This research looks at the legal regime governing foreign direct investment (FDI) in Taiwan, and at the interaction between the Government's economic policies, legal reform and FDI in the economic development of Taiwan. The research for this thesis is focused on the period of 1945 to the present; however, a study of the pre-1945 period is provided as a basis for analysing the post-1945 developments. There are three principal aims of this thesis. First, the thesis is designed to illustrate how the economic success of Taiwan challenges traditional views put forward in development theories and in law and development theories, in particular. Secondly, the thesis considers the role of law in the development process. By examining the evolution and operation of the FDI legal regime in Taiwan in its economic, social, political and historical context, this research suggests that the role of law is as a 'doorkeeper' for a country's development. If consistent with a public-interest-oriented economic policy, an appropriate and wellconsidered legal regime can help a country's development without risking its economic sovereignty. Finally, this thesis examines Taiwan's current FDI regime for its appropriateness. Using international law as a reference-point, a detailed analysis is made of Taiwan's current FDI laws. The thesis suggests that certain of these laws are out of date and that further legal reform is required. The thesis concludes by slightly modifying the developmental model for law and FDI which is put forward in Chapter 1, in order to emphasise the important role of government economic policy in Taiwan's development. It is submitted that the Government's choice of development strategy in each of Taiwan's different development phases has been crucial to Taiwan's success. The thesis also concludes that an appropriate legal regime remains important for a country's development regardless of its development status.

Tez (Yüksek Lisans) - Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Uluslararası İlişkiler Anabilim Dalı, 2007. / Bibliyografya var.

O presente trabalho se propõe a refletir acerca da trajetória e pensamento geopolítico e estratégico do acadêmico e analista político Zbigniew Brzezinski, incluindo o período em que atuou como Conselheiro de Segurança Nacional do presidente norte-americano Jimmy Carter entre 1977 e 1980. Como estrategista focado na política externa dos EUA, sobretudo em relação à Eurásia, ele teve durante toda a sua carreira um posicionamento muito intenso e controverso em relação à União Soviética e à Rússia, sobretudo baseado nas teorias geopolíticas clássicas de John. H. Mackinder e Nicholas J. Spykman. O enfoque deste estudo é relacionado às continuidades e mudanças em seu pensamento estratégico, principalmente buscando compreender melhor suas percepções sobre o papel e alinhamento político global da Rússia. Pretende-se, desta forma, aprofundar o entendimento e posicionamento de Brzezinski em relação ao pertencimento cultural e estratégico da Rússia na Eurásia e no mundo. / This paper aims to reflect on the geopolitical and strategic thought and trajectory of the academic and political strategist Zbigniew Brzezinski, including his period as National Security Advisor of North-American President Jimmy Carter between 1977 and 1980. As a strategist focused on the foreign policy of the USA, particularly regarding Eurasia, he had during his whole career some very intense and controversial positions regarding the Soviet Union and Russia, especially based on the classic geopolitical theories of John H. Mackinder and Nicholas J. Spykjman. The focus of this study is related to the continuities and changes of his strategic thought, seeking mainly to better understand his perceptions on the role and global political alignment of Russia. It is intended therefore to elaborate on Brzezinskis understanding and positions regarding Russias cultural and strategic belonging in Eurasia and the world.

[pt] A dissertação apresenta uma leitura de obras do artista visual e escritor Jimmie Durham (1940). A escrita é parte fundamental de seu trabalho, e se faz presente tanto na forma de ensaios e poemas como em pinturas, esculturas e instalações. Por ter nascido nos EUA de suposta ascendência escocesa e cherokee, o pensamento de Durham transita por cosmovisões distintas. Ele provoca a linguagem, contesta os limites identitários, reelabora geopolíticas e confunde a noção hegemônica de História. Sua obra escancara os absurdos da normalidade e aponta para a permanência de mecanismos de segregação, opressão e exploração de origem colonial, instigando uma autocrítica do pensamento ocidental. Esta dissertação trata também de trabalhos e textos desenvolvidos pelo artista para o contexto específico brasileiro, e inclui a transcrição de uma conversa inédita com ele. Durham catalisa a imaginação em direção a outro modo de existência, do qual a cosmologia e a temporalidade inscritas nos idiomas ameríndios fazem parte. Esta dissertação conta com escrita de aspiração descolonizadora, acionada pela pulsação da potência estética e intelectual da obra de Jimmie Durham. / [en] The dissertation presents a reading of works by the visual artist and writer Jimmie Durham (b. 1940, –). Writings are a fundamental part of his work, either as essays and poems or as part of paintings, sculptures, and installations. Since he was born in the USA, with an alleged Scottish and Cherokee ancestry, his thinking transits through different cosmovisions. He teases language, he challenges identity limitations, re-elaborates geopolitics, and disturbs the hegemonic notion of History. His body of work exposes the absurd of normality and points out to the permanence of segregation, oppression, and exploitation mechanisms of colonial origin. It instigates Western thinking to do an auto-criticism. This dissertation also approaches texts and works he has developed to the specific Brazilian context, and includes an exclusive conversation with the artist. Durham catalyzes imagination towards another mode of existence, in which there are cosmology and temporality intrinsic to Amerindian languages. This dissertation has a decolonizing aspiration that is triggered by the pulse of the aesthetic and intellectual potency of Jimmy Durham s work.

Decentralisation for local community development has become the new paradigm of development discourse in Ghana in the present times. There is currently an elaborate legal framework in Ghana on decentralisation as a means for addressing local community development. The role of law in development is therefore implicated in the discourse. This study raises provocative, startling and challenging questions not only on the decentralisation programme, but the appropriate theoretical framework for reading the role of law in development. The study argues that decentralisation in Ghana is a spatial strategy of the state for addressing the crisis of its political economy and not one necessarily for local community development. Taking its starting point in land administration in the Upper West Region of Ghana (predominantly agrarian communities), the study explores how the objectives of decentralisation in Ghana address the subjectivity of development needs of local communities in Ghana. The study's contention is that the legal regime of the decentralisation programme and its praxis fail to address a pertinent development concern (land) of the Upper West communities. The study argues that if local community development were the object of the programme, it would perforce address the problematic of land administration that is an important concern for predominantly subsistence farming communities. The study also demonstrates how a spatial reading of social phenomenon provides critical insights to an understanding of the role of law in development. The study is based on a field study conducted in Ghana and among the communities of the Upper West Region, through interviews with officials of institutions, traditional authorities and civil society organisations. The interviews were complemented by written primary and secondary sources. Primary sources include documents from the National Archives in Ghana and from decentralised institutions in the Upper West Region. Secondary sources include unpublished essays and theses, books, articles, reported cases in the Ghana Law Reports, unreported and/or pending cases in the Ghanaian courts.

The thesis examines the role of Islam and Shariah (Islamic law) in the economic development of Malaysia and it rejects the assumption that Islam and Shariah inhibit economic development. In contemporary Malaysia, there are two 'policies' adopted by the Government. Firstly, 'Islamisation' which is for the advancement of Islamic law and institution building. Secondly, 'Malaynisation' which promotes the socio-economic development of the Malay ethnic group. The study adopts a holistic approach which covers the political economy of law in Malaysia. The thesis explores the relationship between the two policies considering in particular whether they are essentially the same. The study covers the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods although the focus is on the post-1969 period which involved the application of the New Economic Policy (NEP). The NEP was a pro-Malay Policy to rectif,' the economic imbalance of the Malays vis-à-vis other communities. Therefore, the focus of this thesis is on the Malay- Muslim population of Peninsular Malaysia who form the bulk of the Bumiputera (indigenous people). Two Bum iputera and Islamic organisations, Bank Islam (BIIMB) and Tabung Haji (TH) as well as the Bumiputera unit trust scheme, Amanah Saham Nasional (ASN) are used as the case studies. Their establishment, structure and organisation are examined. There is a specific focus on the extent to which they are examples of Islamisation or Malaynisation. It is clear that in contemporary Malaysia, Islam and Shariah are being used by the Government to promote economic development. Islamic values have been used to further Malay economic participation in the commercial sector. As a consequence, the economic position of many Malay-Muslims has greatly improved. However, the Government position is questioned by the Islamic opposition who say that the Islamisation policy in many respects is either contrary to Islam or merely cosmetic, and want a 'pure' Islamic approach. The thesis therefore involves a critical examination of the perspectives of both the Government and the Islamic opposition.

This study aims to account for the high degree of influence and intensity displayed in bi-lateral relations between Russia and the other post-Soviet states - specifically Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan (BUK.) It seeks to do so by employing an analytical framework based around the concept of 'post-Imperialism,' arguing that persistent legacies of the imperial past have both ensured a high degree of intensity in bilateral relationships as well as providing pathways of influence over certain policy areas - primarily for Russia, but in some instances for BUK as well. It also seeks to examine imperial legacy issues as distinct 'types' - from physical economic and military infrastructure, to cross-border constellations of elite personnel to the normative and cognitive inheritances of imperialism amongst both the elite and the population at large. It concludes that Russia has been able to mobilise and employ power resources not available to alternative actors in order to 'punch above its weight' when competing with other powers for influence in the post-Soviet space, and preserve certain Soviet era patterns of relations. It is not the focus of this study, but it is to be hoped that the framework will prove useful for researchers in other former imperial polities in future.

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences. / Department of Government and Public Administration

<p>Central Asia is a region strategically located at the crossroads of the two continents: Asia and Europe. The region is represented by five states (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) with different level of economic development and with the population amounting to over 60 million people. The region is rich in energy resources represented by oil, gas, coal and water resources.</p><p>The thesis analyses, assesses and scrutinises one of the topical issues of the contemporary international relations - cooperation between the European Union and Central Asian states before and after adoption in June 2007 of the ‘European Union and Central Asia: Strategy for a New Partnership’,  an important political document in the history of relations between the two parties.</p><p>The new stage of cooperation is analysed more comprehensively accentuating priorities set in the Strategy. Analysis of the current state of affairs is conducted concerning some important issues of the Strategy related to regional cooperation between Central Asian states, such as integrated water management and development of hydro-energy system, issues of diversification of hydrocarbons supply routes from the region to Europe and provision of energy security, etc.</p><p>Issues of cooperation between the European Union and Tajikistan are analysed as a case study. State of affairs between the Central Asian states and the European Union Member States actively cooperating with these countries is characterised.</p><p>The thesis also scrutinises other regional/international actors engaged in cooperation with Central Asia (such as China, Russia, the US, Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, etc.) and their potential for interaction with the European Union for more effective joint solution of the problems existing in the region is assessed.</p><p>In the conclusion, development of cooperation between the European Union and Central Asian states is scrutinised, the problems and their possible solutions in this regard are analysed, and the recommendations for increasing effectiveness of cooperation between the two parties are presented.</p><p>The European Union’s policy in Central Asia is interpreted from perspective of the theories of international relations namely neorealism, neoliberalism and constructivism in the research.</p>

The objective of this thesis is to analyze the US Central Eurasia Policy in the period between 1991 and 2006. Within this context, the purpose is to figure out the foremost motive behind the US&rsquo / s strategic engagement in the region with a due regard to changing geopolitical context with the demise of the Soviet Union. The main argument rests upon the assumption that the US regional policy is primarily motivated by geopolitical imperatives as the Central Eurasian region becomes the primary springboard for the attainment of global supremacy. Within this respect, energy is only one aspect of the ongoing geopolitical competition. That the geopolitical priorities are preponderant to geoeconomic interests are basically observed by the intense geostrategic struggle over dominating the prospective oil and gas pipelines from the region. Eventually, within the confines of this thesis, it is deduced that the ultimate parameters of the geopolitical struggle, the framework of which was specified by the United States, have revealed themselves more explicitly in the aftermath of the September 11, which only reinforced the strategic significance of Central Eurasia in coping with the new geopolitical fault lines of the 21st century. Within this regard, Central Eurasia has transformed into an implicit geostrategic standoff between the United States on the one hand, and Russia and China on the other. Accordingly, the fact that the United States could by no means remain complacent about the fate of Central Eurasia against such a backdrop of high geopolitical fluidity in the overall Eurasian continent is most relevant to the possibility of rising potential aspirants for global dominance that would challenge the United States in the long term.