Winning Hearts and Minds: Population-centric Counterinsurgency in the North Caucasus Federal District

In International Relations, war and security comprise a large role because it generally affects multiple countries. The insurgency in the North Caucasus Federal District is not only a threat to stability in the region or the Russian Federation, but to international peace and security as a whole. The Caucasus Emirate terrorist organization has declared jihad against the Russian government and any country or individual which they consider wages war against “Muslims”. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian government has implemented an enemy-centric strategy to neutralize insurgent numbers without addressing the root causes of instability in the region such as weak governance, corruption, lack of identity, economic stagnation, and military abuses. In 2010, the Russian government created the North Caucasus Federal District and unveiled a new strategy to counteract the root causes of instability in the region. This thesis analyzes to what extent the Russian government is implementing a population-centric counterinsurgency strategy to bring stability to the North Caucasus Federal District since the new strategy took effect to the end of the year 2012. Population-centric counterinsurgency is a strategy implemented by a government to win the “hearts and minds”, meaning the support of the target population to create an environment of support for the counterinsurgent, whereby support for an insurgency decreases and long-term stability is achieved through nation-building, encompassing the strengthening and maintenance of all forms of national power: the political, informational, military, and economic elements. In this thesis it is framed into three Logical Lines of Operation (LLOs): governance, economic development/essential services, and combat/civil security operations based upon the United States Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual No. 3-24. I also address the Russian government’s information campaign to enable stability since psychological warfare comprises a large part of population-centric counterinsurgency. Using ethnography as my method, I travelled to the North Caucasus Federal District for three weeks in the North Caucasus Federal District to observe the implementation of the government’s strategy under the framework of the three LLOs plus information campaign as well as conduct interviews with six Russian citizens: five in the North Caucasus Federal District and one from outside the region, regarding their thoughts on what the government’s strategy in the region. I have also read over 350 articles, news and government reports on the conflict and government’s strategy, some of which I use in this thesis to support or question my findings. One can conclude from this thesis that the Russian government, although still suffering to reform, is making considerable effort to solve the instability in the North Caucasus Federal District through economic development and a country-wide information campaign while still largely failing to gain the trust of the regional population due to gross levels of corruption, a closed political process for the people to decide their future, and continual abuses by military and security personnel who are still determined to solve the instability through violence. I have concluded that the Russian government implements a population-centric counterinsurgency strategy in terms of its information campaign and economic development, fails in terms of governance and drastically fails in combat/civil security operations. Keywords: Caucasus Emirate, Chechnya, Counterinsurgency, Dagestan, Hearts and Minds, Ingushetia, International Relations, Jihad, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Caucasus, North Caucasus Federal District, North Ossetia, Population-centric Counterinsurgency, Russi

Sustainable Futures for Linden Village: A Model for Increasing Social Capital and the Quality of Life in an Urban Neighborhood

IMPACT. 1: The OSU project team, community partners and involved students have worked to enhance local revitalization efforts by providing technical assistance to the community and increasing the awareness, knowledge, and skills of local community residents, teachers/students, and organizations in sustainable community and housing development. -- 2. This project is innovative in that it integrates larger scale healthy community and green infrastructure planning, GIS mapping for urban opportunity, and micro-scale green home renovation and new construction.OSU PARTNERS: Landscape Architecture; City and Regional Planning; Food, Agricultural and Biological Engineering; College of Engineering; College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental SciencesCOMMUNITY PARTNERS: Greater Linden Development Corporation; The Columbus Foundation; Ohio Environmental Protection Agency; City of Columbus Department of Development Planning Division; Habitat for Humanity; SIMCO-ConstructionPRIMARY CONTACT: Jesus J. Lara ([email protected]); Victoria Chen ([email protected]); Charisma Acey ([email protected])The "Sustainable Futures for Linden Village" project is a partnership between OSU faculty in the Colleges of Engineering, Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and the Greater Linden Development Corporation (GLDC). It closely relates to a comprehensive local redevelopment initiative, designed to revitalize and improve a target urban area surrounding the Linden McKinley STEM Academy. This initiative integrates urban revitalization, home rehabilitation, energy retrofit, repair and maintenance with sustainable development goals

Characteristics of Hospitalized Children With a Diagnosis of Malnutrition

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141004/1/jpen0623-sup-0001.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141004/2/jpen0623.pd

Are Kenyan water customers willing to pay a pro-poor sanitation surcharge?

The Kenyan government estimates that 500 billion KES ($5 billion USD) are needed to achieve sanitation coverage targets in urban areas by 2030. To finance these infrastructure improvements, the Ministry of Environment, Water, and Natural Resources is looking at various financing options, including private sector participation, foreign aid, and cross-subsidies. Using a double-bound dichotomous choice method coupled with qualitative interviews, this study investigated willingness to pay for a pro-poor sanitation surcharge among customers of two Kenyan water utilities. 75$1 USD) per month. The primary determinants of willingness to pay were trust in the water utility to manage the pro-poor surcharge, feelings of solidarity towards people living without sanitation, and satisfaction with current water services

Plot by plot: plotting urbanism as an ordinary process of urbanization

With this paper, we analyse an ordinary urban process, which has received little attention so far and propose a new concept to take account of it: plotting urbanism. It is usually subsumed under terms like “urban informality” or “incremental urbanism” and not studied as a distinct process. In comparing Lagos, Istanbul and Shenzhen we captured four defining features of plotting urbanism: first, it unfolds in a piecemeal fashion with limited comprehensive planning. Second, it emerges from conflicts between multiple overlapping modes of territorial regulation, land tenure and property rights, which result in specific territorial compromises. Third, plotting is based on commodification of housing and land, which might accentuate socio-economic differentiations between property-owners, who often live in the same area, and their tenants. The term “plotting” highlights the key role of the plot in the process. It also alludes to strategic acts of collaboration for individual and collaborative benefit

Costs, climate and contamination: Three drivers for city-wide sanitation investment decisions

Significant progress is needed, in both large cities and small towns, to meet the ambitious targets set at international and national levels relating to universal access to safely managed sanitation. There has been increased recognition in the urban sanitation sector that in rapidly growing cities, there is unlikely to be a single centralized sanitation solution which can effectively deliver services to all demographics, and that heterogeneous approaches to urban sanitation are required. At the same time, due to competing investment priorities, there is a greater focus on the need for sanitation investments to address multiple objectives. However, calls for more informed sanitation planning and a more dynamic and disaggregated approach to the delivery and management of sanitation services have had limited impacts. This is in part due to the complexity of the drivers for sanitation investment, and the difficulties involved in identifying and addressing these multiple, often conflicting, goals. This paper examines three potential drivers of citywide sanitation decision-making – public health, sustainability and economic performance – via the three proxies of contamination, climate change and costs. It examines the importance of each driver and proxies, how they are considered in investment decisions, the current state of knowledge about them, and priority aspects to be included in decisions. At present, while public health is a common driver for improving sanitation, there are significant gaps in our understanding of fecal contamination spread and exposure, and how to select sanitation solutions which can best address them. Climate change is sometimes seen as a low priority for the sanitation sector given the immediacy and scale of existing challenges and the uncertainty of future climate predictions. However, potential risks are significant, and uninformed decisions may result in greater costs and increased inequalities. Cost data are sparse and unreliable, and it is challenging to build robust cost-effectiveness analyses. Yet these are needed to compare citywide options based on least-cost over their full life cycle. This paper provides insights into how existing evidence on contamination, climate change and costs can inform decisions on sanitation investments and help chart a sustainable way forward for achieving citywide services

Winning Hearts and Minds: Population-centric Counterinsurgency in the North Caucasus Federal District

In International Relations, war and security comprise a large role because it generally affects multiple countries. The insurgency in the North Caucasus Federal District is not only a threat to stability in the region or the Russian Federation, but to international peace and security as a whole. The Caucasus Emirate terrorist organization has declared jihad against the Russian government and any country or individual which they consider wages war against “Muslims”. Since the fall of the Soviet Union, the Russian government has implemented an enemy-centric strategy to neutralize insurgent numbers without addressing the root causes of instability in the region such as weak governance, corruption, lack of identity, economic stagnation, and military abuses. In 2010, the Russian government created the North Caucasus Federal District and unveiled a new strategy to counteract the root causes of instability in the region. This thesis analyzes to what extent the Russian government is implementing a population-centric counterinsurgency strategy to bring stability to the North Caucasus Federal District since the new strategy took effect to the end of the year 2012. Population-centric counterinsurgency is a strategy implemented by a government to win the “hearts and minds”, meaning the support of the target population to create an environment of support for the counterinsurgent, whereby support for an insurgency decreases and long-term stability is achieved through nation-building, encompassing the strengthening and maintenance of all forms of national power: the political, informational, military, and economic elements. In this thesis it is framed into three Logical Lines of Operation (LLOs): governance, economic development/essential services, and combat/civil security operations based upon the United States Army Counterinsurgency Field Manual No. 3-24. I also address the Russian government’s information campaign to enable stability since psychological warfare comprises a large part of population-centric counterinsurgency. Using ethnography as my method, I travelled to the North Caucasus Federal District for three weeks in the North Caucasus Federal District to observe the implementation of the government’s strategy under the framework of the three LLOs plus information campaign as well as conduct interviews with six Russian citizens: five in the North Caucasus Federal District and one from outside the region, regarding their thoughts on what the government’s strategy in the region. I have also read over 350 articles, news and government reports on the conflict and government’s strategy, some of which I use in this thesis to support or question my findings. One can conclude from this thesis that the Russian government, although still suffering to reform, is making considerable effort to solve the instability in the North Caucasus Federal District through economic development and a country-wide information campaign while still largely failing to gain the trust of the regional population due to gross levels of corruption, a closed political process for the people to decide their future, and continual abuses by military and security personnel who are still determined to solve the instability through violence. I have concluded that the Russian government implements a population-centric counterinsurgency strategy in terms of its information campaign and economic development, fails in terms of governance and drastically fails in combat/civil security operations. Keywords: Caucasus Emirate, Chechnya, Counterinsurgency, Dagestan, Hearts and Minds, Ingushetia, International Relations, Jihad, Kabardino-Balkaria, North Caucasus, North Caucasus Federal District, North Ossetia, Population-centric Counterinsurgency, Russi