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A challenge is posed to the institution of international adjudication by international disputes concerning physical risks to human beings and the environment. These cases are requiring international tribunals to exercise their powers of adjudication in circumstances of scientific uncertainty. This thesis posits that, by dint of the development and clarification of the law and through the revisitation of rules about proof, international adjudication is developing the capacity to deal with such international disputes. A growing emphasis on the importance of international procedural obligations, the harmonisation of international law, and a broadening acceptance of precautionary doctrines in substantive law help shape the legal issues coming before tribunals in disputes involving scientific uncertainty into more manageable form. International courts and tribunals are meanwhile attending to the problems that may be posed by the concept of a burden of proof in disputes involving scientific uncertainty. A move towards a more inquisitorial style of adjudication, relying on tribunals’ appointment of independent expert advisors, provides relief from pressures associated with the application of traditional rules on proof in such cases. At the same time, tribunals’ adjudicatory competence in such disputes is gradually being defined, using criteria by which respondents’ activities may practically be assessed, such as rationality and reasonableness.

The study examines the role of deep-rooted American cultural and political traditions in the formation of US foreign assistance policy during the War on Terror era, including case study assessment of US aid policies in Jordan, Indonesia, Nigeria, Tanzania and Sudan’s Darfur region. The key research questions are: How did the enduring mythologies of American culture influence the policies and practices of US foreign assistance under the Bush administration, with a particular focus on their interaction with theories of poverty, childhood and terrorism? And what impacts have these para-ideologies had in terms of contributing to or detracting from the coherence of the aid programme and its ability to meet the goals stated for it by the Bush administration? The pervading principles of the US political mythos – including a belief in the overarching superiority of capitalism and the subsequent pathologization of poor people; the panacea-like qualities of democracy promotion in developing countries; and the securitization of development policy – firmly underpinned US aid policy after 9/11. The interaction of these influences inform the study’s detailed analysis of Bush’s aid agenda, including examination of the role of the White House, Congress, public opinion and NGOs. The study examines how a number of the myths of the American worldview proved crucial in the creation of a national purpose in the face of terrorist attacks. However, these ingrained para-ideologies also exposed more about the United States’ own deterministic scripting of its identity and worldview than the socio-economic and political actualities of the contemporary world. Consequently, a number of US aid policies during the era of the War on Terror did not achieve maximum impact in reducing poverty, somewhat paradoxically then failing to achieve the primary goal of US assistance: improving living conditions in developing countries to act as a foil to extremist ideologies, thereby making the world safer and more secure for the United States.

My thesis examines the motivations of ASEAN in pursuing a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China as well as the consequences arising from the negotiation of the FTA. Although the ASEAN-China FTA (ACFTA) is still under negotiation, I am primarily concerned with the negotiation of the FTA up till 2004 when ASEAN and China signed the trade in goods chapter. My thesis is situated in the wider question of why ASEAN has been active in pursuing FTAs with external partners. The ACFTA is chosen because it is the first external FTA that ASEAN is involved in as a collective organisation. Furthermore, although none of these ASEAN FTAs have been completed, the one involving China is the most advanced, allowing more data for adequate research. My study is a critique of the popular conflation of FTAs with regionalist projects. I disagree with the functionalistic understanding that negotiating a FTA is the first step towards greater regional integration. Instead, I argue that FTAs could paradoxically undermine regionalist projects. I also explore the related question of what implications ASEAN’s pursuit of FTAs have on its own integration and the wider East Asian region. In essence, the regionalism paradox is that the pursuit of FTAs with external partners by ASEAN is increasingly threatening ASEAN’s own regionalist project. In particular, ASEAN’s own economic integration has been undermined by the better preferences and terms that ASEAN members sometimes give to their external partners compared to the ASEAN members themselves. ASEAN thought that the use of FTAs could draw other partners closer to ASEAN economically and politically. However, this use of FTAs resulted in drawing other partners to only some of the ASEAN members (but not all), leading to ASEAN being less integrated as a region.