Marine Corps University

PurposeResearchers piloted a problem-based learning (PBL) activity in a master’s degree-granting strategic studies program to explore how students apply knowledge and skills learned from the curriculum to their formulation of a strategy addressing a real-world global security scenario.Design/methodology/approachThis mixed-methods pilot study used ethnographic observation, participant feedback, document analysis and surveys to assess the learning and engagement of multinational postgraduate students in the context of a PBL environment.FindingsFindings revealed gaps in students’ causal logic and literacy, as well as student discomfort with ambiguity and reliance upon heuristic frameworks over willingness to conduct substantive, current and relevant research. Additionally, observed group dynamics represented a lack of inclusive collaboration in mixed gender and multinational teams. These findings suggest foundational issues with the curriculum, teaching methodologies and evaluation practices of the studied institution.Originality/valueThis study highlights the need to include explicit instruction in problem-solving and causal literacy (i.e. logical reasoning) in postgraduate programs for national and global security professionals, as well as authentic opportunities for those students to practice interpersonal communication.

Les intérêts stratégiques américains ont toujours occupé une place cruciale dans l’évolution des rapports de force au Moyen-Orient et plus généralement dans la grande périphérie sud de l’Europe. Les atouts stratégiques de cette région – réserves d’hydrocarbures ; position stratégique reliant l’Europe, l’Asie et l’Afrique ; contrôle des routes maritimes – ont toujours suscité une attention particulière à Washington, justifiant le soutien multiforme apporté à un certain nombre d’alliés dans cette région. Jusqu’aux années 1970, l’engagement régional américain se décline sur trois lignes d’efforts : diplomatique, défense et développement (3D approach), organisés autour de 2 points d’appui : Israël et le Golfe persique. Le renversement du Shah et l’invasion de l’Afghanistan par les Soviétiques changent la donne. L’apparition de mouvances armées, adoptant des modes opératoires terroristes et se réclamant d’interprétations radicales de l’islam, donne désormais la priorité aux opérations de contre-terrorisme. L’Afrique du Nord est progressivement intégrée à la stratégie régionale américaine. La « sécuritisation » des politiques d’assistance et des alliances s’accélère avec le 11 septembre. La lutte contre les organisations terroristes internationales devient l’axe structurant de l’engagement américain dans une région « Sud » dont la géographie épouse les contours de l’évolution des organisations terroristes internationales.

This article examines the strategic challenges faced by Admirals Elmo Zumwalt and James Holloway as chiefs of naval operations in the 1970s. Zumwalt’s charter was to reform the U.S. Navy, but it included a charge to address Navy strategy in the face of a growing Soviet maritime threat. He succeeded, but his successor, Admiral Holloway, who is less known, provided much needed stability for the fleet in the wake of Zumwalt’s reforms. Holloway continued to refine the ideas of Zumwalt and Admiral Stansfield Turner that eventually became the maritime strategy of the 1980s. The challenges they overcame provide insights for similar challenges today.

Seapower has come to cyberspace as a measure of the so-called greatest transfer of wealth in history given the efforts of China and other states to steal intellectual property online. But the first greatest transfer of wealth comprised Europe’s rise to prominence post-1500 ACE. What historians call the “rise of the West” came to fruition with a forfeiture of the ideological promise of sharing the benefits of Western civilization worldwide. Cyberspace promises to align both threads of the new naval power, economic gain, and ideological conviction, a novel change in the history of conflict at sea all made possible by the technical marvel of cyberspace.

At the culmination of the Second World War, the Marines of the III Amphibious Corps (III AC) were preparing to assault the Japanese homeland. With the abrupt conclusion of hostilities in September 1945, they were ordered instead to war-ravaged North China. The mission in North China was amorphous—protecting infrastructure and key terrain during the reemergent Chinese Civil War. As Marines labored to resist the expansion of their mission, the lifting of wartime censorship protocols enabled them to voice concern to their families and Congress. Mothers and citizen groups also challenged the young Harry S. Truman administration on the merits and morality of the North China intervention. Set at the dawn of the Cold War, this article investigates the role of unlikely political actors—Marines and mothers—in shaping American policy in North China from 1945 to 1946. Combating narratives of inevitable quagmire, the Marines in North China are examined as important agents in the restraint of American power at contingent moments. This piece argues that the Truman administration failed to make an affirmative case for intervention and was, in part, constrained by popular opinion.

Extra-relational sexual involvement is generally a taboo topic, with most Americans expecting their partners to remain faithful and monogamous in their relationship. However, while some couples exhibit traditional, monogamous relationships, other couples engage in consensually open arrangements for one or both partners. The spectrum of how relationships manifest make the taboo topic even more complex. This chapter examines episodes of Dr. Esther Perel's podcast Where Should We Begin? wherein couples seek therapy to discuss their primary romantic relationships after non-monogamy. Using relational dialectics theory, themes were identified through open-coding episode transcripts. Prominent among those codes were identification of relational needs, primary dialectical tensions, and fetishes within the relationships. The communicative practices of couples who experience non-monogamy as a result of open relationships as compared to those who experience affairs are explored throughout the themes.

ABSTRACT Portugal, in an attempt to retain its colonial possession of Guiné, fought a war there between 1961 and 1974. The opposition nationalist movement, known by its acronym PAIGC, sought to establish “liberated zones” within the difficult terrain of the more remote regions of the colony and service these from its immediate neighbour Guinea-Conakry, which had given it sanctuary. The PAIGC hosted its aid donors on carefully staged visits to these zones in an attempt to provide a picture of success in its “people's war.” The Swedish government, its primary non-military donor, decided to create a propaganda film featuring “heroic PAIGC freedom fighters” in action in one of these zones. This is the story of a well-intentioned yet naïve Swedish government effort at film-making and its largely misplaced aid in the face of the serious Portuguese air threat to PAIGC liberated zones.

This study exploits changes in paid maternity leave offered by one of the United States' largest employers, the Department of Defense, to estimate the effect of such policies on mothers' leave-taking. Since 2015, the U.S. Marine Corps has shifted its maternity leave policy from 6 to 18 to 12 weeks. Leave expansions increased leave duration, whereas contractions decreased leave taken by active-duty service members. However, the policy changes crowded out other forms of leave: with an increase in maternity leave available, mothers increased use of maternity leave and stopped supplementing with additional annual leave. Although all mothers used the full 6 weeks of leave in the early period, it is the less advantaged mothers-those in the enlisted ranks, first-time mothers, and single mothers-who disproportionately used more of the additional leave than officers, experienced mothers, and married mothers. Pregnant officers, experienced mothers, and single women used less leave than nonpregnant women in the months leading up to birth, but expecting additional post-birth leave did not change average pre-birth leave-taking. Our results highlight the importance of optimally sizing family leave policies and provide evidence that the true cost of such programs may be lower than the raw count of weeks provided by additional maternity leave allowances.