Letters of Intent, Costly Signals, and Local Peacemaking in the Georgian-Abkhaz Conflict

A state of near-war lasted for almost two decades between Georgia and the separatist region of Abkhazia. Localized violence plagued neighboring communities while United Nations agencies, humanitarian groups, and religious organizations worked with both sides to resolve the conflict’s underlying causes. Unfortunately, those diverse and long-standing efforts proved fruitless when the parties went to war in August 2008. This article examines the reasons for the conflict’s enduring nature and presents an example of grassroots peacemaking completed by university students focused on the plight of Georgia’s domestic refugees. An in-depth case study reveals the impact of their unilateral peacemaking efforts to present costly signals of benign intent

Developing Spiritual Resilience in Airmen: A New Approach to Suicide Prevention in the Air Force

The purpose of this doctoral project is to create a new suicide prevention strategy for the United States Air Force Chaplain Corps that focuses on developing airmen’s character and spiritual resilience life skills within the pluralistic environment of the military. In an effort to address the high number of suicides in the Air Force, military leadership created suicide prevention programs and recruited medical staff who specialize in suicidology. Regrettably, numbers have not lowered. From the perspective of an Air Force chaplain, a key way to reduce suicide numbers is by helping airmen strengthen their character so they can make better choices and develop coping strategies to deal with challenging life circumstances. This project presents a renewed emphasis on character that Air Force leaders can utilize worldwide. This new approach is inclusive of all faith traditions and even those with no religious faith. This fresh approach to suicide prevention takes the form of spiritual resilience and character building workshops called “C3: Character Counts Classes.” This project contains three major sections. Part One describes relevant demographic and contextual information about the Air Force. Part Two covers the literature reviewed in the research for this project and also establishes a solid theological basis for suicide prevention. Primarily, the theological approach for this paper comes from a Wesleyan view, but it also takes into account other faith traditions. Part Three presents the new suicide prevention plan and describes a pilot project that will be conducted. This section identifies goals, content, leadership, and an initial target audience. In the pilot project, chaplains and a variety of trained leaders facilitate the training with thirty to fifty airmen. Once the training and impact are assessed, it is hoped that this initiative will be refined and utilized at other Air Force bases worldwide. Content Reader: Alan T. Baker, Ph

Exploring the Sub-State Intergovernmental Game

Draft: Do not cite without author permissionThe (draft) article of record as published may be found at https://ssrn.com/abstract=3562735Cooperative budgeting arrangements between state and local governments jointly fund local programs. The mix of state and local revenues contributed to these arrangements can change as budget priorities shift over time. This study examines the strategic choices public officials make as they determine their contributions to jointly-funded programs. Using a game theory model known as the “Diner’s Dilemma”, the analysis explores how each level of government considers how much revenue to contribute and whether it can induce its partner to increase their level of support. This analysis applies primarily to local programs with regional externalities. The model illustrates how local efforts to aggressively try to shift costs to the state government can backfire, particularly during periods of state fiscal stress

A New Paradigm for Implementing NOAA’s Low Earth Orbit Architecture

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)Satellite Observing System Architecture (NSOSA) study, conducted from 2014-2018, indicated that disaggregating low earth orbit measurements using smaller satellites and instruments was highly favorable. The first initiative to disaggregate low earth orbit is to more carefully investigate atmospheric temperature and moisture soundings. In 2019 NOAA issued a Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) to seek proposals for sounder instrument and mission concepts. Contracts were awarded to the most relevant studies and are expected to be completed in the fall of 2020. These studies are expected to inform NOAA of new ideas and capabilities that can be quickly inserted into the current constellation. Quick and efficient access to space is becoming a reality which will allow NOAA to demonstrate and develop our expertise in launching more satellites more quickly so we can augment current sounding measurements, such as those occupied by the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES), test new technologies, and eventually transition into the NOAA sounding operational system in the 2030s. In this paper we will discuss this concept and how orbital diversity can be maintained or expanded, new technologies can be improved and inserted quickly into the constellation, and overall program risk can be reduced. Based on this new paradigm, capabilities can be flown on “regularly scheduled” launches which will allow for a more adaptable, resilient, and flexible measurement system that can be expanded to include additional low earth orbit measurements