Military spending briefly dipped in the early 1990s only to rebound by the end of the 20th century, yet policymakers and academics alike predicted a peace dividend if the cold war should end. What happened to this peace dividend? How do some countries actualize a peace dividend in a world that seems not to encourage one? Typically military spending is analyzed through lenses focusing on international politics, bureaucratic process, or domestic political economy. I argue that these three lenses have failed to account for some of the reasons military spending remains high in the post-cold war era. Utilizing sociological institutionalism and world models, I examine how the rules of the Washington consensus via the neo-liberal economic agenda and the national security exception promote high levels of military spending that the three main theories fail to recognize. This study particularly delves into the roles of states and transnational corporations in terms of competitiveness in the global political economy and privileges allotted to the military industry. My tests rely on fuzzy-set comparative qualitative analysis (fsQCA) as an innovative means for looking at necessary conditions as well as sufficient conjunctural causation through which countries can achieve a peace dividend in the post-cold war era.

This thesis examines the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union (AU) in light of the continental challenges of peace and security. It explores the prospects for the success of the PSC in its endeavours. The study’s central argument is that the PSC’s ability to successfully tackle peace and security challenges depends greatly on the cooperation of the fifteen members of the PSC as well as between the fifty-three African Union members and the international community at large, including the United Nations. This hypothesis is backed by the argument that although the PSC may be a practical translation of the theoretical statement that ‘African problems need African solutions’, the reality is that the PSC cannot achieve such an ambitious objective alone. The PSC’s enthusiasm should be bolstered by the requisite assistance from the international arena. The international community, especially the major players or countries in the international political spectrum, are challenged to work together with the PSC in its quest for African peace and security. The members of the international community are called upon to discontinue their parallel peace and security initiatives in Africa in favour of supporting and strengthening the PSC’s ongoing initiatives. Another critical point raised in the study is that the UN’s brief to cultivate world peace and security obliges it to buttress the PSC’s initiatives, the home-grown regional solutions to Africa’s inherent peace and security challenges. This support should include the UN’s engagement at all levels with the newly created African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). Indeed, the moral challenge for the international community is to support Africa’s already demonstrated political will with the necessary assistance. This study advocates political and economic cooperation, resource mobilisation and provision of the relevant expertise. The validity of the study’s hypothesis has been tested and confirmed by means of a deeper inquiry into the PSC’s normal business conduct, and a comparative analysis of the case studies relating to the PSC’s interventions in Burundi and in Sudan’s Darfur region. This study of those interventions has illuminated the PSC’s opportunities and challenges: on the one hand, it has revealed that the PSC’s authority and legitimacy are not challenged, at least in Africa. On the other hand, however, it has lent support to the thesis that the PSC cannot go it alone - a conclusion that has encouraged the entire AU to find ways of challenging the UN to own up to its obligations. The PSC has made noteworthy strides in assisting to streamline and coordinate the support and engagement it receives from the international community. The major limitation of the study is that it was conducted before other PSC support structures (the African Standby Force and the Continental Early Warning System) were fully operational. The study thus could not assess the full potential of the PSC. Nonetheless, the study has sought to identify potential or latent challenges which could hamper the PSC’s success, whether its support structures are fully operational or not. In the end, the study recommends greater coordination and cooperation between the PSC and major international actors including the UN. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

No description available.

Traditional thinking on security fails to explain the security predicament of Third World states. These states, with their existence assured by international recognition, are not primarily concerned with externally generated threats. Their internal characteristics violate the tenants of the realist theory, because they have more than one nation within their borders. The domestic conditions of these states make them internally insecure and weak---the threat of ethnic conflict great. / As such, placing security in the military sphere alone, ignores these contradictions which lead to an insecurity dilemma. Thus, the concept of security needs to be broadened to include, not merely the military but also the political, societal and economic factors. The threat posed to state security from dissenting ethnic groups is both a domestic and foreign policy issue. It is within this discussion, that the thesis examines Turkey's security predicament with regards to her Kurdish minority.

The National Rifle Association (NRA) has dominated the debate over gun rights since the late 1960s. In many ways, its political power is unassailable. However, a historical analysis of the NRA's deeply rooted connection to the operations of the American government proves this has not always been so. This thesis is an examination of the mission and actions of the NRA through the lens of the government's expansion of power during and beyond the Cold War.

The intent of this study is to assess the role of fundamental Japanese security policy objectives in driving the significant shifts in Japan???s approach towards missile defence cooperation with the United States from 1993 to 2003. In studying the relative influence of the objectives that guided Japan???s approach towards missile defence cooperation, this thesis seeks to address a gap in the literature. A debate has occurred over the direction of Japanese security policy that is based on widely different assumptions on the importance attached to various fundamental security objectives. At the same time, Japan???s approach to missile defence has been the subject of considerable analysis that identified the crucial importance of the issue for the attainment of these fundamental security policy objectives. But no linkage has been established between these two levels of analysis. In particular, there has been an absence of assessments of what Japan???s decisions on missile defence cooperation indicate about the relative influence of the various objectives. This thesis developed an analytical framework to enable such an assessment by examining the structure of missile defence cooperation undertaken. Japan possessed a range of options in the level and type of involvement in missile defence cooperation. That involvement would determine the eventual type of benefits and costs incurred against the affected objectives. Cooperation agreed to (or rejected) over the ten year period thereby provides a means to determine the influence of key objectives on Japan???s approach, and in particular those objectives that restrained involvement. The thesis finds that a clear hierarchy existed in the influence of the various objectives on Japan???s approach with changes in their influence explaining the evolution of Japan???s commitment. The desire to strengthen the alliance, weakening domestic political constraints, and disregard of China???s opposition provide the key explanations. These findings not only point towards the respective strengths and weaknesses of the various approaches employed to explain Japanese security policy, but they also suggest the value of greater attention to the state???s ability to overcome domestic constraints in determining policy in order to fully understand the broader transformation of Japanese security policy.

Thesis (M.M.A.S)--US Army Command and General Staff College, 2006. / Title from title screen (viewed on Apr. 9, 2008). Includes bibliographical references (p. 68-71).

Thesis (M.A.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2004. / Title from title page of source document (viewed on April 23, 2008). "Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited." Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-74).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Wollongong, 2006. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references: leaf 296-320.

Thesis (Ph. D., Political Science)--University of Idaho, December 2006. / Major professor: Jack E. Vincent. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 99-109). Also available online (PDF file) by subscription or by purchasing the individual file.