This paper analyzes the theoretical underpinnings and strategic goals of US security strategy with respect to China. It argues that the language used in statements and publications of US strategy demonstrate the development of a strategy of cooperative security. This strategy is dependent on the security environment the United States cultivates with allies and partners in the region. The paper uses evidence from the two largest PACOM military operations--RIMPAC and Cobra Gold-to demonstrate this developing strategy.

This thesis is the first study that provides comprehensive empirical evidence on both the impacts of the target interest rate news from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) on the Australian financial markets, and the spillover effects of the target interest rate news from the US Federal Reserves (Fed) and the European Central Bank (ECB) on the Asia Pacific's equity and currency markets. This thesis contributes to the current literature in several ways. First, while there is ample evidence in the literature suggesting that the markets would not react to what is already expected but will react to the news, the current literature on the RBA's target rate effects is still limited to the investigation of the overall announcement impact on the first moment of the Australian market return only. Therefore, this thesis firstly comprehensively investigates the impacts of the unexpected components of the RBA's target rate announcements (or news) on the first two moments of various segments of the Australian financial markets including interest rate changes, the Australian dollar and stock market returns. In so doing, this thesis contributes to the current literature on the impacts of domestic target interest rate news. Second, while the established literature seems to be missing a thorough investigation of the spillover effects of the Fed's and the ECB's news on the Asia Pacific markets, this thesis provides comprehensive evidence on the spillover effects of the Fed's and the ECB's target rate news on both the mean and volatility of the Asia Pacific's stock and currency returns. Furthermore, we not only document the presence of the news spillover effects but also highlight the incremental explanatory power of the target interest rate news in the presence of the indirect effects from the US's and euro area's markets to the Asia-Pacific markets. To this end, this thesis contributes to the literature on spillover effects of foreign target interest rate news. Third, while the literature is silent on how quickly the target interest rate news is absorbed in foreign markets, this thesis takes a step forward and breaks down the daily horizon into the overnight and the intraday horizons. In so doing, the thesis examines the absorption speed of target rate news in the Asia-Pacific markets. This is an important issue because there might be potential for a diverse array of response dynamics across countries due to heterogeneous market developments, nature of monetary policy synchronization, and financial and real integration with the U.S. and the euro area. Specifically, this thesis presents three independent empirical inquiries that contribute to the literature on domestic and spillover effects of the target interest rate news. Chapter 4 provides comprehensive empirical evidence for the impacts of the RBA's target rate news on various segments of the Australian financial markets during the period from 1998 to 2006. We also investigate the spillover effects of the US Fed's news on the Australian financial markets. We show that the RBA's and the Fed's news significantly affect the Australian financial markets in line with a priori expectations. However, while the RBA's news raises volatility in the Australian financial markets, the volatility was significantly lower in all market segments following the Fed's news. The spillover effects of the US Fed's and the ECB's target interest rate news on the mean and the volatility of twelve Asia Pacific's stock markets' returns are examined in Chapter 5, and seven Asia Pacific exchange rates against the US dollar and the euro over the period 1999-2006 are carried out in Chapter 6. The spillover effects on the conditional mean are generally consistent with the literature where a majority of Asia Pacific stock markets shows significant negative returns and a majority of currencies depreciates against the US dollar and the euro in response to the Fed's and the ECB's unexpected rate rises. Furthermore, in response to the two target rate news, the conditional volatility of the Asia Pacific stock markets was higher while the market calming effects have been observed for the currency markets and both the Fed and the ECB news elicit persisting volatility responses. We conjecture that as the ECB's news tends to confirm the Fed's earlier decision, this relationship might help reduce uncertainties in the Asia Pacific currency markets upon the future path of target interest rates from both the Central Banks, which ultimately results in into a lower volatility level. These findings are important not only to the Asia Pacific’s policy makers to help them improve the conduct of monetary policy but also to market participants in designing trading mechanisms as well as risk management strategies in response to both domestic and external interest rate shocks. Furthermore, these findings also shed light on the lead-lag relationship between the Fed and the ECB in making policy decisions. The notion that the ECB follows the Fed in setting its policy is so strong amongst market participants that empirical evidence seems to be crucial. Despite the fact that the ECB's news arrives after the Fed's news, this study provides evidence that the ECB's news has its own merits in the Asia Pacific markets and helps resolve differences in beliefs among market participants.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis deals with the theoretical and methodological development of the study of Regionalism in International Relations. It rests on the assumption of a dichotomy in Regionalism studies between Rationalist and Ideational approaches, hampering the understanding of the motives for and nature of Regionalism. The “Rationalist” approach focuses on material interdependency as the main driving force behind integration. Thus, Regionalism is seen as a consequence of rational calculations and bargains by rational agents. In contrast, the “Ideational”, or Social Constructivist approach, emphasizes shared regional identity and culture as driving forces that produce levels of “cognitive interdependence”. As will be demonstrated, however, neither approach alone provides a satisfactory explanation to the motives for and nature of Regionalism, including the process of enlargement. This thesis thus, aims to test, challenge and further develop explanatory models in the theory of Regionalism.In particular the thesis aims to add to the understanding of the process of enlargement, as well as its motives, through deploying those models to the problem of the ‘borderline states’. The problem of the ”borderline states” is demonstrated by the means of two case studies: Australia and Turkey in the context of their relationship with their respective regions - European Union and emerging Regionalism in East Asia, and in particular their position in European and East Asian Regionalism. They are labelled ‘borderline states’ not for their geographical properties, but for the permanent partiality of their inclusion within their regions. Such states are in constant flux, varying their degree of belonging depending on the criteria of enclosure. As this thesis demonstrates, Rationalist approach has a particular strength in analysing the process of enlargement, whilst Ideational approach is required for analysing the motives of enlargement. Moreover, it argues that a potential point of converge between the two approaches is analysing the stability of enlargement. It then further argues that analytical eclecticism can be useful in terms of identifying and framing problems that are significant, but for ontological and epistemological reasons have a tendency to be ignored by the paradigmatic approaches. Finally, the thesis proposes new definitions of region and Regionalism to accommodate a more eclectic understanding of what constitutes a region, what drives Regionalism and in particular how a region’s membership is determined.

The inter-relationship of cultural expressions is the basis of a model of cultural change (the cultural expression web) presented in this dissertation. The thesis and model are derived from formative case studies in developing nations of the Asia Pacific region. Cultural expressions, the 'physical' manifestation of culture, are often a 'product' for tourism. Many host communities trade cultural expressions for benefits that tourism can provide. As such, cultural expressions are a direct link between a host culture and the tourist. Modelling the change process in expressions is presented as a heuristic device as well as a prognostic tool for cultural impact assessment. The thesis proposes that cultural expressions are linked and that a change in one affects others. The magnitude of change to a cultural expression, and flow-on effect, depends on the significance of the cultural expression to the culture, the number of links and the strength of these links, determined by practice and its contribution to maintaining social structure and providing physical benefits to the individual and community. The dissertation documents thesis development from a personal construct, through analysis of formative case studies to identify conceptual categories, and formalisation of the model. The thesis and model are tested against cultural impact theory presented in the tourism literature and are found to be consistent or related. They are also tested against tourism related case studies from Indonesia and are found to explain reported changes to culture and cultural expressions. Methods to test the model empirically are presented.

This study applies Deutsch’s security community framework to the states of Southeast Asia in order to assess whether or not, as at September 2002, there exist dependable expectations of peaceful change. The study has three primary goals. The first is to develop the framework so it may better reflect the realities of interstate and communal relations in Southeast Asia. The second is to assess whether or not Southeast Asia has in fact moved beyond the construction of a nascent security community where there exists adequate empirical evidence to suggest a future sustainable course towards ‘dependable expectations of peaceful change’. The third seeks to analyse the potential for Southeast Asia, as a community of states, to evolve to the higher tiers of integration and be characterised as a mature security community, where disputes between states and state-elites will be resolved without recourse to violence. In investigating these tasks, the dissertation considers a broad range of issues, including (but not limited to): the multilateral security frameworks embracing the region; the impact of ethnic and religious tensions as well as non-traditional security issues (with a focus here on narcotics and piracy); and the impact of terrorism and the recent economic crisis on the normative behaviours and ideologies of state elites throughout the region. It is found that while a substantial degree of interaction, integration and cooperation has developed in Southeast Asia, these developments have been insufficient to alleviate a number of traditional security issues and tensions (such as border and territorial conflicts). Consequently, there exists only a transient sense of expectations of peaceful change throughout Southeast Asia and this level of integration is characterised by the dissertation to represent nothing more than the embryonic phase of a security community’s evolution.

Thesis (M.B.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 1995. / "31 December 1993." Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pittsburgh, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 313-344).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [365]-389).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Arizona, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 298-325).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Delaware, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-243).