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1
Beardsley, Kyle C. "Politics by means other than war understanding international mediation /." Connect to a 24 p. preview or request complete full text in PDF format. Access restricted to UC campuses, 2006. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ucsd/fullcit?p3211377.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2006.Title from first page of PDF file (viewed October 11, 2006). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 304-315).
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Chen, Shang-chih. "Between negotiation and confrontation understanding China's Taiwan policy redirections in the 1990s /." Related electronic resource: Current Research at SU : database of SU dissertations, recent titles available full text, 2006. http://proquest.umi.com/login?COPT=REJTPTU0NWQmSU5UPTAmVkVSPTI=&clientId=3739.
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Driver, Ryan Grimstad. "Understanding ASEAN - An Alternative Approach to International Relations Theory in Asia." PDXScholar, 2018. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/4436.
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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) was originally formed in 1967 by five members as a means to promote peaceful relations and prevent the spread of communist influence within their sovereign states. Since then the regional organization has doubled in size and now includes communist states amongst its membership as it seeks to establish itself as a strong economic and political hub for the greater region as two large military powers, China and the United States, vie for hegemonic influence. The American presence in the region must be governed by a firm understanding of ASEAN's unique nature and goals. When compared to other regional organizations that formed over similar time periods, such as the European Union, ASEAN has not taken a cohesive path with less of a firm timeline for integrating institutions as it instead continues to reshape its policies in small iterative steps to evolve to the changing world.
If our existing paradigms of the role of regional organizations do not match with the structure of ASEAN, we must establish a new toolset in order to guide future policies for involvement in the region. This thesis seeks to provide a clear description and thus understanding of the institutions and behavior of ASEAN as a regional organization. The questions posed include whether ASEAN conforms to the institutional and behavioral predictions of the major paradigmatic approaches to international theory, namely realism, liberalism, and constructivism. The thesis begins with a brief history of ASEAN over four distinct phases and an overview of regional organizations and international theory. The three dominant theories are then analyzed in their application to ASEAN in the areas of security, economics, and human rights.
Conclusions are drawn that each of the three theories has its value for descriptive insight, but all fall short in creating a holistic understanding of ASEAN. Therefore, I propose a new way of describing ASEAN as a reactive, isomorphic, and anti-fragile regional organization. The potential of this approach is that it utilizes tools latent in the existing theories to examine ASEAN's nature.
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Vandome, Christopher. "A critical analysis of international financial institutions' understanding of political corruption : a focus on the IMF, World Bank, and the ANC." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11820.
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This dissertation argues that the IFIs’ understanding of corruption, and thus their anticorruption and good governance policies and prescriptions, is based on the conceptualisation of corruption as a state centric phenomenon. As such, they are not concerned with corruption as a systematic problem. The IFIs’ definitions and views, although legitimate, prudent, and legal, are actually the road to ineffectiveness. But broader and more effective policies would require the IFIs to delve into domestic politics. Such political involvement would entail a great deal of risk on their part, and would be beyond their mandate and their appetite. In order to demonstrate this, this dissertation presents an overview of political corruption and the important role of the party in both the causes and consequences of systematic political corruption. The focus is on the relationship between the political party and the various systems of governance. The case of the ANC in South Africa is used to analyse whether an understanding of political corruption is necessary.
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Gani, Jasmine K. "Understanding and explaining US-Syrian relations : conflict and cooperation, and the role of ideology." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2011. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/348/.
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This thesis is a study of US-Syrian relations, and the legacy of mistrust between the two states. While there has been a recent growth in the study of Syria’s domestic and regional politics, its foreign policy in a global systemic context remains understudied within mainstream International Relations (IR), Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), and even Middle Eastern studies, despite Syria’s geo-political centrality in the region. The primary purpose of the thesis is to analyse and understand the driving factors in US-Syrian relations, both the continuities – distinctive in the context of the region’s dynamic political landscape – and the rarer instances of discontinuity. By analysing the causes and constituents of US-Syrian relations, the thesis will also challenge a purely realist and power-political explanation that has dominated the discourse on Middle Eastern foreign policy; without discarding the value of alternative conceptual explanations, the thesis will argue that Syria’s position towards the US has been significantly (though not exclusively) influenced by a politically embedded set of ideas and principles that have evolved from an anti-colonial Arab nationalist ideology. Though recent constructivist debates have (rightly) brought the role of identity and social structure back to the fore, ideological or value-laden motives are still at times treated dismissively as an instrument of power politics (particularly in relation to Middle Eastern regimes) or, conversely, as a sign of regime irrationality. The apparent methodological impasse in credibly connecting ideational motives with foreign policy implementation and the perceived incompatibility between ideas and pragmatic decision-making have prevented a deeper and more sophisticated exploration of ideological influences within IR. Thus the second aim of the thesis is to redress this imbalance by introducing a methodological framework of analysis for studying ideology in foreign policy-making; this will be operationalised by historically charting the development and influence of ideas on Syria’s position towards the US, drawing upon original archival material that has hitherto not been utilised in existing literature on this subject. I argue that in Syria’s case state interests and security concerns are not dichotomous to ideational values; rather the two are coterminous goals in Syrian foreign policy. In doing so the thesis employs historical analysis and FPA methods to assess the significance of the following factors in influencing Syria’s ideology, and thereby its relations with the US: Syria’s colonised past and contemporary US interventionism in the region; the policies and ideology of Israel; and finally the structure of the Syrian regime, and its connection to public opinion.
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Ngarachu, Fiona Wairimu. "Why not ask the children? : understanding young people's perspectives on ethnicity and politics in Kenya." Thesis, University of Southampton, 2015. https://eprints.soton.ac.uk/383995/.
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Walker, Steven Trent. "Strategies of prevention extending the concept of preventive war and understanding its implications /." Morgantown, W. Va. : [West Virginia University Libraries], 2008. https://eidr.wvu.edu/etd/documentdata.eTD?documentid=5948.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--West Virginia University, 2008.Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains ix, 311 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 282-288).
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Marley, Jonathan M. "Whose line is it anyway? : understanding the military role in delivering rights based policies in post-conflict territories." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2016. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/3357/.
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The post-conflict territories of the Western Balkans have been subjected to an unprecedented level of international attention since the mid-1990s. The EU, NATO and OSCE in particular converged on the region intent on redefining their image - if not purpose - in the first major crisis of the post-Cold War era. Responding to the horrific inter-ethnic violence that defined conflict in the region, International Organisations continually emphasised the importance of upholding standards regarding the protection of, and respect for, ethnic minorities. While literature acknowledges that military forces were deployed to establish and maintain a safe and secure environment for post-conflict peacebuilding to emerge, few scholars have explored the substance of the military role beyond the separation of former warring factions and provision of a secure humanitarian space. This research demonstrates that military actors adapted their approaches to contribute across the spectrum of the peacebuilding effort, including on rights based issues; specifically ethnic minority returns and participation. On the basis of case studies in Kosovo and Bosnia Herzegovina, the thesis adopts an empirical approach to exploring the reasons for military engagement on these issues and their respective successes and failures. It examines the sources that projected ideas on ethnic minority issues – international policy development, peace treaty composition, and domestic acceptance – and how they influenced military decision making processes. Through post-conflict phases it analyses the domestic footprint of international intervention – international administration and civil-military actors – and discusses thematically the means of military engagement, the receptiveness of domestic actors at multiple levels and the nature of compliance. Acknowledging the overarching civilian framework for intervention, where from the outset the prospective of NATO and EU membership were held forth as the 'prize' for a successful return to 'a Europe of integration, democracy and ethnic pluralism', it establishes the utility of strategic mechanisms – conditionality and normative pressure – in military hands acknowledging the potential for linkage to enlargement frameworks. It argues that in spite of principled objections, military operations can and do have influence in delivering policy on rights based issues.
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Al, Toraifi Adel. "Understanding the role of state identity in foreign policy decision-making : the rise of Saudi-Iranian rapprochement (1997-2009)." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2012. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/683/.
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The objective of the thesis is to study the concept of state identity and its role in foreign policy decision-making through a constructivist analysis, with particular focus on the Saudi–Iranian rapprochement of 1997. While there has been a recent growth in the study of ideational factors and their effects on foreign policy in the Gulf, state identity remains understudied within mainstream International Relations (IR), Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), and even Middle Eastern studies literature, despite its importance and manifestation in the region’s foreign policy discourses. The aim is to challenge purely realist and power-based explanations that have dominated the discourse on Middle Eastern foreign policy—and in particular, the examination of Saudi–Iranian relations. Saudi Arabia and Iran have played key roles in Gulf security for the past four decades, yet there have been few studies addressing their bilateral relations. Traditionally, differences—including sectarianism, nationalism, revolutionary ideology, competition over regional hegemony, oil prices, policy towards US military presence in the Gulf, and disagreements over the hajj—are often cited as reasons for their rivalry, yet these differences do not on their own offer a convincingly clear explanation as to why the rapprochement took place at that particular time, or why it thrived—and subsequently declined—despite the continuing presence of these issues. The primary purpose of the thesis is to analyse and understand the reasons behind the rise and demise of the Saudi–Iranian rapprochement of 1997. By focusing on ideational and materialist factors, the thesis seeks to demonstrate how changes in state identity—particularly in the official foreign policy discourse—indicates changes in policy, and therefore a shift in the amity–enmity pattern between the two states. Without discarding the value of realist explanations, the thesis will argue that the rapprochement process of 1997 has been significantly (though not exclusively) influenced by changes in state identity in each state. Moreover, this thesis provides a theoretical framework based on the concept of state identity and role theory (“self versus other”) to study the evolution of enmity, the rise of the rapprochement process during the Khatami presidency (1997–2005), and the subsequent revival of Saudi–Iranian rivalry during President Ahmadinejad’s first term (2005–2009). The main argument of this thesis is that ideational and materialist factors were instrumental in the demise of the rapprochement process, but the change in Iran’s state identity during the first term of President Ahmadinejad altered the perception of each state towards the other. Thus, the relationship transformed from a state of relative friendliness to a state of enmity and rivalry. This is explained by examining the muqawama–mumana’a discourse and the “moderates” versus “radicals” debate that consumed the narrative of Saudi–Iranian relations between 2005 and 2009. The methods employed in answering these research questions and hypotheses are largely structured around a chronological account of the development and formation of state identities and an analysis of each state’s foreign policy discourse during the period in question. This will be supplemented by qualitative interviews with individuals who participated in the rapprochement process, and will draw upon new archival material that has hitherto not been utilised in the literature on this subject.
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Brown, Susan Carol. "The institutional evolution of the WTO Government Procurement Agreement : towards an understanding of the peripheries of domestic economic policies." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 1998. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/3163/.
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The rules of the international economic order have traditionally sought to reduce trade barriers between national markets; domestic policy autonomy has been viewed as an inviolable sovereign freedom. The 1994 WTO Government Procurement Agreement requires Member States to introduce a series of administrative procedures for their tendering processes, as well as institutional avenues through which individual suppliers can invoke indirect "rights" they gain from these "common rules"; its positive disciplines represent a departure from the traditional, negative GAIT regulatory "methodology". This thesis involves a study of what these institutional changes have to say about economic policy-making and enforcement processes in an interdependent world. Part I presents an institutional history of the GPA and an analysis of how it works. Part II examines the kind of domestic intervention associated with the Agreement, concluding that the most significant interference with sovereigns' autonomy is neither strictly legislative nor administrative. The GPA's enforcement mechanism - in conjunction with the individual "rights" arising from its procedural obligations - "constitutionalises" the rights to national treatment it engenders. This implies a US style relationship between property and the state. Executive and legislative powers are separated and both are limited by law. Judicial-like entities, in turn, fulfill an arbitrator's role, charged with determining whether a government entity has acted in a manner consistent with its legally-delimited powers. The final section presents reasons why GPA Member States may have been willing to accept the "intervention" that is implicit in the Agreement, developing an argument that the GPA is a "means" to Members' "shared end" of facilitating the integration of markets and, most importantly, ensuring their subsequent integrity. States, in implementing the "common rules", act as agents on behalf of the economic order because, in a globalising world, cooperation is consistent with citizens' welfare. The way in which this cooperation is structured allows for heterogeneous political interests to be accommodated. To the extent that the GPA protects individual rights for "collective ends", it is not inconsistent with unitary state notions of sovereignty.
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Osorio, Javier. "Hobbes on drugs| Understanding drug violence in Mexico." Thesis, University of Notre Dame, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3738644.
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This dissertation analyzes the unprecedented eruption of organized criminal violence in Mexico. To understand the dynamics of drug violence, this dissertation addresses three questions. What explains the onset of the war on drugs in Mexico? Once the conflict starts, why does drug violence escalate so rapidly? And lastly, why is there subnational variation in the concentration of violence?
Based on a game theoretic model, the central argument indicates that democratization erodes the peaceful configurations between the state and criminal organizations and motivates authorities to fight crime, thus triggering a wave of violence between the state and organized criminals and among rival criminal groups fighting to control strategic territories. In this account, state action is not neutral: law enforcement against a criminal group generates the opportunity for a rival criminal organization to invade its territory, thus leading to violent interactions among rival criminal groups. These dynamics of violence tend to concentrate in territories favorable for the reception, production and distribution of drugs. In this way, the disrupting effect of law enforcement unleashes a massive wave of violence of all-against-all resembling a Hobbesian state of war.
To test the observable implications of the theory, the empirical assessment relies on a novel database of geo-referenced daily event data at municipal level providing detailed information on who did what to whom, when and where in the Mexican war on drugs. This database covers all municipalities of the country between 2000 and 2010, thus comprising about 9.8 million observations. The creation of this fine-grained database required the development of Eventus ID, a novel software for automated coding of event data from text in Spanish. The statistical assessment relies on quasi-experimental identification strategies and time-series analysis to overcome problems of causal inference associated with analyzing the distinct - yet overlapping - processes of violence between government authorities and organized criminals and among rival criminal groups. In addition, the statistical analysis is complemented with insights from fieldwork and historical process tracing. Results provide strong support for the empirical implications derived from the theoretical model.
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Sachleben, Mark. "International Human Rights Treaties: Understanding Patterns of Participation and Non-Participation, 1948-2000." Oxford, Ohio : Miami University, 2003. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc%5Fnum=miami1070910200.
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Balthasar, Dominik. "State-making in Somalia and Somaliland : understanding war, nationalism and state trajectories as processes of institutional and socio-cognitive standardization." Thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science (University of London), 2012. http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/572/.
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Although the conundrums of why states falter, how they are reconstituted, and under what conditions war may be constitutive of state-making have received much scholarly attention, they are still hotly debated by academics and policy analysts. Advancing a novel conceptual framework and analysing diverse Somali state trajectories between 1960 and 2010, this thesis adds to those debates both theoretically and empirically. The core issues examined are why and how Somaliland managed to establish state-run structures of governance, how far its development paralleled or diverged from past Somali state trajectories, and under what conditions violent conflict advanced or abridged the polities’ varied state-making projects. Drawing on diverse strands of literature on state-building, nationalism and warfare, the thesis develops an original analytical frame to better understand processes of state-making and state-breaking. It argues not only for the need of ‘bringing the nation back in’, but proposes to conceptualize state trajectories in terms of changing levels of institutional and socio-cognitive standardization. Scrutinizing received wisdom, the empirical research presented finds, amongst others, that Somali state trajectories have been less unique than commonly claimed, and proposes that Somaliland’s alleged state-making success between 1991 and 2010 hinged at least as much on autocratic governance, top-down policies and coercive means as on frequently emphasized elements of grassroots peace-making, ‘traditional’ reconciliation and ‘home-grown’ democracy. Conceptually, the project is located at the intersection of political-economy and historical and institutional approaches to state-making. Applying qualitative research framed in comparative case studies the thesis not only advances the theoretical debate surrounding issues of state fragility and state-making, but also offers novel insights into Somalia’s history and presents new empirical findings on the frequently romanticised case of Somaliland. Yet, the research results are significant beyond Somali boundaries as they provide relevant insights for our general understanding of state trajectories and the role of conflict in statemaking and state-breaking.
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Ahonen, Staci. "Understanding European Union Normative Power: Assessing the Construction of the Norms of Human Rights and Market Liberalization in the EU's relationship with Russia." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/28778.
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The European Union's (EU) identity as a nonnative power rests in its ability to construct norms within itself and in third countries. Russia has proven challenging for the EU's norm construction. Through constructivist analysis this thesis attempts to understand the EU's process of norm construction with Russia and domestically and consequently its construction of a nonnative identity.
Looking at the period between 2000 and 2008, this thesis presents two main arguments. First, in the EU's attempt to construct its norms of human rights and market liberalization it faced difficulties because as the context shifted, other norms, deemed more important, triumphed over the norms of human rights and market liberalization. This resulted in three identifiable nonnative shifts. Secondly, it focuses on the domestic formation of norms and argues that member states playa significant role in the EU's difficulty to construct norms, in that they have been unable to speak with one voice on human rights and market liberalization.
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O'Flaherty, David Desmond. "Understanding dynamic linkages and technology spillover from Korea's Masan Free Export Zone." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/27645.
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Drawing upon the wealth of literature previously written about the Masan Free Export Zone (MAFEZ), this thesis will disentangle the conflicting information and hypotheses about the some of the zone's 'welfare benefits.' That is, the thesis will examine production linkages and technology spillover from the export processing zone (EPZ) itself to the greater economy. The vast literature already written on this subject is divergent, to say the least, and much of it is inconsistent with simple facts available in archival materials and exhaustively compiled statistical evidence. Therefore, this thesis will examine the extant literature on the zone and compare this with archival material gathered in South Korea to reinterpret the facts through a more holistic and interdisciplinary lens. This thesis will demonstrate that the establishment of MAFEZ was successful in creating such welfare benefits to the domestic Korean economy outside of the zone, and that such success was mostly policy-induced. Chapter One will introduce some of the divergent ideas and academic controversies about EPZs in general and MAFEZ in particular. Chapter Two will give a brief history of Korea's export-oriented industrialization drive, and how Korean Industrial Estates (IEs) and EPZs figured in this drive. It will also delineate important political and economic differences between Korean IEs and EPZs. Chapter Three will examine in detail production linkages from MAFEZ. Chapter Four will study technology spillover from the zone and the impact of such spillover. This thesis will conclude with an overview of the argument and an explication of some of the problems that MAFEZ, as a development tool, faced during its evolution and expansion.
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Fraser, Samuel. "The Catastrophe Artists: Understanding America’s Unaccountable Foreign Policy Elite." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2019. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2158.
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The 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq was a foreign policy action that violated international law, was based on false premises, and came to represent a clear and costly political disaster for the United States and Iraq. Why then, did none of the top policymakers responsible for the decision to invade face meaningful consequences – be they professional consequences, or legal ones? Why too have so many of the media figures who helped sell this war to the American public remained in their prestigious positions, with massive platforms to influence the American people?
This paper argues that the above groups, referred to as the foreign policy elite or foreign policy establishment, are granted a general impunity for their actions. It seeks to explain this condition of elite impunity, and how it operates, through Robert Putnam’s theory of “elite integration.” It also examines the role of congressional marginalization and public disengagement in enabling the foreign policy elite to escape accountability. The subsequent chapters offer case studies of how each of these factors has helped advance and preserve the careers of two prominent members of the foreign policy elite, Elliott Abrams and Henry Kissinger. Finally, the conclusion explores further questions on the matter of elite impunity, and offers some basic steps towards creating a more accountable foreign policy elite.
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Piddubnyak, Olga Sergeevna, and Ольга Сергіївна Піддубняк. "Information and communication technologies in the modern international relations." Thesis, National Aviation University, 2021. https://er.nau.edu.ua/handle/NAU/51656.
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1.Kydriavtseva S.P., Kolos V.V. International information: tutor. Kyiv: Word,
2005. 400 p.
2.Information Technologies [Electronic resourсe].-Access mode: https://
uk.wikipedia.org/
3.Information and communication technologies in the context of modern international relations[Electronic resourсe].-Access mode: http://dspace. wunu.edu.ua/bitstream/316497/17835/1/%D0%9C%D0%90%D0%93.%20
%D0%A1%D0%90%D0%9B%D0%9E.pdf .
4.Information and communication technologies in the context of moderninternational relations: socio-philosophical analysis[Electronic resource].-Access mode: file:///C:/Users/ASUS/Downloads/Telegram%20Desktop/Vnau_f_2013_2_15.pdf .Information and communication technologies are methods, processes and ways of using computers and communication systems to create, collect,transmit, search, process and disseminate information in order to effectively organize human activities . The term “information and communication technologies” is often considered synonyms with the term “information technologies”. Information and communication technologies are general term that represents the technology and implementation of various telecommunication systems, software, etc. in order to gain access to information .
Інформаційно-комунікаційні технології - це методи, процеси та способи використання комп’ютерів та систем зв’язку для створення, збору, передачі, пошуку, обробки та розповсюдження інформації з метою ефективної організації людської діяльності . Термін "інформаційно-комунікаційні технології" часто вважають синонімами терміна "інформаційні технології". Інформаційно-комунікаційні технології - загальний термін, який представляє технологію та впровадження різних телекомунікаційних систем, програмного забезпечення тощо з метою отримання доступу до інформації .
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Choukri, Ezz-Edine. "The concept of world hegemony and the understanding of international cooperation and regulation: A critical reading of the current conceptualizations of world hegemony." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 1995. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/9580.
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This thesis questions the utility of the concept of "world hegemony" in understanding world politics. In doing so, it reviews the ways in which both Realist and Marxist traditions used that concept to study three examples of international regulation: the GATT, the global environmental negotiations, and the Coordinated Aid to Russia. This review shows the limited explanatory power of both Realist and Marxist conceptions of hegemony. Based on the analysis of modernity presented by Karl Polanyi and Anthony Giddens, the thesis presents a new conception of world hegemony that refers to the centuries-long build-up of consensus and consent around a modern and global historic bloc. The latter includes market-economy, interstate system, individualism and human emancipation. The analysis of the interactions between actors and this multidimensional global historic bloc provides better understanding of the three examples of international regulation used in the thesis.
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Lenderts, Carolyn S. "Security Threats in Perspective: Understanding the Failures of American Foreign Policy in Africa." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2014. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/929.
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This paper aims to examine the nature and major causes of American foreign policy in Africa since the end of the Cold War. Among these is a tendency to view African states, threats, and crises in terms of American strategic interests, not as events with independent relevance to American priorities. The post-9/11 fervor muddled many important distinctions about the relationship between African states, state power, and international terrorist groups. The United States acted too quickly, helping African states militarize without understanding the nature of the threat and the way in which a heavily militarized response would entrench rebel groups. Seeing Africa as tangential to the larger issue of terrorism led to policies that were ineffective and counterproductive. The success of future foreign policy towards Africa depends on careful consideration of the aims and motives of various actors and strong focus on good governance efforts.
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Lee, Da Hyun. "Relational Approaches to US International Cultural Engagement: Promoting National Good and Mutual Understanding through Cooperative Cultural Exchange." The Ohio State University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1385737907.
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Shawki, Noha. "Understanding the political outcomes of transnational campaigns a comparative study of four transnational advocacy networks /." [Bloomington, Ind.] : Indiana University, 2007. http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:3283962.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Political Science, 2007.Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-10, Section: A, page: 4469. Adviser: Karen Rasler. Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 20, 2008).
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Din, Victoria L. "Understanding Terrorism in the Horn of Africa: American Perceptions of Somalia, Kenya, and al Qaeda." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2011. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/164.
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A number of factors contribute to the enigmatic nature of terrorism. As popular perceptions of the act and of the actor evolve, there is a corresponding desire to change the definition. The act itself has stayed largely the same; however, developments in politics and culture have changed our perceptions of terrorism and subsequently our usage of the term. As such, it has been imprecisely applied to a diverse and perpetually changing set of actors, institutions, and actions.
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Blemings, Travis I. "The Politics of Development Aid: Understanding the Lending Practices of the World Bank Group." Diss., Temple University Libraries, 2017. http://cdm16002.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p245801coll10/id/454225.
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Political SciencePh.D.
This study examines variations in the lending strategies of the four main agencies of the World Bank. Countries with similar basic development and demographic attributes often receive very different amounts of financial support from the different agencies of the World Bank. Utilizing regression analysis of panel-data covering the years between 1990 through 2011, the study finds that variation in the allocation of development aid both within and between the different World Bank agencies (IBRD, IDA, IFC, and MIGA) do not generally reflect patterns in objective indicators of economic need or institutional quality among recipients. Rather, statistical analysis shows that World Bank aid is positively correlated with several measures of donor influence. Utilizing a multi-donor model of political influence, the study finds evidence that the Bank’s top donors, countries such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Japan disproportionately influence the Bank to lend in ways that support their foreign policy interests. Countries with close economic, political, and geostrategic ties to powerful donors tend to receive more aid on average than their less well-connected peers. The data show that the Bank often lends in ways that contradict its own lending criteria. Despite the Bank’s explicit emphasis on economic need and institutional quality, the agencies of the World Bank often provide greater amounts of assistance to those with less need and poor quality governance. The study has implications for the study of international organizations, institutional design, and how donor influence at the World Bank is mediated by variations in internal agency structures.
Temple University--Theses
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Yeo, Shang Xuan. "Understanding the Behavior of Southeast Asian States vis-à-vis the Rise of China." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2016. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/1336.
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Conventional wisdom states that, in response to a rising threat, weaker states may choose either to balance against, or to bandwagon with, the threat. However, the states in Southeast Asia, in response to a rising China, exhibit behavior that conforms neither to pure balancing nor bandwagoning. This senior thesis seeks to understand why that is the case, and argues that, in a world of ambiguity, the domestic level of analysis becomes of greater importance in explaining state behavior.
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Schmidt-Felzmann, Anke Uta. "With or without the EU? : understanding EU member states' motivations for dealing with Russia at the European or the national level." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2011. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/2571/.
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This thesis seeks to explain why European Union (EU) member states choose to pursue their foreign policy objectives regarding Russia at the EU level or bilaterally. It explores the idea in the literature that national governments engage in ‘venue shopping’ to achieve national foreign policy objectives. The thesis examines the question of how EU member states engage with Russia by examining different policy case studies (energy relations, democracy and human rights promotion, bilateral disputes). It analyses member governments’ choice of policy route from two contrasting, but complementary perspectives, exploring both rational choice arguments from a 'logic of expected consequences' perspective (focusing on the anticipated costs and benefits of national governments' choice of policy route) and social constructivist arguments from a 'logic of appropriateness' perspective (focusing on the effects of EU membership and the socialisation of national representatives into the rules and norms of behaviour in the EU on the political elites' choice of policy route). With a systematic analysis of national governments’ choices across different policy issues it helps clarify the motivations underpinning the decision to pursue national foreign policy objectives at the European or the national level. It thereby contributes to filling a lacuna in the existing literature on EU-Russia relations and the extant research on member states’ foreign policies in the EU context. The contributions to existing scholarship that the thesis makes are: first, it demonstrates that the decision to cooperate, or act at the bilateral level, is not as clear cut as it is often depicted. I show that in most cases it is not a question of either-or. Member states frequently pursue cooperation at the EU level to achieve foreign policy objectives that they also pursue at the bilateral level. Second, I show that member states’ choices are predominantly influenced by their assessment of the utility of the European and the national route. There is considerably less evidence to suggest that the European level is being privileged as a result of a socialisation in the EU, so the length of membership, and thus the duration of national decision-makers' exposure to EU policy-making processes does not determine a member government’s choice and influences it only to a limited extent. Third, I show that the size/capacity of the member state they represent is but one factor influencing national governments in their choice of foreign policy route. Whether a state is large or small gives indications of a national government's likely choice, but it does not offer definitive insights into which policy route will be chosen on a particular issue. Fourth, I concur with existing research that argues that a distinction between policy issues in terms of their hierarchy (‘first order’ or ‘second order’) provides insights into member states’ likely choice, but I argue that it is necessary to not just focus on the policy domain, but also to differentiate within a policy domain between the pursuit of broader framework objectives that deliver benefits to all member states and those objectives on which individual states accrue gains in the absence of a common EU agreement with Russia. Fifth, this thesis highlights the importance of how member states perceive Russia - as a threat or as an opportunity – and the importance they attribute to maintaining ‘friendly’, ‘pragmatic’ relations for whether they cooperate at the EU level or opt for the pursuit of their individual relations with Russia at the bilateral level. Finally, on the basis of the findings from the three analytically and empirically significant cases I argue that member states’ choices are highly contingent and can only be explained by considering the interplay between the different factors that enter into national governments’ calculus regarding the utility of the EU route versus the bilateral pursuit of national foreign policy objectives.
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Marazopoulos, Christos. "Constructing the Western Balkans : understanding the European Commission's regional approach from a constructivist perspective." Thesis, University of Bath, 2013. https://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.607143.
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The thesis traces the construction of the Western Balkans since the end of the armed conflict in 1995. The term Western Balkans has become a commonplace in international politics that refers to a recognisable region on the European map – ignoring that it does not constitute a historical formation of European and Balkan politics. Most contemporary analysis focuses on functional aspects of economic cohesiveness and security interdependence. However, this thesis argues that the concept of Western Balkans is better understood as a social construction, externally-driven. The argument is that the Western Balkans is what the European Union makes of it. By taking a macro-historical perspective, we look at the long and special ties that the EU has had from the time of Yugoslavia to the Western Balkans until the mid-2000s. What we uncover is a special and consistent involvement of the European Commission into the regional affairs. The Western Balkans starts as a small organisational department within the institutional structure of the external relations' portfolio to become a regional identity question for the local populations. Also, the thesis points to the Commission’s actions as not just the outcome of micro-calculations but part of a social context of competing world-views; and, finally, this is the reason that the end-product of the Western Balkans resembles more a messy amalgam rather than a rational design.
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Rightsell, Nathaniel David. "Strategic objectives contextual understanding of the expanded Russian--Venezuelan relationship." Thesis, Monterey, Calif. : Naval Postgraduate School, 2009. http://edocs.nps.edu/npspubs/scholarly/theses/2009/Jun/09Jun%5FRightsell.pdf.
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Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Western Hemisphere))--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2009.Thesis Advisor(s): Giraldo, Jeanne K. "June 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on 13 July 2009. Author(s) subject terms: United States, Venezuela, Russia, Vladimir Putin, Dmitry Medvedev, Hugo Chávez, perception, Constructivism, oil, arms sales, petroleum, energy, International Relations Theory, Strategic, Realism, Liberalism, Siloviki, PDVSA, GAZPROM, democracy. Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-126). Also available in print.
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Campbell, Cameron N. "Contextualizing Exile: Understanding Failures of the International Refugee Regime through Narratives of Young Adult Syrian Urban Refugees in Amman, Jordan." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2015. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/641.
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With almost 4 million registered Syrian refugees, the UN has called it the world’s worst refugee crisis. The influx of 628,000 asylum-seekers to neighboring Jordan has tested its strength and protection capabilities. The UNHCR is the organizational spearhead of the international refugee regime, the set of rights and procedural structures upon which signatory States agree to protect refugee rights. This ethnographic research contributes lived experience to the existing quantitative scholarship on the Syrian refugee influx in Jordan. Spending the long days of Ramadan with young adult Syrian national urban refugees, I learned about the gaps between respondents’ hardships in establishing secure lives, and the rights the UNHCR guarantees for them in Amman.
This thesis argues that respondents’ experiences reflect the systematic failure of refugee protection due to inherent weaknesses of the refugee regime. Gaps in protections are the logical result of the expanding role of nation-states, as self-interested actors, in making important decisions in the enforcement of refugee rights. I argue that the expanding interest of Northern States’ to limit immigration since September 11th has rendered the UNHCR incapable of providing refugees the levels of protection they are guaranteed. The refugee regime makes certain assumptions of the host country’s carrying capacity, as well as assumptions that other nation-states will willingly open its doors for Syrian refugee resettlement. Since the UNHCR cannot rely upon Northern states committing themselves to third country resettlement, refugees can no longer expect the refugee regime to uphold its mandate that it was founded to ensure.
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Schachter, Kara. "The Digitalization of Development: Understanding the Role of Technology and Innovation in Development through a Case Study of Kenya and M-Pesa." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2019. https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/2062.
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This thesis analyzes the connection of mobile phone technology to increased economic development in Kenya. Drawing on previous research, I first examine the state of development by analyzing social, political, and economic factors in Kenya in 2007/2008. I then examine the role of technology on these development factors in Kenya by focusing on the rapid rise of mobile money platform M-Pesa and the rise of decentralized banking. This thesis finds that M-Pesa’s success stems from the failure of public trust in traditional institutions, collaboration between the public, private, and nonprofit sector, initial lack of regulation to promote innovation, and heavy consumer testing to create the best product-market fit. Additionally, in comparison to other sub-Saharan countries, Kenya’s institutions have more willingly allowed for nontraditional methods of investment and aid. While none of these results are entirely conclusive, evidence suggests that the rise of mobile money and technological innovation has attributed heavily to economic development into 2018, but that social and political development factors are still restrained. Ultimately, technology is not the solution to all factors of cyclical poverty, but it can create new approaches to previously neglected development constraints.
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Mendelson, Miriam E. "A Systems Understanding of Terrorism with Implications for Policy." University of Akron / OhioLINK, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=akron1209398769.
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Bakut, Bakut tswah. "Self-determination and national self-determination : the marriage between macro international relations (IR) and micro historical sociologies as a framework for understanding Africa." Thesis, Nottingham Trent University, 2000. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.312320.
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This thesis argues that while the evolution of the African Political Community is based upon both human physiological needs and historical developments, modernity and its challenges and impositions, which are constantly changing the 'memories', imagination and re-imagination of the desires of the human species, also influence it. These desires for collective dignity and respect both as desires in themselves and as vehicles to secure and protect first-order needs have been articulated by David Mitrany's Functional theory of politics. However, in his work, A Working Peace System (1946), Mitrany missed the human and political preconditions and contingencies of Functionalism. He failed to recognise that needs and desires while central in the evolution of political communities cannot by themselves guarantee the success of such communities. In the case of the African continent and its people, it is the authentic articulation of Functionalism, based on the Spiritual basis of identity - the 'cyclical' link between 'the living dead - (ancestors)" 'the living - (present generations), and 'the many generations (future children) yet to be born' and their relationship to the geographical space - called Homeland, - what I have described as Ntu, which forms the African conception of nationality that facilitates success. Therefore, the success of African Political Communities is only possible on the basis of satisfied needs and placated desires which incorporate a Spiritual basis of identity, - what I have described as 'physiological security'. Thus, a circle is drawn, both in this theoretical statement and also, in the framework of African political history that has escaped what I have called the prevailing paradigm of African discourse. The framework, which I illustrate in this thesis, would make more rigorous the teHing of African History - which I agree, has become more sympathetic and elegant (Davidson, 1994: Oliver, 1991). The thesis introduces an African-centred social science paradigm with International Relations - IR as a discipline, at its centre, based on Understanding Africa through the marrying of a macro International Relations (IR) approach and the concerns of micro historical sociologies. This stands as an alternative to those approaches which, aim at explaining the continent as a site of resistance to an external world. The project also introduces a theory of Functional politics aimed at African continental integration based on the ideals of the African Economic Community - AEC (Abuja) Treaty of 1991.
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Habiyakare, Evariste. "A long way to the rainbow country : understanding the foreign market expansion process of Finnish corporations into the Republic of South Africa between 1990 and 2005 /." Åbo : Åbo Akademis förlag, 2009. http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-765-472-2.
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Meyer, Christa. "Can gender come to the rescue of foreign policy? : an exploration into the ways in which the (mis)understanding of gender influences the making of foreign policy." Thesis, Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10019.1/52725.
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Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This paper attempts to provide a broad theoretical background of the ways in which gender has informed the making of foreign policy. It examines the various types of feminism in the zo" century and how they complement each other, criticize each other and have contributed to critical political debate. Realism as the dominant political paradigm of the zo" century comes under scrutiny and it is shown how it abets and supports male domination by cloaking it in neutral language and institutions that appear neutral. Foreign policy objectives are often linked to the national interest, which in itself is a problematic and contested concept. Foreign policy makers face new challenges today as the political landscape changes, often driven by multinational corporations who dictate the rules of political engagement. Not only has the international political arena changed drastically in the zo" century, but so has the domestic arena. Studies in foreign policy attitudes show marked differences along gender lines. Most studies focus on the pacifist attitudes of women, but this paper goes on to show how gendered theories of security, globalization, the environment and human rights could inform foreign policy makers and others who shape foreign policy agendas.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis poog om 'n bree teoretiese agtergrond te skep van die wyses waarin gender (geslag as 'n konstruksie) die skep van buitelandse beleid beinvloed. Dit bestudeer die verskeie tipes feminisme in die 20ste eeu en hoe hulle mekaar komplimenteer, mekaar kritiseer en bygedra het tot kritiese politieke debat. Realisme as die dominante paradigma van die 20ste eeu word noukeurig bestudeer en daar word gewys hoe hierdie paradigma manlike dominasie ondersteun deur dit te vermom in neutrale taal en instellings wat neutraal voorkom. Buitelandse beleid word dikwels gekoppel aan die nasionale belang wat op sigself 'n problematiese konsep is. Weens die veranderende internasionale politieke arena staar makers van buitelandse beleid nuwe uitdagings in die gesig, veral omdat multinasionale maatskappye dikwels die die reels van die spel bepaal. Studies toon dat gevoelens en houdings oor spesifieke buitelandse beleidskwessies dikwels verskillend vir mans en vrouens manifesteer. Meeste studies fokus op die ondersteuning van vrouens van vrede in kontras met geweld en oorlog. Hierdie tesis gaan verder deur te wys hoe 'gendered' teoriee van sekuriteit, globalisering, die omgewing en menseregte moontlik die skeppers van buitelandse beleid kan beinvloed.
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Aloudah, Haitham Saad. "Understanding the sources of Turkish foreign policy change towards the Middle East during the Justice and Development Party (AKP) era : an empirical examination." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10871/25220.
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Since the Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) victory and government in 2002, Turkey entered a new phase in its history and witnessed major changes in all social, economic, and political aspects. Turkish foreign policy went through huge transformations and the new AKP government was able to revolutionise Turkey’s international position. In particular, relations with Middle Eastern countries have tremendously improved and Turkish interests and role have been growing ever since. This thesis investigates the sources of change in Turkish foreign policy since 2002 towards the Middle East, focusing on the role of the AKP (Justice and Development Party) as a ruling party in particular on the changes it went through in the first ten years from 2002 to early 2012. The significant changes in Turkish foreign policy appeared under the AKP government became one of the most debated issues in this field and created a puzzle that many scholars attempted to explain. Therefore, the thesis engages in recent debates between the different scholars and analysts in the literature and argues that there is a need for a more inclusive approach that can recognize the complex and multilateral nature of the Turkish case. The aim is to assess and evaluate the plausibility of the available competing explanations in the literature in explaining such foreign policy outcomes. Therefore, the thesis borrows and builds on the works of Alexander George & Andrew Bennet (2005), and Derek Beach & Rasmus Pedersen (2013) by adopting the Process Tracing Methodology, which helps to facilitate a better critical analysis and systematic evaluation of the selected explanations. The results of this thesis demonstrate that single factor based explanations actually drive researchers away from achieving a comprehensive explanation and only help provide a partial picture. Therefore, the best way to go forward is by adopting a much more inclusive and multiple factors based approach recognising the important opportunity that foreign policy theories offer in looking at the Turkish case from different perspectives. The results of this thesis suggest that the best way for understanding Turkish foreign policy change is by recognizing the multiple roles of domestic and international economic, political,and ideational sources, as well as the role of policy makers, particularly that of Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ahmet Davutoglu. The contribution of this thesis lies within its analysis bringing the wide range of explanations in the literature together, exploring and summarizing the vast number of data in a more simplified manner, and examining the value and plausibility of the competing explanation to try and arrive at the most comprehensive explanation, all under one piece of work. Therefore, this thesis establishes a useful foundation for researchers to adopt and take forward in future studies.
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Mirtaheri, Seyed Ahmad. "Transnational Capitalism and the Middle East: Understanding the Transnational Elites of the Gulf Cooperation Council." FIU Digital Commons, 2016. http://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/2607.
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In this dissertation, I argue that transnational elites within the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have been integrated within a Transnational Capitalist Class (TCC) economically, militarily and politically through relationships that transcend the boundaries of the nation-state. These relationships exist within the context of a global capitalist structure of accumulation that is dependent on the maintenance of a repressive state apparatus in the GCC. There have been few attempts to analyze the relationships that Middle Eastern political and economic elites have developed with global elite networks. This work fills an important gap in the scholarly literature by linking the political and economic power of the GCC elites to transnational capitalist class actors in the U.S. and Western Europe. The TCC is comprised of actors who derive their wealth and power from ownership of production or financial activities on a global scale. The embeddedness of GCC elites within the TCC came with the de-centralization of capital accumulation occurring from the 1970s through the present that has linked regional and local capitalists to the ownership activities of transnational capitalist firms. The GCC is an important case study for analyzing the structure and consequences the current phase of globalization due to its relative vi importance in providing resources and financing for transnational globalization. Therefore this project contributes to our assessment of the role played by transnational elites in the GCC and the regional and global consequences of their power struggles based in part on a theoretical framework derived from Neo-Gramscianism.
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Hanova, Selbi. "Understanding Central Asian cooperation through state narratives : cases of Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan." Thesis, University of St Andrews, 2017. http://hdl.handle.net/10023/11096.
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This thesis examines the influence of state identity narratives on regional cooperation frameworks in Central Asia. It applies the perspectives of ontological security theory to the self-articulation of state identities of Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan to decipher socialization mechanisms in each of the cases. Consequently, it traces the routinization of the state narratives of Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan toward the region and regional organizations. Ontological security theory argues that, in addition to physical security, states seek ideational security, security of identity and security of being. Using a grounded theory approach to study the formation of the state narratives of Kyrgyzstan and of Turkmenistan and utilizing official and media sources and interviews conducted during fieldwork, the thesis analyzes the process of routinization of state identity narratives, showcasing the narrators, the narratives and the processes of self-articulation. The key process that is traced is the routinization of the state narratives, i.e. the sequence of repeated actions (inter-textualized through speech acts and textual references) that transform the self-articulated stories of the states into the realm of the habitual. This process of routinization is then analyzed within the regional context, examining how these routinized narratives influence inter-state cooperation in Central Asia. As such, the thesis contributes to two main bodies of literature: the growing literature on the ideational aspects of regional cooperation in Central Asia; and existing research on the role of state identification practices in the foreign policies of Central Asian states.
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Sivets, Ala. "Discovering the understanding of host society's role in sociocultural integration with refugees in Sweden." Thesis, Uppsala universitet, Teologiska institutionen, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-424974.
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In 2015, Sweden was one of the exemplary member states of the European Union that took in a disproportionate number of refugees. Five years later, Sweden has adopted much stricter migration policies restricting access to residence permits and citizenship. The focus has shifted to integration policies aimed at including refugees in the host society. Integration has become widely accepted as a process that is primarily a proactive adaptation and assimilation on the side of the newcomers, rather than a dynamic two-way process. Moreover, this paper argues that integration has largely been reduced to the socio-economic dimension and ignored the sociocultural dimension that is central to the integration process. Using Axel Honneth’s Theory of Recognition as a theoretical base to understand the importance of sociocultural dialogue and interpersonal integration, this paper shines a light on the problematics of current integration policies and its effects. Using empirical research this paper aims to explore the host societies understanding of integration and using Foucauldian discourse analysis the theoretical framework andSaid’s Orientalist critique, expose an underlying power dynamic between host-society and newcomers. Shining light both on governance and socio-cultural dynamics, this paper explores the gap left in sociocultural integration through the lack of dialogue and solidarity has affected the social reality of immigrants in Sweden.
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Almström, Knut Albin Pär. "The 'Strategic Actor' and Public Security Strategy : A theoretically explorative study of how the concept of strategic actor can be developed, to increase understanding of states' and intergovernmental organizations' strategic reasoning." Thesis, Försvarshögskolan, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-5430.
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With the aim of contributing one aspect to the international relations enterprise of understanding the grounds for security policy action, this essay makes a theoretical exploration of the basis for security strategy-making on the political level, with the aid of a multidisciplinary framework for analysis (combining research on strategy, narratives and role theory). Developing the concept of strategic actor by assessing its constitution through aspects of strategic theory (e.g. theories of action), role enactment, and strategic narratives, enables the study to construct an analytical tool which can be utilized to assess the strategic reasoning of actors within international relations. This analytical tool is tested for relevance by being employed to empirically analyse public security strategies of states and intergovernmental organizations as presumed strategic actors. Empirical analysis guided by the framework for analysis is conducted vis-à-vis a selection of security strategies (a.k.a. strategic concepts) between 2000 and 2010, of state-actors: the Russian Federation, the United States, the United Kingdom, and IGO-actors: the European Union and NATO. The essay increases the understanding of strategic actors’ strategy-making in general and security strategy-making in particular. The findings augment the understanding of the complex choices facing political units if they aim to credibly cast themselves as a strategic actor – at least regarding the aspect of reasoning strategically – as well as shedding some more light on the particular policy material that security strategies represents.
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Weissmann, Mikael. "Understanding the East Asian Peace : Informal and formal conflict prevention and peacebuilding in the Taiwan Strait, the Korean Peninsula, and the South China Sea 1990-2008." Doctoral thesis, University of Gothenburg, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:fhs:diva-5166.
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The overall purpose of this dissertation is to provide an empirical study of the post-Cold War EastAsian security setting, with the aim of understanding why there is an East Asian peace. The EastAsian peace exists in a region with a history of militarised conflicts, home to many of the world'slongest ongoing militarised problems and a number of unresolved critical flashpoints. Thus, thepost-Cold War East Asian inter-state peace is a paradox. Despite being a region predicted to be ripefor conflict, there have not only been less wars than expected, but the region also shows severalsigns of a development towards a more durable peace. The dominant research paradigm –neorealism – has painted a gloomy picture of post-Cold War East Asia, with perpetual conflictsdominating the predictions. Other mainstream international relations theories, too, fail to accountfully for the relative peace. One of the greatest problems for mainstream theories, is accounting forpeace given East Asia's lack of security organisations or other formalised conflict managementmechanisms. Given this paradox/problem, this dissertation sets out to ask "Why is there a relativepeace in the East Asian security setting despite an absence of security organisations or otherformalised mechanisms to prevent existing conflicts from escalating into violence?" In order to answer this question, the case of East Asian peace is approached by comparingthree embedded case studies within the region: the Taiwan issue, the South China Sea, and theKorean nuclear conflict. It explores the full range of informal and formal processes plus the ConflictPrevention and Peacebuilding Mechanisms (CPPBMs) that have been important for the creation ofa continuing relative peace in East Asia between 1990 and 2008. The study furthermore focuses onChina's role in the three cases, on an empirical basis consisting of interviews conducted with keypersons during more than 1.5 years fieldwork in China. The three cases show that informal processes exist, and that they have furthermore beenimportant for peace, both by preventing conflicts from escalating into war, and by buildingconditions for a stable longer-term peace. Their impact on the persistence of peace has been tracedto a range of different CPPBMs. Returning to the level of the East Asian case, a common feature ofmany of the identified processes is that they can be understood as aspects or manifestations of theEast Asian regionalisation process. Specifically, elite interactions (personal networks, track twodiplomacy), back-channel negotiations, economic interdependence and integration, and functionalcooperation have together with (China's acceptance of) multilateralism and institutionalisation (ofpeaceful relations) been of high importance for the relative peace. Whereas formalised conflictmanagement mechanisms and the U.S. presence have also contributed to peace, this dissertationshows their contribution to be much more limited.
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Attaallah, Israa Maher. "Understanding Parenting Challenges in a Migration Context : A qualitative study on Arabic‐speaking immigrant parents´ experiences of raising their children while integrating in Sweden." Thesis, Linköpings universitet, Institutionen för tema, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-171202.
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Experiences of parenting in migration contexts undergo particular changes that develop various challenges. This qualitative study aims at exploring challenges and concerns of Arabic-speaking immigrant parents in Sweden regarding parenting while integrating into a migration context that differs from their own upbringing. Moreover, the study sheds light on how those challenges are negotiated. In order to answer my research questions, six parents, representing four families, were qualitatively interviewed and the collected data was thematically analysed. The results of this study show that Arabic-speaking immigrant parents face the following main challenges: ´acquisition of new knowledge about the host society´s language and culture´, ´balancing parents´ responsibilities inside and outside their houses´ and finally the ´lack of social network´. The results also emphasise that parenting challenges in migration contexts need intensified and productive cooperation between immigrant families and different parties in host societies to achieve the best interests of immigrant children and parents. Participants, in general, reflect an eagerness to implement their traditional parenting practices in ways that do not contradict to the standard parenting practices in the Swedish context. Finally, this study implies immigrant parents´ need to be recognised in host societies through respecting them and their children and considering their qualifications and the circumstances they have experienced before, during and after migration.
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Collard-Wexler, Simon. "Understanding Resistance to Foreign Occupation." Thesis, 2013. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8BZ6D8M.
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There have been some 163 foreign occupations since 1900. In many cases, military occupations have led to bloody and protracted resistance, while in most cases occupiers faced little resistance at all. This dissertation seeks to answer the puzzle: under what conditions do foreign occupations produce consequential resistance? Conventional wisdom holds that resistance is driven by nationalism. However, states exhibit different levels of resistance to different occupiers, indicating that not only the nature of the occupied but also the nature and the policies of occupiers play a role. Specifically, I look at the role of political dislocation and trust. First, domestic groups that would have otherwise waited out the occupation may be driven to resistance when occupiers implement policies or establish institutions that permanently weaken their relative domestic position, what I call political dislocation. Second, resistance will be muted when occupiers can credibly commit to treating the population benignly and vacating occupied territory promptly. I argue that democracies, international organizations, and co-religionists are better able to make credible commitments and therefore more likely to elicit trust among occupied communities. Conversely, occupiers that victimize the occupied population will face greater resistance. I test these hypotheses on an original dataset of occupier fatalities in every occupation since 1900. Drawing on geospatial data, I then conduct a sub-national quantitative and qualitative study of resistance in Afghanistan. Finally, in order to ensure that these findings are generalizable, I conduct a set of case studies comparing the Soviet and German occupations of Lithuania; the Vietnamese and UN occupations of Cambodia; and the Syrian, Multinational, UN, and Israeli occupations of Lebanon. I find that political dislocation, in the form of forceful regime change, increases the likelihood of resistance. I also find that occupations led by democracies, international organizations, and co-religionists are generally less likely to face resistance. Thus, the nature and context of occupation are some of the most important predictors of resistance.
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Pischedda, Costantino. "Wars Within Wars: Understanding Inter-rebel Fighting." Thesis, 2015. https://doi.org/10.7916/D81J993B.
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Why do rebel groups frequently fight each other rather than cooperating against their common enemy – the state? This dissertation presents a theory of inter-rebel war and tests it with a combination of case studies and statistical analysis.
The theory conceives of inter-rebel war as a calculated response by rebel groups to opportunities for expansion and threats generated by the civil war environment in which they operate. Insurgent organizations attack weaker coethnic groups when government forces only pose a limited threat (i.e., when they face a window of opportunity), so as to eliminate potentially threatening rivals and acquire more resources to be used against the state. Additionally, rebel groups resort to force in desperate attempts to deal with a mounting threat posed by coethnic groups or a drastic deterioration of their power relative to other groups (i.e., when they face a window of vulnerability).
Rebel groups’ cost-benefit calculus about infighting is powerfully influenced by whether they are facing coethnic insurgent organizations. Coethnic rebel groups’ overlapping mobilization bases make it possible for an organization to take over the resources (in particular, recruitment pools and tax bases) of defeated rivals and consequently improve their chances in the fight against the government. Thus coethnicity amplifies both defensive and aggressive motives for inter-rebel war.
This dissertation adopts a mixed-method approach, combining case studies and statistical analysis. My three main case studies are the Kurdish rebellions against Iraq (1961-1988), the Eritrean war of national liberation (1961-1991) and the insurgencies in Ethiopia’s Tigray province (1975-1991). These case studies combine secondary literature with primary sources collected during fieldwork in Iraq, Ethiopia and several European countries – including fifty-four semi-structured interviews with forty former insurgent leaders, their memoirs, and archival materials.
In order to assess the generalizability of my argument across a variety of historical, geographical and political contexts, I also conducted shadow case studies of the civil wars in Lebanon (1975-89), Sri Lanka (1983-2009) and Syria (2011-), and analyzed an original panel dataset of all dyads of rebel groups pitted against the same government in multi-party civil wars in the period 1989-2011.
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Tindall, Karen. "Understanding and evaluating large-scale consular emergency response." Phd thesis, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/1885/149640.
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With increasingly mobile societies and greater global interconnectedness, international travel has become cheaper and more streamlined. The number of individuals travelling across increasingly permeable borders continues to grow. Large-scale consular emergencies occur when a large number of foreign nationals are under threat or in distress following a natural disaster, terrorist attack, or escalation of unrest abroad. Presented in a 'thesis by publication' format, this dissertation examines how governments, and in particular foreign ministries, respond to incidents abroad affecting a large number of foreign nationals; the strategic and operational challenges they face in implementing these responses; and how the 'consular' nature of this class of emergency that spans the domestic and international arena, shapes these challenges and response patterns. Drawing on data from Australia, Sweden and the United Kingdom, this dissertation examines the role and performance of foreign ministries during responses to three major incidents abroad: the 2002 Bali bombings, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and the 2006 evacuations from Lebanon. This dissertation sought to understand and evaluate government policies and practices with respect to large-scale consular emergency response, and draw attention to the foreign component of the typically domestic crisis management function of government. In the international environment of large-scale responses, governments have to work and contend with numerous actors. The scale of the emergency necessitates that bureaucracies engage in coordinated whole-of-government responses. Responses spanning both the domestic and international arena require coordinated action between foreign ministry headquarters and personnel abroad, and require cooperation with actors not normally involved in domestic emergencies. Managing distance in large-scale consular emergency responses encompasses more than physical and logistical distance. The challenge of assisting citizens whose emotions may be affected by the foreignness of the environment, or by feelings of connectedness despite the physical distance, necessitates a response that incorporates both pragmatism and compassion. Governments mounting large-scale responses also have to contend with the expectations of the citizenry, which often go beyond what governments are capable of delivering outside their national territories. Deconstructing large-scale consular emergency response into constituent challenges provides a framework in which to assess the responses. Large-scale consular emergencies test the limits of bureaucratic reach, highlight the relationship between the citizen and the state, and engage the political sphere with questions of how far a government should go to assist citizens. -- provided by Candidate.
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Imiola, Brian. "Morality and the national interest A convention-based account to understanding international relations /." 2007. http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1335360831&sid=1&Fmt=2&clientId=39334&RQT=309&VName=PQD.
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Thesis (Ph.D.)--State University of New York at Buffalo, 2007.Title from PDF title page (viewed on Nov. 13, 2007) Available through UMI ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Thesis adviser: Dipert, Randall R. Includes bibliographical references.
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Sakaria, Iipumbu. "Break with tradition: understanding Namibia's relations with the Bretton-Woods international financial institution." Thesis, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/10539/7381.
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Abstract
In 2003 the first President of the Republic of Namibia was relieved that Namibia had not taken a single penny from either the World Bank or the IMF3; as such, Namibia was one of the rare countries that had managed to do so since their independence. This scenario, unfortunately, came to an end in 2007 when Namibia officially requested a loan from the World Bank to start with the implementation of the ETSIP program4 and had thus broken its long and unusual record of not taking loans from the Bretton - Woods Institutions. This study, therefore, researched how and why Namibia stayed free from Bretton - Woods’ loans and why it eventually broke that tradition. The research found that Namibia had no economic crisis, whatsoever, warranting World Bank or IMF interventions; on the contrary, it strengthened a hypothesis advanced by Laila Smith5 suggesting that the World Bank uses its knowledge brokering role as a device to foster lending relationships with countries that initially refused to do so. The research therefore suggests that careful and informed engagement with the World Bank and IMF will be crucial if Namibia is to attain its developmental goals as outlined in its Vision 2030.
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Cho, Hyun Seung. "Understanding Institutional Power Politics: Theory, Method and a case of U.S.-China Competition." Thesis, 2018. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8TT53HM.
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Despite the common understanding that states compete over international institutions and jockey to define international order, our understanding of institutional power politics is underdeveloped. The dissertation sets out to answer three sets of questions relating to the specific areas that need developing – theory, methods and empirics. First, how do we think about the concepts of “power” and “international institutions”? And, how do states interact with each other in the competition over or with international institutions? Second, if institutional competition is a strategic interaction for which our current empirical knowledge is limited, how do we select cases to examine competitive processes between states? From the selected cases, what is the best way to test our theories of competitive processes while ensuring that our analysis contributes to the relatively thin empirical case knowledge? Finally, while we think the competition between U.S. and China is one of the key contemporary cases of states competing over international institutions, is the evolution of international institutions really a function of U.S.-China competition? If not, how does institutional competition work? Paper 1 deals exclusively with the exercise of building a comprehensive theory of institutional power politics. From the basic concepts to the specific strategic interactions of interstate competition over international institutions, the theory of institutional power politics challenges the long-held view in IR that international institutions are solutions to power politics and signifiers of an international politics that is more cooperative. The key idea in this paper comes from applying insights from defensive realism to the context of institutional competition with the institutional power dilemma. The theory highlights how even with the most benign and cooperative intentions, states may slide into power political dynamics over international institutions. Paper 2 develops two case study methods for examining competitive processes, or more broadly, “intensive processes” – streams of processual phenomena for which the conditions and eventual outputs are ontologically distinct or of lesser analytical interest. The prototypical case selection strategy provides guidelines for selecting cases for intensive processes where the universe of cases is often difficult to know in advance. The dual process tracing (DPT) method then provides a way by which a researcher can test theories of intensive processes as well as provide substantive knowledge about the selected prototypical case. The two methods developed in this paper provide an alternative way to think about political phenomena beyond the dominant covariational and mechanismic approaches in political science research. Paper 3 is the first theoretically driven empirical examination of the prototypical case of institutional competition – “U.S.-TPP vs. China-RCEP.” The paper tests the common understanding that TPP and RCEP is a product of the intentional competition between U.S. and China. The paper finds, however, that the competition is generated from mechanisms of misperception, uncertainty and poor signaling of intentions from both countries. The paper thus offers a powerful revision to the current understanding of the TPP-RCEP case and also theoretically arrives at a defensive realist model of unintended institutional competition. The paper concludes by identifying a number of overlooked policy implications for contemporary U.S.-China relations and institution building in East Asia.
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Snideman, Samuel S. ""I'm the Decider": Understanding Foreign Policy Decisions in America." 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-05-617.
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Scholars have long been interested in how presidents make decisions in foreign
policy. Often, the theories about foreign policy decision making focus on the choice to
use or not use one particular foreign policy tool. Many studies often ignore or underplay
the importance of domestic politics to foreign policy decisions. In this thesis, I ask how
do American presidents choose which foreign policy tool to use in a given situation? I
propose a domestic politics-based explanation, relying on presidential ideology,
performance of the domestic economy, divided government, and the electoral clock. I
use a simultaneous equations framework to model the choice between using "sticks" (i.e.
military force and economic sanctions) and "carrots" (economic aid and military aid).
The results provide qualified support for the domestic politics theory. Domestic
politics matters for some types of foreign policy decisions but not for others. Presidential
ideology and domestic economic performance condition presidential decisions to use
force. Election timing is also important; presidents choose to use less politically costly
foreign policy tools late in their term. The results also demonstrate that there is a
connection between the decision to use military force and to use economic sanctions.
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Kaoutzanis, Christodoulos. "Understanding the United Nations Security Council’s Decisions to Initiate Atrocities Investigations." Thesis, 2016. https://doi.org/10.7916/D89Z94SV.
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Since the end of the Cold War, the United Nations Security Council (‘UNSC’) has taken a leading role in investigating atrocities. Yet, the UNSC has only investigated atrocities committed in eleven out of the ninety-two states that have experienced atrocities during this period. This dissertation examines the reasons behind this disparity. To do so, this dissertation examines how past studies on atrocities investigations do not account for the work of the UNSC in this field, and how past studies on the UNSC cannot explain its actions on atrocities investigations. Instead, by relying on historical records and interviews with decision-makers, this dissertation argues that the UNSC’s decisions on which atrocities to investigate are committee projects, which can only be understood through the prism of the UNSC’s decision-making process. Because of the constraints imposed by the UNSC process, an atrocities investigation will take place only after (i) a diplomat brings specific atrocities to the attention of the UNSC, (ii) an independent commission of inquiry supports the creation of an atrocities investigation, and (iii) the UNSC members become comfortable with the text of the authorizing resolution. This dissertation examines the political decisions behind each of these three steps and highlights how the decision-making process guides and influences the UNSC’s actions. By doing so, it provides an explanation on the aforementioned double standard in the UNSC’s work vis-à-vis atrocities.
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Kwan, Y. W. Covina. "Understanding Canadian-Chinese University Partnerships through The Confucius Institute." Thesis, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/1807/35561.
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There are currently over 300 Confucius Institutes in nearly 100 countries around the world. The fast rise of the Confucius Institute since its inception in 2004 has attracted attention from both political and academic arenas. Recent research on the Confucius Institute has focused on China's goal to increase its soft power through this establishment. The objective of this Master's thesis is to explore the nature of the partnership between Chinese and Canadian universities through the Confucius Institute. Specifically, three Canadian Confucius Institutes are selected for the case studies. This interdisciplinary research uses Constructivism from International Relations and Internationalization of Higher Education as the theoretical framework for analysis. Data collection involves interviewing key administrative staff from each site along with a review of secondary resources such as online and print literature. Significance of key findings and suggestions for future research are provided in the conclusion of this thesis.
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Gallo, Andrew A. "Understanding Military Doctrinal Change During Peacetime." Thesis, 2018. https://doi.org/10.7916/D8709HB9.
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This study examines processes of military doctrinal change during periods of peace. Given the conventional wisdom of hidebound bureaucratic military organizations, why do these organizations innovate doctrinally? Rather than conduct competitive hypothesis testing between two or more theories of military innovation or pursue a heretofore undiscovered monocausal theory, I develop and test a theoretical framework that synthesizes more than one approach to military doctrinal innovation. I use this framework to conduct a structured, focused, case-study comparison of two military organizations - the U.S. Army and the U.S. Marine Corps - from the post-World War II period until 2001. The study yields seven findings. First, the systemic causes of military doctrinal innovation are best described by balance of threat theory. Second, contrary to the existing literature, civilian intervention is not a necessary or sufficient cause of doctrinal innovation. Third, militaries consistently strive to establish a monopoly over warfare in a particular jurisdictional domain. Fourth, the frequency of military doctrinal change is a function of the complexity of the strategic problem that doctrine is designed to solve. Fifth, the complexity of the cases studied supports the argument that monocausal explanations fail to account for the interaction of multiple variables that affect doctrinal innovation. Sixth, military doctrinal innovation during peacetime is not anomalous because military organizations constantly revise their theories of victory as threats change in the external environment. Finally, the existence of doctrinal institutions creates a norm for a reliance on military doctrine.