Military Efforts Research Articles

Worth the Bother? Israeli Experience and the Utility of Special Operations Forces

Recent operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have re-opened the debate about the strategic utility of special operations forces (SOF). This article follows the debate and identifies the main factors that contribute to the strategic utility of SOF in various types of conflicts. Drawing upon Israeli experiences with special operations it demonstrates that, contrary to the commonly held view that Israeli SOF have significant strategic utility, Israel is has difficulties utilizing its SOF during large-scale military campaigns, despite their impressive utility in discrete operations. The article draws inferences from the Israeli case regarding the tension between the potential for unique strategic utility of SOF and the desire to have special operations complement the general military effort. The article concludes that the geostrategic environment informs the SOF's strategic utility: the operational concept determines expected strategic utility, and the organizational setting shapes the SOF's ability to fulfil their potential utility.

Coordinating Medical Civil Military Operations in Multinational Division-North

Medical civil military operations (MCMO) are part of military civil capacity-building efforts within the full spectrum of military operations, from war to military operations other than war. In 2008-2009 during Operation Iraqi Freedom, the Division Surgeon's Section (DSS) of the 25th Infantry Division (25ID) and Multinational Division-North developed an innovative MCMO program in northern Iraq. The program centered on understanding and mapping key relationships, empowering brigade-level programs, and leveraging technology to identify and share best practices. The DSS mapped the critical relationships within and between the three entities affecting MCMO: the government of Iraq (GOI), Department of State (DOS), and the Department of Defense (DOD). A division MCMO working group was then created along with processes to facilitate MCMO project execution and program management. The structure and organization of the 25ID MCMO program lend themselves to other operational environments requiring synchronization of medical capacity-building efforts.

The Role of Effort–Reward Imbalance for Reservists on a Military Deployment

The present study extended the effort–reward imbalance (ERI) model (Siegrist, 1996b), first by differentiating between separate reward components, second by including intrinsic reward, and third by additionally predicting a non-health outcome (i.e., turnover intention) in a military context. Regression analyses of 789 reservists found financial and esteem reward to moderate the impact of extrinsic effort on depressive symptoms, whereas only financial reward moderated the effort turnover intentions relationship. Results supported the usefulness of the extended ERI model in the military context. Relevant areas for future research on the military effort–reward perspective are discussed.

Rethinking Africa's Military

Abstract The United States and many of its allies pour significant resources into funds for military cooperation and training efforts in Africa. But might that assistance need to be reconfigured both to benefit Africans and to achieve America's long-term objectives? The article first examines Africa's desire for traditional military forces against its actual, questionable need for such. It then looks at two central challenges of African militaries: their tendency to project power and the predatory nature of many of them. To counter those tendencies, incentives must be developed for a “developmental military”—to which end the formation of the new U.S. Africa Command is an opportunity to take a fresh look at the continent based on reality and partnering with African states to build the security forces that they truly need.

Obama's AfPak Strategy: Will it succeed in Afghanistan?

Written on 17th January 2010, the article argues that there will not be support for a continued American and Western military presence in Afghanistan for very long, and that building an effective ethnically balanced Afghan Security Forces, improving the quality of governance, redressing the balance of power between different ethnic groups, eliminating corruption, providing better governance, bringing under control the clandestine financing received by the Taliban from donors who view America as an enemy of Islam and a blind supporter of Israel, reducing the financing provided by the opium cultivation and trafficking will take more time than is available. It advocates that the enunciated American Counter terrorism doctrine—15% kinetic, 20% diplomatic and 65% economic—should be applied in practice with money being spent on creation of employment opportunities in proportion to the $100 billion budgeted for the military effort after the troop increase of 30,000 announced by President Obama. Reconciliation with the Taliban and offering them a share of power after having reduced their support base by providing employment and economic opportunities to the Taliban foot soldiers offers the only solution within the available time frame. Welcoming the emphasis on protecting the population as the basic thrust of military activity it suggests that this must be accompanied by military action to clear and hold selected areas traditionally regarded as Taliban strongholds and that in such areas good governance must be quickly established to further the winning of “hearts and minds” among a people who have over the centuries survived by picking the winning side.

Battlefield neurosurgical care in the current conflict in southern Afghanistan

An international military campaign involving large numbers of troops is ongoing in Afghanistan. To support the military efforts in the conflict zone, a network of military medical services of varying levels has been established. The largest and busiest multinational military hospital in southern Afghanistan is located at Kandahar Air Field where the only neurosurgeon is based. This report outlines the contribution of multinational military health services and the workload of the neurosurgical service in Kandahar.

‘To live and die [for] Dixie’: Irish civilians and the Confederate States of America

Around 20,000 Irishmen served in the Confederate army in the Civil War. As a result, they left behind, in various Southern towns and cities, large numbers of friends, family, and community leaders. As with native-born Confederates, Irish civilian support was crucial to Irish participation in the Confederate military effort. Also, Irish civilians served in various supporting roles: in factories and hospitals, on railroads and diplomatic missions, and as boosters for the cause. They also, however, suffered in bombardments, sieges, and the blockade. Usually poorer than their native neighbours, they could not afford to become ‘refugees’ and move away from the centres of conflict. This essay, based on research from manuscript collections, contemporary newspapers, British Consular records, and Federal military records, will examine the role of Irish civilians in the Confederacy, and assess the role this activity had on their integration into Southern communities. It will also look at Irish civilians in the defeat of the Confederacy, particularly when they came under Union occupation. Initial research shows that Irish civilians were not as upset as other whites in the South about Union victory. They welcomed a return to normalcy, and often ‘collaborated’ with Union authorities. Also, Irish desertion rates in the Confederate army were particularly high, and I will attempt to gauge whether Irish civilians played a role in this. All of the research in this paper will thus be put in the context of the Drew Gilpin Faust/Gary Gallagher debate on the influence of the Confederate homefront on military performance. By studying the Irish civilian experience one can assess how strong the Confederate national experiment was. Was it a nation without a nationalism?

John Elias Skandalakis, MD, PhD, FACS (1920–2009)

The impact of a person’s life can often be measured accurately by notable contributions to humanity, whether the benefits are in ones own country or are internationally recognized. Dr. John E. Skandalakis impacted the lives of his countrymen as a leading member of the Greek Resistance in World War II, and many thousands of patients, physicians and students throughout the world. He was a beloved healer, teacher, and respected scholar, who left a remarkable legacy with his expertise, dedication, time, and skill in medical practice and research. Known affectionately to many (including his secretarial staff and colleagues) as ‘‘Dr. Skan,’’ he was our teacher, esteemed scholar, mentor, and, most importantly, cherished friend. Dr. John Elias Skandalakis was born in 1920 in Sparta, Greece, as the son of a district attorney. In 1946, he earned a medical degree from the University of Athens (summa cum laude). He received his certification in General Surgery from the University of Athens in 1950. His training was at the First Surgical Clinic, Athens University and at the Naval Hospital in Piraeus, Greece. His patriotic zeal led him to fight honorably for his nation in the Greek Resistance during World War II and continued military efforts against Communism thereafter. For his bravery and commitment to his country, Dr. Skandalakis was awarded a medal by the Greek government for his clandestine activities that helped save many lives, including the Jewish residents of Athens. He was a man who endured many personal hardships, including the deaths of members of his family and friends, who were murdered during World War II. Putting aside personal grief and the avenue of bitterness in favor of a life dedicated to humankind, he desired to expand his knowledge and skills. This internal drive led him to the United States and to a surgical residency. Thereafter, his love of human anatomy led Dr. Skandalakis to complete the requirements for a doctorate in Anatomy from Emory University School of Medicine in 1962. He rose quickly through the academic ranks and became Professor of Anatomy and Professor of Surgery. With contributions both from his avid interest in research, his numerous publications and his expertise as an educator, Dr. Skandalakis excelled in molding some of the best physicians and researchers in the United States and abroad. During his time at Emory University, Dr. Skandalakis served as Professor of Anatomy, Professor of Surgery, and Professor of Surgical Anatomy and Technique, and he established the Thalia and Michael Carlos Centers for Surgical Anatomy and Technique and the Alfred A. Davis Research Center for Surgical Anatomy and Technique. The compassion with which he taught students, combined with his immense knowledge of human anatomy, made him one of the most beloved professors at Emory University. In 1981, he was awarded the Aven Cup by the Medical Association of Georgia for outstanding service to the community by a doctor. In 1999, he received the distinguished Medical Achievement Award from the Emory University School of Medicine (Bendavid, in press). During his active time at the institution, Dr. Skandalakis authored more than 300 publications, including journal articles, books, book chapters, and monographs. His love for the art and science of human anatomy is demonstrated in his three most famous books: Embryology for Surgeons, Anatomical Complications in General Surgery, and Surgical Anatomy and Technique: a Pocket Manual. His twovolume text, Surgical Anatomy, the Embryologic and Anatomic Basis of Modern Medicine, could be

Dissection d'un discours à propos des conflits sociaux: le cas du projet Camelot

In the 1960s, conflict resolution appeared as a topic in American sociology as a temporary and initial phase of development in Latin America. In this paper, we examine the case of Project Camelot (1964–1965) through its relationship with its disciplinary and organizational histories. Additionally, we compare the state of knowledge about foreign contexts within sociology and anthropology. With the current growing use of the Social Sciences in military efforts in the Middle East (i.e., the Minerva Initiative and the Human Terrain System), the study of Camelot offers an opportunity to critically reassess the interaction between scientific knowledge and strategic agendas.

Lincoln and Emancipation: Constitutional Theory, Practical Politics, and the Basic Practice of Law

Lincoln and Emancipation: Constitutional Theory, Practical Politics, and the Basic Practice of Law PAUL FINKELMAN Abraham Lincoln is, by any measure, our greatest President. Whenever we are asked to rank our Presidents, Lincoln comes out on top. This makes sense. His job, leading the nation through four years of Civil War, was the hardest of any President and he accomplished it so stunningly well: winning the War, preserving the Union, and ending slavery. His reputation is mostly a function ofthe challenges he faced and the success he had in leading the nation. That he was a tower­ ing giant surrounded by six decades of Lil­ liputian Presidents is also a factor.1 So too was his incredible use of language. Lincoln’s Sec­ ond Inaugural is one of the greatest speeches ofnineteenth-centuryAmerica; his Gettysburg address helped resurrect the core values ofthe Declaration of Independence while providing a higher meaning than even nationalism for the Civil War. Lincoln’s martyrdom made him mysterious, tragic, and heroic. Finally, of course, Lincoln’s place in his­ tory rests on his role as the Great Eman­ cipator.2 With a stroke of his pen, Lincoln brought liberty to about three million slaves. The Emancipation Proclamation was essen­ tially a political document in the guise of a war measure. But for Lincoln, the Proclama­ tion was also a constitutional document. It re­ flected his constitutional thought and under­ standing, filteredthroughthe reality ofthe War and political conditions. In March 1861, Lin­ coln declared—honestly and correctly—that he had no constitutional power to touch slav­ ery where it existed. A year and a halflater, in September 1862, he declared—honestly and correctly—that he did, in fact, have the con­ stitutional power to attack slavery in the Con­ federacy and order the emancipation of about three million slaves.3 244 JOURNAL OF SUPREME COURT HISTORY Lincoln’s Proclamation did not, and could not, end all slavery in the United States. To­ tal emancipation required military success and the Thirteenth Amendment. Furthermore, Lin­ coln was hardly the only agent in the process. Tens of thousands of slaves left their own­ ers during the War and ran to the protective shield of the United States Army. From day one of the War, slaves, former slaves, and free blacks participated in the military effort as guides, spies, civilian workers, and ultimately uniformed soldiers. The more than 200,000 blacks who served the Union cause made sig­ nificant contributions to victory and liberty. Moreover, as Ira Berlin has argued, simply by showing up at military bases, slaves left United States soldiers no choice but to of­ fer them shelter and protection. Berlin fur­ ther argues that slaves, by their very pres­ ence, helped shape military policy, and that in turn helped shape civilian policy. Slaves “did what they could to secure” freedom, “throwing their full weight behind the Federal cause, volunteering their services as teamsters, stable hands, and boatmen; butchers, bakers, and cooks; nurses, orderlies, and laundresses; blacksmiths, coopers, and carpenters; and, by the tens of thousands, as common laborers.”4 Slaves cared for the wounded and helped bury the dead, doubtless saying their own prayers to speed the blue-clad liberators on to their final destiny. Similarly, Congress played a role in end­ ing bondage, with two confiscation acts, the immediate end of slavery in the District of Columbia through compensated emancipa­ tion, an act ending slavery in the Territo­ ries without any compensation, the repeal of the federal Fugitive Slave Laws in 1864, and other measures. Most importantly, in early 1865 Congress sent the states the Thirteenth Amendment, which permanently ended slav­ ery everywhere in the United States. The states played their proper role by ratifying the Amendment in less than a year. Finally, of course, the Army and Navy made emancipa­ tion possible. Without military victory, eman­ cipation would have been impossible, or at least incomplete. Butwithout a viable constitutional andpo­ litical theory that allowed Congress, the Army, and the President to free slaves, emancipa­ tion could not have happened. A number of people helped shape these theories, including Lincoln’s abolitionist Secretary of the Trea­ sury, Salmon P. Chase; one of his political generals, Benjamin...

<i>Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian Warfare Transformed Early America</i> (review)

Reviewed by: Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian Warfare Transformed Early America Benjamin G. Scharff Peter Silver . Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian Warfare Transformed Early America. (W.W. Norton, 2008. Pp. xxvi, 406, illustrations, maps, notes, index. Cloth, $29.95; Paper, $18.95.) With few interruptions, the British and American borderlands experienced consistent warfare with Native Americans from the midpoint of the eighteenth-century onwards. While warfare certainly transformed indigenous cultures, the persistent presence of native groups near European settlements drastically altered the complexion of British North America as well. Peter Silver attempts to address these changes in Our Savage Neighbors: How Indian War Transformed Early America. By focusing primarily on the mid-Atlantic region, the author argues that continuous warfare between natives and Europeans ultimately led to disparate groups of colonists recognizing their similarities over their differences. By doing so, they managed to forge a unified identity previously absent in the British colonies. [End Page 239] Silver's North America teems with diversity. Culturally different groups from the British Isles and various German principalities inhabited the colonies. From Europe, these groups brought a variety of religious faiths that frequently provoked distrust. With attention to detail so often ignored by colonial historians, the author further indicates the presence of numerous Native American peoples living very much within the confines of European settlement. Avoiding a homogenized view of North America with Anglos on one side of the 'frontier' and Indians on the other, Silver instead describes a land where conflict might just as easily erupt between competing European groups than between natives and Europeans. The Seven Years' War and successive conflicts changed this dynamic. The unprecedented violence of the Seven Years' War led many settlers, be they German or Irish, Presbyterian or Lutheran, to seek support from their provincial governments. In places such as Pennsylvania, the perceived ambivalence of colonial authorities led initially to the development of a rhetoric of violence meant to pressure these authorities into assisting settlers. Politically ambitious colonists, more interested in power than helping their western brethren, soon adopted this rhetoric to attack Quaker power in Pennsylvania. This proliferation of anti-Indian imagery seems to have quickly ingrained itself in the colonial psyche, leading eventually to the prevalence of strong anti-Indian sentiment called by the author the "anti-Indian sublime." Silver demonstrates this attitude most shockingly with descriptions of the actions of the Paxton Boys in the 1760s and the massacre at Gnadenhutten in 1782. The author believes that this growth in anti-Indian sentiment drove ethnically and religiously diverse colonists into each other's arms. Significantly, Silver manages to project his thesis onto the American Revolution as well. By connecting British military efforts to its alliance with natives, the author argues that Americans managed to convince themselves of British barbarity. By doing so, they successfully transitioned American perception of Britain as the glorious empire they had fought to defend a generation before to a nation lacking in humanity. No longer rebelling against their lawful government, they now represented beleaguered citizens defending hearth and home. In a general sense, Silver's arguments seem convincing. The colonies did represent a diverse set of interests. Relative unity did increase as the eighteenth century came to a close. His voluminous evidence does, moreover, suggest that anti-Indian sentiment played a significant role in this transformation. What readers will not find, however, is a chronological [End Page 240] narrative, strong protagonists or discussion of many areas of British North America. While attempting to prove that Indian warfare and its subsequent anti Indian sentiment drove European populations in British North American into each other's arms, the author allows nearly a half century for the developments to fully mature. He attempts to maintain a chronological approach, roughly transporting his reader through the Seven Years' War, Pontiac's Uprising, and finally the American Revolution and the early national period. Yet, within any given topic, the reader is presented with evidence from greatly divergent eras. Most remarkable, Silver at one point provides data from the War of 1812 to support an argument pertaining to the 1760s. While this certainly represents an especially stark example of the author's use of evidence, the reader might...

Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946–1965 (review)

Reviewed by: Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946–1965 Maurice M. Labelle Alvah, Donna — Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946–1965. New York: New York University Press, 2007. Pp. 289. In Unofficial Ambassadors: American Military Families Overseas and the Cold War, 1946–1965, historian Donna Alvah illuminates the ways in which us military families abroad influenced global perceptions of American diplomacy, state, society, and culture. During the early Cold War period, United States military spouses and children stationed in Western Europe and Asia sought to cultivate neighbouring support and friendly relations with local people on- and off-base. By serving as "unofficial ambassadors" of "the American way of life," these ordinary Americans buttressed local us military efforts and global, Cold War diplomatic objectives. "Families … could exercise international influence and advance diplomatic aims by representing a nonmilitaristic facet of the United States," Alvah contends. "Wives, children, and servicemen in their domestic roles as husbands and fathers could exert soft-power influence that both complemented and tempered the United States' hard-power martial presence" (p. 227). Through multiple formal and informal cultural encounters with residents of occupied and host countries, American military families exercised a friendly and "feminine" form of American global power, consequently proliferating the myth of us exceptionalism. As Washington envisioned the establishment of a new Cold War order after World War II, military officials encouraged military families stationed overseas to participate in American foreign relations by fraternizing with non-Americans. In the spirit of cultural internationalism, husbands, wives, and children displayed American leadership, generosity, and benevolence as they visibly took part in myriad local events and humanitarian causes. American servicemen, at this time, were expected to "teach" local families the fruits of democracy and American culture. Such efforts depicted American dominance in a paternalist light, as "portrayals of servicemen with children … appealed to the idea of international family ties, though always with the American men in the role of adult benefactors" (p. 57). "The frequency of familial metaphors in representing relationships between servicemen and host nationals, as well as actual family relationships," Alvah convincingly argues, "illustrates the centrality of ideas [End Page 479] about the family to relations between the U.S. military and peoples of foreign countries" (p. 60). US military wives, for their part, actively advanced global aims and participated in the Cold War by forging informal international alliances and assisting disadvantaged peoples, as well as promoting American "values." Through their "feminine good will," white American women acted as US diplomatic agents, as they "represented sincere efforts to do good for those who were less privileged than Americans, while helping to ease Americans' discomfort with and even morally justify their nation's global dominance" (p. 82). On the Pacific island of Okinawa, for instance, Marian Merritt and other US military spouses sought to assist Okinawans in their postwar recovery, protect them from peril, and obtain their allegiance to the American Cold War effort. While perceiving local residents as inferior, childlike peoples in need of American guardianship, they constructed themselves as maternal protectors. "This maternalism tries to ease the negative effects of paternalistic military control while reinforcing justifications for the Cold war domination of Okinawa by the United States," Alvah contends (pp. 168–69). In an attempt to present a more friendly and compassionate picture of the American occupation of Okinawa, military wives "sought to counteract the negative effects of the military through nurturing, intimate interactions with Okinawans while maintaining the power differential" (p. 178). Unofficial Ambassadors serves as an excellent contribution to the existing scholarship on gender in US foreign relations and American internationalism. By highlighting the agency of US military wives and children abroad, Alvah draws necessary attention to the involvement of non-state actors in American diplomacy. She fails, however, to offer a substantial discussion regarding the role of US servicemen when off-duty and their interactions with local residents. How did these husbands embrace local culture and espouse these social roles? Did they engage with host citizens in the same ways as their wives? Did they promote a feminine, non-militaristic vision of the so-called American way of life? Alvah, in addition, leads...

Between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander: The Polish Question at Tilsit, 1807

The defeat of Prussia by Napoleon in 1806 and the resulting insurrection in Prussian Poland re-opened the complex ‘Polish Question’. The former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had been wiped off the map only eleven years earlier. The large size and the civic traditions of the Polish ‘political nation’ meant that the three partitioning powers (Austria, Prussia, Russia) were bound to be alarmed by the developments in Prussian Poland. Napoleon’s attitude to the Poles was cautious, but, as the campaign against Russia (Prussia’s new ally) continued into 1807, he authorized the creation of a Polish army and of a quasi-government in Warsaw. The article examines the negotiations over the future of Prussia’s Polish lands held between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I at Tilsit in June–July 1807. Hard geopolitical considerations influenced the negotiations which eventually produced a compromise solution in the form of a so-called ‘Duchy of Warsaw’ under the King of Saxony. Although the Poles had no direct influence on the negotiations, the Polish military effort on the side of France was an important factor in the outcome of the settlement. The Russians remained deeply wary of the new duchy, especially after its enlargement in 1809. With the collapse of the Napoleonic Empire in 1814–15, Tsar Alexander acquired most of the duchy which was to survive for many years under Russian rule as the so-called ‘Congress’ Kingdom of Poland.

Decision-Making and the Soviet War in Afghanistan: From Intervention to Withdrawal

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan sparked acute Cold War tensions. The war soon became an undesirable distraction and burden for Soviet leaders, who did not expect to spend most of the 1980s propping up a client regime in Kabul. Drawing on archival sources and interviews, this article traces Soviet decision-making from the intervention in late 1979 to the final withdrawal in early 1989. The article shows that the supporters of the Soviet intervention believed that Soviet military and economic aid efforts were making progress and should not be aborted early. They warned that a premature withdrawal would undermine Soviet prestige in the Third World. Before Mikhail Gorbachev came to power and to some extent afterward, the supporters of intervention were usually able to silence or sideline their critics through deft political maneuvering.

Women, Alcohol, and the Military: Cultural Changes and Reductions in Later Alcohol Problems among Female Veterans

Women working in traditionally male-dominated environments are at higher risk for alcohol use disorders (AUDs). The male-dominated U.S. military has additional risk factors associated with problem drinking, including isolation from family and exposure to life-threatening stressors. In the 1980s, the military conformed to all U.S. states' 21-year minimum legal drinking age (MLDA), and established prevention and intervention policies for abusive drinking. Using a serial cross-sectional design, we explored trends in annual alcohol treatment rates among female veterans versus civilians. From the Department of Health's Treatment Episode Data Set, we extracted AUD admissions from years 1992-2003 for female veterans and civilians in four age categories. Using age-specific population figures, we calculated annual AUD treatment rates and odds ratios for female veterans versus civilians. We used time-series analyses to examine trends in annual AUD treatment for female veterans and civilians across the years examined. In 1992, odds ratios of alcohol treatment episodes for female veterans compared to civilians ranged from 1.9 for 25-29-year-olds to 4.2 for 40-44-year-olds (all p < 0.01). Female veterans' annual alcohol treatment rates dropped substantially from 1992 to 2003, while rates for female civilians ages 25-34 dropped marginally and those for civilians ages 35-44 increased. Time-series analysis showed a statistically significant drop in rates for veterans from 1992 to 2003 and a significant difference between veterans' and civilians' rates, but demonstrated that female civilian annual treatment rates remained static from 1992 to 2003. Prior to the military's efforts to reduce underage and problem drinking, female veterans' alcohol treatment rates exceeded those of same-age civilians. However, with increasing exposure to an environment that discourages abusive drinking, female veterans' annual rates of alcohol treatment fell to below those for same-age civilians.

Fantasies of Extremes: Sports, War and the Science of Sleep

In this article, I address the enduring American interest in the manipulation and eradication of the need for human sleep through the powers of science. In particular, I focus on military research regarding the possible reduction of necessary sleep times as well as historical attempts to modify and maximize the scheduling of warfare; these military efforts are juxtaposed to the efforts of sports professionals who have attempted to test the limits of human sleep, either for scientific concerns or for that of victory. These various scientific pursuits are compared to science fictional representations of the eradication of human sleep, or its significant modification. I argue that it is not solely the actual realization of sleep's modification that impacts dominant understandings of sleep, but rather that the fantasies of science's powers reconfigure conceptions of the human and its limitations.

Government by contract: outsourcing and American democracy

* Acknowledgments * Introduction: Government by Contract: Outsourcing and American Democracy Jody Freeman and Martha Minow I. Recent Developments * Public-Private Governance: An Historical Introduction William J. Novak * The Transformation of Government Work: Causes, Consequences and Distortions John Donahue * The Federal Framework for Competing Commercial Work between the Public and Private Sectors Matthew Blum II. Cases and Critiques * Rent-a-Regulator: Design and Innovation in Environmental Decisionmaking Miriam Seifter * Outsourcing Power: Privatizing Military Efforts and the Risks to Accountability, Professionalism, and Democracy Martha Minow * How Privatization Thinks: The Case of Prisons Sharon Dolovich III. Responses and Reforms A. Don't Increase Regulation * Achieving Contracting Goals and Recognizing Public Law Concerns: A Contracting Management Perspective Steven J. Kelman * Federal Contracting in Context: What Drives It, How to Improve It Stan Soloway and Alan Chvotkin B. Use Existing Tools * Some Legal Reforms to Increase Contractor Accountability Nina A. Mendelson * Privatization and Democracy: Resources in Administrative Law Alfred C. Aman, Jr. C. Press Constitutional Restrictions * Private Delegations, Due Process, and the Duty to Supervise Gillian E. Metzger * Outsourcing and the Duty to Govern Paul R. Verkuil * Public Values/Private Contract Laura A. Dickinson * Notes * List of Contributors * Index

Suicide in war veterans: the role of comorbidity of PTSD and depression

Many wars have been fought during the history of civilization. Approximately 30 armed conflicts are currently occurring around the globe, involving more than 25 countries. There are millions of war veterans around the world, many of whom are suffering from the psychological and/or physical wounds of war. Suicidal behavior is a major problem among war veterans. It has been estimated that from time of discharge until the early 1980s, between 8000 and 9000 Vietnam veterans died by suicide. In 2002, British veterans of the 3-month Falklands conflict (1982) claimed that more Falklands veterans had died by suicide (n = 264) since the conflict ended than died during the conflict itself (n = 256). Suicides among active-duty soldiers in the US Army reached a 28-year high in 2008, continuing a 4-year trend that has persisted despite ongoing military efforts to curb such deaths. Approximately two-thirds of the 446 soldiers who have committed suicide since 2005 have done so during deployment or after returning from deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. In addition to experiencing elevated rates of suicide, nonfatal suicide attempts and suicidal ideation occur at high rates among veterans. Among a large national sample of patients seeking substance abuse treatment at the US Veterans’ Administration Hospitals, 4% reported a nonfatal suicide attempt in the past month. Studies have consistently demonstrated that there is an increased risk of accidental death in military populations exposed to war and trauma. Many of the accidental deaths occurring in war veterans may actually be suicidal deaths. Many war veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression or both disorders. The majority of US soldiers in Iraq were exposed to some kind of traumatic, combat-related situations, such as being attacked or ambushed (92%), seeing dead bodies (94.5%), being shot at (95%) and/or knowing someone who was seriously injured or killed (86.5%). Repeated deployments are difficult for many service members. In 2006, a US government team collected data from surveys and qualitative interviews from more than 1300 soldiers and nearly 450 marines. Soldiers deployed several times to Iraq were more likely to fulfill criteria for acute stress, PTSD, depression or any mental disorder than those who were deployed once. Soldiers deployed several times were 1.6-times more likely to screen positive for PTSD than those who were deployed once and were 1.7-times more likely to have depression. Importantly, no specific cut-off for duration of deployment eliminated the risk. Suicidal behavior among war veterans may frequently be related to depression and/or PTSD. The risk of suicide attempts among the PTSD population is six-times greater than in the general population and even higher among treatment-seeking war veterans with PTSD. In one study, veterans were assessed for suicidal thinking and behavior, as well as symptoms of PTSD and depression. Thoughts of ending one’s life and a previous suicide attempt were significantly correlated with a diagnosis of PTSD. Veterans with a diagnosis of PTSD and major depressive disorder (MDD) or dysthymia were also more likely to report suicidal thinking and behaviors than veterans with only one of the diagnoses. The percentage of veterans who die from combat-related injuries is decreasing over time (22% in World War II to 16% in Vietnam to 8.8% in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan), suggesting that there is now a larger proportion of veterans living with the effects of their injuries. Veterans who have activity limitations are more likely to die by suicide than veterans who do not have such limitations. Language: en

Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War (review)

Reviewed by: Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War Susan L. Zeiger Mobilizing Minerva: American Women in the First World War. By Kimberly Jensen. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2008. ISBN 978-0-252-03237-0. Photographs. Table. Figures. Notes. Bibliography. Index. Pp. xvii, 244. $30.00. Kimberly Jensen's study of women in the First World War is a valuable contribution to the expanding scholarship on the American social and military history of that conflict. Jensen traces the wartime strategies and activities of three groups of U.S. women—female physicians, military nurses, and "women-at-arms" (i.e. women in rifle clubs and civil defense groups). These women sought a place (or in the case of nurses, an expanded one) in the military effort of their nation, and simultaneously laid a claim to "fuller female citizenship" (p. xi). Most original is Jensen's richly documented and lively discussion of the women who inserted themselves into the home defense campaign with rifles loaded, an analysis that goes far beyond any previous treatment of women and preparedness in the United States. Stories of Russia's all-female "Battalion of Death"—a topic covered extensively in the suffrage press—inspired riflewomen to volunteer their service to the state. During the war, thousands of American women joined gun and rifle clubs or formed their own. Gun manufacturers applauded their efforts, seeing a new market in female consumers. But most Americans were horrified. The specter of women defending their country with firearms subverted the traditional gender convention of men as Protectors and women as the Protected. Furthermore, women at arms were capable of protecting themselves; "women joined gun clubs and defense groups so that they would not be in the same situation as the women in Belgium and northern France, unprotected and vulnerable to rape and assault" (p. 59). Their actions thus called attention to violence against women, both on the war front and domestically. As Jensen perceptively notes, the disruption of gender norms embedded in women's armed defense was particularly disturbing at a moment in time when middle-class Americans felt acutely vulnerable to left-wing and labor violence. Jensen's analysis of women-at-arms establishes the central, and in some ways surprising, argument of her book: that the wartime activities of the three groups comprised an "anti-violence movement." But this claim elides the many ways that the women's actions were also, paradoxically, constitutive of violence. This can be seen in the case of female physicians. Barred from war service by the U.S. government—a professional access they sought with vigor—many female physicians volunteered for all-female medical units sponsored by woman suffrage and women's medical societies. The women's hospitals rendered extraordinary service overseas, caring for French soldiers, but also providing community and public healthcare to civilian populations, including internal refugees. The primary care that they offered to these vulnerable civilian populations encompassed gynecological and obstetrical services, a strikingly different conception of war zone medicine. Yet Jensen's broad claim—that women's activities and institutions challenged militarism itself—is problematic. Women physicians, it is true, denounced the rape, violence, and dislocation that war wreaked on women and children. But the victims [End Page 977] they spoke of were victims of enemy violence exclusively. When physician Esther Pohl Lovejoy mounted a cross-country speaking tour to raise funds for the women's hospitals, American audiences were riveted by her tales of devastation because they heard them as proof of "German frightfulness" (p. 103). In this sense, then, the wartime work of female physicians reinforced rather than undermined the militarist ideology that sustained the war, unintentionally providing fuel for superpatriotic fires. There was a quality of the crusade about the allied cause in World War I, and as British historians such as Nicoletta Gullace have shown, women were not immune to the appeal of hypernationalism. The women in Jensen's study, it would seem, had a complex relationship to military violence, encompassing abhorrence but also fascination and imitation. It is difficult to make the case, as Jensen tries to do, that their wartime strategies and activities constituted a fundamental critique of militarism. Such...

Afghanistan and multiculturalism in Khaled Hosseini's novels: study of place and diversity

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to frame Khaled Hosseini's novels, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, as literature to expand and enhance the American secondary curriculum with multicultural themes based on Afghanistan as a geographical and cultural place in a dynamic, diverse, and complex world more mediated than ever before by computer technologies.Design/methodology/approachThe methodological approach to the study is a synthesis of geographic education grounded in the concept of place and diversity pedagogy.FindingsKhaled Hosseini's web site has become the cyber place where hundreds of readers from around the world come to express their deep emotional reactions to The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. At the same time, that so many diverse international readers are responding favorably to Hosseini's novels, his works are being censored in classrooms in the USA. The research outlines geographical and cultural geographic features of Afghanistan – a place torn by military efforts of several nations. In the context of diversity pedagogy, the power of the novels portrays “difference,” yet humanity in need of understanding. Further attention is given to the censorship of ideas in American education, with Hosseini's books as one example.Originality/valueThis paper frames Hosseini's novels as place‐based literature illustrating the homeland of Afghanistan now more accessible than ever before to international and US classrooms.