Bangladesh’s place on the globe as a sovereign nation-state came at the expense of millions of victims who perished during the war of 1971. For the greater part of four decades an endemic culture of impunity deprived the surviving victims of justice. As the crimes of 1971 remained beyond the ratione temporis of the ICC, the Bangladesh Government established the first International Crimes Tribunal in 2010 under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 for the purposes of detaining, prosecuting and punishing “persons responsible for committing genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and other crimes under international law” in 1971. According to critics, the ICTs are a case of “complementarity gone bad” because they have failed to uphold international standards of justice. This thesis determines the legality and the legitimacy of the ICTs of Bangladesh. It does so by analysing the major criticisms directed towards the statutory provisions of the ICTA and the trial process of the ICTs through the prism of the principle of complementarity with particular reference to the “principles of due process recognized by international law”.

This research is based upon a collection of generally unutilized ḥadīth literature, and is not only concerned with a study of “authenticity” of the ḥadīth, but is also concerned with the science of ḥadīth transmission as advanced by the master critic, Ibn Ḥibbān al-Bustī (d. 354/965). Although the focus of modern ḥadīth scholarship has placed greater emphasis on transmitter evaluation of the second/eight and the third/ninth centuries, it still the case that a great part of the reliability of ḥadīth transmitter was not simply adopted by ḥadīth critics of the fourth/tenth century, as Ibn Ḥibbān has distinctly demonstrated. By scrutinizing Ibn Ḥibbān’s introduction to his al-Taqāsim wa al-Anwāʿ (“The Divisions and the Categories”) famously known as Ṣaḥīḥ Ibn Ḥibbān, we are afforded a unique insight into the application of his transmitter evaluation, authentic ḥadīth criterion and the concept of khabar and sunna. As the title suggests, this was a very clear conception of the degree to which his work is a collection dealing with the body of ḥadīth by the divisions and the categories which are interpreted with legal theory. Furthermore, there is no consensus on the topic of evaluating persona and it is not germane among Muslim scholars. Thus, we present a synopsis of the history of ḥadīth criticism until the time of Ibn Ḥibbān as well as the techniques that the early critics employed to determine the evaluation of transmitters. Even though a comprehensive analysis of whole of Ibn Ḥibbān’s biographical dictionary of impugned transmitters (namely Maʿrifāt al-Majrūḥīn wa al-Dhuʿafāʾ min al-Muḥaddithīn) would be exceedingly beneficial, this study only concentrates on the introduction of the book. Our discursive approach has pointed out the state of disagreement of transmitter evaluation that occured in the fourth/tenth century and the compelling contribution of Ibn Ḥibbān’s works to the subsequent literature on the science of ḥadīth transmission. The final part of this study is concerned with some of the ways in which Ibn Ḥibbān has presented the biography of the Prophet and the early scholars in the Islamic tradition. The task involves a short analysis of the purposes, history, organization, total of figures, and basic strategies used in Ibn Ḥibbān’s biographical dictionaries. Apart from biographical material of reliable transmitters in the Ṣaḥīḥ, it manifests clearly that Ibn Ḥibbān’s approval of a transmitter is due to the inclusion both in Kitāb al-Thiqāt and Mashāhīr al-ʿUlamāʾ al-Amṣār. The ḥadīth transmitters whose biographies are contained in the Thiqāt and the Mashāhīr are thus presented as the successors of the Prophet through the arrangement of ṭabaqāt. In this manner, Ibn Ḥibbān could reveal of the genealogy of authority since both sources yield information of reliable transmitters who lived during a period of 300 years after the Prophet’s death.

The Persian Gulf represents a vital, yet unexplored region of the East India Company’s sphere of influence. By considering the Gulf as an important space of interaction between the Company and successive Persian regimes, a new relationship can be revealed. From the Company’s foundational action in assisting Shah Abbas I in the capture of Hormuz in 1622, to the creation of a fleet by Nader Shah in the 1730’s, the Company’s experience with Persia represents a different angle on wider trends in Company history. The Company’s factory at Bandar Abbas was a nexus for Indian Ocean trade, as well as the living quarters for a small community of Europeans, whose lives and livelihoods depended on the recognition of rights granted by successive Persian Shahs in the Farman; a legal document of great influence and longevity, originally granted by Abbas I, which lasted for more than a century.

This thesis explores how Palestinian youth in Lebanon construct their identities in the context of statelessness. Specifically, the study examines how Palestinian youth in south Lebanese refugee camps and gatherings understand and perform their identities vis-à-vis nationality, gender and religion; how the discursive resources of identity are appropriated and articulated in everyday life within the camps and how Palestinian identities in Lebanon have shifted across exilic generations, all in the absence of formal state structures. Acknowledging that Palestinian young men and women are meaningful actors in their own right, I have engaged in interpretivist inquiry and sought to capture and reconstruct the subjective meanings placed on social life by Palestinian youth in Lebanon through a case study. Given this methodological perspective, I have used semi-structured interviews, focus groups and Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) approaches as research methods within this study. In light of the vulnerability of Palestinians as a refugee population situated within the larger context of Western imperialism and colonialism in the Middle East, I have drawn on post-structuralist, post-colonialist and feminist theoretical frameworks to interrogate the data. The findings of this study show that Palestinian youth in Lebanon construct their identities through nationalist discourses of shared history, kinship, culture and religion. This is accomplished over time through the production and reproduction of symbolic systems in and through the institutional sites of the school, the family, political organizations, the media and religious institutions. Through these processes, Palestine is constructed as different from 'Other' nations and 'Palestinian-ness' as distinct from 'Other' national identity positions. However, the processes of national signification described above produce identities that are in a constant state of flux and transformation across time and space. Moreover, internal contestations are produced, particularly in relation to religion, gender and generation, which trouble and problematize the notion of a singular and homogenous Palestinian identity. The case study research presented in this thesis explores how Palestinian young people come to understand themselves and learn to navigate their lives both in relation to and in distinction from external 'Others' and dominant 'imaginings' of 'Palestinian-ness'.

To date, the study of Chinese propaganda photography has been limited. While some research has been made on post-1949 photography, the photographic production of the pre-1949 period has not been sufficiently explored. Focusing on the years of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45), this thesis aims at addressing this gap in the literature and at providing an analysis of how the Chinese Communist Party exploited photography for propaganda purposes during the war. Through the images taken by Party-affiliated photographers and printed on the Jin Cha Ji Pictorial, the first Communist photographic propaganda magazine, this study aims to show how this type of visual propaganda aimed not only at narrating the events of the war against Japan, but also at creating a new idea of the Chinese nation. This thesis is divided into four chapters. The first, The Jin Cha Ji Pictorial: A Brief History presents the history of the magazine and the work of the CCP affiliated photographers who contributed to its creation and popularity. Chapter two, The Geography of a Revolution, explores how a new cultural landscape was visually constructed to create the basis of the political legitimation that the CCP needed during wartime. Chapter three, Becoming Modern Women, investigates the symbolic and ideological value of the spinning wheel in 1943 in relation to women’s contribution to the war effort and the thorny issue of women empowerment. Lastly, chapter four, Moulding the Future looks at the visual representation of childhood and discusses the issue of militarisation and masculinisation of childhood during wartime. This study ends with few considerations on the propagandistic, historical and artistic value of Communist propaganda photography during the Second Sino-Japanese War as well as a reflection on how the symbolic and ideological significance of some of the photographs presented here are still recognisable in contemporary Chinese propaganda.

This thesis surveys the ninth-century metallic threads decorating silks discovered at Famen temple in Shaanxi province, China. In this research, metallic threads decorating Famen silks have been studied and documented in detail in order to understand how they were produced and how they were applied. Samples of metallic threads were selected and optical microscope and SEM/EDS were used to determine their morphology and composition. Problems regarding the current terminology used to describe metallic threads are briefly considered, and a systematic renaming of different types of metallic threads is suggested. Analysis results show that most Famen metallic threads were made of gold strips without substrate wound around a fibrous core, and that very few are silver strips without substrate wound around a fibrous core. Silver strips with paper substrate wound around a fibrous core are found among Famen silks, providing very early examples of this type of metallic thread in the world. Technical evidence demonstrates that the Famen metallic strips were cut from hammered metallic foil. It was found that metallic threads of different metal composition with different physical characteristics were selected according to the decoration techniques used and the function of the silks. The use of metallic threads with different grades of evenness in dimension and morphology for different decoration techniques was also found. The gold contents of these gold threads are all very high, and the thicknesses of the gold strips are large. All these characteristics are probably related to the function of Famen silks as objects of Buddhist worship that had been donated to the temple by members of the Tang imperial family and other high-ranking people. Technical investigation into the manufacture of modern traditional Chinese metallic threads was carried out in this research. Combined with analysis of the morphological, structural, and material nature of Famen metallic threads, the key technical characteristics of modern traditional metallic threads were found, which provided important evidence for deducing the manufacturing techniques of Famen metallic threads. Successful reconstructive experiments that produced metallic threads similar to Famen metallic threads were carried out in the laboratory by the author. The use of other known related techniques to produce Famen metallic threads was eliminated on technical grounds. With the above evidence, the manufacturing of Famen metallic threads, especially how the metallic strips were wound around the fibrous core, are reasonably deduced here. By investigating a number of currently accessible Chinese historical metallic threads from other periods, the evolutionary principles of Chinese metallic threads are concluded. The special characteristics of Famen metallic threads, the reasons determining these characteristics are better understood, and their role in the development of Chinese metallic threads is assessed.

India’s North-West Frontier was the one area where the British Raj could suffer a knockout blow from either external Russian invasion or internal revolt. Frontier defence was amongst the greatest burdens during India’s inter-War financial austerity. Despite the RAF’s operational and financial efficacy in 1920s Iraq, air control was never implemented on the Frontier and air power’s potential was never fully exploited. Instead, aircraft were employed to enhance the Army’s traditional battlefield capabilities, resulting in efficient tactical co-ordination during the 1930s Waziristan campaign - the RAF’s most operationally-active pre-War theatre. To address why air power was constrained on the Frontier, the Thesis examines the inter-War relationship between the Armies of India and the RAF and its impact on the development and application of RAF doctrine. It concludes that the conservatively-natured Indian Armies were slow to recognise the conceptual shift required to fully exploit air power. This entrenchment was reinforced by inter-Service rivalry and the threat of aircraft replacing land forces with a concomitant loss of political standing. The enduring high-level internecine conflict resulted in the squandering of both resources and the opportunity to test independent, ‘strategic’ air power theory prior to WWII. Its legacy impacted on Army-RAF relations into WWII.

Since the mid-1980s, both Shanghai and Hong Kong have implemented health insurance reform to contain healthcare costs. But the reform result in these two places represents polar extremes. While Shanghai witnessed a revolution in healthcare financing in 2000, Hong Kong remains status quo on healthcare financing. Using the theory of historical institutionalism, this study examines how the complex interplay of forces affects health insurance reform implementation in these two places. It finds that Shanghai succeeded in implementing health insurance reform because of contextual influences, ideological shift, policy feedback, the authoritative political institutions, the dominance of key bureaucratic stakeholders in health insurance reform process, the endorsement of new ideas, and the decentralization power given to local governments. On the other hand, it finds that Hong Kong failed to implement any health insurance reforms in 1993 because of a more democratic political system, policy feedback, the persistence of old ideas, and a robust economy. Besides, it finds that the government failed to implement healthcare financing reforms in 1999 and 2000 because of a disjointed political system, difficult economic circumstances, the new idea lacking public acceptance, policy feedback, and the institutionalization of old ideas.

The international literature, policy and action up to now have concentrated predominantly on the prevention and treatment aspects of HIV/AIDS, often neglecting the support and care that poor people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) require. The current study addresses this gap by exploring a group of poor PLHAs’ own perceptions of their experience of living with and seeking treatment for HIV/AIDS, the adequacy of the health care services they are able to access and the support programmes for PLHA provided by NGOs and other not-for-profit organisations in the context of Kolkata - one of the largest metropolitan cities in India. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with 59 men and women from Kolkata, India. The study reveals that in the case of HIV/AIDS, it is necessary to divide the post-symptomatic phase into pre and post-diagnosis stages, because it emerged that many PLHA had experienced serious delays in obtaining an accurate diagnosis, resulting in the loss of their existing assets, further impoverishing many at an early stage of the illness trajectory. People’s ability to mobilise additional labour assets within their households to ‘earn money in new ways’ and the characteristics of their ‘household relations’ emerged as key explanations of how well households fared during the post-diagnosis phase.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the attitude of Kuwaiti primary teachers and head teachers toward including pupils with disabilities in mainstream schools and classrooms in the State of Kuwait. The two-part study utilises a ‘two methods approach’ to reveal the attitudes of teachers and head teachers in primary mainstream and special schools toward pupils with disabilities and including them in mainstream classrooms. The first study was a questionnaire-based survey of 560 teachers and head teachers currently working in the 209 mainstream and special primary schools in Kuwait. The questionnaire used was the Mainstream Attitude Survey (MAS) developed by Alghazo (2000). Results showed a mixed attitude towards inclusion of pupils with disabilities, and that, overall, teachers were quite negative about the concept. Teachers from mainstream schools were more supportive of inclusion than special school teachers and, male teachers were more supportive than female teachers. The second study involved interviews with 30 teachers, head teachers and 4 decision makers. These revealed nuances of opinion with respondents from both school types supporting inclusion from two main positions. The first emphasised that inclusion was an ethically sound movement; the second emphasised inclusion would be socially beneficial to society and the development of all pupils. Of those who were negative towards inclusion, criticisms were mostly based on the idea that while there were likely to be social benefits of inclusion, these benefits were not significant enough to justify placing the academic achievement of mainstream pupils at risk.