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The main theme of the research is to analyse the major reasons behind the international expansion of a large number of Arab Gulf banks. An attempt is made to examine the role of oil revenues of the 1970s in the development and international expansion of Arab banks. The study also analyses the role played by the financial markets of the region (i.e. Kuwait and Bahrain) in encouraging the regional and international expansion of Arab banks. Because of the unique features of the Gulf region a historical approach has been adopted to support an understanding of the present bankign practices of the Arab banks. The study follows the development of Arab Gulf banks since their inception in the 1950s and 1960s, and includes a survey investigating the expansion of these banks into the major international financial centres of Western Europe, the United States and more recently Tokyo. A comparative analysis to the operational aspects of Arab and other international banks is also provided. The survey was carried out through personal interviews with the senior managements of several Arab banks in London, which allows a comparison to be made between the factors that led to the international expansion of Arab Gulf and western banks. The involvement of Arab banks in the syndicated lending and eurobond markets, is closely examined. The study demonstrates that Arab banks' success in the euromarkets was not necessarily based on oil revenues as often assumed, but rather the trade finance of these banks that fuelled their international expansion.

The dissertation aims to explore the declared and the alleged undeclared reasons for the Second Gulf War (2003), against the background of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the US. To achieve the aim of the study, the research commenced with a conceptual framework of the causes, reasons and motives for war. The framework not only identifies the various type of wars, but also distinguishes between the general causes of, and specific reasons for war within the context of realist, liberal and conservative theories. To analyse the context of the 2003 US-led war with Iraq, the study explores the reasons why Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, and how this invasion ultimately resulted in the US participation in the 1991 Gulf War against Iraq. Following from this, the study identifies certain reasons/factors emanating from the 1991 Gulf War that may have influenced the US decision-making process in the lead up to the 2003 war against Iraq. Mainly, the study explores the three declared reasons for the war as well as the intelligence failures by the US and the UK intelligence agencies, especially the incorrect assessments of Iraq WMD capabilities and related programmes, which consequently resulted in the US-led campaign against Iraq. Although most of the declared US reasons of Iraq’s alleged WMD and its alleged links to Al Qaeda could not be substantiated, the study argues that these were important factors in building a case for the war. Lastly, the study explores the alleged undeclared reasons for the Iraq war, and suggests that oil seems to have been an important factor which led the US to war. Copyright / Dissertation (MSecurity Studies)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Political Sciences / unrestricted

Gulf Killifish Fundulus grandis is an estuarine species used as a live bait for marine sport fishes, native from Veracruz, Mexico, along the Northern Gulf of Mexico coast, to the eastern coast of Florida. Culture protocols are established, but Gulf Killifish have not been fully adopted as a commercially produced species by producers, possibly due to economic efficiency and needs for advances related to inland production. Therefore, production methods from spawning in recirculating aquaculture systems (RAS) to grow-out to market size in earthen ponds were examined. Increasing broodstock density or spawning substrate surface area did not increase egg production in RAS. In freshwater, juvenile Gulf Killifish exhibited broad pH and hardness tolerances, and multiple cohorts were stocked and grown to market size in one season in earthen ponds, with rapid growth rates at 50,000 fish/ha. After low-salinity rearing, osmotic stress differed between cohorts, but overall salinity tolerance was not affected.

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Anomaly timescales for the last 90 million years, derived from marine magnetic profiles and published prior to mid-1979, are summarized, illustrated for comparison, and critically reviewed. A revised timescale is constructed using calibration points which fix the ages of anomalies 2.3', 5.5, 24, and 29. An equation is presented for converting K-Ar dates that is consistent with the recent adoption of new decay and abundance constants. The calibration points used in the revised timescale, named NLC-80, are so converted, as are the boundary ages of geologic epochs within the range of the timescale. NLC-80 is then used, along with recently acquired and rigorously navigated underway geophysical data from the region of the mouth of the Gulf of California, to prepare detailed bathymetric, gravimetric, and seismo-tectonic maps of the area. The basement ages at DSDP Leg 63 drilling sites 471, 472, and 473 are estimated from magnetic anomalies fit to timescale NLC-80. The estimates agree with biostratigraphically determined basement ages and support the proposal that an aborted ridge of about 14 MY age has left a small fragment of the Farallon Plate beneath the Magdalena Fan. Several large inactive faults are identified on the deep-sea floor west of the tip of the peninsula of Baja California. Additional magnetic anomaly profiles and bathymetric profiles across the Rivera Ridge are interpreted. These contradict the existence of a 3.5 MY old aborted spreading center on the Maria Magdalena Rise. Instead, it is proposed that an episode of subduction of the Pacific Plate beneath the southeastern tip of Baja California, concomitant with strike-slip faulting west of the peninsula, occurred and that this subduction may be responsible for the uncentered location of the Rivera Ridge within the mouth of the Gulf of California. A single magnetic anomaly profile obtained northeast of the Tamayo Fracture Zone is used to determine that the rate of Pacific/North American plate motion, for the last 3 MY is 68 km/MY at this location. This result, if correct, indicates that the peninsula of Baja California is separating from mainland Mexico faster than the Rivera Ridge is generating oceanic crust in the wake of opening in the gulf. This, in turn, requires that either slow diffuse extension is occurring presently across the Maria Magdalena Rise, or across the Cabo Corrientes-Colima region, or that the portion of North America south of the trans-Mexican volcanic belt is moving right-slip with respect to the North American Plate at a rate of 10-20 km/MY. Large horsts and many smaller continental fragments are found within the southern gulf. Several of them have active seismic boundaries, while others have apparently foundered. The gulf began to open approximately 14-15 MY ago with slow, diffuse block-faulting and the deposition of the Maria Magdalena Fan at the mouth of the gulf. Oceanic crust was exposed in the gulf by about 9-10 MY, at the same time that the Rivera Ridge began reorienting by clockwise rotation. Strike-slip motion along the Tosco-Abreojos Fault took up some of the Pacific/North American motion with the remainder occurring within the gulf itself. During this period the Pacific Plate forming within the gulf was slowly subducting beneath Baja California. By 4-5 MY subduction ceased and all of the Pacific/North American plate motion was shifted to the Gulf of California fault system. The gulf and peninsula of California are still in the process of adjusting to the change from Pacific/Farallon to Pacific/North American motion. / Graduation date: 1982

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The southernmost region of the Mexican Ridges extends from Bryant's gap near 22.5 N latitude to the Campeche Knolls near 19.0 N latitude. Analysis of 23,030 kilometers of sparker and CDP seismic data from six surveys reveals the existence of two separate areas of folding, Zones 4a and 4b. In the Zone 4a foldbelt symmetrical folds form a gentle salient which parallels the curved outline of Isla de Tuxpan. Structural relief often in excess of 500 meters is reflected by similar bathymetric relief. Fold wavelengths average 10-12 kilometers. A detachment or decollement is interpreted in a thick Upper Cretaceous to Lower Tertiary pelagic shale sequence by the existence of relatively undeformed reflectors below this interval. The 3 to 3.5 kilometer thick allochthonous sheet has experienced approximately 1% shortening and a maximum displacement of 1 to 2 kilometers. The Zone 4a foldbelt appears to be a massive gravity slide. Folded Plio-Pleistocene strata establish the youth of these folds. A large deep-rooted structure of questionable origin is observed on GLG 22. This structure, exhibiting roughly 1500 meters of bathymetric relief, acts as a foreland buttress against which the gliding allochthonous mass deforms. The tightly appressed thrust-faulted folds up dip from the buttress exhibit anomalously short wavelengths. While no folding is observed directly down dip from the buttress, folding is observed 30 to 50 kilometers basinward of this structure just a few kilometers to the south. The boundary separating Zones 4a and 4b is a linear feature oriented transversely to regional strike and may be a tear fault. Reflections at depth are not continuous across this feature. The Zone 4b foldbelt lies directly down dip from the Veracruz Basin. Structural relief commonly doubling that observed in Zone 4a is rarely expressed as bathymetric relief. Individual folds are asymmetric, having gently dipping landward flanks and either steeply dipping or growth-faulted seaward flanks. Fold cores appear to contain diapiric material. Fold growth due to gravity sliding began in the Middle Miocene. Subsequent loading by a thick Middle-Upper Miocene section gradually halted downslope movement and initiated flowage of plastic substrata from beneath loaded synclinal troughs into anticlinal cores. This deformation has continued to the present in some folds. / text

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