The topic of this thesis is the Chinese view of world order centered on the concept of Tianxia ( and #22825; and #19979; all-under-heaven). After an historical excursus on the origin of the Chinese imperial sociopolitical and philosophical system, the thesis explores the main characteristics of the early empires. Afterwards, the thesis attempts a comparison between the ancient Chinese empire and another ancient empire, the Roman Empire. The objective is to dig deeply within the political, administrative and legal roots of both empires, as they are the ancestors of two big civilizations: China and the West. Because of the great influence that these two antique political systems had on the current political arrangements of the two parts of the globe, the comparison should help detect the foundation of the systems and will allow to better understand the differences between them and the peculiarities of Chinas view of world order. Furthermore, the thesis analyzes the concept of Tianxia in post-1949 China, concentrating on the new applications of the concept, also drawing a comparison between political organization of imperial China in the past and the PRC (Peoples Republic of China) of our time. Lastly, the thesis explores how some scholars in todays China are reexamining, reframing, and re-advocating the ancient concept of Tianxia as Chinas new and alternative view of world order in the post-Cold War world.

Current approaches to foreign policy decision making and international conflict have ignored the role of emotions as variables influencing foreign policy choices. However, a growing area of political research suggests that emotions are of critical importance to many aspects of political life. Predominant foreign policy decision making models currently attend to either rational calculations or ‘cold’ cognitive processes and heuristics. These models provide little theoretical space for propositions about how enduring and intense emotions such as hatred and fear influence perceptions and interpretations of interstate conflict. In this paper we propose a model which addresses this deficiency in foreign policy decision making research. A theory of emotions is introduced and integrated into the existing research on foreign policy decision making. Hypotheses pertaining to the influence of negative emotions on information processing and choice in international relations are derived from the model and tested in a multimethod setting. Findings are reported and discussed within the framework of existing empirical research on process-oriented models of foreign policy decision making.

Thesis (M.A. in Security Studies (Europe and Eurasia))--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Baylouny, Anne M. Second Reader: Clement, Victoria S. "December 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 28, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Turkey, national identity, foreign policy, Neo-Ottoman, Recip Tayyip Erdogan, Turgut Ozal, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, political Islam, Justice and Development Party (AKP). Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-83). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.A. in Defense Analysis)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Berger, Marcos (Mark T.) Second Reader: Greenshields, Brian. "December 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 26, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: United Nations, Security, Development, Nation-State, Regionalism, Regional Organizations, International Relations Includes bibliographical references (p. 81-82). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2004. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xvi, 349 p.; also includes graphics. Includes abstract and vita. Advisor: Brian M. Pollins, Dept. of Political Science. Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-349).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A. in International Security and Civil-Military Relations)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2003. / Thesis advisor(s): Jeff Knopf, Mikhail Tsypkin. Includes bibliographical references (p. 77-85). Also available online.

The aim of this thesis is to explain the dynamics behind the increased level of price volatility and speculation in the oil market over the past three decades. In contrast to mainstream accounts, which typically invoke the notion of global oil shortage and so-called ‘peak oil’ arguments, this thesis suggests that price volatility and speculation in the oil market originate from a decades-long process of financialisation punctuated by recurring oil price shocks. This thesis examines the evolution of the international oil market with a view to investigate how, and to what effect, the process of financialisation has transformed the structure and dynamics of the global oil market between 1980 and 2010. In tracing this phenomenon to the contemporary oil market, and specifically to the context of the oil shocks, I identify three periods of financialisation: low (1980–1990), early (1991–2001), and advanced (2002–2008). My research suggests that the process of financialisation is both cause and proof of a profound change in the structure of the global oil market, insofar as the addition of financial actors has turned the triangle of producers, consumers, and mediators that characterised the oil market until the 1980s into a four-tier structure. Propelled by breakthroughs in technology and finance, this fourth player is found responsible not only for transforming the relationship between the oil industry and the financial sector, but also for reconfiguring the political economy of the international oil market.

The rules of the international economic order have traditionally sought to reduce trade barriers between national markets; domestic policy autonomy has been viewed as an inviolable sovereign freedom. The 1994 WTO Government Procurement Agreement requires Member States to introduce a series of administrative procedures for their tendering processes, as well as institutional avenues through which individual suppliers can invoke indirect "rights" they gain from these "common rules"; its positive disciplines represent a departure from the traditional, negative GAIT regulatory "methodology". This thesis involves a study of what these institutional changes have to say about economic policy-making and enforcement processes in an interdependent world. Part I presents an institutional history of the GPA and an analysis of how it works. Part II examines the kind of domestic intervention associated with the Agreement, concluding that the most significant interference with sovereigns' autonomy is neither strictly legislative nor administrative. The GPA's enforcement mechanism - in conjunction with the individual "rights" arising from its procedural obligations - "constitutionalises" the rights to national treatment it engenders. This implies a US style relationship between property and the state. Executive and legislative powers are separated and both are limited by law. Judicial-like entities, in turn, fulfill an arbitrator's role, charged with determining whether a government entity has acted in a manner consistent with its legally-delimited powers. The final section presents reasons why GPA Member States may have been willing to accept the "intervention" that is implicit in the Agreement, developing an argument that the GPA is a "means" to Members' "shared end" of facilitating the integration of markets and, most importantly, ensuring their subsequent integrity. States, in implementing the "common rules", act as agents on behalf of the economic order because, in a globalising world, cooperation is consistent with citizens' welfare. The way in which this cooperation is structured allows for heterogeneous political interests to be accommodated. To the extent that the GPA protects individual rights for "collective ends", it is not inconsistent with unitary state notions of sovereignty.

How does the international community understand and apply the right of self-determination? Who holds this right: individuals, peoples, nations, states, ethnicities, minorities, majorities? What limits are there to the exercise of this right and which claims are ‘valid’ and which are not? This thesis addresses these issues as it seeks, above all, to answer the question of when, why and in what ways the international community’s understanding of and normative responses to self-determination have evolved. To do so, Part I explores critically the theories and history of nationalism, human rights, sovereignty and self-determination to explain the challenges of ‘emerging nationalism’ (defined herein as nationalism within established multi-national states aimed at altering the constitutional and/or social standing of the nation vis-à-vis the larger political entity). This part identifies the genesis of the interconnected ideas of identity, human rights, and sovereignty and begins to trace the evolution of the norm of self-determination over time as it has been conceived and employed by international society. It suggests new approaches to these concepts based within the liberal democratic tradition, which are, arguably, more philosophically coherent than other explanations for self-determination. Part II assesses international normative responses to state fragmentation and national liberation prior to the end of the Cold War to determine how much they have resembled the interpretation of national self-determination suggested in Part I, contending that the conceptual evolution of selfdetermination can only be interpreted accurately by understanding the parallel evolution and development of international society. Part III examines the evolution of self-determination and emerging nationalism in the post-Cold War era, asking whether the norms generated by the present-day society of states are consistent with the theoretical and historical observations made earlier. The recent case of Kosovo is examined in detail as it best suggests the present trajectory of international norms and responses to emerging nationalism.