This qualitative study examines global finance as a locus for two hegemonic processes associated with masculinity and spatial arrangements. It explores how the finance sector interrelates with the global city of London, and considers how structures and practices of global finance and the work and family lives of men employed in management in banking in London support, confirm or contest hegemony. It aims to reflect on ways these social practices may be re-¬‐configured to promote greater gender equality. Research comprises 7 case studies of fathers centred on semi-¬‐structured interviews with the men and their wives. It also draws on data from fieldnotes/observations of the City and family spaces, and online promotional material from 8 City banks. This thesis explores a gap in scholarship regarding the interrelationship of forms of hegemony linked with global finance in the City and family relations and social practices, and reflects on ways aspects of these local spaces are the product and producers of global forces. As the 2007/8 financial crisis highlighted, local practices can have serious far-¬‐reaching consequences. Analysis reveals the status of the men as bankers and fathers and their access to financial and political power is constituted and reinforced in work and family contexts in ways which confirm and normalise gender inequalities. Patriarchal work practices that favour forms of highly competitive working, and patriarchal family relations, are normalised. Social practices which interrelate with the global city, finance industry and family perpetuate the elite positioning of men working in management in City finance and feed into a cyclical process of privilege transference for their children. Potential crisis tendencies which might contest hegemony, particularly those relating to the 2007/8 financial crisis and hands--on caregiving ideals of fatherhood, are discussed. The thesis suggests, however, the processes of hegemony in global finance are strong and enduring.

Social networks are complex adaptive systems made up of nodes - human beings - and the links between those nodes. The links in any given network provide individuals with goods and services necessary for survival, including the quest for meaning, narrative and identity. This thesis argues that social networks are not rapidly increasing in complexity (a common view) but that the process of making and breaking links, and the ability to observe and document such processes, has been accelerated and simplified by modern technology. It is this ability to observe the dynamics within networks, networks that are subject to constant and on-going change and evolution, which makes the study of networks useful. Most approaches to social network analysis focus on spoken and written communication along links between the nodes, but shared suffering or execution of violence, or the simple association with a narrative involving violence, is a powerful dynamic in networks. It is a dynamic which has thus far been largely overlooked, but one which has important implications for international relations. Violence creates a shared identity and provides guidance for the behaviour of individuals, but also destroys life. The thesis analyses the case studies of Lebanon and Afghanistan from these perspectives. Whilst most studies on the Lebanese Civil War argue that the outbreak of violent conflict was unavoidable due to domestic and regional antagonisms, these studies do not explain why and how the war ended in 1990 in circumstances where the same factors continued to exist yet suddenly with a relative absence of large-scale violence. In contrast, violence has plagued Afghanistan since the 1970s and shows no signs of abating. Violence here is not tied to a specific conflict but has become the defining form of communication between the various network actors. Network theory can be used to gain a deeper understanding of the causes of violent conflict as well as, importantly, the forces that maintain or limit violence. Once these forces are understood, they can be utilised in an effort to change the prevailing dynamics of violence within a network, and to initiate a more successful approach to peacebuilding efforts within violent conflicts.

This thesis offers an alternative narrative why the Juba Peace Talks between the Government of Uganda and the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and its political wing, the Lord’s Resistance Movement (LRM), did not produce a Final Peace Agreement. Widely considered the most promising peace effort in the history of a violent conflict that began in 1986, talks were mediated by the Government of Southern Sudan from 2006 to 2008. During this time, the parties signed five separate agreements on a range of issues, yet in 2008 the LRA’s leader, Joseph Kony, failed to endorse them through a final signature. An aerial attack on the LRA by the Ugandan army spelled the end of the Juba Talks. It is commonly argued that as the first peace talks conducted with people wanted by the International Criminal Court, the Juba Talks collapsed because the arrest warrants made a negotiated agreement impossible. Another widely accepted reason is that the LRA/M were not committed to peace. This thesis, however, argues that how the LRA/M experienced the muddled and convoluted peace talks was the crucial factor because the dynamics of the process confirmed existing power dynamics. Internally, the LRA/M’s dynamics were profoundly influenced by their perception of being trapped in an established hostile system, causing a struggle to transform their own dynamics constructively. Offering an analytical chronology of the Juba Talks with an empirical emphasis on the perspective of the LRA/M and an analysis of LRA/M structures and behavioural patterns that emerged in the process, this thesis further outlines that judging success or failure of a peace process on whether agreements have been signed is misplaced. Despite not producing a final agreement, the Juba Talks contributed to peace and change in Uganda.

In recent years, cooperation between the UN and the EU in the realm of international peacekeeping has gone through major changes, including the remarkable achievement of a ‘Joint Declaration on UN-EU Cooperation in Crisis Management’ through which both organisations promised their primary role and responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Although the EU has reiterated its commitment to play a decisive role as a reliable peacekeeping actor within the UN framework, the decision of the EU to not always engage in international peacekeeping operations alongside the UN is puzzling. The aim of this dissertation is to examine the major driving forces behind decision-making which may determine the likelihood of EU cooperation with the UN in international peacekeeping, by asking: ‘under what condition do EU Member States lead UN-related peacekeeping operations?’ Using a revised two-level game approach, this thesis identifies the most important chief negotiators involved in negotiations, and analyses the dynamics of decision-making between the UN and the EU on the issue of international peacekeeping at two different levels: international UN level and domestic EU level. Variables and conditions under which chief negotiator(s) are more likely to provide active leadership to drive the EU to decide to engage in a peacekeeping operation are investigated with insights from two prominent IR theories; realist and social constructivist theories. Hypotheses drawn from each theory and the roles of chief negotiators are examined in each of three cases selected: Operation Artemis (2003), EUFOR RD Congo (2006), and EUFOR Tchad/RCA (2007). With the key research outcomes from a comparative analysis of the three case studies, the thesis aims to contribute to comprehensive debates on the role of the EU as a promising partner of the UN in international peacekeeping.

This thesis investigates the European Union’s (EU) conceptualisation of outer space security in the absence of clear borders or boundaries. In doing so, it analyses the means the EU undertakes to secure the space segments of its critical outer space infrastructures and the services they provide. The original contribution to knowledge offered by this thesis is the framing of European outer space security as predicated upon anticipatory mechanisms targeted towards critical outer space infrastructures. The objective of this thesis is to contribute to astropolitical literature through an analysis of the EU’s efforts to secure the space segments of its critical outer space infrastructures, alongside a conceptualisation of outer space security based upon actor-specific threats, critical infrastructures and anticipatory security measures. The EU’s Galileo and Copernicus programmes are identified as future critical outer space infrastructures through their services’ expected contributions to EU-level policy-multiplication and European states and societies, making them examples of regional and global European space power projection. Following the designation of the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as critical outer space infrastructures, the thesis details the dangers and risks, both intentional and environmental, which the EU has publicly acknowledged as being the most threatening. Although the specific risk assessments for the Galileo and Copernicus projects are confidential, the generic dangers and risks for satellites in Lower Earth Orbit and Middle Earth Orbit referred to in EU policy documents are explored, including space debris, space weather phenomena, orbital congestion and the possibility of the future weaponisation of near-Earth space.

This dissertation examines the involvement of Liberia's religious and diaspora groups in the peace process that ended the 14-year Liberian Civil War (1989-2003). Its aims include determining the extent of, the rationale for, as well as the effects of the involvement of Liberia's religious and diaspora groups in the peacemaking efforts that were undertaken in the course of the Liberian conflict. While findings show that a multiplicity of factors were responsible for the eventual resolution of the protracted conflict, they also reveal that the action of both religious and diaspora actors influenced the trajectory of the conflict and the outcome of the peace process. The religious actors, being the initiators of the Liberian peace process, played such roles as mediators, dialogue facilitators, watchdogs and trustees of the entire process. Although their efforts were mainly influenced by the desire to fulfil the divine mandate to 'tend to the flock', achievable only in a peaceful and stable environment, religious actors' peacemaking roles also presented an opportunity to regain some of the societal influence that organized religion, especially Christianity, enjoyed during the 158 years of minority 'Americo-Liberian' rule. For diaspora actors, whose roles ranged from being founders and sponsors of warring factions, to providing succour to Liberians back home through remittances, and subsequently engaging the peace process, attaining political power through the barrel of the gun or through peaceful means served the same purpose. In achieving the dissertation's aims, a historical analysis of Liberia's socio-political environment is undertaken. Also examined are the roles played by various international, regional and national actors, either as peacemakers or as sponsors of various warring factions engaged in hostilities, as well as relevant theories or paradigms such as Conflict Transformation, Social Capital and Liberal Peace. This empirical study employed the means of qualitative research methods, obtaining primary data through interviews conducted in Liberia, Ghana, the USA and Nigeria.

Theorising about international relations has progressed in recent years, and dialogue between the concurrent disciplines of International Relations, political theory and international law has started to emerge. There is, however, work still to be done in fostering a genuine ‘International Theory’ containing the potential to truly transcend arbitrary disciplinary and methodological boundaries, particularly where the subject matter of the respective disciplines – namely, an inquiry into the means by which a true understanding of the nature and conditions of international relations may be realised – is trans-disciplinary in nature. My thesis seeks to reanalyse the poststructuralist critique of the discipline of International Relations from a contemporary perspective, made possible by the trans-disciplinary progress alluded to above. I choose poststructuralism as a means of considering the most radical attack on the foundations and methodological commitments of traditional IR as I believe the responses which originated from within the discipline – social constructivism in particular – did not go far enough in grounding a robust yet legitimate means by which to construct an understanding of international relations capable of transcending the challenge of poststructuralism. I consider such positions and the constitutive theory of Mervyn Frost in detail before examining the potential of a theoretical amalgamation of the philosophical constructivism of John Rawls with a holistic social constructivist conception of the nature of practical reasoning with norms, as expounded by Friedrich Kratochwil, to ground a ‘completed’ account of normative reasoning capable of overcoming the poststructuralist critique. Finally, I defend the Rawlsian conception of reasonableness (through an analysis of the interpretation afforded such by Peri Roberts) from the charge of overdemandingness levelled at it by Catriona McKinnon. I conclude by claiming that the Rawlsian ideas of reasonableness and public reason can, when combined with Kratochwil’s conception of practical reason, ground a valid response to the challenge of poststructuralism.

This thesis analyses the ways in which U.S. policy toward Iraq was dictated by its broader Cold War strategy between 1958 and 1975. While most historians have focused on ‘hot’ Cold War conflicts such as Cuba, Vietnam, and Afghanistan, few have recognized Iraq’s significance as a Cold War battleground. This thesis shows where Iraq fits into the broader historiography of the Cold War in the Middle East. It argues that U.S. decisions and actions were designed to deny the Soviet Union influence over Iraq and a strategic base in the oil-rich Gulf region. This was evident in the Eisenhower administration’s response to Iraq’s revolution in 1958, when it engaged in covert action to prevent communists from gaining control of the state; in the Kennedy administration’s efforts to bolster the first Ba’th regime during its war with the Kurds in 1963 because it perceived it as anti-communist; in the Johnson administration’s support for the anti-communist, Arab nationalist regimes during the mid-1960s; and in the Nixon administration’s decision to support the Kurdish rebels in 1972-75 after the second Ba’thist regime drew Iraq partially into the Soviet orbit. This suggests a clear pattern. Using newly available primary sources and interviews, this thesis reveals new details on America’s decision-making toward and actions against Iraq during a key part of the Cold War. Significantly, it raises questions about widely held notions, such as the CIA’s alleged involvement in the 1963 Ba’thist coup and the theory that the U.S. sold out the Kurds in 1975. Finally, it argues scholars have relied excessively and uncritically on a leaked congressional report, the Pike Report, which has had a distorting affect on the historiography of U.S.-Iraqi relations. This thesis seeks to redress these historiographical deficiencies and bring new details to light.

Investigation of the European Union’s foreign policy towards Hamas acquires its significance as a topic from the undemocratic way in which the (supposedly) democratic EU pursues its strategy since, according to its own rhetoric, this should have been normatively undertaken. In examining inconsistencies and paradoxes in the EU discourse towards Hamas, and the determinants underlying such contradictions, the study scrutinizes questions of ‘how’ and ‘why’, focusing mainly on identities and self-interests as lenses borrowed from constructivism and neorealism, as well as the influence of external actors on the way the EU functions towards Hamas. Behind such inconsistency stands a cultural-historical heritage, part of the mind-set of the European decision-makers. The contradictory status of the association between the two actors is formed by the main interactively-constructed and conflictual socio-political components arising from the reality of the EU as a stability-seeking and security-driven actor in Palestine, and the self-definition of Hamas as a freedom-fighter striving for the liberation of its lands. Being defenders of the culturally-drawn meanings given by the EU to Palestine as a ‘promised land’ for the Jews within a two-state solution, and those given to it by Hamas as an ‘Islamic Waqf’ is another field of identities’ clash between the two actors. The Israeli factor, regarded in practice as a fixed, constant and purely Western and European interest in the Middle East, along with the dominant influence of the US on its EU partner, are emphasized as main determinants of EU policy towards Hamas. On the macro and micro levels, the determinants of the EU decision making process, and the way the EU functions when its perceived interests are threatened must be understood when any decision on relations with the EU is taken, particularly by the Palestinian resistance factions. At the same time, the EU should also examine its own inconsistencies in dealing with Hamas as a ‘terrorist’ organization and boycotting its democratically-elected government, in order to avoid repeating the ‘trial and error’ approach with the new powers rising in the ‘Arab spring’ countries, and to adapt itself to change in Palestine accordingly.

A rapidly expanding literature in International Relations theory researches how certain domestic entities both craft and implement important security policies that have direct implications to either domestic or international environments. The study of the role of the Intelligence Service in securitisation processes best fits into this characterisation, as the Intelligence Service is specially designed to collect, analyse, interpret and disseminate information about domestic and international environments. Moreover, being an entity that has a particularly intimate relationship with political power, Intelligence Services also actively participate in implementing policies, explicitly performing its Instrumentality. This project provides a general framework for conceptualising the role – Agency and Instrumentality – of Intelligence Services in securitisation processes through assessing how the Intelligence Service behaves in various stages and phases of securitisation. In order to achieve the main aim – determining and assessing the Agency and Instrumentality of Intelligence in securitisation, the dissertation adopts a reformulated securitisation theory as an analytical framework. Securitisation is a special form of decision/policy making and implementation process that involves complex activities, like interactions, between a securitising actor and the targeted audience – whose receptivity is vital for the outcome of these interactions. What is known as securitisation is a routine and daily activity for the Intelligence Service in its interactions with the decision/policy makers and it is always prone to initiate securitisation, because securitisation grants Intelligence centrality and an undiminished access to resources. Applying a blended logic of inquiry, the thesis adopts an anti-foundationalist ontology and interpretivist/constructivist epistemology, qualitative methodology and triangulation technique to underpin the theoretical arguments. Moreover, out of the adopted ontological-epistemological positions and methodology, the thesis employs qualitative operationalisation. In order to substantiate the presented analytical claims with factual findings, the dissertation assesses the role of the CIA and SIS-MI6 in recent interconnected securitisation cases. The first pair of cases looks at the role (Agency and Instrumentality) of the CIA and SIS-MI6 in the securitisation of religion based terrorism, the “War on Terror” and the Invasion of Afghanistan. The second pair of cases scrutinises the role of the CIA and SIS-MI6 in the securitisation of Saddam’s regime and the Invasion of Iraq. The results of these case studies demonstrate that the Intelligence Service is one of the key constituents in securitisation processes and performs its Agency or Instrumentality depending on the phases of securitisation.