Cette étude aborde la manière dont l’Orient-Express a été décrit, perçu et imaginé, et s’efforce de mesurer l’écart entre les représentations communes et ce qui se dégage d’un corpus de textes très divers à travers trois grands axes de réflexion : les évocations des itinéraires de l’Orient-Express, les discours tenus sur le train et ses voyageurs, les thématisations et récupérations littéraires dont il a fait l’objet. L’idée directrice du propos est de montrer comment l’Orient-Express, rêve programmé par de très efficaces campagnes publicitaires et suscité par un imaginaire géographique, historique et littéraire puissant, n’a pu pleinement convaincre les voyageurs, mais aussi les écrivains et les lecteurs qui, semble-t-il, ne cessent de déplorer la disparition d’un train et d’un voyage qui n’ont peut-être jamais existé ou qui ne sont jamais vraiment ceux qu’ils imaginaient. / The purpose of this study is to see how the Orient Express was perceived, described and fantasized, and to measure the gap between common representations and what appears in quite different texts through three major lines : the evocations of the routes of the Orient Express, the discourses on the train and its passengers, the thematizations and literary recuperations. It aims at showing how the Orient Express, a dream programmed by very effective advertising campaigns and sustained by powerful geographical, historical and literary images, could not fully convince travelers, but also writers and readers who, apparently, do not cease to mourn the disappearance of a train and a travel that have perhaps never existed or that are never actually those they dreamt of.

Rozbor oficiálních stanovisek EU k rozšíření EU o země Západního Balkánu (Chorvatsko, Makedonie, Černá Hora, Albánie, BiH, Srbsko, nově Kosovo) ukazuje na zdrženlivost EU k vlastnímu aktu přijetí. Přes všechna prohlášení o vůli přijmout tyto země, tato vyjádření zůstávají spíše proklamací, bez vyhlášení konkrétních dat přijetí těchto zemí do společenství. Na rozdíl od Rakouska, která jako jediná země EU deklaruje co nejrychlejší rozšíření EU o země Západního Balkánu přímo ve vládním programu jako prioritu své zahraniční politiky. Motivace Rakouska je založena na důkladné ekonomické analýze situace, kdy Rakouské investice do těchto zemí jsou nejvyšší ze všech zemí EU. Mezi Rakouskem a zeměmi Západního Balkánu a Rakouskem probíhá čilý obchod i pohyb osob, na který ostatní země EU nejsou ještě připraveny. Překážkou rychlého přijetí se tedy jeví důvody povahy nikoliv ekonomické, ale politické. Evropská unie se shoduje na roku 2008 jako na roku klíčovém v přístupových jednáních. V době publikace této práce ovšem EU nebyla s to jako celek schválit nezávislost Kosova. Minimálně tento bod zůstává otevřen k dořešení v roce 2008 spolu s dalšími body týkajícími se příštího rozšíření. EU má v této chvíli (duben 2008) jasno, že favorizovanými kandidáty pro přístup jsou Chorvatsko, Makedonie a Albánie, zatím bez konkrétního data přístupu.

La Serbie n’est certainement pas ce que l’on pourrait désigner comme étant un Etat typique de l’Europe centrale et du Sud-Est. Alliée fidèle de la Russie et de la Chine, elle a subi les plus longues sanctions internationales en Europe et des bombardements de l’OTAN en 1999. Depuis la chute du régime de Milošević en 2000, l’ « enfant terrible » du continent a vocation à adhérer à l’Union européenne, or la tendance n’est clairement pas à l’élargissement. Face aux nombreuses crises (économique, migratoire et démocratique), l’UE parait impuissante à plusieurs égards. Symbole pendant longtemps du développement, de la paix et de la démocratie, elle doit faire face à une perte d’attractivité ces dix dernières années. Toutefois, malgré les doutes de part et d’autre, Bruxelles ne peut pas se permettre de ne pas tendre la main à la Serbie qui a une place centrale dans les Balkans, de par son poids démographique et sa position géostratégique. Le 1er mars 2012, la Serbie a officiellement obtenu son statut de candidat à l’UE. En signant l’accord d’association et de stabilisation, Belgrade s’est engagé à aligner sa législation sur l’acquis communautaire et donc à effectuer de nombreuses réformes. Or, sur fond d’acculturation et de déculturation juridique, des voix s’élèvent contre les réformes en chaîne dans le seul but d’intégrer l’institution européenne. L’un des objectifs de cette thèse est d’éclairer la nature et l’avancée de ces réformes à travers les critères politiques, définis lors du Conseil européen de Copenhague en 1993. Elle étudie les difficultés que la Serbie partage avec tous les Etats du Sud-Est de l’Europe et les difficultés qui lui sont propres, tout en questionnant sur la nécessité et les conséquences de ces changements. L’étude des négociations entre Bruxelles et Belgrade est aussi l’occasion d’apporter un éclairage sur le fonctionnement de l’institution européenne et de constater les limites de l’ambigüité constructive chère à l’UE. Finalement, le comportement de l’Union européenne à l’extérieur de ses frontières est symptomatique de son comportement à l’intérieur. / Serbia is certainly not a typical state of Central and Southeastern Europe. A loyal ally of Russia and China, it suffered the longest international sanctions in Europe and NATO bombings in 1999. Since the fall of the Milošević regime in 2000, the "enfant terrible" of the continent is destined to join the European Union. However, the trend is clearly not toward a enlargement. Facing multiple crises (economic, migratory and democratic), the EU seems powerless in many ways. Although the EU has been regarded as a symbol of development, peace and democracy, it has suffered a loss of attractiveness in the last ten years. However, despite doubts on both sides, Brussels cannot afford not to reach out to Serbia, which has a central position in the Balkans, because of its demographic weight and its geostrategic position. In March 2012 Serbia was granted EU candidate status. By signing the Stabilisation Agreement, Belgrade is committed to a gradual harmonization of legislation with the acquis of the European Communities and thus implement many reforms. However, in a context of legal acculturation and deculturation, some voices are rising to denounce a chain of reforms for the sole purpose of joining the European institution. One of our aims is to clarify the nature and progress of these reforms through the political criteria, defined at the Copenhagen European Council in 1993. We will hence study the difficulties that Serbia shares with all the states from Southeast Europe and its own problems, by questioning the necessity and consequences of these changes.The study of the negotiations between Brussels and Belgrade is also an opportunity to examine the functioning of the European institution and to note the limits of constructive ambiguity cherished by the EU. Finally, the behavior of the European Union outside its borders is symptomatic of its behavior inside.

The dissertation is devoted to the problems of the perception of Muslims and the threat posed by the Ottoman by the Byzantine and East-European writers of the XV century. According to the materials of historical works analyzed the ratio of the authors to the representatives of the Islamic faith in a severe foreign situation and also domestic religious contradictions. Analysis of the works of Byzantine and Balkan writers allows us to trace the evolution of the views of historians on the matter and to reveal the extent of their bias. According to the Byzantine and East-European sources revealed the attitude of the authors of the XV century to the Turks and denoted points of contact of Christian and Muslim civilizations in the context of military confrontation, also investigated the attitude of the authors to the key events of the Turkish expansion in the XV century - Battle of Varna in 1444 and the capture of Constantinople in 1453. The dissertation also addresses the problem of mutual Christians and Muslims considered in the interpretation of the writers and the question of the possibility of cultural and religious dialogue between the warring parties. / Диссертация посвящена рассмотрению проблемы восприятия мусульман и угрозы со стороны османов византийскими и восточно-европейскими писателями XV века. По материалам их исторических произведений анализируется отношение авторов к представителям исламского вероучения в условиях тяжелой внешнеполитической ситуации и внутренних религиозных противоречий. Анализ сочинений византийских и балканских писателей позволяет проследить эволюцию взглядов историков относительно данного вопроса и выявить степень их тенденциозности. По данным византийских и восточно-европейских источников выявляется отношение авторов XV в. к туркам, обозначаются точки соприкосновения христианской и мусульманской цивилизаций в контексте военного противостояния, а также исследуется отношение авторов к ключевым событиям турецкой экспансии XV в. - битве при Варне 1444 г. и захвату Константинополя в 1453 г. В диссертации также затрагивается проблема взаимовосприятия христиан и мусульман в интерпретации рассматриваемых писателей и ставится вопрос о возможности культурного и религиозного диалога между представителями противоборствующих сторон.

The positive contribution of finance to the process of economic development has been debated ever since Joseph Schumpeter famously argued in 1911 that services provided by finance are essential for technological innovation and growth. A substantial theoretical literature has produced increasingly sophisticated economic models endogenising the role of finance into the growth process, while empirical studies have put forward data to detect the link between the two. Yet a large part of the empirical surveys operate with macroeconomic or cross-section data and have little to say about the channels through which finance affects growth. This is where this dissertation comes in. It provides firm-level data from Bulgaria and Yugoslavia from the period 1919-1941 to tackle a number of questions related to finance, banking, and economic performance of the European economic periphery. The analysis is broadly divided into three parts – capital flows and the effects of international investment on domestic firms, banks and the real sector during the Great Depression, and the political economy of government intervention during the Depression and post-Depression period. The first substantive chapter (chapter 2) contributes to the literature on growth and capital flows by testing the hypothesis that foreign direct investment brings about productivity improvements to host economies via the channels of technology, liquidity and know-how transfer, as opposed to market access or increased competition. Chapter 3 revisits the prominent debate over the origins of the banking crises during the Great Depression and the effects these had on the real sectors. Evidence is provided in support of the debt deflation theory of banking crises, but the broad effects of the Depression on banks’ and firms’ balance is also explored. The higher the involvement of banks with industry both directly (via interlocking directorates or equity ownership), and indirectly, via the lending channel, the greater the negative effects of the crisis on banks’ balance sheets. The evidence points to negative feedbacks from bank distress to firms’ output losses in the form of a credit crunch. Chapter 4 uses a political economy framework to analyse the state interventions in the Balkan economies during and after the Depression. The data suggests that direct and indirect bailouts of banking and industry defined the role of the state. Government cronies from the financial and economic elite, as well as the agricultural sector ended up as winners from the process, while semi-skilled and unskilled labour paid the tax bill. These quantitative findings are in agreement with the broad conclusions of transaction cost economics where finance can play an important sorting role. They also support the empirical literature that rejects the contributions of portfolio investment but argues that direct foreign investment is a source of technological progress. The conclusions of the thesis, however, call for caution as market failure in the financial sector was abundant and political economy frictions could cause lasting damage to development.

La version intégrale de ce mémoire est disponible uniquement pour consultation individuelle à la Bibliothèque de musique de l’Université de Montréal (http://www.bib.umontreal.ca/MU) / Utiliser les caractéristiques du langage musical folklorique d’Europe de l’Est, principalement de la Hongrie, la Serbie et la Bulgarie, comme source d’inspiration à mon propre langage. / Integrating language features of folk music of Eastern Europe, mainly from Hungary, Serbia and Bulgaria, as a source of inspiration in my own language.

Die morawische Nacht (2008) de Peter Handke représente un tournant: l’auteur y renonce à son engagement politique concernant les Balkans et il revient au « royaume de la poésie ». En reprenant des concepts de la théorie de l’espace dans les études culturelles, cette étude examine les moyens narratifs à partir desquels Handke projette une nouvelle image des Balkans. L’écrivain autrichien déconstruit son propre mythe du « Neuvième Pays » (Die Wiederholung, 1986), dont il a sans cesse défendu le concept dans les années 1990 (Eine winterliche Reise, 1996; Zurüstungen für die Unsterblichkeit, 1997; Die Fahrt im Einbaum, 1999; Unter Tränen fragend, 1999). Dans Die morawische Nacht, de fréquentes allusions et connotations nous ramènent aux œuvres antérieures, mentionnées ci-dessus. La signification et la fonction des nouvelles images des Balkans ne sont pas comprises que dans le cadre des références intertextuelles. Par l’entremise d’un maniement raffiné et ludique de l’ancien contenu et des vieilles structures, objets d’un nouvel usage, la poétique de Handke, toujours basée sur les soi-disant « Zwischenräume » (espaces intermédiaires) prouve toute sa puissance. Même si les Balkans perdent leur caractère absolu, ils continuent cependant à servir comme moyen de critique de la société moderne qui aspire cette fois à la mondialisation. Pendant que Handke réfute ironiquement sa naïveté de rechercher l’absolu dans le monde extérieur, le récit se révèle être le seul royaume où la paix et l’harmonie peuvent être créées. / Die morawische Nacht (2008) by Peter Handke marks a turning point in his oeuvre: the writer gives up his political commitment regarding the Balkans with the intent of returning to the poetical realm. Taking up concepts of cultural theory of space, this study examines the narrative means Handke uses to project a new image of the Balkans. The Austrian author destroys his own myth of the Ninth Country (Die Wiederholung, 1986), a concept he had been defending throughout the 1990s. (Eine winterliche Reise, 1996; Zurüstungen für die Unsterblichkeit, 1997; Die Fahrt im Einbaum, 1999; Unter Tränen fragend, 1999). Frequent allusions and connotations in Die morawische Nacht refer to his previous works, mentioned-above. The meaning and the purpose of the new Balkan-image can only be understood within these intertextual references. The old structural and textual elements, used in a refined and playful way, take on new functions, and Handke’s poetics, still based on the so-called “Zwischenräume” (in-between spaces), reveals all its power. Even though the Balkans are losing their absolute character, they continue to serve as a means of criticizing the modern globalized society. While Handke is leaving behind his desire to seek absolute value in the outside world, the “Realm of Narration” proves to be the only possible world where peace and harmony can be created. / Peter Handkes Die morawische Nacht (2008) stellt eine Wende innerhalb seines Werkes dar: Der Autor gibt sein politisches Engagement hinsichtlich der Balkan-Fragen auf und kehrt ins „Reich der Poesie“ zurück. Konzepte der kulturwissenschaftlichen Raumtheorie aufgreifend, untersucht diese Studie erzählerische Mittel, mit denen Handke ein neues Bild vom Balkan entwirft. Der österreichische Schriftsteller zerschlägt seinen eigenen Mythos vom Neunten Land (Die Wiederholung, 1986), dessen Konzept er in den 90er Jahren beharrlich verteidigt hat (Eine winterliche Reise, 1996; Zurüstungen für die Unsterblichkeit, 1997; Die Fahrt im Einbaum, 1999; Unter Tränen fragend, 1999). Häufige Anspielungen und Konnotationen in der Morawischen Nacht führen auf die vorangehenden, oben genannten Werke zurück. Sinn und Funktion der neuen Balkan-Bilder sind erst innerhalb dieser intertextuellen Bezüge zu verstehen. Durch einen raffinierten und spielerischen Umgang mit den alten strukturellen und inhaltlichen Elementen, die eine neue Verwendung finden, offenbart sich all die Kraft der Poetik Handkes, die nach wie vor auf den sogenannten „Zwischenräumen“ basiert. Verliert der Balkan-Raum auch seinen absoluten Charakter, so dient er doch weiter als Mittel zur Kritik an der modernen, diesmal die Globalisierung anstrebenden Gesellschaft. Indem sich Handke ironisch gegen seine Naivität, das Absolute in der Außenwelt zu suchen, wendet, erweist sich der Raum der Erzählung als einziges Reich, in dem Frieden und Harmonie zu stiften sind.

Esta pesquisa levanta os elementos formadores da identidade nacional croata; faz um acompanhamento das conquistas da União Europeia; analisa os atores sociais que se posicionam a favor da Croácia como membro da União Europeia, bem como o posicionamento daqueles que são contra o ingresso da Croácia na União Europeia. Os posicionamentos teóricos, entrecruzados com os dados práticos coletados, faz-nos refletir sobre ganhos e perdas dos croatas em sua relação com a União Europeia. Há tendências negativas da União Europeia, aqui expostas, que não estão explícitas em seus tratados, nem expressos por suas instituições. Importa, nesta pesquisa, alcançar um posicionamento crítico com relação aos atos econômicos, políticos e sociais relacionados com a soberania nacional dos países periféricos do Leste Europeu. Este trabalho coloca em discussão as estratégias dos países ricos da Europa no sentido de perseverarem competitivos em âmbito global, incorporando o mercado do Leste Europeu. Por isso, este estudo se debruça sobre o Alargamento e acordos assinados entre os países-membros da União Europeia; mudanças na legislação croata; influência estrangeira no desenvolvimento humano da Croácia, dados estatísticos da Croácia e de países da União Europeia que espelham fatores positivos e negativos relacionados com a sustentabilidade da soberania nacional. / This research raises the formative elements of Croatian national identity; makes a follow-up to the achievements of the European Union; it analyzes the social actors that are positioned in favor of Croatia as a member of the European Union, as well as the positioning of those who are against the ingress of Croatia into the European Union. The theoretical positioning, intercrossed with practical data collected, makes us reflect on gains and losses of the Croats in their relationship with the European Union. There are negative trends of the European Union, exposed here, that are not explicit in its treaties, nor expressed by its institutions. It is important, in this study, achieving a critical positioning with respect to economic, political and social acts related to national sovereignty of peripheral countries of Eastern Europe. This work puts into discussion the strategies of the rich countries of Europe in order to persevere competitive in global scope, incorporating the East European market. For this reason, this study focuses on the \'Enlargement\' and agreements signed between the member countries of the European Union; changes in Croatian legislation; foreign influence in human development of Croatia, statistical data of Croatia and the European Union countries that reflect positive and negative factors related to sustainability of national sovereignty.

The thesis traces the construction of the Western Balkans since the end of the armed conflict in 1995. The term Western Balkans has become a commonplace in international politics that refers to a recognisable region on the European map – ignoring that it does not constitute a historical formation of European and Balkan politics. Most contemporary analysis focuses on functional aspects of economic cohesiveness and security interdependence. However, this thesis argues that the concept of Western Balkans is better understood as a social construction, externally-driven. The argument is that the Western Balkans is what the European Union makes of it. By taking a macro-historical perspective, we look at the long and special ties that the EU has had from the time of Yugoslavia to the Western Balkans until the mid-2000s. What we uncover is a special and consistent involvement of the European Commission into the regional affairs. The Western Balkans starts as a small organisational department within the institutional structure of the external relations' portfolio to become a regional identity question for the local populations. Also, the thesis points to the Commission’s actions as not just the outcome of micro-calculations but part of a social context of competing world-views; and, finally, this is the reason that the end-product of the Western Balkans resembles more a messy amalgam rather than a rational design.

Orientador: Suzeley Kalil Mathias / Banca: Héctor Luís Saint-Pierre / Banca: Flávio Rocha de Oliveira / O Programa de Pós-Graduação em Relações Internacionais é instituído em parceria com a Unesp/Unicamp/PUC-SP, em projeto subsidiado pela CAPES, intitulado "Programa San Tiago Dantas". / Resumo: Neste trabalho, avaliamos se a intervenção da OTAN no Kosovo corresponde a uma nova concepção de segurança desenvolvido pela Organização, conforme defendem seus países-membros em documentos oficiais da década de 1990. A Organização do Tratado do Atlântico Norte (OTAN) constituiu-se, desde sua fundação no final da década de 1940, numa aliança militar entre Estados Unidos e Europa Ocidental contra a ameaça de invasão a partir da União Soviética. Seu aparato defensivo e uma série de outros arranjos cooperativos foram articulados com base nessa premissa, que teria sido revista a partir do fim da Guerra Fria. Nos anos 1990, portanto, a organização reviu seu conceito estratégico e propôs um novo conceito de segurança, apregoando adaptar-se a um novo ambiente internacional. Em 1999, a OTAN interveio militarmente na então República Federal da Iugoslávia com vistas a interromper o enfrentamento entre seu governo, organizações autonomistas ou separatistas da província autônoma do Kosovo e a população civil daquele local, alegando garantir auxílio humanitário e a interrupção de violações de direitos humanos, algo associado a sua nova concepção estratégica. / Abstract: The pursuit of this work is to analyze if NATO‟s intervention in Kosovo corresponds to a new security conception developed by the organization, as its member States argue in official documents at the 1990‟s. The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) was constituted, since its foundation at the end of the 1940‟s, of a military alliance among United States, Canada and West Europe against a threat of invasion by the Soviet Union. Its defensive structure and a wide range of cooperative arrangements were based on this argument having it been reviewed by the end of the Cold War. At the 1990‟s the organization remodeled its strategic concept and purposed a new security concept, affirming to adapt itself to the new international environment. In 1999, NATO intervened militarily against the former Federal Republic of Yugoslavia aiming to interrupt the conflict among its government, autonomist or separatist organizations from the autonomous region of Kosovo and the civil population of that region, alleging to guarantee humanitarian aid to interrupt hard human rights violations, something associated later to its new strategic concept. / Mestre