Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Magisterdisputats. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Candidate thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.

Thesis (M.A. in National Security Affairs)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): H. Lyman Miller, Gaye Christoffersen. Includes bibliographical references (p. 91-96). Also available online.

The purpose of this thesis is to examine the geo-strategic and political factors which constitute the prevailing security environment in North East Asia, with particular emphases on the pivotal position of Korean peninsula and the crucial influence of superpower naval balances and strategic developments. A major element of this examination is the assessment of the health of the contemporary security arrangement in North East Asia, within and between the various 'camp'', and how best to remedy any shortcoming.This thesis suggests that the balance of power between the US and the Soviet Union is changing in favour of the latter and that military stability between East and West is being undermined. If not arrested, these trends will increase and exacerbate political-military divisions in the Far East. This situation could well result in any one of the states which have an interest in the region enhancing its arsenal to use such military hardware for the protection of its vulnerable interests.The thesis puts forward a number of propositions concerning the likely future evolution of the strategic environment and military situation, especially the political and naval dimensions, in the Far East. In its analysis the thesis considers a wide range of trends and developments, but does not lose sight of the central military-security issues, especially - in a region where the sea is such a vital strategic and economic issue - naval matters. It is the intention of the thesis to provide a unique examination of international security in North East Asia - unique in its contemporary nature, unique in its regional scope, and unique in relating internal and external political and economic issues of the interested regional states to central strategic issues, in particular superpower maritime strength. This thesis assesses the implications of these developments for South Korean security relations in particular, and suggests several issues for future consideration.

International mathematics assessments have established students in East Asia as among the best in the world and their U.S. counterparts as mediocre. What is not clear is why this “achievement gap” exists. The last major study to address this question, Stevenson and Stigler’s (1992) The Learning Gap, was published prior to empirical and methodological advances in international comparative research on education. Prevailing wisdom points to unverified differences in cultural beliefs, which often leads to defeatist conclusions. This dissertation offers a fresh perspective by applying sociological theory and methods to the issue. Specifically, I rely on underutilized data from the 2003 and 2007 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) of fourth graders to compare educational systems across three major factors that influence math achievement: curriculum, teachers and parents. My main empirical findings are that there is greater uniformity of math instruction across classrooms in the participating East Asian nations of Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan than in the U.S. and that, among all participating educational systems, average achievement tends to be higher in those with greater uniformity of instruction. The implication is that the institutional arrangements that allow for less uniformity of instruction across classrooms in the U.S. might be partially responsible for the gap. Cross-regional differences in teacher effectiveness might also account for part of the gap, as three-level, hierarchical linear models of achievement in each nation indicate that U.S. math teachers are less effective than their East Asian counterparts—even after the quantity of instruction provided is taken into account. The main theoretical contribution is an alternative explanation for the apparent cross-regional disparity in the proportion of involved parents, which highlights how schools can make a difference in whether or not parents become involved. Such an approach promises a way out of the dead-end reached by previous theorists. However, this dissertation also draws attention to the limitations of the existing data. At present, there is not enough information available to substantiate the policy recommendations made in previous studies. As such, a central aim of this dissertation is to put research onto sounder methodological footing. / Sociology

It is well known that American botanist Asa Gray's 1859 paper on the floristic similarities between Japan and the United States was among the earliest applications of Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory in plant geography. Commonly known as Gray's "disjunction thesis," Gray's diagnosis of that previously inexplicable pattern not only provoked his famous debate with Louis Agassiz but also secured his role as the foremost advocate of Darwin and Darwinism in the United States. Making use of previously unknown archival materials, this dissertation examines the making of Gray's disjunction thesis and its relation to his collecting networks. I first point out that, as far back as the 1840s, Gray had identified remarkable "analogies" between the flora of East Asia and that of North America. By analyzing Gray and his contemporaries' "free and liberal exchange of specimens," I argue that Gray at the time was convinced that "a particular plan" existed in nature, and he considered that the floristic similarities between Japan and eastern North America manifested this plan. In the 1850s, when Gray applied himself to enumerating collections brought back by professional collectors supported by the subscription system and appointed in governmental surveying expeditions, his view of nature was then replaced by one that regarded the flora as merely "a catalogue of species." I argue that it was by undertaking the manual labor of cataloging species and by charging subscription fees for catalogued species that Gray established his status as a metropolitan botanist and as the "mint" that produced species as a currency for transactions in botanical communities. Finally, I examine the Gray-Darwin correspondence in the 1850s and the expedition that brought Gray's collector to Japan. I argue that Gray's thesis cannot be considered Darwinian as historians of science have long understood the term, and that its conception was part of the United States' scientific imperialism in East Asia. In light of recent studies focusing on the history of field sciences, this dissertation urges that a close examination of a biogeographical discovery like Gray's thesis is impossible without considering the institutional, cultural, and material aspects that tie the closets of naturalists to the field destinations of collectors. / History of Science

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Transport Policy and Planning / Master / Master of Arts in Transport Policy and Planning

This paper relates to Franco-Japanese relations between 1932 and 1945 in East Asia. In order to do this, it examines French behavior towards the Japanese in Shanghai and Indochina, France's position during incidents such as the 1932 Shanghai Incident, its policy during the Sino-Japanese conflict as well as its changing role and position in East Asia during the 1930s and 1940s, especially with the changes brought upon by the Second World War. This paper also pays attention to how France, as well as other Western nations, viewed Japan and East Asia, as well as how it affected East-West relations during this period. Finally, the paper describes the complex relations that existed between Vichy France, Free France, Indochina as well as Japan. It ends with events such at the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, that led to the eventual Japanese takeover of French territories in East Asia and the irreparable damage to France's position in East Asia.

This thesis investigates the relationship between economic ideas and practices in reference to Japanese development experience. To achieve this, it first examines the impact of economic ideas and economists on the Japanese development. Then it examines the characteristics of the Japanese development. Lastly, the study attempts to give an account of the direct impact of Japanese experience. It also tries to elucidate the indirect influence on the Japanese development economics which occurred through its impact on East Asian model. It has three main assertions. Firstly, it argues that Japanese economic thought and economists that were under the influence of heterodox economic schools such as the German Historical School, Marxism and the Schumpeterian and Keynesian schools, played a crucial role in shaping the Japanese development. Secondly, at least partly for this reason, Japanese development which can be considered as a piece-wise continuous accelerated growth phenomena, demonstrated heterodox characteristics. Thirdly, Japanese successful industrialization directly and indirectly, through influencing East Asian development model, deeply affected different economic approaches in development economics such as the developmental state, flying geese model and the Confucian ethic thesis. The broader implication of this thesis is that the economic ideas and economic practices have a circular relationship as Japanese experience has demonstrated.