Abstract The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the way George W. Bush used moral metaphors to intensify the language in his statements on Operation Iraqi Freedom. Three moral metaphors are presented within two different models that are applied on the data. The collected material for the metaphors is constituted of cognitive linguistic books from prominent linguists, such as George Lakoff, Alan Cruse and William Croft, and the data is collected from the official White House website. The scientific method used in this study has been qualitative text analysis where the hermeneutic approach has been an essential part of it. The main question: In what way did George W. Bush use moral metaphors in his statements to justify Operation Iraqi Freedom?, resulted in use of moral metaphors that sermons people’s moral values, depict Saddam Hussein’s characteristics as immoral, activate people’s moral priorities to help the Iraqi people, and addresses both conservatives and liberals in America. The conclusion of my study is that President Bush deliberately intensified the language in his statements through moral metaphors to justify Operation Iraqi Freedom. Keywords: Cognitive Linguistics, Metaphor, Figurative Language, Operation Iraqi Freedom, War on Terror, George W. Bush, Saddam Hussein, USA, Iraq, Qualitative Text Analysis, Hermeneutics.

This thesis is set out with the purpose to investigate the potential shifts in how victory is presented in the duration of contemporary conflicts. The argumentation is focused on how democratic states, involved in wars, seem to announce different statements regarding victory in its outreach to its inhabitants. This paper will study the case of the American administration of George W. Bush, who initiated and ruled during the first years in the Global War on Terror. By investigating the seven annual State of the Union speeches in a combined quantitative–qualitative method, with Martel’s theoretical framework on victory, the analysis searched after such potential shifts or static usage of the linguistics approach to victory. The answer to the stated research question according to the study conducted by this author is that the publicly announced implications of victory have been subjected to an ongoing shift during the examined time period.

Les recherches récapitulées dans cette thèse de doctorat ont porté sur les causes de l’organisation spatiale des végétations périodiques. Ces structures paysagères aux motifs réguliers, tachetés, tigrés ou labyrinthiques, d’échelle décamétrique à hectométrique, couvrant des étendues considérables sur au moins trois continents, constituent un cas d’école dans l’étude des processus endogènes présidant à l’hétérogénéité du couvert végétal. Ces structures prennent place sur un substrat homogène, mis à part la rétroaction du couvert lui-même, et sont marquées par des écotones abrupts et la persistance d’une proportion considérable de sol nu. Plusieurs modèles ont mis en avant l’existence possible d’un phénomène d’auto-organisation du couvert, qui verrait une structure d’ensemble émerger des interactions locales entre individus. Ces modèles se basent sur le jeu simultané de la consommation de la ressource (compétition) et de l’amélioration de l’un ou l’autre des éléments du bilan de la même ressource par le couvert (facilitation). La condition à l’existence d’une structure d’ensemble spatialement périodique et stable réside dans une différence entre la portée de la compétition (plus grande) et celle de la facilitation. L’apparition de ces structures est modulée par le taux de croissance biologique, qui est le reflet des contraintes extérieures telles que l’aridité, le pâturage ou la coupe de bois. Le modus operandi des interactions spatiales supposées entre individus reste largement à préciser.<p>Nos recherches ont été menées au sud-ouest de la République du Niger, à l’intérieur et dans les environs du parc Régional du W. Trois axes ont été explorés :(i) Une étude de la dépendance spatiale entre la structure de la végétation (biovolumes cartographiés) et les paramètres du milieu abiotique (relief, sol), sur base d’analyses spectrales et cross-spectrales par transformée de Fourier (1D et 2D). (ii) Une étude diachronique (1956, 1975 et 1996) à large échelle (3000 km²) de l’influence de l’aridité et des pressions d’origine anthropique sur l’auto-organisation des végétations périodiques, basée sur la caractérisation de la structure spatiale des paysages sur photos aériennes via la transformée de Fourier en 2D. (iii) Trois études portant sur les interactions spatiales entre individus :En premier lieu, via l’excavation des systèmes racinaires (air pulsé) ;Ensuite, par un suivi spatio-temporel du bilan hydrique du sol (blocs de gypse) ;Enfin, via le marquage de la ressource par du deutérium. <p>Nous avons ainsi pu établir que les végétations périodiques constituent bien un mode d’auto-organisation pouvant survenir sur substrat homogène et modulé par les contraintes climatiques et anthropiques. Un ajustement rapide entre l’organisation des végétations périodiques et le climat a pu être montrée en zone protégée. La superficie et l’organisation des végétations périodiques y ont tour à tour progressé et régressé en fonction d’épisodes secs ou humides. Par contre, en dehors de l’aire protégée, la possibilité d’une restauration du couvert semble fortement liée au taux d’exploitation des ressources végétales. Ces résultats ont d’importantes implications quant à la compréhension des interactions entre climat et écosystèmes et à l’évaluation de leurs capacités de charge. La caractérisation de la structure spatiale des végétations arides, notamment par la transformée de Fourier d’images HR, devrait être généralisée comme outil de monitoring de l’état de ces écosystèmes. Nos études portant sur les modes d’interactions spatiales ont permis de confirmer l’existence d’une facilitation à courte portée du couvert végétal sur la ressource. Cependant, cette facilitation ne semble pas s’exercer sur le terme du bilan hydrique traditionnellement avancé, à savoir l’infiltration, mais plutôt sur le taux d’évaporation (deux fois moindre à l’ombre des canopées). Ce mécanisme exclut l’existence de transferts diffusifs souterrains entre sols nu et fourrés. Des transferts inverses semblent d’ailleurs montrés par le marquage isotopique. L’étude du bilan hydrique et la cartographie du micro-relief, ainsi que la profondeur fortement réduite de la zone d’exploitation racinaire, jettent de sérieux doutes quant au rôle communément admis des transferts d’eau par ruissellement/diffusion de surface en tant que processus clé dans la compétition à distance entre les plantes. L’alternative réside dans l’existence d’une compétition racinaire de portée supérieure aux canopées. Cette hypothèse trouve une confirmation tant par les rhizosphères excavées, superficielles et étendues, que dans le marquage isotopique, montrant des contaminations d’arbustes situés à plus de 15 m de la zone d’apport. De même, l’étude du bilan hydrique met en évidence les influences simultanées et contradictoires (facilitation/compétition) des ligneux sur l’évapotranspiration.<p>/<p><p>This PhD thesis gathers results of a research dealing with the causes of the spatial organisation of periodic vegetations. These landscape structures, featuring regular spotted, labyrinthine or banded patterns of decametric to hectometric scale, and extending over considerable areas on at least three continents, constitute a perfect study case to approach endogenous processes leading to vegetation heterogeneities. These patterns occur over homogeneous substratum, except for vegetation’s own feedbacks, and are marked by sharp ecotones and the persistence of a considerable amount of bare soil. A number of models suggested a possible case of self-organized patterning, in which the general structure would emerge from local interactions between individuals. Those models rest on the interplay of competitive and facilitative effects, relating to soil water consumption and to soil water budget enhancement by vegetation. A general necessary condition for pattern formation to occur is that negative interactions (competition) have a larger range than positive interactions (facilitation). Moreover, all models agree with the idea that patterning occurs when vegetation growth decreases, for instance as a result of reduced water availability, domestic grazing or wood cutting, therefore viewing patterns as a self-organised response to environmental constraints. However the modus operandi of the spatial interactions between individual plants remains largely to be specified.<p>We carried out a field research in South-West Niger, within and around the W Regional Park. Three research lines were explored: (i) The study of the spatial dependency between the vegetation pattern (mapped biovolumes) and the factors of the abiotic environment (soil, relief), on the basis of spectral and cross-spectral analyses with Fourier transform (1D and 2D). (ii) A broad scale diachronic study (1956, 1975, 1996) of the influence of aridity and human induced pressures on the vegetation self-patterning, based on the characterisation of patterns on high resolution remote sensing data via 2D Fourier transform. (iii) Three different approaches of the spatial interactions between individuals: via root systems excavation with pulsed air; via the monitoring in space and time of the soil water budget (gypsum blocks method); and via water resource labelling with deuterated water.<p>We could establish that periodic vegetations are indeed the result of a self-organisation process, occurring in homogeneous substratum conditions and modulated by climate and human constraints. A rapid adjustment between vegetation patterning and climate could be observed in protected zones. The area and patterning of the periodic vegetations successively progressed and regressed, following drier or wetter climate conditions. On the other hand, outside protected areas, the restoration ability of vegetation appeared to depend on the degree of vegetation resource exploitation. These results have important implications regarding the study of vegetation-climate interactions and the evaluation of ecosystems’ carrying capacities. Spatial pattern characterisation in arid vegetations using Fourier transform of HR remote sensing data should be generalised for the monitoring of those ecosystems. Our studies dealing with spatial interaction mechanisms confirmed the existence of a short range facilitation of the cover on water resource. However, this facilitation does not seem to act through the commonly accepted infiltration component, but rather on the evaporative rate (twice less within thickets). This mechanism excludes underground diffusive transfers between bare ground and vegetation. Inverse transfers were even shown by deuterium labelling. Water budget study and micro-elevation mapping, along with consistent soil shallowness, together cast serious doubts on the traditional mechanism of run-off/diffusion of surface water as a key process of the long range competition between plants. An alternative explanation lies in long range root competition. This hypothesis find support as well in the excavated root systems, shallow and wide, as in isotopic labelling, showing contaminations of shrubs located up to 15 m of the irrigated area. Water budget study also evidenced simultaneous contradictory effects (facilitation/competition) of shrubs on evapotranspiration.<p> / Doctorat en sciences agronomiques et ingénierie biologique / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

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The aim of this diploma thesis is to compare prices of ornamental plants founded by simplified and cost method of valuation. Comparison was made on a sample of garden situated in the functional unit with a terraced house and the land built over by this building. Based on the obtained results the influence of different location and age of the trees on their price is evaluated. The thesis also defines basic terms and explains issues which are closely related with valuation of ornamental plants.

Depuis une vingtaine d’années, les feux de brousse constituent un phénomène récurrent et préoccupant en Nouvelle-Calédonie, car ils menacent des formations végétales endémiques et particulièrement originales, et mettent en péril les équilibres environnementaux du territoire insulaire de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Répondant à une commande de la Province nord de la Nouvelle-Calédonie, ce travail entendait mettre au jour les usages contemporains du feu, en particulier en milieu kanak. De l’ethnographie de pratiques interdites à l’analyse socio-historique du secteur forestier, cette thèse explore la manière dont le phénomène des feux de brousse a été pensé et encadré sur la longue durée coloniale. Loin de constituer un phénomène nouveau, les feux de brousse sont un élément constitutif de la conquête coloniale et de la ségrégation raciale qui ont marqué l’histoire de la Nouvelle-Calédonie. Devenu un « problème public environnemental » dans les années 1970, le phénomène a progressivement acquis le caractère de menace pour la biodiversité, de telle sorte que les politiques environnementales contemporaines se concentrent sur l’éradication du phénomène, via le renforcement de politiques de sensibilisation et de lutte contre les feux. Dans le même temps, les usages et représentations kanak passés et contemporains du feu, et plus largement de l’environnement naturel, ont été très fortement réprimés et de facto rendus invisibles.Au-delà de ces aspects environnementaux, l’analyse de la question des feux de brousse permet d’explorer des questions politiques : de la construction et de la formation de l’État colonial en Nouvelle-Calédonie, à sa transformation depuis les Accords politiques de Matignon-Oudinot (1988) et de Nouméa (1998). L’ensemble de cette thèse explore ainsi la trajectoire coloniale et postcoloniale calédonienne à l’épreuve du phénomène des feux en étudiant l’évolution des structures règlementaires et des institutions forestières, mais également la circulation des savoirs liés aux feux et aux forêts, et le rôle essentiel des acteurs dans ces processus. Ce travail met en évidence les liens multiples entre des formes de savoirs et des structures de pouvoir, et en particulier la sédimentation progressive de certaines formes d’ignorance, et le rôle des acteurs dans leur maintien. Il permet également de documenter l’histoire environnementale de l’ile depuis son annexion par la France et de renouveler les questions relatives à la gestion de cet environnement naturel. L’analyse de l’évolution de la problématique des feux de brousse, et sa prise en charge par les institutions calédoniennes ouvrent des questions intéressantes et importantes sur la formulation de politiques environnementales dans un contexte de décolonisation négociée. / For almost twenty years, bush fires have been a recurrent phenomenon and serious concern in New Caledonia, because they threat endemic and particularly original vegetal formations, and endanger the environmental equilibrium of the insular territory of New Caledonia. Meeting a demand formulated by the Northern Province of New Caledonia, this work intended to describe the contemporary uses of fire, particularly in the Kanak world. From the ethnography of forbidden practices to the socio-historical analysis of the forest sector, this doctoral research explores the way the bush fires phenomenon has been thought out and framed on the colonial long-span. Far from constituting a new phenomenon, bush fires were a constitutive element of the colonial conquest and racial segregation which marked New Caledonia’s recent history. Having become an “environmental public problem” in the 1970’s, the phenomenon was progressively characterized as a threat to biodiversity in such a way that contemporary environmental policies concentrate on its eradication through the reinforcement of awareness campaigns and firefighting policies. Nevertheless both past and contemporary Kanak uses and social representations of fire and more generally of natural environment have been severely repressed and actually made invisible. Beyond those environmental aspects, analyzing the question of bush fires enables the exploration of political questions: from the colonial state construction and formation in New Caledonia to its transformation since the political agreements of Matignon-Oudinot (1988) and Nouméa (1998). The thesis as a whole thus explores the New Caledonia colonial and post-colonial trajectory through the lens of the fire phenomenon. For this, it studies the evolution of regulatory frameworks and forestry institutions, but also the circulation of fire and forests knowledge, and the critical role of social actors in those processes. This work highlights the multiple links between forms of knowledges and structures of power, in particular the gradual sedimentation of some forms of ignorance and the role of social actors in reproducing them. It also allows documenting the environmental history of the island since its annexation by France and offering fresh insights into questions regarding the management of natural environment. Analyzing how the bush fires issue evolved over time and how it was dealt with by Caledonian institutions opens up meaningful and relevant questions for the formulation of environmental policies in the current context of negotiated decolonization.

The goal of this thesis is to examine president Bush's policy after 9/11 and its implications for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. The shock of 9/11 attacks resulted in "war mentality" manifesting itself in the pressure of the public and media for swift radical actions. This resulted in ad hoc decisions taken without proper analyses and consideration of consequences. After 9/11, Bush Administration used black-and-white rhetoric and simplified the war on terror into war between good and evil. The U.S. under Bush did not consider international institutions to play significant role in international politics and preferred bilateral cooperation. By omitting the Alliance, Washing, however, undermined NATO. Europe was sympathetic to the U.S. and proclaimed its support for Washington since day one but European NATO members and the U.S. had different threat perception regarding Iraq, and could not agree on a common solution. The actions taken by Americans in Afghanistan and Iraq and the reluctance of European allies in supporting the U.S. war against terrorism resulted in escalation of relations in the Alliance. As the U.S. headed toward engagement in two conflicts, it increasingly appreciated the value of NATO. On the other hand, Europe never forgot that the United States is its main ally. Most...

This diploma thesis is an analysis of Bush and Obama administrations' approach towards Sino-American military relations. The topic of this thesis is the military cooperation between the People's Republic China (PRC) and the United States. The paper analyzes the trends and topics of the military-to-military contacts through the Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) theory. The bilateral relationship between the two countries is the most important relationship in the 21st century and its development has worldwide implications. Historically, there have been multiple points of tension where interests of both countries collided, many of which persisted to be sources of the new unease. The American support to Taiwan through numerous arms-sales, increased Chinese militarization of space, cyberspace and the South China Sea are the main causes of reluctant military-to-military cooperation between the PRC and the U.S. It is vital for the rest of the global community that both superpowers keep an acceptable amount of tensions between their armies and ideally pursue more cooperation than competition. The paper concludes that the Sino-American military relations have gone through an on-and-off pattern during both Bush administrations, mainly due to aforementioned American support for Taiwan, and due to the types...

This Master's Thesis analyzes various roles that First Ladies of the United States take upon when their spouses are elected President of the United States. Even though the role of First Ladies is undefined, the public still expects a certain level of manners and dedication to their selected causes. The influence of First Ladies is, on the one hand limited by the fact that they do not have any real policies to follow. On the other hand, the platform of First Ladyship offers a great deal to influence and ability to raise awareness to causes they care about. The main argument is that Mrs. Obama had a particular skill to promote her initiatives and to turn negative attention by the media to the rights directions. Additionally, she was able to get the attention of corporations and state officials to help her make a real impact on her initiatives. Her authenticity and fun engaging style helped her with engaging young people into her campaigns and her status of popular First Lady. Therefore, the goal of this thesis is to find out how the role of First Lady changed during Michelle Obama's term as First Lady and what kind of influence her initiatives brought. Finally, the analyses shows that Michelle Obama was a very active First Lady that pushed the role of the First Lady forward. Her well though...

Iranian nuclear program has presented a problem for many years. Even though the regime in Tehran has not formally announced its quest to develop nuclear weapons and has actually denied such accusations, the international community concluded from the actions of the regime that the development of nuclear weapons is the ultimate goal of Tehran. The United States reacted to the course of events and tried to limit the program or stop it altogether. The Bush Administration was not an exception in this regard. Even though the attitude towards Iran changed during 2001 - 2009, the nuclear program progressed further and still presents a great danger. Not only politicians but also academics, experts and analytics were trying to answer the question how to curb the program most effectively. This thesis analyzes and compares concepts of scholars with the actual policy practiced by the Bush Administration and finds out that both approaches vary quite significantly. While the majority of scholars recommended the administration to limit the economic sanctions and refrain from aggressive rhetoric concerning the possibility of military action, the American government tightened the sanctions and sustained the option of intervention. Since Iran still continues with its nuclear program, it can be asserted that the...