Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Brigada International'

This research explores developments within the United Nations that have led to the creation of the Forward Intervention Brigade (FIB). It will consider the political, legal, economic, and ethical issues surrounding armed defensive-intervention during humanitarian crises. Topics explored include the effectiveness of armed intervention during crises and ethics concerning the use of arms when intervening for humanitarian or peacemaking purposes. How success and failure is being defined and the current status of the mission will be discussed. The question of the possible costs of non-intervention is raised. This case example is linked to the failure of the UN to effectively respond to the genocide that occurred in Rwanda in 1994 and the subsequent cost of that failure. The development of powers within the UN is considered in terms of the creation of this armed force, as are the ways this may impact the interpretation of international law regarding armed intervention.

This thesis is an examination of the role, experiences and contribution of the volunteers who fought in the British Battalion of the 15 International Brigade, in Spain's civil war of 1936-1939. The study analyses the composition of the British contingent, particularly their social, economic and political background, but also other aspects, such as their age and geographical origin. It examines the motivations of the volunteers, using the wealth of memoir and interview material, to explain why almost two and a half thousand men and women left Britain to fight 'in a far away country.' The volunteers' experiences within Spain are traced, from the 'first few' who fought with the multifarious militia units in the defence of Madrid in the autumn and winter of 1936, to the creation and development of the International Brigades, into which these volunteers and the later arrivals were integrated in early 1937. The role of the volunteers in the battles around Madrid of 1936-1937, and the battles of Aragon in 1937-38, is examined in particular detail. The narrative strand of the thesis concludes with an examination of the brutal experiences of the British captured and imprisoned by the Rebels during the war. Finally, the thesis discusses some of the more contentious issues surrounding the role of the volunteers in the British Battalion in Spain. The organisation of the brigades and the role of the Comintern, and the maintenance of discipline, desertions, and the execution of volunteers are all examined closely. The study concludes that discipline was indeed tough in the International Brigades, particularly as all the members of the battalion were, after all, volunteers. However, it is argued that, in the main, this discipline was driven by military, rather than political necessity, and recent studies have over-played the extent of 'Stalinist' control within the battalion.

Le volontariat international combattant durant la guerre civile espagnole (1936-1939) demeure un sujet particulièrement étudié et régulièrement mobilisé à propos des débats sur les engagements combattants transnationaux contemporains, à la mesure des caractéristiques exceptionnelles adoptées alors par le phénomène et de la multiplicité de ses points de rencontre avec le contexte de la « guerre civile européenne ». Cependant, les fameuses Brigades internationales avaient accaparé l’attention de l’historiographie, dissimulant le phénomène derrière sa principale manifestation. De ce fait, le volontariat international combattant n’avait pas encore été envisagé depuis une perspective globale, comme une séquence singulière d’un phénomène transnational récurrent, dans laquelle les Brigades internationales constituent un objet singulier. Étayée sur un corpus d’archives en grande partie inédit, cette thèse s’attache à mettre en relief le phénomène du volontariat international combattant durant la guerre d’Espagne, en considérant sa dimension majoritaire antifasciste, pro-républicaine. Cette perspective induit par conséquent un exercice de redéfinition et de réinterprétation de la place des Brigades internationales, tant dans les stratégies géopolitiques et culturelles transnationales du mouvement communiste que dans le champ plus large de l’antifascisme du mitan des années trente. Le fil heuristique repose sur trois axes problématiques. Le premier procède par un changement d’échelle dans l’analyse du phénomène, en retournant la perspective habituelle d’histoire sociale qui prend comme postulat les seuls volontaires, pour envisager le phénomène d’un point de vue systémique afin d’en révéler les ressorts ainsi que l’espace qu’il occupe. Le second propose de dégager le phénomène de l’ombre des Brigades internationales pour observer et comparer ses différentes manifestations, permettre d'en révéler la pluralité et les variétés, et interroger leurs rapports et présences entre elles et avec l’événement. Le troisième considère les intentions et destinations politiques ayant déterminé le phénomène, son ampleur, sa périodicité et ses variétés. Ce fil heuristique permet de revoir l’historicité du phénomène comme une séquence d’une histoire longue dont il porte les traces et poursuit l’héritage, tout en soulignant sa dépendance à des logiques partisanes circonstancielles. La thèse est divisée en quatre parties diachroniques, séquencées de manière chronologique. Les deux premières traitent de la période allant de juillet 1936 à septembre 1937. Les deux dernières couvrent la période courant d’octobre 1937 à octobre 1938. Deux parties (la première et la troisième) considèrent le phénomène dans sa globalité tandis que les deux autres (la deuxième et la quatrième) sont entièrement consacrées aux Brigades internationales, dans leurs origines, intentions et situations dans le phénomène. La première partie se présente sous la forme d’une description panoramique et d’un inventaire du phénomène tandis que la seconde observe la survenue des Brigades internationales et les desseins poursuivis par l’Internationale communiste dans leur création. La troisième partie est consacrée aux transformations subies par le phénomène durant son immersion espagnole et aux processus ayant conduit à sa réduction puis à son extinction. La dernière partie considère les Brigades internationales durant leur dernière année d’existence tandis qu’elles sont devenues l’unique manifestation du phénomène, et les conséquences à leur endroit de l’aggiornamento de la politique espagnole du Komintern
International war volunteerism during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) is a widely studied topic and frequently called upon the contemporary politics about transnational volunteerism, in accordance with the originality of the phenomenon during this time, through the background of the “European Civil War”. However, the famous International Brigades have captured all the attention of historiography, concealing the phenomenon under its main manifestation. As a result, international war volunteerism has not yet been considered from a global perspective, as a singular sequence of a recurrent transnational phenomenon in which the International Brigades constitute a highly idiosyncratic object in themselves. Based on a largely unpublished corpus of archives, this thesis focuses on highlighting the phenomenon of international war volunteerism during the Spanish Civil War by considering its predominantly anti-fascist, pro-Republican dimension. This perspective has therefore led to an exercise in redefining and reinterpreting the place of the International Brigades both in the transnational geopolitical and cultural strategies of the communist movement, and in the wider field of anti-fascism in the mid-1930s. The heuristic thread is based on three major problematic lines. The first one proceeds with a change of scale in the analysis of the phenomenon, by reversing the usual perspective of social history, which takes as a postulate the volunteers alone, and by considering the phenomenon from a systemic point of view in order to reveal the impulse behind it as well as the space it occupies. The second proposes to disengage the phenomenon from the shadow of the International Brigades so as to observe and compare its various manifestations, reveal their plurality and variety, and examine their presence and relations both with each other and with the event. The third one considers the political intentions and destinations which determined the scale, periodicity and varieties of the phenomenon. This heuristic thread makes it possible to reconsider the historicity of the phenomenon as a sequence of a long history of which it bears the traces and pursues the inheritance, while emphasizing its dependence on circumstantial partisan logics. The thesis is divided into four diachronic, chronologically-sequenced parts. The first two deal with the period from July 1936 to September 1937 while the last two cover the period from October 1937 to October 1938. Two of the parts --the first and third ones-- consider the phenomenon in its entirety, while the other two --the second and fourth-- are entirely devoted to the International Brigades, from the vantage point of their origins, intentions and situation in the phenomenon. The first part takes the shape of a description and inventory of the phenomenon, whereas the second part observes the appearance of the International Brigades and the designs pursued by the Communist International in their creation. The third part is devoted to the transformations undergone by the phenomenon during its Spanish immersion, and to the processes that led to its reduction and extinction. The last part considers the International Brigades as they became the only manifestation of the phenomenon during their last year of existence, and the consequences for them of the aggiornamento of the Spanish policy of the Comintern

rezensiertes Werk: Mähony, Liam ; Eguren, Luis Enrique: Gewaltfrei stören - Gewalt verhindern. Die Peace Brigades International. / PBI Deutscher Zweig e.V. (Hrsg.), aus dem Englischen von Henrike Evers und Regina Maria Stenzel. - Zürich : Rotpunktverlag, 2002. ISBN 3-85869-241-7

Medium to Long Term Impacts on Former Participants of the Shoulder to Shoulder Global Brigades to Ecuador. International service learning and voluntourism programs in global health evoke benefits for both community and the intervener. While it is clear that the Shoulder to Shoulder Global program at the University of Kentucky provides a service to an economically resource poor community in Santo Domingo, Ecuador, what is unclear is the impact these interprofessional experiences have on the participants that travel with the four times a year health brigades. This study proposes to answer the question of what are the educational, personal and professional impacts that brigade participants experience. Alumni of the Shoulder to Shoulder Global health brigades from 2007 – 2017 were sent a twenty-three question survey to better understand the impact of this program. Seventy-five responses to the quantitative and qualitative questions were received and a chi square analysis was performed of subgroups within the seventy-five respondents. The findings indicate that this program has positively impacted participants in all three areas, with strong evidence to show that the impacts are related to the initial and intermediate outcomes, with more data needed to better assess the long-term program outcomes.

Fire brigades in the UK are currently exploring initiatives aimed at improving "Quality of Service". This has most commonly been in response to challenges presented by the "Citizens Charter", Audit Commission models for quality in service delivery, measurement of performance in service delivery, and, increasingly, budgetary pressures in brigades. Of the routes that are available towards quality improvement, Total Quality Management, or TQM is one that is gaining in popularity. It is the author's contention that as an organisation, the fire service, like the police, military and other command organisations, is subtly different to commercial, industrial, and most other public sector organisations. For this reason, not all of the models for quality improvement that are offered to the service are either useful or viable, and the resistance to them is not merely a symptom of unwillingness to change. Of the package of concepts embraced by the label TQM, one of the most problematic for the fire service has been that of empowerment. Part of the reason is that empowerment is not well defined in itself. This is not to suggest that the concept is not real, or that it is impossible to apply. There are, however, distinct difficulties with both the concept and its application in the fire service. This is an organisation founded on a hierarchical and bureaucratic structure; discipline and obedience to orders on the fireground are enshrined not only in tradition but also in formal Discipline Regulations. Additional considerations of uniform, rank and a hazardous working environment, against the backdrop of a unionised workforce, central government monitored service delivery standards and local political control, all constitute barriers to the successful implementation of empowerment. The question implicit throughout this investigation is whether empowerment of a workforce, which is structured and conditioned by experience to follow identified leaders, and to operate within strict procedural and organisational constraints, can ever succeed, and whether success would be recognised. Therefore, this dissertation centres on an investigation of the issue of "Empowerment" in the context of a command organisation, against a background of TQM. For the purposes of this investigation the concept of empowerment was examined in detail, and the following"working definition" established in the context of a disciplined command organisation: "Empowerment is about giving the authority to make quality improvements to those who have the ability to make them; this must be done within a clear framework of strategy and values, by teams which have the necessary knowledge and ability, and which are managed by well trained, inspirational leaders".

碩士
開南大學
觀光運輸學院碩士在職專班
107
The researches on international aviation industry practitioners' work fatigue risk management prioritize on the flight crews in terms of risk management of fatigue, but the airport firefighters are also responsible for the safety of flying, and excessive fatigue is prone to reduce their ability to respond and adapt in the case of crisis. Therefore, we should pay attention to the impact of the special squatting system on work exhaustion, study the countermeasures, and reduce the risk of duty. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of the fatigue of airport firefighters at Taoyuan Airport Company as a basis for the management of the Taoyuan Airport Company and the competent authorities for the risk of fatigue for airport firefighters. This study was designed as 2-stage questionnaire to investigate the current 135 firemen of the Taoyuan Airport Fire Brigade. The analysis indicated that: 1. Most airport firefighters have short commuting time and have exercise habits. However, due to the work shift, 85.9% of the staff have insomnia, and up to 99.3% of the staff believe that the quality of sleep will affect the fatigue at work. 2. Among the factors that are likely to affect the fatigue of airport firefighters, the level of work fatigue is the highest among the factors such as “environmental hazard of performing duties”, “number of duties on duty” and “time limit on attendance”. 3. Among the physiological fatigue factors, "indifferent, too lazy to move", "back pain, leg pain, stretch", "reducing responsiveness" and psychological fatigue factors are "easy to distract" and "reduced responsiveness" are the most prevalent fatigue symptoms of airport firefighters before and after being on duty. 4. After cross-analysis of physical fatigue and mental fatigue before and after duty, it was found that a class with a rotation of six hours with a long frequency of rotation had a lower fatigue level than a class with only two hours of rotation and a shorter frequency; in general, firefighters have higher physical fatigue and mental fatigue than senior cadres and team leaders, showing changes in "classes" and "positions" lead to significant difference in fatigue among airport firefighters. Therefore, this study suggests that the management should be based on the fatigue characteristics of airport firefighters, timely adjustment of service arrangements and class scheduling, and improve the team members' self-perception of fatigue, in order to have significant preventive effect on airport firefighters' work fatigue.

This thesis was written to address a problem with ambulance service delivery times in Victoria, Australia. For a number of years, ambulance response times have been increasing to unacceptable levels. As a result of the ever-increasing problem it was appropriate to see if the are other alternative solutions producing better results. There are a number of different service delivery models for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) around the world. The main two are the Anglo/American model (also known as scoop and run) and the Franco/German model (also known a stay and play). There are also two major delivery agencies; the British model of a separate third party public sector service as used in UK, Australia and New Zealand or the fire service model where the fire service is the main delivery agency such as most of Asia, Europe and North America. Which model provides the best outcome for the patient? Such research has not been done in the past. The research will also examine if the Metropolitan Fire brigade has capacity to undertake possible EMS roles. A number of case studies were undertaken and explored with key issues of response times, patient outcomes, skills and new technologies compared. The results, particularly of response time show that in Victoria the response time for fire EMS (8.3 minutes) to medical emergencies is similar to that provided by fire services delivering EMS in North America. The MFB in Victoria is providing the equivalent of first responder; the American and Canadian fire services are delivering Advanced Life Support (ALS). The response times for Basic Life Support (BLS) in Victoria provided by ambulance service are over twice as long (8.3 minutes for fire compared to 18.2 minutes for Victorian Ambulance at the 90%). The US and Canadian Fire Services provide EMS response time considerably lower than Ambulance Victoria, some as low as 7.43 minutes. UK Ambulance (on which the Victorian model is based) also provides response time considerably less than Ambulance Victoria. The issue of whether the fire service in Victoria has capacity to undertake further EMS delivery was explored and whilst it has the capacity it is doubtful it could be delivered in the current industrial environment with the union having the capability of vetoing managerial decisions. The research raised fundamental questions regarding the effective use of scarce public sector resources and agencies working across organisational boundaries in the interests of serving the public. Data analysis involved pattern matching, explanation building and time series analysis to identify trends and commonalities across the cases. A number of themes emerged including continued increases in call volumes, challenges meeting response times and the development of proactive programs to reduce the impact of these trends.

Tese dout., English Culture, Faculdade de Ciências Humanas e Sociais da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2006
I sought to analyse the ways in which, within the context of the tensions and antagonisms that characterised British democracy in the interwar period, Communist discourse evolved from 1920 onwards and how it succeeded, thanks to the People’s Front line, in overcoming some of the resistance it had met in its earlier stages. After years of insistence on the centrality of the working class in the revolutionary process, by the mid-thirties the discourse of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) began seeking to expand the number of possible articulations so as to construct a new political identity—the ‘people’—encompassing groups or classes that had hitherto been excluded from the political equations of the Communist leadership. Since its inception, the party attempted to retain its strictly proletarian character. But now the new hegemonic tasks that the People’s Front entailed were incompatible with the notion of one single natural class agent or of one single class identity. The party had to learn how to reach out to more subject positions (the intellectuals, the petty bourgeoisie, etc.) and had to do so by means of establishing an equivalential chain (usually under the guise of ‘all democratic forces’) whose cohesion was believed to be guaranteed by the existence of an antagonistic frontier separating the ‘democratic’ camp from the ‘Fascist’ one. In the course of the construction of such a broad identity, Spain soon became one of the nodal points that permitted the consolidation of this equivalential chain. In this study I also tried to demonstrate that discourse is to be regarded neither as a flat surface of tightly knit signifiers nor as an impenetrable monolith of meaning systems. It is, above all, an inherently dynamic phenomenon, with its own condensations and dispersions along the historical continuum. Yet this does not mean that discourse is wholly inconstant. Actually, although it can grow to accommodate further signifiers and to cover a larger variety of practices by different subject positions in the context of a hegemonic project, it neither loses its internal stability nor dissolves into nothingness. It has its own mechanisms of self regulation and compensation, and therefore keeps tending towards equilibrium. I tried to show how signifiers were passed down the chain of command, all the way from Comintern officials in Moscow to the International Brigaders on the front, and how they were negotiated at the level of the different practices, demands and interests—which varied from one subject position to the next—without substantial entropic losses. But this did not operate in one direction only. I also sought to demonstrate how discursive practices at the local branches of the CPGB and on the Spanish battlefields had a determining effect on the definition of the discursive strategies of the party’s hegemonic project. Despite significant differences in context and variations in the constitution of the identity of each individual involved, communist discourse retained a remarkable degree of consistency, which also accounts for the vitality and cohesion of the party in this difficult period in the history of Europe. This is not to say that it was devoid of contradictions or lacunae (think of, for example, the party’s positions towards parliamentarism, the Labour Party, the issues of nationhood and the problem of war). Although it is usually defined as a relational totality that establishes the parameters of each meaningful action (both linguistic and non linguistic), discourse is in fact characterised by a structural incompleteness which derives, on the one hand, from the dislocations the social is continuously being subjected to and, on the other, from the very impossibility of encompassing the infinite play of differences. The discourse of the CPGB sought to suture those lacks by investing, from the outset, in a closed symbolic order, but the minute it started to make concessions in order to dilate its political space, older systems of meanings had to be discarded (the theory of Social Fascism, for example), that closure (the dictatorship of the proletariat) deferred sine die, and a new set of signifiers adopted—which also led to a whole series of new practices. The People’s Front represented such a challenge and the war in Spain constituted the ground where that challenge would be met.

Cotutelle de thèse avec l'Université de Montpellier
Pourquoi des États créent-ils des forces expéditionnaires bi/multi-nationales ? Pourquoi celles-ci ne sont pas utilisées au final ? L’objectif de cette thèse est d’apporter une explication à ce paradoxe, illustré parfaitement par la brigade franco-allemande et les groupements tactiques de l’Union européenne. Bien que ces deux unités ne soient pas les seules en Europe pouvant être qualifiées de forces expéditionnaires, nous avons décidé de choisir ces deux cas d’études, afin d’analyser également à travers les mesures relatives à celles-ci, les processus décisionnels tant en France qu’en Allemagne. Nous nous sommes par conséquent focalisés sur ces unités et sur les politiques d’alliances à l’origine de celles-ci. Concrètement notre recherche s’inscrit dans la lignée des travaux portant sur les alliances, mais également au sein du champ de l’analyse comparée de la politique étrangère. L’explication théorique développée pour expliquer les décisions étudiées s’appuie sur la théorie des rôles de Kal Holsti. Selon nous les décisions ne sont prises que par un groupe limité d’acteurs et résultent des rôles auxquels ces derniers adhèrent pour leur pays. Des arrangements institutionnels, ainsi que des conflits et des rapports de force modèrent ces rôles. Par ailleurs, en cas de décision ayant une portée institutionnelle, on constate une dépendance au sentier vis-à-vis d’anciennes mesures. Les décisions en faveur de la brigade franco-allemande et des groupements résultent in fine de la domination des rôles de promoteur du renforcement des capacités militaires européennes et d’allié fidèle, parmi les acteurs à l’origine de ces décisions. D’autres rôles présents en France et en Allemagne tendent au contraire à freiner l’emploi de ces unités, en particulier celui de grande puissance (pour la France) et celui de puissance civile (pour l’Allemagne). Plusieurs rôles coexistent en effet au sein de chaque appareil décisionnel et chacun voit son poids en termes d’influence fluctuer. Ceci résulte de la variation selon les décisions étudiées des acteurs impliqués, ainsi que des luttes et des rapports de force entre eux. Notre thèse se divise en sept chapitres. Dans les trois premiers, nous reviendrons sur la littérature consacrée aux forces étudiées et aux alliances, sur notre méthodologie, ainsi que sur les relations internationales en Europe des trente dernières années. Les parties suivantes traitent de l’évolution de la brigade franco-allemande en force expéditionnaire, de la création des groupements tactiques, des choix de partenaires au sein de ceux-ci et enfin du non-emploi de ces troupes militaires. Ces différentes thématiques constituent les quatre chapitres empiriques de notre recherche. En conclusion de celle-ci, on peut estimer que les chances de déploiement des unités étudiées dans les années à venir demeurent plutôt faibles. L’explication théorique développée pour ce travail et basée sur la théorie des rôles offre également un outil de compréhension du fonctionnement des appareils politico-militaires français et allemands. Validé pour cette analyse, il lui reste désormais à être testé sur d’autres cas d’étude et États.
Why do states create bi/multinational expeditionary forces? Why have not they been used yet? The objective of this PhD dissertation is to explain this paradox, which is well exemplified by the Franco-German brigade and the European Union Battle Groups (EUBG). Although these two units are not the only ones in Europe that can be qualified as expeditionary forces, we chose these two case studies to analyze, among others, the decision-making processes in both France and Germany. We have therefore focused on these two units and on the alliance policies that are at the origin of these units. In practice, our research builds on the work on alliances and the field of comparative foreign policy analysis. The theoretical framework developed to explain the foreign policy decisions is based on the theory of roles by Kal Holsti. Our findings indicate that these decisions are made only by a limited group of actors and result from the roles those actors assume for their country. Institutional arrangements, as well as conflicts and power struggles, moderate these roles. In addition, there is strong evidence for path dependency in cases where decisions have an institutional scope. The decisions in favor of the Franco-German brigade and the EUBG ultimately resulted from the role of a promoter of reinforced European military capabilities and the role of a faithful ally, which dominated among the actors behind these decisions. Other roles present among the French and German decision-makers tend, on the contrary, to slow down the use of these units. This is particularly true for the role of a great power (France) and the role of a civilian power (Germany). Several roles coexist indeed within each state and each sees its amount of influence fluctuate. This variation in roles’ influence depends on the actors involved, as well as on power struggles and relations. Our dissertation is divided into seven chapters. In the first three we will return to the literature on expeditionary forces and alliances, to our methodology, and to the international relations in Europe over the past thirty years. The following chapters deal with the development of the Franco-German brigade as an expeditionary force, the creation of battle groups, the choice of partners within them, and finally the non-employment of these military troops. These are the four empirical chapters of our research. In conclusion, we estimate that the probability of deployment of the studied units in the coming years remains rather low. Relying on role theory, our theoretical explanation serves as a tool for understanding the functioning of the French and German political-military decision-making structures. While validated for this analysis, this theoretical framework now has to be tested on other case studies.