This thesis examines agricultural and agrarian developments 1650-1850 in a region - south-west Lancashire - that was increasingly dominated by industry and large urban centres. The thesis is firmly located within two distinct historiographical traditions: 'agrarian capitalism' and 'agricultural revolution'. The debates encompassed by these concepts have been largely conducted around the development of arable agriculture. Large parts of the north and west of England have been peripheral to these debates and the models of agrarian development were not constructed with counties like Lancashire in mind. This thesis, therefore, offers a geographical corrective to the existing literature. Not surprisingly, the models are found wanting, and patterns of agrarian and agricultural developments in Lancashire follow a different path to arable counties in the English Midlands and East Anglia. Yet, agriculture in Lancashire did not stagnate and farmers and landlords were enclosing and improving land from at least the middle of the seventeenth century in a bid to increase productivity. However, change was much more pronounced from the last third of the eighteenth century, when population growth, industrial expansion, increasing market demand for food and the development of the transport infrastructure offered new opportunities to farmers. They responded in a way which suited the local economic and social setting. In terms of farm size, labour structure and land use, the farmers of south-west Lancashire fell outside contemporary (and subsequent) perceptions of best practice. Lancashire developed a highly specialised and productive agricultural system that was not predicated upon conventional agrarian capitalism and avoided many of the negative outcomes of the processes of agricultural revolution.

Ever since the beginning of the refugee crisis, the efficiency of the Common European Asylum System has been questioned by MSs and European institutions. Recently, physical barriers have been built by an increasing number of countries in the European Union for the purpose of border controls. Simultaneously, several human rights organization have expressed their concerns on the violation of the right to asylum and of the prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment resulting from the adoption of this method. This research will analyze this phenomenon through the perspective of international relations theory. The analysis will consider the realist approach in opposition to the liberal one, trying to assess whether border fences can be defined as an expression of national interest which compromises international cooperation in the field of human rights.

Environmental issues, the frequency of oil accidents, liability and compensation, and issues related to the efficacy of oil legislation proliferate oil discourse. In addition, there is good amount of literature on the use of deterrence in the criminal justice system. However, literature on the connection between compliance and deterrence practices in the oil transportation industry is patchy, especially about less-developed economies. Where an attempt is made to assess compliance practices in the oil industry, there is a general drift towards bunching compliance experiences along regional lines or regional players; (Asian countries, EU countries), or coastal states, port states and flag states. Another tendency is to evaluate the activities in a few developed economies (United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia, Japan, Germany or France) and transpose that as representation of what prevails in all other developed countries or other economies. This study takes a holistic approach by synthesizing the environmental, regulatory, and socio-economic issues related to compliance with vessel-source legislation in just two specific jurisdictions without getting trapped by the bunching idea. Therefore, the focus of this research has been to investigate the compliance practices of two economies- Nigeria and the United States- against the backdrop of existing deterrent international and domestic vessel- source legislation. The enforcement corridor by stakeholders leaves grounds for flaunting of some relevant provisions, thus necessitating an investigation into the compliance practices of both economies in order to seek ways to deter those rogue practices. Additionally the study aims to design a framework that would enable decision-makers within the studied jurisdictions to frame their compliance decisions based on relevant environmental, regulatory, and socio- economic indicators that are targeted at reducing oil pollution from malfeasors. To this end, using a combination of black-letter approach, socio-legal methodology, comparative analysis, and questionnaires, the project aims to synthesize these methods with case laws and case studies, and apply the framework designed to the two economies. Evidently at the level of international oil tanker transportation, there is noticeable tightening of control and more reasonable compliance. However, domestic compliance practices in both the developed and less-developed economies could do better. On the whole, the international regimes have succeeded to deter some rogue behavior and foster compliance with some aspects of the trade, but would require severity and certainty of regulatory adjustments to attain a spill- free vessel-tanker trade that prevents pollution.

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This thesis examines the involvement of the United States in the decade-long trade dispute before the World Trade Organization (WTO) over the European Union's preferential banana regime. Washington's justification for bringing this case to the WTO comes from Section 301 of the U.S. trade act, which allows for disputes to be undertaken if U.S. "interests" are violated; however, this is the first case ever undertaken by the United States that does not directly threaten any American banana industry, nor affect any American jobs. Why, then, would the United States involve itself in this European-Caribbean-Latin American dispute? It is the contention of this thesis that the United States thrust itself headlong into this debate for two reasons: domestically, the United States Trade Representative came under pressure, via the White House and Congress, from Chiquita CEO Carl Lindner, who in the past decade donated more than $7.1 million to American politicians to take the case to the WTO. Internationally, the United States used the case as an opportunity to assert its power over Europe, with the Eastern Caribbean islands being caught in the economic crossfire. According to existing literature, in undertaking this case, the United States did as any nation would: it operated within both domestic and international levels, satisfying at each level key interests, with the overall goal of maintaining the nation's best interests.

Since President Hugo Chávez Frias came to power in 1999, the Venezuelan political space has become militarized. The study focused on examining how and why the military entered into the traditional civilian space in Venezuela and militarized the political system. The purpose of this thesis was to analyze the participation of the Venezuelan military in state affairs, the reasons why this institution became such an active political actor, and how this process evolved over the last five years. Findings revealed that the Venezuelan military became involved in national politics through a series of prerogatives granted by the government of Hugo Chávez. These military prerogatives were granted in key state areas such as the cabinet, legislature and police/intelligence. Also, by using the Rational Choice Model it could be examined of why President Chávez, as the purposive actor, made the choice of militarizing Venezuelan politics. This was a value-maximizing alternative among a set of other alternatives to accomplish Chávez's major political goals.

Through an historical analysis, an in-depth examination of Mexican legislation, and an evaluation of scholarly work, this thesis explores the relationship between the government of Mexico and the media, specifically television. The central hypothesis is that Mexican government regulations have been used to uphold the constitutional mandate requiring television media to serve the public interest. The analysis shows that the Mexican government has consistently favored commercial broadcasters over public interests. This is evident not only in written documents and in the manner in which the regulations have been implemented, but in the favoritism shown in the granting of government television concessions. The conclusion is that the Mexican government has been unsuccessful in promoting a television industry that safeguards the public interest. Instead, government actions have promoted private monopolies in the television industry which have rendered public broadcasting inefficient.

This research investigated the causes and effects of corruption in Puerto Rico. First, it examined incidences of corruption in Puerto Rico in an effort to create a linkage between the historical and contemporary causes of corruption in the island. It used both an agency and a structural approach to further explain the country's contemporary causes of corruption. Its basic finding was that the causes of corruption in Puerto Rico are the blurred boundaries between the private and public sectors, lack of elite competition, lack of elite accountability, weak mass participation, and the mismanagement of material resources. This thesis also examined empirical evidence that demonstrates the effects of corruption. The analysis revealed that corruption in Puerto Rico during the last decade has decreased Puerto Rican socio-economic outputs and investment sources. The study concluded that while anti-corruption measures have improved in the island, they have not adequately focused on the social measures to effectively combat corruption. On that score, the study highlighted the role played by public officials in perpetuating corruption in the island.

It is the key assertion of this thesis that Kazakhstan is determined to keep its Soviet-era nuclear capacity and become the world's third largest nuclear power should circumstances move in that direction. The Republic of Kazakhstan reneged on its original commitment to repatriate this material to Russia for final disposition. My tenure at the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration, as well as the use of newly available declassified data on the Kazakhstan nuclear issue, and open government sources, supports the major arguments of my thesis. For primary sources in Kazakh and Russian languages, I utilized the Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS). Both the external factors, including the competitive post-Soviet security environment in Eurasia, and complex and challenging domestic factors such as trans-regional social movements, clan ties, ethno-political cleavages, authoritarianism and government corruption, cast serious doubt on the future of Kazakhstan as a nuclear weapon free state.

There was a massive influx of Afghan refugees into Pakistan following the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan in December 1979. An attempt has been made here to analyze the political, ethnic, economic and social ramifications of the Afghan refugees on Pakistan. Among the consequences of the presence of Afghan refugees are: 1. A heavy burden on Pakistan's resources on account of sustaining the 2.8 million Afghan refugees 2. Friction between Afghan refugees and the Pakistani population, due to land, employment, animal grazing-pasture and water-supply disputes, and 3. A direct threat to Pakistan's internal security and political stability, which is made evident by numerous violations of Pakistan's western borders by Soviet-Afghan air and ground forces in pursuit of the refugees and Afghan Mujahidin. The political talks on the Afghan crisis are deadlocked on the question of a Soviet troop withdrawal. The Soviets and Afghans insist on the stoppage of foreign support to the Afghan counterrevolutionaries. The refugees in Pakistan will not return to their homes unless they are insured a safe and honorable life by the Afghan government.