This thesis focuses on the ideological workings of Germany’s main public diplomacy organization, the Goethe-Institut. Drawing upon his experience doing fieldwork at the Goethe-Institut in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, and employing discourse and semiotic analysis, the author identifies four ideological currents within the organization. Relating these currents to four specific interest groups for which the Goethe-Institut is a strategic point of operation, and examining their complex interrelation, allows for an analysis of how their interplay at once constructs, deconstructs and reconstructs the notion of the German Nation.

Die Grenzen von Ressourcenabbau reichen tausende Meter über und unter die Erde. Dabei verfestigt und vertieft die Beschleunigung des Extraktivismus ungleiche Entwicklung und Ungerechtigkeiten auf der Welt. In Zentralasien bleiben Konflikte um Sozionatur in der kritischen Forschung zu Ressourcenextraktivismus und Widerstand jedoch weitgehend unterbeleuchtet. Diese Doktorarbeit leistet einen Beitrag zu der Ausweitung des Goldbergbaus in Kirgisistan und trägt zu einem räumlich umgearbeiteten, historisierenden und politisch sensiblen Verständnis des sich global ausweitenden Ressourcenextraktivismus bei. Die Arbeit präsentiert eine situierte Darstellung der multiskalaren Prozesse und Praktiken innerhalb und zwischen drei Standorten, die Kirgisistans Goldrausch ab/schaffen: die Hauptstadt Bischkek, das politische- und Verwaltungszentrum für mineralische Rohstoffe; Orlovka, ein Fall von angeblicher Kooperation; und Maidan, ein Fall von sich lange hinziehenden Auseinandersetzungen. Durch einen interdisziplinären Forschungsprozess entwickelt die Doktorarbeit einen relationalen soziomaterialen Ansatz zur Erforschung von multiskalaren extraktiven Verschränkungen der materiellen Dimensionen von Gold, seinen unterschiedlichen Bewertungen und seiner Governance. Sie mobilisiert die interdisziplinäre soziomateriale Analytik, durch ein multimethoden- Forschungsdesign, welche die miteinander verflochtenen strukturellen und historisch-geographischen Bedingungen offenbart. Dabei werden Konvergenzen im wachsenden geerdeten politischen Aktivismus gegen die globalen Strukturen des Extraktivismus, der die pluriversalen Wege zum Wohlbefinden aufkündigt zu Tage gefördert. Diese Doktorarbeit zeigt konsequent den Wert von disziplinärem und methodischem Pluralismus bei der empirischen Erforschung zum Zusammenspiel gegenseitig konstituierender Strukturen als auch von verorteter mehr-als-menschlicher Autonomie, die dem Schaffen und Abschaffen von Ressourcen und Ressourcengrenzen zugrunde liegen. / Resource frontiers extend to thousands of meters below and above the soil in pursuit of progress. Accelerating extractivism in fact entrenches uneven development and injustices across the globe. Yet, our age is not only hyper-extractive, it is also resistant: multifarious communities stand up against incessant extractivism. Socionatural struggles in Central Asia however remain unexplored in critical research on resource extractivism and resistance. Focusing on expanding gold mining in Kyrgyzstan, the given thesis contributes to spatially reworked, historicising and politically sensitive understandings of globally advancing resource extractivism. The thesis presents a grounded account of the multi-scalar processes and practices within and between three sites un/making Kyrgyzstan’s gold rush: the capital Bishkek, the centre of mineral governance; Orlovka, an alleged case of cooperation; and Maidan, a protracted case of contestation. Within an interdisciplinary research process, the thesis advances a relational sociomaterial approach for engaging the multi-scalar extractive entanglements of gold’s material dimensions, its different valuations, and its governance. Mobilising the interdisciplinary sociomaterial analytic through a multi-method research design reveals the intertwined structural and historico-geographical conditions that enact gold mining in Kyrgyzstan in an extractive state order while motivating ordinary citizens’ resistance to this order based on its emergent sociomaterialities. Unpacking embodied complexities in Orlovka and Maidan unearths convergences in surging grounded political activism against the global structures of extractivism that forecloses pluriversal paths to well-being. This thesis demonstrates the value of disciplinary and methodological pluralism in rendering visible the interplay of mutually constitutive structures and situated more-than-human agency that undergirds the making and unmaking of resources and resource frontiers.

Il dissolvimento dell'Unione Sovietica, alla fine del 1991, ha avuto un impatto di straordinaria rilevanza sull'Asia Centrale. Se il controllo di Mosca sull'area portò alla formazione di entità statuali con confini artificiali e caratterizzate dalla presenza al loro interno di un intricatissimo melting pot etnico, il crollo dell'Urss ha fatto sorgere un inedito scenario geopolitico. Il vuoto di potere registrato nel centro asiatico, infatti, ha generato una serrata competizione diplomatica tra i principali attori del sistema internazionale, ansiosi di accrescere la propria influenza sulla regione. Ciò sulla base dei principali fattori della sua rilevanza strategica, primo fra tutti quello energetico. Prendendo le mosse da tali considerazioni, il progetto di ricerca – utilizzando un approccio storico-politico – mira ad analizzare la geopolitica dell'energia relativamente al Turkmenistan, paese che dispone delle quarte riserve mondiali di gas naturale. Sulla base, da un lato, delle peculiari caratteristiche di tale risorsa e, dall'altro, dell'impatto del suo possesso sulla sfera politica interna e la proiezione internazionale della Repubblica centro asiatica, ci si propone di stabilire se quest'ultima abbia la possibilità di accrescere in futuro il proprio ruolo geopolitico, diventando un attore al centro delle dinamiche strategiche regionali e globali. / The crumbling of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991 has represented a decisive moment for Central Asia. Moscow's control over the area favoured the formation of state actors characterized by artificial frontiers and an extraordinary ethnic mix. On the other hand, the soviet dissolution has led to a new geopolitical situation. The lack of power experimented in the region has generated an international diplomatic race, with the main state actors eager to increase their influence over Central Asia. This mainly due to the strategic relevance of the area, especially related to the energy dimension. By starting from these assumptions, the research project aims to analyze – by adopting an historical-political approach – the geopolitics of energy with reference to Turkmenistan, a country that has at its disposal the fourth biggest reserves of natural gas globally. On the basis of the specific properties of this raw material on the one hand, and of the impact of its possession on the turkmen political sphere, on the other, the issue is defined. The goal is to establish whether Turkmenistan has the chance to increase its future geopolitical role, becoming an actor at the heart of regional and global strategic dynamics.

This thesis presents a comprehensive study of Kyrgyz foreign policy from the early 1990s to 2011. It seeks to answer the following research question: how and to what extent does regime security affect Kyrgyz foreign policymaking? In so doing, this work aims to contribute to the understanding of Central Asian politics and the foreign policy sources of weak states across the post-Soviet space. The underlying theme of this dissertation is centred on the question whether neorealist or constructivist traditions provide a more in-depth account of the erratic Kyrgyz foreign policymaking. Notwithstanding a myriad of studies on weak states, the analysis of their foreign policies is limited and mostly characterised by idiosyncratic, reductionist and great power approaches. In this respect, an interpretive and inductive framework integrative of both internal and external variables and with properly contextualised causal mechanisms may explain the international behaviour of weak states in broader and more genuine terms. Thus, the puzzle to be resolved is whether the concepts of rent-seeking and virtual politics can either substitute for or complement the New Great Game narratives in the context of weak states in general and Kyrgyzstan in particular.

1991年蘇聯解體後，其加盟共和國紛紛獨立，包括哈薩克、吉爾吉斯、塔吉克、土庫曼、烏茲別克等中亞5國亦分別宣告獨立，並立即獲得國際社會廣泛的承認。尤其憑藉著地緣戰略與豐富能源的兩大優勢，更使中亞地區成為國際強權與周邊次強權權力競逐的焦點。與此同時，中亞區域在冷戰時期，其安全維繫於蘇聯黨國體制與紅軍安全保障；然而，蘇聯解體後，非但既存的安全機制消失，造成中亞區域陷入安全意義上的「權力真空」，而且，還面臨著諸多「傳統安全」與「非傳統安全」因素的威脅。因此，對於中亞5個新興國家而言，其面臨的「安全威脅」，以及「回應對策」，即成為本論文研究的核心。 　　本論文採取層次分析，參據華爾茲的「行為體三概念」（個人、國家、戰爭）。從國家、區域與國際三個層次切入分析探討相關議題。首先，國家層次：探討權力結構（諸如：地理戰略、人口條件、自然資源、軍事能力、政治體制、經濟發展、社會結構，以客觀分析5國的基本綜合國力）、武器擴散、跨國犯罪、毒品經濟等議題。其次，區域層次：探討民族宗教結構、民族分離主義、宗教極端主義、國際恐怖主義、水資源運用、區域衝突、疆界糾紛等議題。第三，國際層次：探討國家利益、國家戰略、地緣政治、地緣經濟、國際衝突、國際合作等議題。 　　中亞的國家安全戰略目標旨在確保國家領土完整、主權獨立，以及生存與發展，而其內涵，則可從外交（含政治）、經濟、軍事及社會等四項策略，加以檢視與分析。具體而言，中亞國家由於綜合國力虛弱，實難以憑藉本身力量達成國家安全戰略目標；因此，中亞諸國係以外交戰略為核心，以「平衡大國」與「全面外交」為手段，積極與美國、俄羅斯、中國三大強權發展經貿與軍事合作關係，並以經貿合作為主軸，全面與其他國家交往。雖然，中亞國家對應安全威脅的策略，整體呈現一定實效，但亦存在諸多弱點；尤其，各國領導階層以鞏固與延續現實政權為決策的核心思維，實為中亞區域安全策略形成的關鍵。 / Since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, its dependent states such as Kazkstan, Kygyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan declared for independence respectively, which soon won support in the international community. With the advantages of geo-strategic importance and abundant resources, Central Asia region became the arena between superpowers. During the Cold War, the security of Central Asia region was closely tied to the Soviet Union’s party-state system and its red army. Following the collapse of Soviet Union, security mechanism disintegrated and resulted in “power vacuum” in this region. Besides, there are “traditional security” and “non-traditional security” threats behind. Thus, security threats and response strategies of the five newly established countries mentioned above are the nucleus of research of this thesis. 　　This thesis adopts the methodology of levels analysis, with reference to “the concept of actor (nation, region and war)” argued by Kenneth N. Waltz and studies the related issues from three different levels---nation, region and international. First, in terms of national level, the author analyzes state powers of the five countries from the structure of authority (such as geo-strategy, population, natural resources, military capabilities, political system, economic development, structure of society), proliferation of weaponry, transnational crimes, drug economy etc. Second, in regional level, the discussion focuses on the structure of religions, secessionism, religious extremism, international terrorism, utilization of water resource, regional conflicts and territorial disputes. Third, in terms of international level, the main points are national benefits, national strategy, geo-politics, geo-economy, international conflicts and international cooperation. 　　The national security strategy of Central Asian states aims at ensuring the integrity of territory, the independence of sovereignty, the right of existence and continuing developments. The connotations of those issues can be reviewed and analyzed in the aspects of diplomacy, economy, military and society. Generally speaking, for the deficiency comprehensive national power, it is very hard for Central Asian states to achieve the goals of national security strategy on their own. Consequently, these countries resort to “balance of power” and “full engagement diplomacy” and aggressively develop economic and military cooperation with the U.S., Russia, and PRC. In the meantime, they try to enhance relationships of other countries with emphasis on economic cooperation. Although the policy works as a whole, there are still vulnerable points. In particular, the formation of the regional security strategy in Central Asia hinges upon the ultimate pursuit of the consolidation and extension of the realistic regimes by the leaderships of various countries.

Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has attributed great importance to the development of cooperation with Russia. This thesis, first, evaluates the main developments in NATO - Russian relations since 1991. Although Moscow and the Alliance established a NATO - Russia Council (NRC) and asserted the initiation of a qualitatively new relationship, Russia still needs to fulfill some requirements for catching up the Western standards. Russia's external relations and political, economic and security factors internal to Russia will determine the future of the relationship. This thesis examines Russia's political development and transformation of its economic system, and establishes the problems in its political and economic systems. It also examines Russia's problematic external relations in the region, and their impact on the NATO - Russian relationship. It looks into Russia's National Security Concept, explores regional conflicts such as Chechnya and Georgia, and the U.S. - NATO presence in Central Asia. Then, it examines the oil and natural gas transportation problems created by the Russian monopoly, and evaluates Russian technology transfers to Iran, particularly in the nuclear sector. Consequently, it evaluates the internal and external interactions mentioned above and offers conclusions about the prospects for security and stability in Europe. / Lieutenant, Turkish Navy

À la suite de l'effondrement de l'Union soviétique, les états nouvellement formés de l'Asie centrale ont entrepris, à différents niveaux, des réformes de leurs secteurs agraires. Du point de vue de l'utilisation de l'eau d'irrigation, les réformes consistent notamment en des changements aux régimes fonciers et dans la décentralisation de la gestion du système de drainage et d'irrigation. La plupart des institutions qui, durant l'époque soviétique, géraient le système d'irrigation et de drainage ont été abolies. Cela a créé un vide institutionnel et permis le développement d’institutions au niveau local qui puissent être participatives et appartenir aux utilisateurs. Pourtant, le contexte historique et contemporain de la région pose des défis particuliers pouvant nuire à un tel développement. Les associations d'utilisateurs d'eau ou le gouvernement local gèrent l'irrigation et les systèmes de drainage au niveau local. Ces associations représentent souvent des initiatives conduites par les donateurs internationaux. Parallèlement, les institutions informelles et les modes traditionnels de coopération qui ont survécu à l'ère soviétique deviennent importants et quelques institutions créées durant cette ère demeurent toujours pertinentes. Cette recherche consiste à évaluer le rôle d’action collective dans un système de gestion d’irrigation et de drainage dans le bassin versant de la rivière Syr-Darya dans un contexte changeant concernant les droits d’usage de l'eau et de la terre. L'étude cherche à (1) saisir l'importance de l'eau d’irrigation dans les moyens de subsistance des utilisateurs dans la région de recherche; (2) explorer certaines caractéristiques des institutions formelles et informelles à travers lesquelles les fermiers dirigent des systèmes de drainage et d’irrigation; et (3) identifier les institutions qui appuient l'action collective et celles qui entravant son développement. La méthodologie de recherche repose une revue bibliographique et sur un travail de terrain dans la vallée de Ferghana, au Kirghizistan, entre le 30 avril et le 31 juillet 2008. Les résultats de la recherche sont présentés comme une étude de cas. / Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, the newly independent countries of Central Asia undertook reforms of their agrarian sectors with varying degrees of speed and depth. In general, the reforms consisted of changes in the nature of land tenure and in the decentralization of irrigation and drainage management. Through these reforms, former state management institutions were abolished leaving an institutional vacuum that presented an opportunity for the development of local-level management institutions. However, the historical context of the region poses particular challenges that may impede users to capitalize on such opportunities.     Water User’s Associations or the local administration manage irrigation and drainage systems at the local level. Water User Associations represent international donor-driven initiatives to introduce equitable, democratic and participative institutions for irrigation and drainage management. There are indications that those informal institutions and traditional modes of cooperation that survived the Soviet era are gaining importance. This study maps out the various institutions, defined as "rules in use", that farmers employ to manage the irrigation and drainage system in the Ferghana Valley within the context of changing land and water rights. The key objectives of the study are (1) to understand the importance of irrigated water for local livelihoods in the research area; (2) to explore certain characteristics of the formal and informal institutions through which farmers manage irrigation and drainage systems; and (3) to depict ways in which “collective action” in irrigation water management can be strengthened. The methodology consists of a synthesis of existing literature and fieldwork in the Ferghana Valley in Kyrgyzstan, from April 30 until 31 July, 2008. The results of the research are presented as a case study.

The aim of this thesis is to present the language situation of the Korean minority in Kazakhstan. Korean dialect used by local Koreans is called Koryǒmal and after 150 years of separate life of this minority became very different from the standard Korean. The thesis describes the circumstances of its creation, the main differences from today's standard Seoul Korean, the current situation and the frequency of the use on the territory of Kazakhstan. It concluded with an assesment of the future prospects of Koryǒmal and possible means of its preservation for forthcoming generations of Koryǒsaram. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

This thesis comprises a three papers. The chapters stand on their own. Each paper-chapter analyses a specific issue and contains introduction, theoretical framework, methods of analyses, results and findings. Each of the chapters offers new empirical, methodological and modelling contributions with new empirical evidence and findings, with new extensions and specifications for the gravity based and CGE based analytical tools. The thesis reflects my analysis of regional and international trade of Central Asia by analyzing the past economic ties of the CA with former Big Brother , Russia; the present heterogeneity of socio-economic environment of CA countries; and the future development of CA trade relations with the formation of the Eurasian (Re)Union. The Introductory Chapter binds together the other chapters by discussing the general background of the Central Asian institutional formation, transition and trade relations; the research motivations and methodology employed in this thesis. Afterwards come three substantive chapters. In the first chapter, the analysis of enhancing economic relations between Russia and CA in the post-Soviet period contradicts the post-colonial trade erosion theory. In the second chapter, how the open or isolationist policies followed by Central Asian countries affect the performance of local firms and MNEs, and linked to the economic performances of the countries, is investigated. In the third chapter, the impact of deeper Eurasian regional economic integration is assessed quantitatively in the context of asymmetry between the union members and the EU deeper integration project. The final chapter discusses the limitations and possible directions for future research.

Orientador: Suzeley Kalil Mathias / Banca: Hector Luís Saint-Pierre / Banca: Samuel Alves Soares / 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: A presente dissertação faz um estudo sobre as ações de Moscou em relação à Organização do Tratado do Atlântico Norte - OTAN - desde a concepção desta, em 1949, até o último governo de Vladimir Putin, findo em 2008. O trabalho pretende, além de identificar tais atitudes, apresentar as razões pelas quais a Rússia pode ser a favor ou contrária às ações da OTAN. Os materiais utilizados para a confecção desta dissertação compreendem livros e revistas especializados em Rússia, Eurásia, Geopolítica e Relações Internacionais, periódicos, documentos oficiais e não-oficiais e mapas, havendo, após sua coleta, uma análise histórica. / Abstract: The current dissertation carries out a study on Moscow's actions concerning the North Atlantic Treaty Organization - NATO - since its inception, in 1949, until Vladimir Putin's last administration, which ended in 2008. Besides identifying such behavior, this work seeks to present the reasons why Russia can be in favor or against NATO's actions. The making of this dissertation was based on books and journals specialized in Russia, Eurasia, Geopolitics and International Relations, periodicals, official and nonofficial documents and maps, all of these being followed by a historical analysis. / Mestre