\u27Are we Doing the Right Thing?\u27 Utilising Security Governance to Reform the US Drone Program

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, for counterterrorism purposes by the United States within its targeted killing program has been deeply controversial. Used in each presidential administration since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, drones have sparked debate, in part due to their contribution to civilian deaths; their killing of high-value terrorist targets including, on at least one occasion, a US citizen; and the heightened secrecy that has surrounded the program with little formal oversight and, as such, little accountability. This thesis uses this contextual framework – with a particular focus on the administration of President Barack Obama (2009-2017) – to examine the notion of security sector governance and its potential application to the use of drones, along with the usefulness (and limits) of domestic policy frameworks to support the better oversight of drones. Answering the question of how security governance could feasibly help to avoid the drone program’s excessive secrecy, improve oversight arrangements, and move towards the greater accountability of the US drone program, the thesis will propose a security governance framework for the improved use of drones. Such a framework could also feasibly be used in other counterterrorism contexts, too. Indeed, the security governance framework – encapsulated by six specific indicators of security governance (civilian control and accountability mechanisms; the rule of law; transparency; respect for human rights; compliance with international law; and public legitimacy) to which policy proposals can be weighed against – is particularly useful in light of the risk drones pose when used by potential future US presidents who challenge democratic norms and standards; by leaders around the world who have capitalised on the proliferation of drones without clear norms and standards in place; and the risk posed by future weapons technologies such as autonomous weapons systems. In short, the thesis will highlight that security governance can indeed provide a means through which to improve the problems associated with the drone program, to varying degrees of effectiveness, and potentially within a broader context than solely the US domestic drone program

The Sense of Existing and its Political Implications: On François Flahault’s ‘General Anthropology'

The radical Conservative Carl Schmitt suggested that ‘one could test all theories of state according to their anthropology and thereby classify these as to whether they consciously or unconsciously presuppose man to be by nature … a dangerous being or not’. But perhaps not all pessimistic images of ‘natural man’ are as readily assignable to a conservative style of thought. Such is the case I suggest with Francois Flahault’s ‘deidealized’ anthropology -- ‘realist’ yet informed by a social-solidarist ethic – which turns on an arresting depiction of human malevolence and its psychological sources. I argue that Flahault’s program might be thought of as contributing to recasting the ethical aspect of realist understandings of political questions. Though not constructed with sovereign statehood in mind, in one respect his moral anthropology echoes the de-sacralized image of the human propounded by the early modern ‘civil-prudential’ sovereignty theorist Samuel Pufendorf, an image which a modern realist ethic of state might do well to incorporate. I show how Flahault uses his moral anthropology to modify the mission of reformist social policy and put a case for seeing his program as a contribution to a civil prudential philosophy of government. Supposing man to be dangerous by nature may not after all be the hallmark of a conservative political stance

Foundation Stones of Prydain: A Web-Based Bridge between Welsh Mythology and Lloyd Alexander\u27s Prydain Chronicles

My career at Utah State University and particularly in the Professional and Technical Writing emphasis in the English Department has shown me a vast spectrum of areas within the field of technical communication. Several of the various types of work within technical communication came together for my final Honors Thesis and Project, including Web design, information architecture, and usability testing. The planning, creation, testing, and analysis of the website Foundation Stones of Prydain (http://cc.usu.edu/~bminson/foundation) constitute the culmination of my work at Utah State University

Musical Growth and Personal Development of Vocal Music Students in the Perry Community High School

45 leave

Master of Science

thesisSignificant progress has been made in recent years advancing microfluidic extraction systems for nucleic acids (NAs). However, much remains to be done in the area of sample preparation as it presents significant challenges and additional steps before nucleic acids can be extracted. These difficulties prompted the design of a versatile, disposable extraction system that was robust enough to handle a wide range of raw biological samples and perform the necessary sample preparation protocols. This design was accomplished through an iterative design process, building on Johnsons's polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) extraction chip [1]. With a primary focus on reducing cost and improving manufacturing time, a new chip was designed and constructed from 3 layers of laminated polycarbonate and a silicone flexible membrane layer. Four features were adapted or redesigned to make the chip fully function: the microvalves, fluid inlet connections, reservoir-pumps and microfilter. Significant design changes were used to make this integration possible. The most notable change involved removing the lower portion of Johnson's PDMS chip[1] and integrating it as a permanent fixture on the pneumatic actuation system. This modification greatly simplified the chip, minimizing cost and manufacturing time while allowing the microvalves and reservoir-pumps to function exactly as before. In addition to designing a new extraction chip, the supporting pneumatic actuation system was redesigned and rebuilt as well. Pneumatic failures in Johnson's pneumatic machine were common, which were caused by an excessive amount of flexible tubing and connectors. To create a more reliable pneumatic machine, a central manifold was constructed with access to the necessary pressure sources. The new system was tested with water for basic fluidic functionality. It successfully demonstrated working valves, reservoir pumps and filter flow. Subsequent testing revealed the successful extraction of DNA from a purified sample. The new extraction system is simpler, easier to use and fabricated in 1/16th of the time and produced for 1/60th of the cost of Johnson's PDMS chip