Late in the summer of 2014, tens of thousands of persecuted minorities fled a genocidal onslaught and took refuge on Mt. Sinjar in Iraq. Stranded by indiscriminate ISIS mortar fire, the group known as the Yezidi faced dehydration and exposure to extreme temperatures on the barren mountain. Ten days later the majority of the trapped Yezidi individuals had escaped through a protected corridor on the ground. This paper analyzes the international response to the Complex Emergency (CE) through network analysis as an alternative to existing civil-military frameworks. Complex Adaptive System (CAS) analysis is used to explain actions in a non-hierarchical environment. Salient strategies that worked to produce a positive humanitarian outcome at Mt. Sinjar are identified. The results suggest that only the humanitarian community was effective in assessing the onset of the crisis, while the task of protecting civilians against a murderous military force was left to the United States. The media was briefly able to exert enough pressure on the attentive public and elites in the US to respond to the crisis, through what has been labeled the \"CNN effect\"
","abstract_html":"<p>Late in the summer of 2014, tens of thousands of persecuted minorities fled a genocidal onslaught and took refuge on Mt. Sinjar in Iraq. Stranded by indiscriminate ISIS mortar fire, the group known as the Yezidi faced dehydration and exposure to extreme temperatures on the barren mountain. Ten days later the majority of the trapped Yezidi individuals had escaped through a protected corridor on the ground. This paper analyzes the international response to the Complex Emergency (CE) through network analysis as an alternative to existing civil-military frameworks. Complex Adaptive System (CAS) analysis is used to explain actions in a non-hierarchical environment. Salient strategies that worked to produce a positive humanitarian outcome at Mt. Sinjar are identified. The results suggest that only the humanitarian community was effective in assessing the onset of the crisis, while the task of protecting civilians against a murderous military force was left to the United States. The media was briefly able to exert enough pressure on the attentive public and elites in the US to respond to the crisis, through what has been labeled the "CNN effect"</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Jones, Trevor C."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"M.A.","degree_level":"Masters Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Paul R. Viotti, Ph.D.","Andrew Goetz","David Goldfischer"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2015,"date_issued":"2015-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"2015-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:19Z","subjects":["Genocide","Humanitarian intervention","Humanitarianism","Military","United Nations","United States","International Relations"],"languages":["en"],"rights":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
"],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1085","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Paul R. Viotti, Ph.D.","Andrew Goetz","David Goldfischer"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Jones, Trevor C."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2017-02-13T08:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Masters Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["M.A."]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Genocide","Humanitarian intervention","Humanitarianism","Military","United Nations","United States","International Relations"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["en"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1085"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Late in the summer of 2014, tens of thousands of persecuted minorities fled a genocidal onslaught and took refuge on Mt. Sinjar in Iraq. Stranded by indiscriminate ISIS mortar fire, the group known as the Yezidi faced dehydration and exposure to extreme temperatures on the barren mountain. Ten days later the majority of the trapped Yezidi individuals had escaped through a protected corridor on the ground. This paper analyzes the international response to the Complex Emergency (CE) through network analysis as an alternative to existing civil-military frameworks. Complex Adaptive System (CAS) analysis is used to explain actions in a non-hierarchical environment. Salient strategies that worked to produce a positive humanitarian outcome at Mt. Sinjar are identified. The results suggest that only the humanitarian community was effective in assessing the onset of the crisis, while the task of protecting civilians against a murderous military force was left to the United States. The media was briefly able to exert enough pressure on the attentive public and elites in the US to respond to the crisis, through what has been labeled the \"CNN effect\"
"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Humanitarian Intervention at Mt. Sinjar, Iraq: A Complex Adaptive System Analysis"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Paul R. Viotti, Ph.D.","Andrew Goetz","David Goldfischer"],"dc:creator":["Jones, Trevor C."],"dc:date.available":["2017-02-13T08:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Late in the summer of 2014, tens of thousands of persecuted minorities fled a genocidal onslaught and took refuge on Mt. Sinjar in Iraq. Stranded by indiscriminate ISIS mortar fire, the group known as the Yezidi faced dehydration and exposure to extreme temperatures on the barren mountain. Ten days later the majority of the trapped Yezidi individuals had escaped through a protected corridor on the ground. This paper analyzes the international response to the Complex Emergency (CE) through network analysis as an alternative to existing civil-military frameworks. Complex Adaptive System (CAS) analysis is used to explain actions in a non-hierarchical environment. Salient strategies that worked to produce a positive humanitarian outcome at Mt. Sinjar are identified. The results suggest that only the humanitarian community was effective in assessing the onset of the crisis, while the task of protecting civilians against a murderous military force was left to the United States. The media was briefly able to exert enough pressure on the attentive public and elites in the US to respond to the crisis, through what has been labeled the \"CNN effect\"
"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.du.edu/etd/1085"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright is held by the author. User is responsible for all copyright compliance.
"],"dc:subject":["Genocide","Humanitarian intervention","Humanitarianism","Military","United Nations","United States","International Relations"],"dc:title":["Humanitarian Intervention at Mt. Sinjar, Iraq: A Complex Adaptive System Analysis"],"thesis:degree_level":["Masters Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["M.A."]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T02:02:19Z"}