In this dissertation, I study the process of gaining public consent about a security threat, or threat legitimation. Threats require legitimation because they are social facts and not objective truths or subjective perceptions. I argue rhetorical resources and strategies affect threat legitimation. Political actors deploy rhetorical resources and strategies in order to generate consent. The rhetorical resources connect together the rhetorical resources to construct a threat narrative used in the public debates. Moreover, I argue that the media environment influences how rhetorical strategies affect threat legitimation, acting as a conditional variable. Therefore I trace the threat narratives in six episodes in the history of United States foreign policy. Through process tracing, I highlight how rhetorical resources and strategies changed the public debates and level of consent about a threat, and how the media environment influenced these rhetorical strategies. / Political Science

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1930. / Vita. Published also without thesis note. Bibliography: p. 255-256.

This paper discusses the political implications of creating a Northeast Asian system of regional cooperation, as the current global political changes now make it possible, and the security and economic measures that have to be taken to implement these new developmental projects. The Tumen River Project is one of the developmental projects designed to bring together former political and ideological adversaries, such as China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, Russia and South Korea. Due to the economic regionalism in the world, and to the subsequent need to create some sort of regional structure in the Asia-Pacific, these countries are striving to promote regional cooperation and overcome such serious problems as the reunification of the two Koreas, the security issues on the Korean Peninsula, the Russo-Japanese territorial dispute, and others.

Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bailey / Clans are often viewed anachronistically in a world characterized by globalization. Yet, recent research highlights that clans not only determine how societies function, but play a central political role in many parts of the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia. My analysis focuses on exploring clan alliances and their affect on the international system through the case of Uzbekistan. Clans and Democracy: A Mismatch? explores the presence of clans in Uzbekistan, deciphers to what extent they remain involved in politics, and determines how clan politics affects Uzbekistan's future prospects for democratization. I conclude that clans continue to influence the political decision-making of the state and ultimately hinder democracy formation. In closing, I explore predications for the future stability and democracy of Uzbekistan, as well as suggest policy prescriptions for the United States vis-à-vis Uzbekistan and other clan-based states. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2007. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: International Studies. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

During the three years following the 1988 Olympic Games the Soviet Union and all of the East European countries established official relations with South Korea. This study is an economic history, focusing on the establishment of direct commercial relations between these countries, a process that began in 1968. It examines the development of direct economic relations between East Central Europe, the Soviet Union and South Korea from 1970 to 1990 to identify areas of conflict, competition and cooperation. The work begins with a historical overview of Russian/Soviet relations with the Korean peninsula from 1240 to 1970 and East Europe between 1950 and 1970. The second chapter uses a comparative model for communist countries to show the degree of centralization in South Korea, which helps to explain why South Korea, a "democratic" country, could develop and consistently maintain a policy, such as Nordpolitk, for over twenty years. The remaining chapters study development of formal and informal relations during the periods of 1970-1979, 1980-1988 and 1989-1991. The "people diplomacy" conducted through nonpolitical contact, such as trade, sports and cultural exchanges, during this period clearly aided the establishment of official relations between the Soviet Union, East European countries and South Korea. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-09, Section: A, page: 2937. / Major Professor: Edward D. Wynot. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

This dissertation examines the relationship between Israel's counter-terrorist policy and the extent and intensity of terrorism in Israel. The time frame of the study is from 1968 to 1987. Israel's counter-terrorism policy has been characterized as an iron fist approach to terrorism because of a consistent use of three categories of repressive actions: military reprisals, collective punishment, and legal imprisonment. / It has been suggested by a number of scholars that a repressive policy is the only way a government can combat terrorism. However, the evidence to date has not supported this claim, rather it indicates that repression increases rather than decreases terrorism. Because Israel has been consistent in its application of a repressive strategy, the policy of Israel was examined as a test of this assumption. The dissertation has revealed three major findings. First, military actions covary with the extent and intensity of terrorism. Second, the largest reduction of terrorism in Israel was caused by the Jordanian civil War. When Jordan exiled the leadership of the PLO and a bulk of PLO fighters to Lebanon, terrorism staged in Jordan completely disappeared. Moreover, even though the PLO was able to stage terrorism in Lebanon, the extent and intensity of this violence did not reach proportions similar to levels of terrorism originating in Jordan from 1968 to 1970. Lastly, Israel's indiscriminate application of military force and collective punishment has radicalized the Palestinian population on the West Bank and Gaza Strip and is thought to be an important cause of the Intifada that began in January of 1987. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-07, Section: A, page: 2135. / Major Professor: Monte Palmer. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

This dissertation study analyses South-South bilateral cooperative events in order to test the fit of the Environmental Model which holds that capacity to act, opportunity and willingness combine to account for the foreign policy behavior of small states. The Conflict and Peace Data Bank's events data on the cooperative bilateral foreign policy interactions among Third World states from 1960 to 1979 are analyzed. Measures of association and log-linear analysis are utilized in the analysis. Capacity to act, opportunity and willingness are found to vary across regional interactions, and all three factors exhibit a positive though weak association with South-South cooperative events. The log-linear analysis indicates that the joint effects of capacity to act, opportunity and willingness account for a portion of the variation in South-South cooperative events. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 1084. / Major Professor: James Lee Ray. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.