Esta dissertação aborda a dimensão geopolítica associada à cultura historiográfica luso-americana no início do século XVIII. Para tanto, examina as produções historiográficas da Academia Brasílica dos Esquecidos, instituída na cidade de Salvador, no ano de 1724. As Dissertações Históricas, produzidas pela dita Academia, assim como as obras de Sebastião da Rocha Pita, Tratado Político e História da América Portuguesa, constituíram as principais fontes para análise. O processo de investigação possibilitou considerar representações sociais que se estabeleceram a partir da atividade de escrita de uma história acerca dos domínios ultramarinos lusitanos. A construção desse conhecimento foi estratégica para a realização de um projeto político e articulou a memória, saberes e práticas diplomáticas, num contexto permeado de mudanças nas concepções jurídicas e intelectuais que embasavam as disputas territoriais. Inseriu-se, assim, no plano das políticas interna e externa de Portugal ao longo dos séculos XVII e XVIII. Nesse processo, estiveram envolvidas concepções clássicas revisitadas a partir da cultura ilustrada, rediscutindo simbologias, conceitos e práticas associadas à escrita da história e às territorialidades. / This dissertation is on the geopolitical dimension associated to the early eighteenth century Luso-American historiographical culture. Therefore, it examines the historiographical works of the Academia Brasílica dos Esquecidos, instituted in Salvador, Brazil, in 1724. The Historical Dissertations, elaborated by the Academy members, as well as the works of Sebastião da Rocha Pita, Tratado Político e História da América Portuguesa, constituted the main sources for analysis. The investigation process made it possible to consider social representations settled from the activity of writing History about Portugal\'s overseas domains. The construction of this knowledge was strategic for the realization of a political project and articulated the memory and the diplomatic practices, in a context of juridical and intellectual shifts concerning the territorial order. The Academy was inserted in the field of the internal and external policies of Portugal throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In this process, classical categories were revisited, giving new meanings to symbols, concepts, and practices associated with the writing of History and with the territorialities.

L'apogée de l'Empire britannique au milieu du XIXe siècle coïncide, au niveau économique, avec le début d'une période de libre-échange qui s'est progressivement imposé comme une doctrine centrale et comme un facteur essentiel de la puissance britannique. Organisés autour de la City, les réseaux du commerce et de la finance internationale se sont transformés en un instrument géopolitique pour l'expansion territoriale de l'Empire. L'intersection entre les dimensions économiques et les aspects stratégiques a constitué l'élément fondamental du projet de la nation britannique, offrant ainsi un lien entre l'histoire intérieure et l'histoire extérieure du Royaume-Uni. Fruit de la Pax Britannica, ce lien n'a été que partiellement remis en question par la Première Guerre mondiale. Celle-ci a toutefois contribué à créer les conditions économiques et politiques qui finiront par produire un nouveau projet pour la nation britannique. / The pinnacle of the British Empire in the middle of the XIX th century coincides with the beginning of an era of economic free-trade that progressively stood out as a crucial doctrine and as an essential factor of British power. Organized by the City, the networks of the commerce and the international finance became a geopolitical instrument for the imperial territorial expansion. The junction between the economic dimensions and the strategic considerations was the central element of the British national project, offering a link between the domestic history and the foreign history of the United-Kingdom. Borne during the Pax Britanica, this link was but partially questioned by the First World War, which, contributed, however, to create the political and economic conditions that will lead to a new project for the British nation.

This dissertation analyzes the relevance and importance of small buffer states for contemporary International Relations. It argues that sub-systemic interactions reinvigorate the role of buffer states in regional security. Using the case study of the triadic relationship among India, Nepal, and China, this study explains the evolving role of buffer states. The technological innovations in weapons systems, transportation, and communication have extended the reach of potential adversaries, rendering intermediate territorial space less significant than in the past. Thus, it is hypothesized in this dissertation that increased sub-systemic rivalry reinvigorates differently the relevance and significance of buffer states. The role of such states has evolved from an overwhelmingly geographic concept based on spatial discontinuity between larger rival powers to that of a fluid political space in which Great/Middle Power rivalry and competition play out. The research utilizes a mixed research design, specifically called the convergent parallel design. Data was collected based on specific critical junctures between 1990-2017. For quantitative analysis, data on trade, foreign direct investment, and foreign aid were collected; for the qualitative data analysis, foreign policy statements, press releases, and media briefs were used. Incorporating the Kruskal-Wallis Test and content analysis, both the results of the qualitative and quantitative analyses were collectively interpreted. Results demonstrate that during critical historical junctures, material and rhetorical engagements of both China and India invigorate within the buffer state of Nepal. In periods that India increases its material and rhetorical engagements, China concomitantly decreases its material engagement all the while increasing its rhetorical engagement. In essence, buffer states maintain relevance through the externalization of interactions between larger powers in the form of dynamic rhetorical and material engagements. In this case, Nepal maintains its relevance as a dynamic political space for interactions between its neighbors, India and China.

En s’appuyant sur le cas d’Asie centrale, cette thèse a pour ambition de comprendre les principes, les mécanismes et le fondement du processus de la politique étrangère européenne actuelle par lesquels l’Union européenne s’efforce de construire une politique de « grand voisinage ». L’objectif central est de savoir si l’Union est en mesure de construire des relations stables et cohérentes avec un espace stratégique et dans un environnement géopolitique complexe, au­delà de sa politique européenne de voisinage. Il s’agit donc d’un cas d’étude sur le savoir­faire de l’Europe dans le monde. Notre étude a montré que l'UE essaie d'exercer son influence en prenant un rôle de « consultant ». Elle se présente comme un acteur inoffensif qui agit en dehors de tout enjeu géopolitique et qui offre son expertise. Ainsi, elle prend consciemment la position d'un acteur de second rang. Cependant, nous avons argumenté que sa vision de la région ainsi que son approche sont tout à fait de nature géopolitique, ce que l’UE dénie pourtant. Quant à son influence réelle, elle est limitée notamment en ce qui concerne sa politique normative (promotion de droits de l’homme, et d’état de droit). Bien que l'UE ne soit pas en mesure de rivaliser avec les autres acteurs dans la région (Russie, Chine), elle a pourtant des avantages comparatifs: elle est perçue comme inoffensive et occupe les domaines de sécurité qui sont négligés par les autres acteurs (la gouvernance, les conflits liés à l’eau et la gestion des frontières), jouant ainsi, certes d’acteur indispensable. / Central Asia is a region beyond the EU’s direct neighborhood and thus an area that allows the EU to demonstrate its desire to enter the global political stage where it needs to cope with other great powers and to pursue its own strategic interests. However, the Central Asian republics have shown little interest for European transition assistance and political norms, unlike other post­communist countries in Europe’s orbit. Hence, the central question of our study was thus: How does the EU exert influence in such a challenging geopolitical context? Our empirical results suggest that the EU tries to exert influence in such environment by consciously taking the position of a second­tier actor who acts as a “consultant”, rather than a power, and whose influence is confined to niche domains in the security sphere. The EU is eager to project a picture of itself as an honest broker with no geopolitical agenda in order to enhance its legitimacy; however, its vision of Central Asia being its ‘far neighborhood’ and the related approach unveils the geopolitical nature of its policies through which the EU tries to shape its close and wider environment. However, the EU struggles to put into effect its normative agenda beyond the EU’s direct neighborhood where other normative actors’ influence (Russia, China) exceeds that of the EU. The EU is not a great power in the region that is capable of competing with other external actors. Nor it is willing to become one. It does, however, have comparative advantages in being perceived as inoffensive and for occupying areas that are neglected by the other actors, thus playing the role of a niche actor, albeit an indispensable one.

Housing, while a necessity of ???life???, goes beyond this definition in this research to also become a technology of government in the domestic distributional geopolitics of nation-states. Employing a Foucaultian approach to power and governance, this research examines how the provision of housing assistance was used in the government of rural public housing communities. Data for this research were collected through a series of archival resources that focused specifically on the transitional periods of 1935-1955 and 1985-2005. Data were also gathered through a questionnaire and interviews with public housing tenants and staff from four towns (Griffith, Cootamundra, Junee and Tumut) in the ???Riverina??? region of south-western New South Wales (NSW), Australia. This research makes five contributions to geographical understandings of distributional politics. First, the thesis contends that poststructuralist theoretical approaches to the analysis of power and governance enable innovative critical engagements with the distributional geopolitical agendas of governmental processes. The research also found that the distributional geopolitical agendas of Governments have been pursued through more than just the redistribution of fiscal resources, but also include the redistribution of human resources. In particular, housing assistance has been, and is used today, to perpetuate certain internal migration patterns to aid this human-distributional agenda. Third, the study argues that ??? while the broad shift to advanced liberal forms of government have resulted in changes to how distributional geopolitical agendas are pursued ??? ???distribution??? remains an integral feature of the geopolitical objectives of those who seek to govern in advanced liberal ways. This work also shows how these new advanced liberal distributional objectives remain open to being problematised and/or resisted at the local scale. However, while such governmental processes are always uncertain and open to contestation, these changes have brought about a new set of ethical and political consequences. We need to be alert to and critical of the ways in which these new distributional geopolitical agendas impact on our own and others??? ???freedoms???.

<p>The aim of this essay is to analyze the political interests of the United States Government in Turkey, from 1997 to spring 2007, using a qualitative method. I will also analyze any strategic changes during this period, by using theories of realism, particularly Structure Realism and Rational Choice. Using the Rational Actor Model (RAM), I will analyze how nation states such as the United States act in the political arena in Turkey. How can the US Government legitimize the support to Turkey and at the same time criticize there democratic deficit and their view on human rights. Turkey has been an American Military Ally, via NATO since 1952 and its demographic situation has changed since the Cold War. Turkey is located at the crossroads of the Eastern Islamic and Western Christian worlds, which complicates the situation. In addition 99% of the Turkish population is Muslim and only 1% is Christian, which has affected the development of relationships during the past decade, especially dramatic after September 11, 2001 when the United States focused on threats from Islamic Fundamentalist Groups. The RAM treats governments as unitary rational actors in the broader strategic environment when they calculate and prefer one political alternative to another. The RAM can be used to determine whether and how political actors, in this case the US Government work towards a maximized goal. Hierarchical position in structural realism is also interesting - the bandwagon alternative - which means that states jumps on either the strongest bandwagon or the actor that can guarantee the security of other states. In conclusion from a RAM perspective the analyze shows that the political interests of the US government had changed from a economic-strategic interest before September 11, 2001 to a more security-strategic interest after September 11, 2001. The US Government by using Turkey as military allied had focused on there national goals in Euro Asia trying to guarantee both Turkeys and US economy strategic security during this period. Especially buy controlling the oil and gas from the Caspian Sea. Turkey has also got the leading role and the mission of guaranteeing the peace and democratic development to secure an area of different cultures and religions in there neighbourhood.</p><p>Keywords: Turkey, US, strategic, military, economy, energy, oil, gas, EU, Cyprus, human rights, Euro Asia, geopolitics, interests</p>

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the US Central Eurasia Policy in the period between 1991 and 2006. Within this context, the purpose is to figure out the foremost motive behind the US&rsquo / s strategic engagement in the region with a due regard to changing geopolitical context with the demise of the Soviet Union. The main argument rests upon the assumption that the US regional policy is primarily motivated by geopolitical imperatives as the Central Eurasian region becomes the primary springboard for the attainment of global supremacy. Within this respect, energy is only one aspect of the ongoing geopolitical competition. That the geopolitical priorities are preponderant to geoeconomic interests are basically observed by the intense geostrategic struggle over dominating the prospective oil and gas pipelines from the region. Eventually, within the confines of this thesis, it is deduced that the ultimate parameters of the geopolitical struggle, the framework of which was specified by the United States, have revealed themselves more explicitly in the aftermath of the September 11, which only reinforced the strategic significance of Central Eurasia in coping with the new geopolitical fault lines of the 21st century. Within this regard, Central Eurasia has transformed into an implicit geostrategic standoff between the United States on the one hand, and Russia and China on the other. Accordingly, the fact that the United States could by no means remain complacent about the fate of Central Eurasia against such a backdrop of high geopolitical fluidity in the overall Eurasian continent is most relevant to the possibility of rising potential aspirants for global dominance that would challenge the United States in the long term.

This thesis aims to discuss the argument of exhaustion of economic globalization as an American foreign policy principle. This study argues that economic globalization is intended to restore declining American hegemony started in 1970s, but it has eventually given way to the argument of &ldquo / return of the geopolitics&rdquo / . The return of the geopolitics is an imperial, expansionist drive as a new foreign policy imperative for United States. The new developments in the international arena in the post-cold war era and especially after the September 11, 2001 brought the end of the globalization as an American project. Globalization is replaced with geopolitics in the transition period from hegemony to empire in United States foreign policy. Because there are new threats for United States in the twenty-first century such as the rise of new global actors in world politics or international competition for oil resources in the strategic regions of the world. In this framework, this study focuses on the rise of new, alternative &ldquo / great powers&rdquo / (European Union, China etc...).

In the social sciences, geopolitical theory is used in order to analyze states actions and commitments when it comes to foreign policy. This thesis develops a new understanding of geopolitical theory. Firstly, the development and application of geopolitical theory, from its foundations in the early twentieth century to contemporary geopolitical studies is discussed. Secondly a revised understanding of the variables integrated in the concept and how it can be operationalized as an analytical tool is presented and tested empirically.The critical assessment of the research field of geopolitical theory tells us that six different geopolitical perspectives have been considered the most influential (room, strategy, power projection, identity, affiliation and governance) when it comes to analyzing state action. This model is applied as an analytical tool and thus tested on a single case. The case study is an analysis of foreign policy discussions at the state level in Sweden. This has determined how the geopolitical perspectives function in relation to each other as well as presenting the need of new geopolitical perspectives, in order to understand a state’s foreign policies actions and commitments.The case study clearly shows the merits in using geopolitical perspectives and letting them interplay. The most important result, however, is that future studies needs to consider the connections between the six perspectives. The study has confirmed the need of an additional geopolitical perspective (ideology). Ideology as a seventh perspective addresses the issue of political intentions among a state’s representatives, and in that way helps to explain the dynamic connections between the other six geopolitical perspectives that influence states actions and commitments when it comes to foreign policy.

In this report I argue that during the independence wars from Spain and the first decade of republican rule, the learned elite of the viceroyalty of New Granada—present day Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, and Panama—articulated narratives of nature and science to debates over provincial hierarchies, to justify provincial unity, foreign commercial integration, and the creation of political symbols for the new polity. In the process of undoing the Spanish empire, the lettered elite conceived of their homeland’s natural bounties as key cultural capital, and as the language with which to frame their aspirations as political community, as part of a national polity or of regional patrias. By using newspapers, constitutional debates, scientific writings, and visual evidence, I place the elite’s sensibilities and concerns about their fatherland’s nature in the wider context of political transformations that took place from 1808 and on. In the first section, I explore eighteenth-century assessments of New Granada’s nature, offering an overview of key conceptions of New Granada’s geopolitical situation and nature that shaped the Creole imagination. In the second section, I characterize the reforms brought about by the Bourbon monarchy in New Granada, giving weight to the socialization of practices of the utility of science among the learned elite. The third section illustrates how Neogranadians deployed nature in assessing provincial fragmentation, and in the debate over the preeminence of Santafé as capital when the monarchic crisis exploded. The fourth section explores how nature was employed as an argument in debates over the integration of present-day Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador into a single republic, and the adoption of a federal or a central state. Finally, section five discusses the role of New Granada’s natural landmarks in discourses of provincial and foreign commercial integration, along with a reflection on the use of nature as political symbol for the new republic. My aim is to explore the ways that the lettered elite incorporated nature into geopolitical discourses of a polity separate from Spain, and to uncover the tensions embedded in the ways they imagined their desired nation. / text