’ decision-making in the context of hybrid warfare and changing threats. Data were collected in a simulated national headquarters and analyzed by a multinominal logistic regression method using a scenario that transformed from peacetime into war and returned to peace. The results demonstrated significant differences in the commanders’ preferences for unilateral or interagency forces depending on whether decisions were made in peacetime, war or the post-conflict phase. The results also showed how the commanders’ level of operational experience was associated with an increased preference for interagency forces. The current findings are new empirical insights into a thus far neglected aspect of decision-making research and have implications for improving police-military interoperability in major security crises.

Patronage and authoritarian co-optation of the military: Theory with evidence from post-Mao China

How do dictators cultivate support among military leaders to mitigate their “guardianship dilemma”? A prominent thesis suggests autocrats in regimes with a dominant political party seek to prolong their rule by lavishing with career rewards underlings in their patronage networks built over a track record of trust and loyalty. This can be daunting for post-founding-generation dictators with little military experience and lacking prior interaction with their generals, an increasingly common challenge in party autocracies. Proposing a simple framework to think about the challenges of co-opting the military leaders for autocrats with different career background, I argue that party autocrats with no military career credentials can build new allegiance by bestowing job-related patronage on the military leaders appointed by themselves at the expense of legacy generals inherited from their predecessors. Analyzing yearly career outcomes of leaders of the regional commands of the People’s Liberation Army in post-Mao China, I find strong empirical support for the main argument. Compared with personal appointees, legacy generals were 63 percent less likely to be promoted under autocrats without military experience, but their odds of promotion did not seem to differ under autocrats boasting military career background. This study contributes to research on authoritarian efforts to tame internal threats, clientelism, party dictatorships, leader traits, and China’s civil-military ties.

Do I Stand?

This submission, &ldquo;Do I Stand?&rdquo;, illustrates the internal battle I have at times with being a Black Woman with a military background. &ldquo;Do I Stand?&rdquo; is also my answer to this question on whether kneeling during the national anthem is disrespectful to veterans.

Justinian und die Armee des frühen Byzanz by Clemens Koehn

Reviewed by: Justinian und die Armee des frühen Byzanz by Clemens Koehn Christian Michel Justinian und die Armee des frühen Byzanz Clemens Koehn Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter, 2018. Pp. viii + 309. ISBN: 978-3-11-059701-1 The emperor Justinian I is perhaps the most prominent figure in the history of Late Antiquity. In more than 38 years of rule (from 527 to 565), he managed to recapture great parts of the former western Roman Empire, even if it were only to last for his reign. It is therefore not surprising that he has gained much scholarly attention in recent years. While the emperor can therefore be seen as well studied, the army that was the main guarantor of the great successes in Africa and Italy, as well as Justinian's relationship to it, has been somewhat neglected. This gap in the research defines the starting point for Clemens Koehn's Justinian und die Armee des frühen Byzanz. In a very short introduction (1–7) Koehn sums up the content to follow and proposes that the emperor was more of a military man than many think today, and that he followed the idea of "lean warfare" to achieve big strategic goals with small amounts of resources. The first part, titled "Die Armee als militärisches Instrument" ("The Army as a Military Instrument" 8–145), deals with the military reforms of the emperor. It analyzes the changes undertaken by Justinian regarding the different troops and contingents, as well as tactical aspects and the armament of the soldiers. Koehn identifies the increase in the number of the comitatenses (in part by incorporating the limitanei into them) as the biggest change because it enabled the [End Page 254] emperor to react more quickly to outside attacks (25–27). Another important aspect was the reformation of the funding of the army. The emperor cut payments to inactive soldiers and stopped the automatic promotion of young ones to redistribute the financial savings to the new troops (48–53). Koehn identifies the reason for these substantial changes in the military background of Justinian. The author can demonstrate that he was already involved in a restructuring of the military and military activities during the reign of his predecessor Justin (56–67). After dealing with the emperor and his reforms, Koehn looks at the structure of the army itself. He highlights the role of the foederati and shows that the emperor increased the numbers of barbarians (67–114). Another chapter concentrates on one special form of troops: the hippotoxotai. (115–145). As the name shows, the hippotoxotai were mounted archers. For Koehn, the use and further development of those cavalry units started with the conquest of Africa in the years 533/534. After the defeat of the vandal rulers, the Romans had to face the Moorish people, who were specialized in using throwing spears against their enemies, posing great problems for the Roman army and its tactics. The Romans reacted by equipping their mounted bowman with throwing spears—the idea of the hippotoxotai was born. Under Justinian, the number of hippotoxotai was therefore increased, but it was not before the end of the sixth century that the cavalry consisted of those troops exclusively. After analyzing the military function of the army, Koehn deals with "Die Armee als politisches Instrument" ("The Army as a Political Instrument" 146–274). He examines how Justinian used the army to pursue his political aims. Koehn starts by dealing with the idea of restauratio imperii. He states that the reconquest of the former parts of the Western Roman Empire was not—in contrast to the early and in accordance with the new literature—the result of a large plan but rather of contingent circumstances that the emperor was able to use wisely. While the recapture of Africa was the starting point for the restauratio of the empire, the emperor seems to have already developed the idea of universal rule earlier. This fact is shown in the imperial propaganda that exhibits clear parallels to the imperial self-representation of former centuries. An instructive example that Koehn presents is the defeat of the Tzanoi in 528 (148–156). While they...

Private military and security companies and human rights abuses: The impact of CEOs’ military background

This study examines how military background of chief executive officers (CEOs) of private military and security companies (PMSCs) that intervened in Iraq from 2003 to 2019 affected the frequency with which companies committed human rights abuses. My findings show that PMSCs with CEOs who served in the military, for any regime type, are more likely to commit a high number of human rights abuses than companies led by CEOs without service experience. The risk is higher for PMSCs with CEOs who served in the Navy and lowest for CEOs with experience in the Air Force. The risk increases when ex-military CEOs lead private rather than publicly traded companies. The study contributes novel data on military service of CEOs for international PMSCs that were present in Iraq. The data reports on the type of governing system where CEOs served, their service branch, and whether they graduated from military academies/colleges.

Suicides in Massachusetts by Industry and Occupation, 2016-2019.

To examine suicide deaths among working-age residents in Massachusetts and to determine industries and occupations with high numbers and rates of suicides. The Massachusetts Violent Death Reporting System and Massachusetts death certificates were used to analyze suicide deaths from 2016 to 2019. Counts and rates were generated by demographics and industry and occupation groupings. There were 2199 working-age Massachusetts residents who died by suicide. Higher suicide rates were associated with being male, 65 years or older, White, and non-Hispanic or having military background. Suicide rates were higher among the construction industry sector and the construction and extraction occupational group compared with the average rate for all Massachusetts workers. Suicide rates differed between industries and occupations, suggesting that work-related factors may play a role and should be considered when planning outreach initiatives and interventions.

Higher mathematics teaching design based on military problem

Integrating military cases into the teaching of higher mathematics can stimulate students’ interest in learning and lay a good foundation for students to consciously apply mathematical knowledge and methods to solve military problems they will face in the future. Therefore, this paper first expounds the significance of integrating military problems into higher mathematics, then expounds the selection principles of integrating military problems into higher mathematics, and finally combines part of the teaching content of higher mathematics with practical problems with military background, and uses the "problem solving" of military problems to design the classroom content. Demonstrate the use of mathematical methods in solving practical problems.

On the Poem by Boris Slutsky “They shot Van’ka, the platoon commander…”. Problems of Understanding

The article is devoted to analysis of a poem written by Boris Slutsky. Boris Abramovich Slutsky (1919–1986), Russian poet and a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, is an important figure in the Russian poetry of the second half of the 20th century. The article examines the poem “They shot Van’ka, the platoon commander…” that was not published until the late 80s. While very simple in form, the poem leaves a great deal of room for interpretation of its content. The author intentionally chooses a restrained tone and avoids judgmental vocabulary that could reveal his attitude towards the depicted events. The article attempts to expose the author’s standpoint by means of stylistic analysis (the poem incudes words and phrases from a wide range of stylistic registers: from obsolete words and bureaucratic formulas to colloquial and vernacular expressions, sometimes even deliberately violating grammatical rules) and by examining the text’s important syntactic features. It is argued that Slutsky’s military background is very important for analysis of his poems. During the war he was a secretary at a division prosecution office, later an investigator. Reflection of this experience that the author himself calls “painful and sordid” can be found in his verses.

&amp;lt;i&amp;gt;Sixth Dalai Lama-Tsangyang Gyatso&amp;lt;/i&amp;gt;: A Brief Look at His Love Stories and Love Poems

Sixth Dalai Lama-Tsangyang Gyatso is a full-length novel written by Gao Ping that vividly describes the short life of the great Tibetan poet and Sixth Dalai Lama, Tsangyang Gyatso, and his poems. It sets against the political, military and religious background of Tibetan during the Qing Dynasty. This paper briefly analyses Tsangyang Gyatso’s love poems based on his love stories. The study finds that the words used in Tsangyang Gyatso’s love poems are plain, simple, natural and easy to understand, which has a highly empathetic effect to his readers and expresses the poet’s sincere feelings.

The Democratic character values formation in the School of the Ministry Defense of the Republic Indonesia

Democratic character values formation is a way to foster a sense of tolerance and respect for diversity. The purpose of the study was to determine the formation of democratic character values in schools with military backgrounds. The study was conducted at SMA Taruna Nusantara Magelang, using qualitative research methods. The data was obtained through interviews and filling out questions using google form. The results of the study indicate that democratic values are formed through the process of education, parenting, training, and are integrated in daily life supported by a special school system and curriculum. Taruna Nusantara High School students conduct the organization like an election in which each candidate for chairman and section candidates makes speeches and campaigns to get support from friends through a dialogical campaign, students are given the freedom to make posters and give speeches in order to seek support. This research is useful for the Ministry Defense of the Republic Indonesia to implement democratic character education evenly.

The Last Shah: America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty; The Fall of Reza Shah: The Abdication, Exile, and Death of Modern Iran’s Founder

The Last Shah: America, Iran, and the Fall of the Pahlavi Dynasty; The Fall of Reza Shah: The Abdication, Exile, and Death of Modern Iran’s Founder

Reinventing the Sheikhdom: Clan, Power and Patronage in Mohammed bin Zayed’s UAE

Reinventing the Sheikhdom: Clan, Power and Patronage in Mohammed bin Zayed’s UAE

Cultural intelligence and conflict ethnography: The importance of the anthropological knowledge for military advisors in fighting international violent extremist groups

The aim of this paper is twofold. That is, to present the Cultural Intelligence. A new method of anthropological analysis on the battlefield to support military intelligence in order to study subversive, terrorist and insurgent groups. Moreover, it is to define a new professional figure in military units and staffs: the ethnographer of war. A professional who, necessarily, must have a great military background and who must know how to apply the typical methodology of the ethnographic gathering to the analysis of unconventional military organizations that work to destabilize a state. A research that, therefore, has the ambition to give a small contribution to the technicians of the sector with the awareness that, in order to face the wars of the future, there will be an increasing need for an anthropological perspective.

Running through the in-between: Distance runners in a state of liminality

ABSTRACT This paper focuses on the way novice marathon runners experience and respond to a change – becoming marathoners. It utilises Victor Turner’s concepts of liminality and communitas to illustrate the complexity and challenges experienced by novice runners. The scope of sociological research regarding distance runners over the last two decades has expanded, nevertheless, very little has been written in reference to the process of the liminal phase per se. Therefore, the contribution of this paper is to address this lacuna of research and focus on the link between the process of ‘becoming’ and concepts such as solidarity, hierarchies, and standing norms, which play significant roles and constitute key components in the process of liminality. An ethnographic research design of three years was implemented in two running groups, using participant observation and semi-structured interviews. The data presented suggest that embarking on a marathoner identity requires a phase of betwixt and between wherein the ‘traditional’ borders of liminality and communitas are not fixed and often negotiable. Moreover, the relatively advanced age, similar socioeconomic status and military background among the running members serve as loopholes in liminality for novice runners towards ‘interested solidarity’ with veteran runners in achieving their new status as marathoners.