Spartan Daily, March 6, 2003

Volume 120, Issue 30https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/9826/thumbnail.jp

Strategic development of the built environment through international construction, quality and productivity management

This thesis presents a coherent, sustained and substantial contribution to the advancement of knowledge or application of knowledge or both in the field of construction management and economics. More specifically, this thesis outlines the strategic development of the built environment through lessons from international construction, quality and productivity management. The strategic role of construction in economic development is emphasized. It describes the contributions transnational construction firms made towards modern-day construction project management practices globally. It establishes the relationship between construction quality and economic development and fosters a better understanding of total quality management and quality management systems in enhancing construction industry performance. Additionally, it prescribes lessons from the manufacturing industry for construction productivity and identifies the amount of carbon emissions reduced through lean construction management practices to alleviate the generally adverse effects of the built environment on global climate change. It highlights the need for integrated management systems to enhance quality and productivity for sustainable development in the built environment. The thesis is an account of how the built environment has evolved, leveraging on lessons from international construction, quality and productivity management for improvements over the past two decades

Regime change in the Aegean after the Second World War: Reconsidering the foreign influence

According to the conventional view held by the Greek sources, the United States was involved in the establishment of the 1967 Greek junta and helped sustain it. Similarly, the existing literature on the 1950 Turkish transition to democracy holds that one of the determinants of democratization was the desire to become part of the Western alliance. Thus, quite ironically, the new world order set out by the US at the end of the Second World War is seen as the cause of diametrically opposite regimes in two neighboring countries belonging to the same alliance. Whereas in Greece it is seen responsible from an authoritarian regime, in Turkey it is believed to be the cause of democracy.What was then the real effect of US foreign policy in Greek and Turkish regimes? In my paper, I will argue that the main dynamic behind these regimes was domestic, rather than international. In the Turkish case, the democratic regime was demanded by a group of elites, who had been threatened by the policies of the single party regime during the war. In the Greek case, the military staged a coup in order to prevent what it believed was a leftist threat coming from in fact a center party.However, a closer study of historical data reveals that the new world order played an indirect role in the establishment of the Greek and Turkish regimes. In the Turkish case, the collapse of the fascist regimes after the war and the Turkish foreign policy of allying with the West legitimized the demands and strengthened the hands of the Turkish elites who favored democracy. In the Greek case, the perception of communist threat, shared by the Western bloc, bred the exaggerated fear the colonels felt from the center party. In addition, American military aid during the Cold War increased the strength of the Greek armed forces relative to other forces in society. This power imbalance gave the colonels the capability to take over the government and suppress the opposing (and weaker) societal forces and elites. In conclusion, I argue that we must focus first on the domestic dynamics and then on the indirect role American foreign policy played after the Second World War. In this way, we are able to explain both the paradox the two Aegean countries provide and gain a new understanding of how foreign influence has affected Greece and Turkey after the war

Spartan Daily, February 8, 1977

Volume 68, Issue 5https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/6159/thumbnail.jp

Technology and the Great War

Review of Tim Travers, How the War Was Won: Command and Technology in the British Army on the Western Front, 1917-1918. London: Routledg

Third-Party and Independent Presidential Candidates: The Need for a Runoff Mechanism

Consider what 2016 might have looked like if this better electoral system had been in place. Bloomberg then could have entered the race without risking being a spoiler. In a three-way race—Bloomberg, Clinton, and Trump—Bloomberg might have fizzled out, leaving a two-way race between Clinton and Trump. Since that is essentially how the election ended up anyway, the country would have been no worse off for having had a chance to consider Bloomberg as an alternative. But suppose, however, with Trump’s candidacy spinning out of control in a series of unacceptable comments (as it appeared to do in early August),11 the American electorate might have preferred a head-to-head matchup between Bloomberg and Clinton, rather than one between Trump and Clinton. Maybe Clinton would have beaten Bloomberg in that head-to-head matchup. That is fine; that is a democratic choice reflecting the preference of the electorate. But maybe Bloomberg would have beaten Clinton. We will never know, because the actual system in place was not designed to enable the American electorate to have that choice. In this respect, the existing system is deficient. It deprives the American electorate of an option it should have. The purpose of this Article is to offer a repair for this deficiency

Spartan Daily, March 30, 1982

Volume 78, Issue 37https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/6880/thumbnail.jp

Spartan Daily, March 30, 1982

Volume 78, Issue 37https://scholarworks.sjsu.edu/spartandaily/6880/thumbnail.jp

What if the South had Won the Civil War? 4 Sci-Fi Scenarios for HBO\u27s \u27Confederate\u27

“What if” has always been the favorite game of Civil War historians. Now, thanks to David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — the team that created HBO’s insanely popular Game of Thrones — it looks as though we’ll get a chance to see that “what if” on screen. Their new project, Confederate, proposes an alternate America in which the secession of the Southern Confederacy in 1861 actually succeeds. It is a place where slavery is legal and pervasive, and where a new civil war is brewing between the divided sections. (excerpt