Academic works of Brian E. Frydenborg
Post-Graduate Work
The Roman Republic in Greece: Lessons for Modern Peace/Stability Operations
(Chapter 10 in Global Leadership Initiatives for Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding)
Modern theorists, developers, and practitioners of peace/stability operations should look to relevant historical examples for guidance. Despite the many centuries separating the ancient Roman Republic from today, its experiences with similar operations (perhaps “proto-peace/stability operations”) are demonstrably deeply relevant to current discussions. The Republic's structural, historical, moral, and geopolitical context and similarities to the United States and other major practitioners of today's relevant operations will be discussed, as will the concept of Roman peace. A model of international relations analysis that takes into account friendship, trust, and morality (soft power) in addition to military “realist” aspects (hard power) will be shown to be the best prism through which to analyze this material, and an in-depth examination of Rome's five major interventions in mainland Greece from 200-146 BCE will be presented with analyses of their successes and failures. The conclusion will look at the striking similarities to and relevance for modern peace/stability operations.
Graduate: M.S. in Peace Operations (2011) The George Mason University School of Public Policy:
The How Behind Roman Pax: Selected Roman Operations Aimed at Establishing Peace and their Lessons for Modern Peace Operations - July 2011 PDF
"Eckstein notes that 'in terms of the fragility of states, the ancient Mediterranean was in all periods closer to the modern Third World.' Being that that is where most modern peace operations take place, how Rome 'muddled through' dealing with such similar states and peoples over centuries as an emerging and then the dominant power should be of interest to anyone involved in them."
American Occupations and Police Reform in Japan and Iraq: A Comparative Analysis - February 2011 PDF
"A 2005 RAND study noted that there is a “Golden Hour” of a few weeks or months after an invasion during which occupiers have a chance to create popular support and neutralize major spoilers before an insurgency is likely to develop. Failure to do so dramatically increases the threat of violent support and the occupation as being viewed as illegitimate and undesired by the population. More than any other reason, this may explain the base from which SCAP was able to build upon for success in Japan and the base from which sprang so many problems for Americans in Iraq."
A Glass Half Empty: Selections of Israeli Water-Related Policy Affecting Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip - February 2011 PDF
“Joined with Power, Greed Without Moderation or Measure”: Corruption in the Late Roman Republic and Implications for the United States - December 2010 (Revised May 2011 and May 2012) PDF
"The United States today, only two decades after the end of the Cold War, found itself on the brink of financial ruin and even still has an unsustainably massive and expanding deficit and debt, this only a few years removed from the booming years of the 1990s; its parties for decades have been unable to come together to deal with debt and many other major issues from immigration to education to social security, and the fact that Rome’s republican system of representative government and checks and balances collapsed on itself so soon after its total dominance of the Mediterranean should provide a stark warning for America: partisanship and obstructionism that delays tackling essential issues and lets them fester can bring down even the mightiest and most successful nation rapidly, and when corruption geared towards money and power substitutes for true patriotism, when leading elites seek to serve themselves and not the people, when a whole society loses its restraint and self-control, change can come rapidly in such a way that even a political system like America’s, based very much on Rome’s, might become mere history, one of Livy’s lessons from which a future power can learn 'from it…what to emulate, from it what to avoid.'"
Rwanda Case Study Part I: Context of the Territory and Conflict - October 2010 PDF
Rwanda Case Study Part II: Refugees and Internally Displaced People Viewed Externally - November 2010 PDF
The British in Mandate Palestine: Assessment of an Intervention - March 2010 PDF
Presented at the Arab-American University - Jenin's "Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding in Palestine: Reality and Challenges" Conference, May 2015
"Entering a conflict in between confrontation and intermittent violence between two parties that saw themselves with wholly incompatible interests, and failing to address that very issue, saw British policies push the parties to sustained violence and all-out civil and inter-state war; even in 2010, the Arabs and Jews in Palestine go back and forth between confrontation, intermittent violence, sustained violence, and war, with no end in sight; and this is a legacy of the British Mandate era for Palestine: the social constructs are still at the heart of this conflict, and that is why peace remains so elusive."
Behind the Human Bombs: Understanding Palestinian Suicide Terrorism - November 2009 PDF
Georgia Case Study Part II: Internally Displaced Persons Viewed Externally - November 2009 PDF
Georgia Case Study Part I: Context of the Territory and Conflict (shorter version) - November 2009 PDF
Georgia Case Study Part I: Context of the Territory and Conflict (longer version) - November 2009 PDF
Confidential Memo for President Barack Obama on U.S. Policy in Afghanistan [simulated policy memo] - October 2009 PDF
Washington & Lee Political Review
Rome and the Barbarians, America and the Terrorists - Spring 2007 PDF
Undergraduate: B.A. double-major in Politics and History (2004) Washington & Lee University:
Women in China during the Cultural Revolution: True Liberation? - December 2003 PDF
The Spectre of Smallpox: Implications for Bioterrorism and Response Preparedness - December 2002 PDF
Lincoln and Religion - December 2002 PDF
The Hot Days of the Cold War - March 2002 PDF
In the name of Lenin, and of Stalin, and of Voroshilov, AMEN: Soviet Communism as a Political Religion - March 2002 PDF
Carelessness and Its Lessons: The Great Misunderstanding that was the Vietnam War and Its Lessons for the War On Terror - July 2001 PDF