Tag Archives: legitimacy

White Paper: The Earliest Historical True Crime Literature and What It Reveals About Readers’ Appetite for Crime and Punishment

Posted on December 18, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary True crime is often considered a modern genre, shaped by mass literacy and commercial printing. In reality, the fascination with recounting real acts of violence, theft, deception, and justice is nearly as old as recorded history. Across ancient … Continue reading →

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White Paper: Geographical Distribution of Postures and Their Use as Indicators of Cultural Identity

Posted on December 18, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary This white paper examines the concept of physical posture as a potential marker of cultural identity and investigates whether variations in habitual body postures across populations correspond meaningfully to cultural, environmental, historical, or social differences. Drawing from anthropological … Continue reading →

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White Paper: Living at the Core or the Periphery: A Typology of Daily-Life Indicators of Centrality and Marginality

Posted on December 18, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Core–periphery distinctions are often discussed in abstract economic or geopolitical terms. Yet for individuals and families, these structural realities are experienced daily, through mundane encounters with infrastructure, institutions, culture, authority, and opportunity. This white paper proposes a typology … Continue reading →

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Arms Diversity vs. Strategic Concentration: A Comparative White Paper on Multi-Arm Militaries and Single-Approach Forces from Antiquity to the Present

Posted on December 17, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Throughout military history, polities have faced a recurring strategic choice: whether to invest in multiple complementary military arms (infantry, cavalry, naval forces, artillery, air power, cyber, space, etc.) or to maximize a dominant approach optimized for a specific … Continue reading →

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White Paper: Identifying Criminal Concentration: Data Infrastructure Requirements and the Role of Denial in Urban Decline

Posted on December 17, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Across societies with sufficiently developed administrative and criminal justice data systems, crime is not evenly distributed across populations. A small fraction of individuals—often termed chronic, persistent, or high-rate offenders—are responsible for a disproportionate share of serious criminal harm. … Continue reading →

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White Paper: Infantas as Brides in European Royal Diplomacy—and Whether the Alliances Held

Posted on December 16, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive summary From the late medieval period through the 18th century, the daughters of Iberian monarchs—infantas of Spain (and similarly in Portugal)—were among Europe’s most valuable diplomatic assets. Their marriages were not primarily “romantic unions,” but instruments designed to (1) … Continue reading →

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White Paper: The Mothers of the Kings of Judah: A Biblicist Examination of Maternal Backgrounds, Status, and Theological Significance

Posted on December 15, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary The biblical record of the kings of Judah is unique among ancient Near Eastern royal annals in its consistent naming of the king’s mother (Hebrew: ’ēm hammélek). Far from being incidental genealogical detail, this pattern signals theological, moral, … Continue reading →

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White Paper: Darfur: A Social and Political History from Regional Polity to Humanitarian Catastrophe

Posted on December 15, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Darfur, a region in western Sudan roughly the size of France, has a long and complex social and political history that predates colonial boundaries and modern nation-states. Far from being an inherently violent or stateless zone, Darfur was … Continue reading →

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White Paper: Resentment as a Substitute for Formation: How Frustrated Longings for Power and Respect Corrupt Ambition

Posted on December 15, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Across political, religious, academic, and organizational contexts, there exists a recurring pattern in which individuals who view themselves as visionary, exceptional, or uniquely insightful experience deep frustration when recognition, authority, or influence does not materialize as expected. When … Continue reading →

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A Typology of Reasons Why Animals Are Worthwhile to People: A White Paper on Instrumental, Relational, Moral, and Civilizational Value

Posted on December 15, 2025 by nathanalbright

Executive Summary Debates about the value of animals often collapse into narrow frames: economic utility, emotional attachment, environmentalism, or animal rights. Such reductions obscure the reality that animals matter to people for multiple, overlapping, and historically persistent reasons. This white … Continue reading →

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