The sudden increase in crime and violence in some Mexican cities and regions has raised security concerns not only in Mexico, where President Felipe Calderon categorized these crimes as a threat to Mexican society, but also in the United States, where Department of Homeland Secretary head Janet Napolitano referred to stemming the violence as "vital to core U.S. national interests." Mexico is concerned with the latent threat of violence spreading all over the nation, while the U.S. is trying to guard against spillover. Both governments are concerned by the increased violence and its impact on...

The reunification of Germany has raised renewed concerns regarding German national identity and national security. Germany has been a pivotal point for some of the most momentous historical events in Europe for over a century. The reunification of Germany in 1990 has once again created a large and powerful German nation at the center of the continent. Many of the initial reactions to reunification have reflected deep concern and skepticism regarding the power and role of a united Germany. Indications of extremist violence, xenophobia, and increased assertiveness in foreign affairs have fueled...

A significant challenge to the German Military Forces or "Bundeswehr" today is the development of tactics that will enable soldiers, airmen and sailors to be successful in small-scale peacekeeping operations. This book develops an agent-based simulation for modeling peacekeeping operations at the platoon level. The simulation methodology combines agent-based modeling with discrete event simulation in two software packages called Peacekeeping and TryShoot. These software packages are used to model one part of a map exercise, the Kurzlage PRIZREN. The platoon of peacekeeping soldiers utilizes...

This study interprets the political, strategic, and institutional durability of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in the diplomatic revolutions of the past twenty years. In particular, the study seeks to understand the characteristics of statecraft, policy, strategy, and institutional custom and tradition that have allowed NATO as an organization and as a group of democracies to cope with the changes in the international system and the stresses and strains of domestic politics and burden-sharing in the inner workings of the alliance, its allies and partners. This study traces the...

History is full of with examples of innovations that have proved essential to victory in war. Few innovations have provided the consistent and often decisive impact that air power has delivered in conflict. Across its relatively short history, the concept of air power has maintained a resiliency of innovation across the doctrinal, strategic, organizational, and technological levels. However, warfare itself has witnessed significant changes over the course of the last century. No longer is the classical, conventional state-on state conflict the principal method of combating one's enemies. In...

In an effort to maintain peace and stability in the East Asia region, and more specifically on the Korean peninsula, the U.S. faces an enormous challenge. The collapse of the Soviet Union, repeated natural disasters, and gross regime mismanagement of economic and social resources have left thousands of North Koreans starving, while at the same time the DPRK spends exorbitant amounts of money on its military. To maintain both its legitimacy and security, the Pyongyang regime purposely and willfully commits many human right violations against its own citizens. Current U.S. foreign policy toward...

This book examines how the United States uses military assistance to influence the foreign and domestic policies of Egypt, one of the two leading recipients of U.S. security aid. While it is generally believed that arms transfers provide a patron state with influence over a client state's behavior, little evidence has been provided to support this proposition. This research examines influence theory and the difficulties associated with the study of influence. Then it examines how the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and the International Military Education and Training (MET) programs serve as...

This book presents an analysis of United States (U.S.) foreign policy in Egypt during the rule of Hosni Mubarak. It examines the role of U.S. foreign aid and the policy of extraordinary rendition in the perpetuation of Mubarak's authoritarian regime. The research relates the negative externalities associated with these policies to radicalization theory and illustrates how U.S. foreign policy impacts homeland security. Complementary to this discussion, the thesis examines the nature of political Islam in order to challenge the perspective that it is an ideological rival of democracy and to...

The objective of this study is to assess the Muslim Brotherhood's prospects to facilitate a democratic transition within Egypt. Numerous studies have examined the Muslim Brotherhood's political ideology to objectively assess its consistency with democracy. However, to date there has been no comparative subjective study conducted to assess the Muslim Brotherhood's capacity to facilitate democracy within Egypt. This thesis will attempt to fill that gap by subjectively measuring the Muslim Brotherhood's democratic intentions as perceived by other important actors within the Egyptian polity since...

The education system of Egypt has always reflected the type of society and national identity the political leadership wanted to establish. Every time a change in political leadership has occurred, a corresponding shift also occurred in the education policy and its structure. This thesis attempts to determine if another shift in the education system will occur now that the Muslim Brotherhood has gained power in the Egyptian government. This paper establishes many truths about the way the Muslim Brotherhood will precede now that it has significant control over the Egyptian education system....