Bad governance of ethnic diversity exacerbates ethno-sectarian conflicts, and ethnic conflict management is a sensitive and fundamentally needed component of the contemporary world. This study assesses political models for managing ethno-sectarian diversity, focused on the deeply divided society of Iraq in relation to its ethnic conflict and political system, with federalism and partition being potential solutions explored in relation to stakeholders’ views, studied qualitatively using focus groups and interviews with procedure and analysis derived from grounded theory. Due to failed integration, Iraqi society since 2003 has undergone de facto territorial division in response to ethno-sectarian violence, creating a map between conflicting groups and identity politics. This thesis criticizes integrationist perspectives supporting a central unitary Iraq, and those proposing hard partition; federal-based soft partition, giving each cultural group control and autonomy in their territory, may achieve stability, whereas secession is impossible. This balances Shia desire for centralism and Kurdish demands for more autonomy or secession. In addition, it is not necessary to impose a single national identity in federal model; dual identity should be accepted to satisfy groups’ identity aspirations. The current impasse is due to authoritarian centralism imposing monolithic identity; Iraq should be a democratic multicultural state, avoiding sectarian policy and implementing civic characteristics to enhance Iraqi identity. This study contributes to existing research, analysing how inappropriate policies of ethnic diversity may escalate into ethnic conflicts. This thesis adds to the field of studies interested in ethnic conflict regulation, particularly Iraqi ethno-sectarian conflict, and provides suggestions for regulating it.

This thesis assesses the extent of military prerogatives in Pakistan’s domestic politics, by focusing on Sino-Pakistani relations in the post 9/11 period. The study departs from the coup-centric approach largely adopted in the literature on civil-military relations and develops a continuum of civil-military relations which identifies four different intensities of civilian control over the military. Such a scale is deployed to gauge empirically the military’s sway in four decision-making areas: internal security, foreign policy, economic policy and elite recruitment. This structure is used to analyse the three case studies presented in the thesis: 1) the development of the port of Gwadar; 2) the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor; and 3) Sino-Pakistani relations in the Afghan scenario. The empirical chapters are organised around elite interviews conducted during fieldwork in Pakistan and triangulated with primary and secondary sources. From the analysis conducted in the thesis emerges a new pattern of civil-military relations in Pakistan, a situation in which the civilians and the military are sharing power to the benefit of both parties. The military have found it in their interest to exercise power less overtly and to retain control of internal security and foreign policy behind the curtain of a democratic dispensation. The civilians, on their side, have managed to erode military influence in the areas of elite recruitment and economic policy, in their attempts to tackle the energy crisis and to win the 2018 general elections. Such a pattern starts taking shape in the 2008-2013 period, but it becomes more crystallised in the post-2013 time frame. The thesis assesses specifically military prerogatives in the context of Pakistan’s relations with China, but also extends the picture in the final chapter to the wider developments in civil-military relations in Pakistan, in order to provide a comprehensive and solid analysis of the issue under examination.

This thesis addresses the question of why the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has remained in power since the Tiananmen Incident in 1989 by deploying the concept of political legitimacy. In this, the focus is not on whether the CCP is legitimate per se but rather on how the Party has legitimated its authority in this period. To that end, the Weberian conceptualisation of legitimation is situated within the Strategic-Relational Approach and, in so doing, allows, through the concept of "discursive selectivity", for legitimation to be reconceptualised as a dialectical relationship consisting of both material and ideational factors. The effect of this move is to provide a suitable framework in which to consider additional legitimating strategies that are employed by the CCP. Consequently, this paper moves beyond the conventional explanation of "economic performance + nationalism" to argue that the CCP's use of the stability discourse in the post-Tiananmen period has contributed to the regime's legitimation. In order to understand how this discourse has been used, a critical discourse analysis is performed on selected articles from the People's Daily published during the Beijing Spring, the "anti-Falun Gong" campaign and the "anti-Japan" demonstrations on the basis that these exceptional instances inform its usage in conventionalised slogans. This analysis found that the term "stability" took the form of an "empty signifier", making most use of positive argument schemes to project a negative Chinese future without CCP authority. Finally, this thesis concludes that, in terms of legitimation, the events in 1989 constituted a strategic moment in the formation of the stability discourse, in that the Party's hegemonic interpretation of these events allowed for this discourse to "resonate" with people in the period that has followed.

This thesis examines secret intelligence cooperation between three asymmetric partners – specifically the UK, US and Turkey – from the end of the Second World War until Turkey’s first military coup d'état on 27 May 1960. The thesis shows that our understanding of the Cold War as a binary rivalry between the two blocs is too simple an approach and obscures important characteristics of intelligence cooperation among allies. To reveal a more comprehensive analysis of intelligence cooperation, this thesis develops our understanding of it more broadly, by developing a model called ‘intelligence diplomacy’. This model explores a vital, if little understood, aspect of contemporary international relations given the prevalence of transnational threats today. Intelligence diplomacy involves negotiations and the exploitation of different aspects of joint intelligence activities, synchronized between diplomats and specialized intelligence officers. While such efforts often result in overlap between diplomats and intelligence liaison efforts, there is strong evidence that the acts of intelligence services vary from the instructions of their foreign ministries. The thesis also shows that a pragmatic approach offers states new opportunities to protect national interests, by conducting intelligence diplomacy to influence crucial areas such as nuclear weapons and to exploit cooperation in support of their own strategic imperatives. By doing so this thesis not only reveals previously-unexplored origins of secret intelligence cooperation between Turkey and the West, but also contributes to wider academic debates on the nature of the Cold War by highlighting the potential agency of weaker states in the Western Alliance.

Programming China: The Communist Party’s Autonomic Approach to Managing State Security, introduces the new analytical framework called China's “Autonomic Nervous System” (ANS). The ANS framework applies complex systems management theory to explain the process the Chinese Communist Party calls “social management”. Through the social management process, the Party-state leadership interacts with both the Party masses and non-Party masses. The process involves shaping, managing and responding and is aimed at ensuring the People’s Republic of China’s systemic stability and legitimacy—i.e. (Party-) state security. Using the ANS framework, this thesis brings cohesion to a complex set of concepts such as “holistic” state security, grid management, social credit and national defence mobilisation. Research carried out for the thesis included integrated archival research and the author’s database of nearly 10,000 social unrest events. Through ANS, the author demonstrates that in the case of the People’s Republic of China we may be witnessing a sideways development, where authoritarianism is stabilised, largely through a way of thinking that both embodies and applies complex systems management and attempts to “automate” that process through technology designed based on the same concepts. The party's rule of China, thus, evolves away from traditional political scales like reform versus retrenchment or hard versus soft authoritarianism. The ANS framework should be seen not as an incremental improvement to current research of China’s political system but as a fundamentally different approach to researching and analysing the nature of Chinese politics.

This thesis examines the role of the military in Tunisia and Libya during the 2010-2011 Arab uprisings by asking why the two states’ military forces chose to either defect from or defend the ruling administration. Using a comparative case study methodology, this study demonstrates that the joint configuration of energy capacity, military structure and the strength of protests led to the different outcomes in these two cases. The data indicates that one can understand the impact of these three factors using theories that focus on the correlation between rational action, institutional identity, economic inducements, and ideological stances. Thus, I employed approaches from rational choice and institutionalism as the theoretical framework for this study. This study shows that the actions of the Tunisian and Libyan military forces should be read through this theoretical framework. While informative, conclusions drawn from these cases do not allow for universal generalizations. Additionally, it is important to note that the three influential factors are not the only elements that influenced the variations in outcome during the Tunisian and Libyan conflicts. Moreover, I do not make a comparison in terms of the absolute values of the factors, but rather in terms of relative values.

Since the regime was brought down by coalition forces in 2003, Iraq has been undergoing the process of democratisation through some significant political changes, namely, relatively free and competitive elections, and the freedom to form political and civil organisations. However, it faced crucial challenges that undermined this process such as ethno-sectarian violence/conflict. This thesis examines the impact of ethnic and sectarian conflict on the failure of the power sharing democracy. The thesis covers the period from 2003 until April 2014. The main themes that the thesis analyses are societal security/ethnic and sectarian violence, ethnic and sectarian inclusion, proportionality, and power devolution/federalism. For the purposes of the thesis, the societal security dilemma (SSD) theory, which focuses mainly on the roles of elites and external actors in societies that experience a power vacuum or institutional collapse in divided societies, is adopted. This theory is used for two purposes: firstly, to examine why and how the ethno-sectarian behaviour of elites affects societal security and the failure to establish a stable democracy; and secondly, to examine the viability of consociational design for the Iraqi case with the existence of distrust, fear and uncertainty among identity groups. The thesis argues that, due to fear, distrust and grievance among groups, the implementation of ethnic regions that draw lines between groups and localise the armed and security forces under a locally elected government is one of the mechanisms for reducing identity based violence and ensuring an effective power sharing democracy.

This thesis attempts to explain the change in Turkey’s foreign policy regarding Cyprus between 2002 and 2004. It argues that the overriding factor in this policy change was a change in leadership, i.e., the coming to power of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which developed a decidedly liberal outlook on foreign affairs following its split in 2001 from the anti-Western, Islamist Welfare Party. Other crucial determinants included the Europeanization of the Cyprus issue and selective support for interest groups within Turkey, both of which were affected to various degrees by the European Union and a propitious change in decision-making context. This thesis shows how constant policy failures during the 1980s and 1990s led to an identity crisis and the subsequent radical ideational transformation of the AKP whereby the party leadership renounced political Islamism and began to espouse an EU-oriented policy agenda and compatible rhetoric. The arguments presented in this thesis contribute to the literature on foreign policy analysis, political leadership and Europeanization. With regard to foreign policy analysis, this thesis shows that foreign policy change is a multi-causal phenomenon that can only be explained by a combination of various concepts. Moreover, it argues that despite the fact that no ready-made formula can account for all cases of foreign policy alterations, changes in leadership and a favourable decision-making composition appear to be indispensable determinants of any foreign policy shift. With regard to leadership, by applying a social-learning model to the analysis of the AKP leadership, this thesis follows the evolution of the Turkish Islamist Movement towards conservative democracy and an embracing of EU norms, which in turn resulted in a change in Turkey’s Cyprus policy. It is argued that Turkey’s new Cyprus policy was above all the consequence of a radical normative shift in the mindset of the new Turkish leadership. With regard to Europeanization, this thesis demonstrates how the change in Turkey’s foreign policy vis-à-vis Cyprus was bolstered by the Europeanization process. In this context, it can be understood that the EU militated in favour of a policy alteration by Europeanizing the Cyprus disagreement with the acceptance of the Republic of Cyprus into the EU in May 2004. The third essential determinant of Turkish foreign policy shift was the emergence of a propitious decision-making context within Turkey, which rendered such a policy shift possible.

This study seeks to answer the question of what significant barriers are present for women managers in the organisational structure of hotels in Australia and New Zealand that impedes their progress to top management positions. Women seem to be under-represented at senior management levels in hotel companies and this exploratory research endeavoured to find out why this is the case.The research was carried out in conjunction with a major international group represented by more than 30 hotels in both countries. It consisted of an online survey sent to the hotel group's female supervisors and managers and a series of 18 follow up interviews. There was a high response rate to the survey and from respondents wishing to be interviewed. Issues arising from the research included organisational culture, the Old Boy Network, geographical mobility, role models, and the pathway to General Manager.The research concluded that for female managers aspiring to proceed up the career ladder in Australian or New Zealand hotels, it would be difficult for them to combine family life and career in the same manner as their male colleagues. There were also negative aspects of hotel culture and organisational practices that disadvantaged women at various stages of their career life cycle. If hotels companies wish to retain more women, they need to review whether their organisations consist of 'opportunity 'structures' (Scully 2003) or 'inequality regimes' (Acker 2006) for women.

This study seeks to answer the question of what significant barriers are present for women managers in the organisational structure of hotels in Australia and New Zealand that impedes their progress to top management positions. Women seem to be under-represented at senior management levels in hotel companies and this exploratory research endeavoured to find out why this is the case.The research was carried out in conjunction with a major international group represented by more than 30 hotels in both countries. It consisted of an online survey sent to the hotel group's female supervisors and managers and a series of 18 follow up interviews. There was a high response rate to the survey and from respondents wishing to be interviewed. Issues arising from the research included organisational culture, the Old Boy Network, geographical mobility, role models, and the pathway to General Manager.The research concluded that for female managers aspiring to proceed up the career ladder in Australian or New Zealand hotels, it would be difficult for them to combine family life and career in the same manner as their male colleagues. There were also negative aspects of hotel culture and organisational practices that disadvantaged women at various stages of their career life cycle. If hotels companies wish to retain more women, they need to review whether their organisations consist of 'opportunity 'structures' (Scully 2003) or 'inequality regimes' (Acker 2006) for women.