Matching Items (13)
Description
Students Organize for Syria (SOS) is the student led initiative for Syria. With 18 registered chapters across the United States, this student organization is targeting a multidimensional cause by different means. Though it is now a national movement, it started off with one group at Arizona State University, with one student. Zana Alattar, founder and student director of SOS, tells the story of how she took an ASU organization, Save Our Syrian Freedom (SOS Freedom), to the national level as SOS. As a pre-medical student, she also combines her work in human rights with her future in healthcare. After all, health and human rights have long maintained a synergistic relationship.
ContributorsAlattar, Zana (Author) / Graff, Sarah (Thesis director) / McClurg, Sharolyn (Committee member) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / School of Life Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
The purpose of this research is to identify the factors contributing the resiliency of Syria's President Assad amongst a backdrop of falling authoritarians during the Arab Spring. After determining the Assad's regime's strategies of authoritarian rule both before and after the 2011 uprisings, this paper theorizes what Assad's persistence is most dependent on today by analyzing his discourse throughout the conflict. Assad's framing of the war to the media has significantly legitimized his rule.
ContributorsKassab, Seema (Author) / Parmentier, Mary Jane (Thesis director) / Simon, Sheldon (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Economics (Contributor) / W. P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor) / Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law (Contributor)
Created2015-05
Description
This paper examines the Syrian Civil War using seven different civil war settlement theories in order to assess the likelihood of a negotiated settlement ending the conflict. The costs of war, balance of power, domestic political institutions, ethnic identity, divisibility of stakes, veto player, and credible commitment theories were used in a multi-perspective analysis of the Syrian Civil War and the possibility of a peace settlement. It was found that all of the theories except for costs of war and balance of power predict that a negotiated settlement is unlikely to resolve the conflict. Although the Syrian government and the Syrian National Coalition are currently engaged in diplomatic negotiations through the Geneva II conference, both sides are unwilling to compromise on the underlying grievances driving the conflict. This paper ultimately highlights some of the problems inhibiting a negotiated settlement in the Syrian Civil War. These obstacles include: rival ethno-religious identities of combatants, lack of democratic institutions in Syria, indivisibility of stakes in which combatants are fighting for, number of veto player combatant groups active in Syria, and the lack of a credible third party to monitor and enforce a peace settlement.
ContributorsRidout, Scott Jeffries (Author) / Grossman, Gary (Thesis director) / Siroky, David (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
This research focused on the extent to which Syria's Muslim Brotherhood and Syrian Islamic Front have managed to acquire political legitimacy within a society that has historically remained under the control of either a foreign occupier or an oppressive regime. In addition, the added instability caused by the various ethnic/religious allegiances, external forces and a long-standing tradition of inhibiting a civil society have caused their legitimacy within the society to fluctuate dramatically. As a result the Islamic opposition parties in Syria have undergone a variety of ideological and organizational changes in an attempt to acquire a firm support base from Syria's varied population. Therefore, this thesis looked at each Islamic party's ability to obtain support from a wide spectrum of the Syrian populace, starting from their introduction into the political theatre, up until the onset of the Syrian Civil War.
ContributorsDeLintt, Jesus Gabriel (Author) / Lattouf, Mirna (Thesis director) / Ali, Souad (Committee member) / Gallab, Abdullahi (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor)
Created2014-05
Description
I argue that the relationship between the United States and Israel has harmed the United States, the Palestinians, and the rest of the Middle East. For the United States section, I support this argument by discussing the corruption of AIPAC, national debt, anti-American sentiment in the Middle East, NSA spying and surveillance and the effects of the Iraq War. For the Palestinian section, I support this argument by discussing how the war crimes committed against the Palestinians are done with weapons supplied to Israel by the United States. Lastly, I go over how the rest of the Middle East is harmed by this by discussing how the Iraq War has affected the Iraqis there and how the Libyan regime change affected the people in Libya.
ContributorsPappusetti, Vamsi Krishna (Author) / Niebuhr, Robert (Thesis director) / Ahmad, Omaya (Committee member) / Rothenberg, Daniel (Committee member) / School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / School of Social Transformation (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Though information warfare has been around for centuries, the advent of the Information Age has made this type of warfare increasingly utilized by both state and non-state actors to varying effects in conflicts across the world. Technological advances have ignited increases in computing power, information computerization, the proliferation of powerful information technology, and communication speeds. This study investigates Russian information warfare doctrine- specifically, the tactics employed in information warfare campaigns and the effects of such campaigns. The Russian hybrid warfare campaigns in Ukraine and Syria will serve as the focal case studies. I argue that Russian information warfare doctrine is inelastic, in that the core tactics used do not change in different conflicts. This study will dissect Russian information warfare principles, provide an overview of the Russian political objectives in both battlespaces, analyze the effectiveness of information warfare tactics when applied in two different engagement spheres, and will explore the reasons why the same tactics had different effects. The study finds that doctrinally identical information warfare tactics were used in both Ukraine and Syria. To provide further significance, the study discusses the policy implications that static Russian information warfare doctrine has regarding the future of information warfare in conflict.
ContributorsTran, Justin Namchuong (Author) / Rothenberg, Daniel (Thesis director) / Pagel, Bruce (Committee member) / School of Politics and Global Studies (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
Description
Unmanned aerial vehicles have received increased attention in the last decade due to their versatility, as well as the availability of inexpensive sensors (e.g. GPS, IMU) for their navigation and control. Multirotor vehicles, specifically quadrotors, have formed a fast growing field in robotics, with the range of applications spanning from surveil- lance and reconnaissance to agriculture and large area mapping. Although in most applications single quadrotors are used, there is an increasing interest in architectures controlling multiple quadrotors executing a collaborative task. This thesis introduces a new concept of control involving more than one quadrotors, according to which two quadrotors can be physically coupled in mid-flight. This concept equips the quadro- tors with new capabilities, e.g. increased payload or pursuit and capturing of other quadrotors. A comprehensive simulation of the approach is built to simulate coupled quadrotors. The dynamics and modeling of the coupled system is presented together with a discussion regarding the coupling mechanism, impact modeling and additional considerations that have been investigated. Simulation results are presented for cases of static coupling as well as enemy quadrotor pursuit and capture, together with an analysis of control methodology and gain tuning. Practical implementations are introduced as results show the feasibility of this design.
ContributorsLarsson, Daniel (Author) / Artemiadis, Panagiotis (Thesis advisor) / Marvi, Hamidreza (Committee member) / Berman, Spring (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
In this thesis, I conduct a preliminary analysis of the Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham's travel manual-cum-propaganda ebook Hijrah to the Islamic State, which has been used by people from various parts of the world attempting to enter Syria and join the terrorist organization. Using techniques from discourse and propaganda analysis I examine how the author of the text uses discursive resources to construct the reader of the text, the author's expectations for the reader, and the act of traveling to Syria. I then use news articles from varying organizations as well as the Islamic State-produced periodical magazine Dabiq to locate the document within the context of Islamic State affairs and propaganda. Subsequently, I show that the use of discursive resources is consistent with the ethos espoused in Dabiq, and in addition to serving as a guide to entering Syria Hijrah to the Islamic State is also a soft introduction into the radical belief systems of the terrorist group itself.
ContributorsDelmonico, Edward Peter (Author) / Prior, Matthew (Thesis director) / Adams, Karen (Committee member) / Department of English (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
Throughout history composers have used music to depict their perception of the
refugee experience. This project expands upon this idea through the commission and
recording of four new works for saxophone. The compositions are Different Arks for solo
alto saxophone by John Secunde, Rubble/Resolve for alto saxophone and piano by Jared
Yackiw, Emerging Light for soprano saxophone and vibraphone by Alan Hankers, and
Unam aeternam for solo alto saxophone and stereo playback by Ashlee Busch. For each
work, this project provides performance guides, biographical contexts, program notes,
and recordings. I hope to encourage artists to discover and facilitate creative ways to
draw attention to migration around the world and contribute to the fight against racism
and xenophobia.
refugee experience. This project expands upon this idea through the commission and
recording of four new works for saxophone. The compositions are Different Arks for solo
alto saxophone by John Secunde, Rubble/Resolve for alto saxophone and piano by Jared
Yackiw, Emerging Light for soprano saxophone and vibraphone by Alan Hankers, and
Unam aeternam for solo alto saxophone and stereo playback by Ashlee Busch. For each
work, this project provides performance guides, biographical contexts, program notes,
and recordings. I hope to encourage artists to discover and facilitate creative ways to
draw attention to migration around the world and contribute to the fight against racism
and xenophobia.
ContributorsSacco, Christopher (Author) / Creviston, Christopher (Thesis advisor) / Feisst, Sabine (Committee member) / Micklich, Albie (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
There has been a vast increase in applications of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) in civilian domains. To operate in the civilian airspace, a UAV must be able to sense and avoid both static and moving obstacles for flight safety. While indoor and low-altitude environments are mainly occupied by static obstacles, risks in space of higher altitude primarily come from moving obstacles such as other aircraft or flying vehicles in the airspace. Therefore, the ability to avoid moving obstacles becomes a necessity
for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
Towards enabling a UAV to autonomously sense and avoid moving obstacles, this thesis makes the following contributions. Initially, an image-based reactive motion planner is developed for a quadrotor to avoid a fast approaching obstacle. Furthermore, A Dubin’s curve based geometry method is developed as a global path planner for a fixed-wing UAV to avoid collisions with aircraft. The image-based method is unable to produce an optimal path and the geometry method uses a simplified UAV model. To compensate
these two disadvantages, a series of algorithms built upon the Closed-Loop Rapid Exploratory Random Tree are developed as global path planners to generate collision avoidance paths in real time. The algorithms are validated in Software-In-the-Loop (SITL) and Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulations using a fixed-wing UAV model and in real flight experiments using quadrotors. It is observed that the algorithm enables a UAV to avoid moving obstacles approaching to it with different directions and speeds.
for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.
Towards enabling a UAV to autonomously sense and avoid moving obstacles, this thesis makes the following contributions. Initially, an image-based reactive motion planner is developed for a quadrotor to avoid a fast approaching obstacle. Furthermore, A Dubin’s curve based geometry method is developed as a global path planner for a fixed-wing UAV to avoid collisions with aircraft. The image-based method is unable to produce an optimal path and the geometry method uses a simplified UAV model. To compensate
these two disadvantages, a series of algorithms built upon the Closed-Loop Rapid Exploratory Random Tree are developed as global path planners to generate collision avoidance paths in real time. The algorithms are validated in Software-In-the-Loop (SITL) and Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulations using a fixed-wing UAV model and in real flight experiments using quadrotors. It is observed that the algorithm enables a UAV to avoid moving obstacles approaching to it with different directions and speeds.
ContributorsLin, Yucong (Author) / Saripalli, Srikanth (Thesis advisor) / Scowen, Paul (Committee member) / Fainekos, Georgios (Committee member) / Thangavelautham, Jekanthan (Committee member) / Youngbull, Cody (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015