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Three Roadblocks on Europe’s Path to Defense Independence
No full textAs the world’s geopolitical elite gather later this week at the Munich Security Conference, many European analysts and policymakers will urge their governments to develop the means to defend themselves in response to the Trump administration’s policies over the past year.
First, there is a rift over values and sovereignty. The 2025 US National Security Strategy warned European allies of “civilizational erasure” as a result of immigration, vowing that the United States would “cultivate resistance” against mainstream political forces in Europe.
Second, President Donald Trump repeatedly demanded control of Greenland, the territory of NATO ally Denmark, and refused to rule out force to do so. After European allies stood by Denmark, Trump finally ruled out force, but he continued to insist that the United States must control Greenland.
Finally, the Trump administration has repeatedly demanded that European allies provide for their own security, with the United States in only a supporting role
Protecting The Water Spirits
No full textIndigenous people throughout the Amazon basin understand themselves to be deeply connected to the more-than-human world. So the pollution of waterways and loss of biodiversity is not just an environmental loss, it’s a loss of spiritual protection and livelihood. Jeremy Larochelle says that indigenous amazonian people honor poets as much as they honor the fishermen. And poets like Juan Carlos Galeans and Ana Varela Tafur are sounding the alarm about the urgent need to save the Amazon by honoring it
Evaluating Partisan Registrations Amid the Electronic Registration Information Center Controversy
No full textElection integrity is paramount to democratic health. The Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC) is a multistate collaboration that facilitates essential election administration functions, whereby members share administrative data to ensure clean voter registration lists and to encourage individuals who are eligible but unregistered (EBUs) to register to vote. Despite ERIC’s primary focus on maintaining the accuracy of voter rolls, in 2022, some conservatives accused it of being a tool for partisan electioneering, prompting nine Republican-led states to leave ERIC. To assess the validity of a central criticism made against ERIC, we leverage field experiments conducted by member states during the 2016 elections in Pennsylvania and Nevada (i.e., two important swing states). We find no empirical evidence to support the claim that outreach to EBUs yielded a partisan advantage: ERIC’s registration efforts had little differential effect on party registration or turnout. This article discusses the importance of efforts to maintain accurate voter rolls and to encourage greater participation for promoting confidence in our democratic system
Elite Perceptions of the US’ Commitment to NATO After Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: “The Direction of Travel Is Clear”
No full textThis article seeks to explore elite perceptions of the US’ commitment to NATO in the leadup to the 2024 election. It presents findings from ninety-two interviews from 2023 and 2024 with policymakers and analysts from six leading NATO allies. Analysis of the interviews demonstrates that only roughly half of interviewees were concerned with the US’ future commitment to NATO. The bulk of the article seeks to make sense of the variety of responses by categorizing them according to five different worldviews. A domestic political worldview provides an explanation for why some elites were concerned with the prospect of Donald Trump’s reelection as president as he campaigned on criticisms of allies who he said “ripped off” the USA. In contrast, a realist worldview helps us make sense of elites who believe that the rise of China will compel the USA to lessen its engagement with Europe
Studies in Groovy Gothic Cinema: Trash, Horror, and the Hemispheric Sixties
No full textIn Studies in Groovy Gothic Cinema, Antonio Barrenechea launches an inquiry into inter-American exploitation cinema-a horror cinema which captured the rise of \u2760s counterculture and youth-oriented lifestyles-as it harnessed the cultural zeitgeist through gratuitous depictions of sex, blood, and music.Despite the genre\u27s cultural impact, Barrenechea argues, its association with vulgar taste, shoestring budgets, and cheap thrills makes it often overlooked in existing cinema history and scholarship. This book places film studies and comparative American studies into a new conversation involving exploitation cinema, targeting an American hemispheric tradition and considering how art and trash intersect in undisciplined ways.https://scholar.umw.edu/elc_books/1003/thumbnail.jp
NATO After Russia\u27s Invasion of Ukraine: Threat Perceptions and Their Consequences
No full textWhen Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, analysts and policymakers highlighted the unifying shock that NATO members experienced. However even before the return of US president Donald Trump, beneath this seeming cohesion lay deep-seated differences in how member states perceive and prioritize security threats. NATO after Russia\u27s Invasion of Ukraine analyzes the six most influential members of the alliance: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Poland, and Italy. Through extensive interviews with current and former policymakers and a detailed examination of public statements and policies, Jason W. Davidson delivers a unique assessment of how divergent threat perceptions influence the NATO allies\u27 major defense decisions, such as defense spending, and whether the alliance addresses each ally\u27s most important threat and its view of NATO\u27s most important challenges. With the rise in tumultuous geopolitical challenges posed by Russia, China, terrorism, mass refugee flows, and nationalism, this book provides the crucial context needed to navigate NATO\u27s evolving role in international security.https://scholar.umw.edu/ps_ia_books/1007/thumbnail.jp
“Yes I Said Yes I Will Yes”: Singular Female Perspectives in As I Lay Dying and Ulysses
Full text linkWilliam Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying and James Joyce’s Ulysses utilize both multiple perspectives, but what they both share is a single chapter granted to a complex maternal figure. With Addie Bundren in As I Lay Dying, her chapter comes in the middle, and she quickly breaks down any notions the family had of her in the first half of the novel, altering the tone and complicating the family’s grief. Conversely, Molly Bloom’s singular chapter in Ulysses are the final words of a novel hundreds of pages in length. Through pure stream of consciousness, she shares the grossest parts of her mind, adding a realistic end to the novel’s affirmation of life. These women are vital parts of their respective stories, deepening their meanings by adding a realistic complexity. They are only given singular chapters, but they stick in the minds of their readers with as much prominence as those given pages upon pages of their voice
Numerical Analysis of the SEIR Model
Full text linkEpidemiological models delineate the spread of diseases within a population. In this research project, the Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Recovered (SEIR) Model was examined numerically for comparison between several methods. Approximations were obtained through Euler’s Method, Taylor’s Method, Runge-Kutta Methods, and Multi-step Methods. Hypothetical situations with parameter alterations were considered in order to better understand the effects the parameters have on the model. The goal of this project was to portray the usefulness of numerical approximations for predicting the behavior of the SEIR model and thus the course of a pandemic
Divine Achilles and his Raging Heart: Cannibalism in the Iliad
Full text linkThe story of the Iliad is one of identity. As Achilles struggles with whom to identify with, his divine mother or mortal father, he is consumed by an overwhelming rage that threatens to overpower him, dragging him down from both divinity and mortality into the very depths of monstrous savagery. This article examines the role that diet, particularly the act of cannibalism, plays in differentiating humans from gods and beasts. By examining Achilles identity struggle through the lens of cannibalism, this article sheds light on the broader ways Greek and Roman authors used cannibalism to express notions of otherness, situating civilized humans on the greater cosmic scale between gods and animals. Organizationally, this article is broken into three key sections: in the first section, this article addresses the ways diet is used to differentiate gods from humans, and the ways humans like Tantalus or Lycaon use cannibalism to challenge the distinctions between them; the second section of this article addresses the ways cannibalism was used to denote otherness, examining the ways historians like Herodotus or Thucydides described foreigners as cannibalistic and uncivilized, focusing on how all these biases and cultural anxieties are manifested in the story of Polyphemus; the final section of the article takes these established facets of literary cannibalism and applies them to Achilles and the other characters of the Iliad, examining how Achilles performs his divinity and how he grows progressively bestial. The article eventually concludes that Achilles’ ultimate rejection of cannibalism signals his acceptance of humanity
Changes in Small Area Flow Accumulation and Watershed Creation in Fredericksburg, Virginia
Full text linkThis study explores the application of watershed analysis tools—including the Flow Accumulation, Flow Direction, and Fill tools—on small-scale areas within the rapidly developing City of Fredericksburg. By applying these GIS tools to high-resolution LiDAR-derived Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), the study examines water flow patterns before and after urban development. Results from two primary study sites demonstrate that, when properly utilized, these tools can effectively delineate small-scale hydrological changes from urban development. However, analysis of a third site reveals challenges associated with DEM cleaning. Particularly, the limitations of the Fill tool, highlighting the need for manual editing and further refinement for small-area studies. Manual editing mitigated the issues present in the third site and allowed for the creation of an updated watershed map. Ultimately, this study highlights the potential of adapting traditional watershed toolkits for local-scale hydrological studies and urban planning, while explaining an error prone step along with an appropriate solution