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.

The study of the integration of the children of migrants—the so-called ‗second generation‘—is a recent trend in migration literature. Their integration is thought to be an important indicator of the degree of integration of immigrants in general into a specific society. This thesis is the first full-length comparative study of the Albanian second generation. Using a variety of field methods, it compares the ethnic identities, transnational ties and integration pathways of Albanian-origin teenagers in three European cities—London, Thessaloniki and Florence—by focusing on intergenerational transmission between the first and the second generation. Greece, Italy and the UK are, in that order, the three main European countries where Albanian migrants have settled during their short but intense migration experience of the past two decades. My study shifts the focus partly to the situation and developments in Southern Europe, where the awareness and interest in issues of the integration of the second generation are still at an initial phase. The research involved fieldwork in each of the above-named cities, where quota samples of three categories of informants were interviewed: parents, their second-generation teenage children, and teachers and other key informants within the host society. Findings show significant differences in the integration patterns of both generations, affected by sharp differences between the three contexts and the history of immigration in each context. They also point to important within- and inter-group differences, based on various socio-economic indicators. Intergenerational transmission appears as a dynamic process affected not only by context and the parents‘ socio-economic background, but also by parents‘ stage of integration. By studying a settling immigrant group and their descendants, the thesis takes a proactive approach towards the integration of ethnic minorities.

Embedded consensus has characterised the behaviour of the European Parliament since its foundation in the 1950s. This research tests the path dependence of consensus during the period of 1994 to 2002, in the light of the changing institutional powers of the Parliament. It challenges existing theory and empirical evidence drawn mainly from roll call votes that has concluded that the European Parliament has become more competitive internally in response to increased institutional powers. There are three causal factors that reinforce consensus: the need to reconcile national and ideological divisions within a multinational political system; the pull of external institutional factors such as institutional change or the separation of powers; and internal incentives for collusion between political actors influenced by the need to accommodate the interests of the national elites present at the level of the European Union. Switzerland, a multiple cleavage system of decentralised federalism that includes consociational characteristics and a separation of powers, provides a comparative reference point for institutionalised consensus. The hypotheses of institutionalised consensus are tested empirically in four ways: 1) by roll call votes between 1994 and 2001, focusing on procedure, policy area, and the cut-off point of the 1999 elections; 2) competition and consensus in the distribution of policy-related office in the Parliament; 3) by Parliament’s use of its powers of appointment and censure over other institutions; and 4) by the internal consensus on the preparation of Parliament’s bids for greater powers when the European Union Treaties are reformed. In adapting the theory of path dependence to a multinational legislature, the methodology presented in this thesis can be applied in furthering the understanding of other comparable institutions.

ABSTRACT THE NGOs AS POLICY ACTORS: THE CASE OF T&Uuml / SiAD WITH REGARD TO TURKEY&rsquo / S EU MEMBERSHIP G&Uuml / NDEM, Sebnem Master of Science, Department of European Studies Supervisor: Associate Prof. Dr. ihsan Dagi January 2004, 130 pages This study explores the effectiveness of NGOs within the policy process and governments&rsquo / decisions based on the case of T&Uuml / SiAD&rsquo / s activities with regard to Turkey&rsquo / s full membership process in the European Union. It firstly explains the process by which NGOs&rsquo / have become &ldquo / actors&rdquo / in world politics. The thesis, then, scrutinizes the role of NGOs in the policy process with regard to pluralist and corporatist paradigms and the concept of power since policy process can not be well understood without this theoretical background. After examining the roles of NGOs, especially the lobbying one, the importance of NGOs and strength of civil society for Turkey&rsquo / s integration to the European

This thesis argues that in order to understand more fully the engagement of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with the United Nations-specifically NGOs that express a religious or faith-based commitment-we must consider both their actions and the rationale behind them, the what as well as the why. To study the underlying rationale, the thesis introduces the concept of the organizational substrate, which offers a new analytical tool to draw out this undertheorized dimension of religious NGOs (Chapter 2). The substrate complements the analytical tools currently deployed by social scientists and goes beyond descriptions of organizational behavior to examine the internal rationale underpinning the behavior. The internal rationale is explored through a focused analysis of the Bahá'í International Community's United Nations Office (BIC). This organization is selected because of its reputation as a valued and effective contributor in UN fora; its seventy-year history of engagement (1945-2015); and its scriptural engagement with questions of politics and world order. The thesis also contributes to the nascent scholarship about UN-accredited religious NGOs outside of the Christian tradition. Having identified the constitutive elements of the BIC's organizational substrate, using a hermeneutic and historical approach, the thesis develops a distinct periodization of the BIC's engagement from 1945-2015. The periodization provides a historical framework (though not a historical analysis) for examining the manner in which the substrate shapes action across different historical circumstances. Each of the four historical periods offers evidence of the salience of the organizational substrate for understanding the operation of the NGO. The first period, 1945-1970 (Chapter 3) enables us to see the manner in which the substrate frames the BIC's rationale for engagement with the UN and its understanding of the UN in the context of the broader processes of civilizational, social and political evolution. In the second period, 1970-1986 (Chapter 4), the thesis demonstrates the pivotal role of Bahá'í authoritative structures in articulating, elucidating, and socializing the substrate of the organization. Between 1986 and 2008 (Chapter 5), the substrate-based analysis reveals a distinct epistemology and methodology-associated with the conception and pursuit of peace. During the final period, 2008-2015 (Chapter 6), the substrate undergirds the shift to an explicitly discursive, organic approach to engagement in UN processes, and a reconceptualization of the terms of engagement with the UN. This thesis goes beyond social scientific approaches to the study of religious actors at the UN, to demonstrate that knowledge and action require understanding of the distinct rationality of each NGO. It is by identifying and observing the operation of the organizational substrate that this pivotal and foundational element of NGO engagement at the UN comes to light.

This thesis considers some of those who were killed in politically-motivated attacks, often referred to as ‘terrorism’, which took place during Italy’s anni di piombo. Six works written by victims’ children will be used as a lens through which to examine the collective memory and the victims’ place therein. In recent years, there has been a shift in the way that this period of Italian history - the anni di piombo – has been remembered. Where previously the perpetrators of the violence of those years dominated public discourse, in the last decade the principal narrative has become more victim-centred. The biographical works written by victims’ children have inevitably contributed to this change in the memory narrative. The techniques employed in their writing in order to change the existing public image of their fathers will be analysed in this thesis, along with certain themes that recur throughout the six works and broader victim-centred discussion of this period. Analysis begins with a thorough outline of the political and historical context of the anni di piombo, including case studies of two of the most famous victims of this period and a consideration of the written works of some of the former terrorists. Following this preliminary contextualisation, each of the six books and their authors will be studied in detail to provide a foundation for the analysis contained in the final three chapters. The themes examined in the second half of the thesis are second-generation writing, forgiveness and commemoration. Using these themes as a framework, a rigorous investigation of the place that the victims hold in collective memory; the role their children’s writing has played in shaping and maintaining their public image and the longer-term impact that these changes can be seen to have had within a broader societal and political perspective is undertaken. On the basis of this study, it is evident that the victims’ place in the collective memory of the anni di piombo has changed dramatically since that period of violence concluded. The victims’ children have been very significant in enacting this change and their writing has placed them in a position from which they can continue to exert influence and promote a victim-centred approach to history.

Warfare has long been associated with Scottish Highlanders and Islanders, especially in the period known in Gaelic tradition as ‘Linn nan Creach’ (the ‘Age of Forays’), which followed the forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles in 1493. The sixteenth century in general is remembered as a particularly tumultuous time within the West Highlands and Isles, characterised by armed conflict on a seemingly unprecedented scale. Relatively little research has been conducted into the nature of warfare however, a gap filled by this thesis through its focus on a series of interconnected themes and in-depth case studies spanning the period c. 1544-1615. It challenges the idea that the sixteenth century and early seventeenth century was a time of endless bloodshed, and explores the rationale behind the distinctive mode of warfare practised in the West Highlands and Isles. The first part of the thesis traces the overall ‘Process of War’. Chapter 1 focuses on the mentality of the social elite in the West Highlands and Isles and demonstrates that warfare was not their raison d'être, but was tied inextricably to chiefs’ prime responsibility of protecting their lands and tenants. Chapter 2 assesses the causation of warfare and reveals that a recurrent catalyst for armed conflict was the assertion of rights to land and inheritance. There were other important causes however, including clan expectation, honour culture, punitive government policies, and the use of proxy warfare by prominent magnates. Chapter 3 takes a fresh approach to the military capacity of the region through analysis of armies and soldiers, and the final thematic chapter tackles the conduct of warfare in the West Highlands and Isles, with analysis of the tactics and strategy of militarised personnel. The second part of this thesis comprises five case studies: the Clanranald, 1544-77; the Colquhouns of Luss and the Lennox, 1592-1603; the MacLeods of Harris and MacDonalds of Sleat, 1594-1601; the Camerons, 1569-1614; and the ‘Islay Rising’, 1614-15. This thesis adopts a unique approach by contextualising the political background of warfare in order to instil a deeper understanding of why early modern Gaelic Scots resorted to bloodshed. Overall, this period was defined by a sharp rise in military activity, followed by an even sharper decline, a trajectory that will be evidenced vividly in the final case study on the ‘Islay Rising’. Although warfare was widespread, it was not unrestrained or continuous, and the traditional image of a region riven by perpetual bloodshed has been greatly exaggerated.

Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) is remembered as one of Russia's most influential and celebrated filmmakers. Over the course of his career he released seven feature films: Ivan’s Childhood (1962); Andrei Rublev (1966, USSR release 1971); Solaris (1972); Mirror (1975); Stalker (1979); Nostalghia (1983); and The Sacrifice (1986). Drawing on a history of post-war Soviet cinema, this thesis brings his films into contact with the concepts outlined in Gilles Deleuze’s two radical books on film: Cinema 1: The Movement-Image and Cinema 2: The Time-Image. Deleuze's Cinema books provide a system of classifications – what he calls a taxonomy or geology – of cinematic images. While their primary focus is on Western-European and American cinema, this thesis re-conceives Deleuze’s approach to film outside of that narrow context. My approach is informed by the specific historical, cultural, and industrial contexts of Tarkovsky's films, establishing the first sustained encounter between Deleuze and post-war Soviet cinema. In doing so, I offer a fresh perspective on Deleuze’s cinema concepts by re-conceiving the division between his 'movement-image' and 'time-image' in the context of the post-war Thaw, the development of the Soviet space programme, Stagnation, and the escalation of nuclear threat following the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

This thesis challenges the customary approach of studying the latent ethnic conflict in Latvia exclusively through the prism of post-Soviet studies, looking for the causes of societal disaccord in Latvia’s recent past as a Soviet Socialist Republic, when numerous traumas were induced on the eponymous nation, from the deportations of 1940 which robbed the nation of its intelligentsia, to Russification policies that threatened the very existence of the Latvian language and culture, and to mass labour immigration that radically changed the country’s demography and ethnic composition. While recognising that this approach has its own merits, this thesis focuses on another important factor contributing to the present ethnic discord, namely the historical development of the idea of the Latvian nation, especially vis-à-vis ethnic minorities, who have always been present in significant numbers on Latvian territory through the course of modern history. More often than not, the interwar period of Latvian independence and nation-building is discarded by political scientists as bearing purely symbolic meaning and having no real impact on the present. This thesis challenges this widespread assumption and argues that, on the contrary, both the genesis of the idea of the Latvian nation and its interwar experience of statehood are vital to understanding the present-day dynamics. My thesis encompasses the period of Latvian history from the mid-19th century, when Latvians’ national awakening began, to 1940, when the country lost its independence as a result of Soviet annexation. The aim of this thesis is three-fold: first, to challenge the widespread (and historically inaccurate) assumption prevalent in modern Latvia that the idea of the civic nation is something intrinsically alien and unsuitable, imposed on Latvia from above; secondly, to examine the long-forgotten original contributions made to the concept of civic nationalism, and to the whole universalist-particularist dilemma, by Latvian thinkers at the beginning of the 20th century, and to place them in the wider framework of European interwar history and nationalism studies; thirdly, to identify the key issues in majority-minority relations that contributed to the eventual deterioration of minority rights in Latvia prior to World War Two, and, to a certain extent, to the demise of parliamentarian democracy in 1934. These issues (divided into three principal clusters: citizenship, language, and education) are then compared to the remarkably similar challenges faced by Latvian society since 1991.

Identity and its different constructions - national, social and personal, for example - are increasingly recognised as fundamental to understanding current and historic cultures. The reflexive relationship of identity issues with sartorial expression is a key concept within dress, fashion and textile studies. This thesis contributes to that growing body of knowledge by developing an understanding of how specific eighteenth century Scotswomen and their families related to their garments, thus bringing together contemporary study methods and understandings of identity with historic manifestations. This study of identity is embedded within an object-study methodology, following investigative practice and cataloguing methods currently used within the international museums community. This assists the secondary purpose of the thesis, which is to highlight a breadth of largely unpublished main garment objects within Scottish public and private collections. The intimate study of these objects has revealed stories of how daily life interacted with personal taste and style, purchase methods, garment use and international markets for individuals connected to Scotland. This has contributed material understanding to wider academic research areas, most importantly the everyday lives of eighteenth century Scotswomen, issues of identity within Scotland, and how European fashion trends were adopted or adapted by individuals outside of the major fashion centres of London and Paris. Study of the garments has involved stylistic analysis of their textiles and of their construction, connecting them to other extant and depicted garments from British and international collections. Thus providing material evidence of international styles in the eighteenth century, and matching two items in a rare example of extant main garments evidencing duplication in the eighteenth century handmade clothing industry.