This thesis examines America's post-Cold War relations with China in the context of the neoliberal vs. neorealist debate. It concludes that neorealism - the dominant school of thought in the international relations literature - is incapable of explaining America's response to China's rise in the post-Cold War era. Because America was the leading global power and China was its most obvious potential rival, a neorealist theory that prioritized the distribution of relative power would anticipate this relationship to be a most-likely case for American policymakers to pursue containment and prioritize relative gains. However, I leverage insights from more than 100 personal interviews to demonstrate that in reality American leaders have overwhelmingly preferred a strategy of neoliberal engagement with China that has remained decidedly positive-sum in nature. My explanation for this consistent, bipartisan preference is that American policymakers have not adopted the neorealist assumption that conflict is inevitable between existing and rising great powers. As a result, policymakers have not focused exclusively on how to minimize the relative costs of a potential conflict with China by trying to contain China's relative power and limit America' exposure to China (as they did with the Soviet Union in the Cold War). Instead, policymakers have subscribed to the neoliberal belief that conflict can be avoided, and that increasing engagement and interdependence is the best strategy to maintain peace. They have pursued this strategy despite acknowledging that engagement and interdependence have increased the costs of a potential conflict by helping to facilitate China's rise in both an absolute and relative sense, and by increasing America's exposure to China. This thesis helps to define the differences between hedging and containing strategies. It argues that while relative material power is often important in deciding whether to hedge or not hedge, these purely material calculations play no role in decisions of whether to pursue containment or engagement. Instead, the decision to contain or not hinges on the target state's behavior and what that reveals about the regime's underlying intentions. Within this new framework, I argue that American policymakers' strategy has been to engage China economically while simultaneously hedging militarily. Furthermore, to the extent that American policymakers have expressed increased concerns about China in recent years, this has been primarily a consequence of China's increased assertiveness - not changes in its relative power.

This thesis is dedicated to the issue of economic relations between European Union and Canada. It deals with the development of their relations and concentrates on the analysis of the reciprocal trade flows of goods. It characterizes economies and international trade of the partners and sets the trends of their future cooperation based on the analysis of their bilateral trade. Thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter defines the economy and the development of macroeconomic indicators and international trade of the EU. The second chapter is dedicated to Canada and has the same structure as the first one. The development of the bilateral relations of EU and Canada and their legal basis are described in the third chapter. It also analyses the development of their reciprocal flows of trade in goods until the year 2001. The analysis of their bilateral trade in the last decade continues in the fourth chapter, in which also the trends of the development of EU-Canada economic relations in the future are set.

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The main objective of this thesis is to examine the extent of and the potential for Arab economic integration. It adds to the growing literature on the issue of economic integration by throwing the spotlight on several issues hitherto little considered in the existing literature. The thesis especially blends various aspects of economic integration with models of spatial competition, economic geography, regionalisation and globalisation to explain the problems of and prospects for economic integration for the Arab countries. It is important to realise that economic integration has become an important aim for almost all countries in the world; in particular, less developed countries, which need more economic efforts to be able to deal with the current international milieu and the gale of globalisation. The Arab countries have engaged in a number of initiatives to advance economic integration, however despite this the degree of economic integration among them is still relatively insignificant. The thesis also attempts to offer theoretical models to explain the obstacles preventing economic integration in the Arab world. This thesis is, to the best of the author’s knowledge and belief, the first rigorous study of the extent of and the potential for Arab economic integration through three vital economic perspectives: trade, investment and labour flows. In the first perspective, this study investigates the nature of intra-Arab trade and which particular countries/sub-group of countries may potentially become an integrated regional production system, or hub. This investigation is done within the scope of gravity models, which assume that intra-trade is a function of the GDPs of the involved countries and the distance between them. The thesis extends the literature by introducing spatial models and models of new economic geography to explain how economic integration evolves in the current international milieu concomitantly driven by globalisation and regionalisation. In the second perspective, this study investigates intra-Arab FDI and capital mobility. The postulated model assumes that intra-Arab FDI is a function of a number of economic variables, such as GDP, GDP per capita, inflation and purchasing power parity. The thesis offers a comprehensive theoretical model to explain how successful economic integration can be carried out by FDI flows. In the third perspective, the study investigates intra-Arab labour flows. The proposed model utilises remittances as an indicator of labour flows. It assumes that remittances are a function of some economic variables, such as GDP per capita, the real price of oil, and the oil production of Saudi Arabia, which represents the main Arab host country of Arab labour flows. The proposed theoretical model offers insights into the dynamics of labour flows and oil price movements. The econometric study in the thesis applies panel data for the period 1985-2005, and employs Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) fixed effects regression. The most important empirical finding of the study is that Arab economic integration has been significantly affected by intra-trade, intra-FDI and intra-labour flows among sub-unions of Arab countries. / Doctor or Philosophy (PhD)

The main objective of this thesis is to examine the extent of and the potential for Arab economic integration. It adds to the growing literature on the issue of economic integration by throwing the spotlight on several issues hitherto little considered in the existing literature. The thesis especially blends various aspects of economic integration with models of spatial competition, economic geography, regionalisation and globalisation to explain the problems of and prospects for economic integration for the Arab countries. It is important to realise that economic integration has become an important aim for almost all countries in the world; in particular, less developed countries, which need more economic efforts to be able to deal with the current international milieu and the gale of globalisation. The Arab countries have engaged in a number of initiatives to advance economic integration, however despite this the degree of economic integration among them is still relatively insignificant. The thesis also attempts to offer theoretical models to explain the obstacles preventing economic integration in the Arab world. This thesis is, to the best of the author’s knowledge and belief, the first rigorous study of the extent of and the potential for Arab economic integration through three vital economic perspectives: trade, investment and labour flows. In the first perspective, this study investigates the nature of intra-Arab trade and which particular countries/sub-group of countries may potentially become an integrated regional production system, or hub. This investigation is done within the scope of gravity models, which assume that intra-trade is a function of the GDPs of the involved countries and the distance between them. The thesis extends the literature by introducing spatial models and models of new economic geography to explain how economic integration evolves in the current international milieu concomitantly driven by globalisation and regionalisation. In the second perspective, this study investigates intra-Arab FDI and capital mobility. The postulated model assumes that intra-Arab FDI is a function of a number of economic variables, such as GDP, GDP per capita, inflation and purchasing power parity. The thesis offers a comprehensive theoretical model to explain how successful economic integration can be carried out by FDI flows. In the third perspective, the study investigates intra-Arab labour flows. The proposed model utilises remittances as an indicator of labour flows. It assumes that remittances are a function of some economic variables, such as GDP per capita, the real price of oil, and the oil production of Saudi Arabia, which represents the main Arab host country of Arab labour flows. The proposed theoretical model offers insights into the dynamics of labour flows and oil price movements. The econometric study in the thesis applies panel data for the period 1985-2005, and employs Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) fixed effects regression. The most important empirical finding of the study is that Arab economic integration has been significantly affected by intra-trade, intra-FDI and intra-labour flows among sub-unions of Arab countries. / Doctor or Philosophy (PhD)

The writer's doctoral thesis has placed its emphasis on a critical appraisal of the activities encountered by multinational corporations during the last ten years of the pre-WTO phase of China. The cental argument running through all five studies is that investment in China is complex but comprehensive. Although China shows unique features, the general problems of planning and executing investment are similar to those found in any case of a firm moving across international boundaries. The individual studies complement each other, moving from the way in which Chinese government policy frames the operating environment, to the modes of analysis required of firms considering investing in China, to the more specific issues encountered by foreign firms in China, to the special problems facing Hong Kong, and finally a more abstract re-formulation of the issues of foreign investment in the Chinese context. These general arguments are well substantiated in these studies, and they serve as a useful counter to the more simplistic and enthusiastic treatments on the one hand, and the excessively pessimistic evaluations on the other. Naturally, the world did not stop just after China entered into the WTO. As it moves forward, new competitive elements have emerged and as more variables develop in response to the evolving environment the writer will be shifting his attention to the post-WTO phase of China's economic development- a challenge which could be as interesting and intriguing to pundits, entrepreneurs, governments and indeed to all players involved. / Doctor of Business Administration

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 280-293). Also available in electronic version.

This study aims to analyze the transformation of Turkey&rsquo / s relations with Iran in the 1990s and 2000s from the perspective of &ldquo / trading state&rdquo / in a historical framework. In this context, the political and economic relations between Turkey and Iran are discussed by taking into consideration the internal transformation of Turkish economy. This thesis argued that the course of Turkey&rsquo / s relations with Iran in the 1990s is mainly shaped by the military-political considerations. Not only political but also economic relations between Turkey and Iran were negatively affected by tensions and rivalry between the parties during the 1990s. Despite the counter-efforts of some of the business circles and the political parties, neither the economic nor the political relations did improve. Unlike the 1990s, Turkey&rsquo / s relations with Iran in the 2000s are largely shaped by economic and commercial considerations. Increasing dialogue and developing cooperation at the political level are positively reflected in the economic relations. As a result of the eagerness of Turkish businessmen towards the development of economic relations with Iran and the intensive support of the political elites, economic relations substantially improved in the 2000s. However, rising foreign trade relations between the parties created an asymmetric dependence to the detriment of Turkey, rather than mutual interdependence as Iran benefits more from this relationship due to its oil and natural gas exports. The increasing relationship between Turkey and Iran supports the argument that Turkey is emerging as a &ldquo / trading state&rdquo / in the 2000s.

For most of their histories, Turkey and Iran have had a friendly but competitive relationship in ideological and geopolitical venues. When this competition reached its peak in the 1990s, conventional wisdom foresaw prospects for cooperation between Turkey and Iran would gradually decrease. Instead, bilateral relations began to be enhanced in the early 2000s, which is commonly labeled as rapprochement. This rapprochement spread to the political, economic and security arenas, and has accelerated during AKP (Justice and Development Party) rule in Turkey, especially after the Iraqi War of 2003. However, the rapprochement process in bilateral relations lost its momentum in 2010. This thesis examines the reasons and extent of the rapprochement process in Turkish-Iranian relations in the first decade of 2000s, attempting to answer the following research questions: &bdquo / How can the rapprochement process in bilateral relations be defined?

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