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By extending the study of international trade to include cultural factors, this paper demonstrates that culture has a direct impact on Canadian and US bilateral trade flows with the world. Various cultural factors of Canadian and US's trading partners were examined through a gravity model to determine their impact on 1990 trade flows. The gravity model explains trade between two countries in terms of the economic size of the trading partners and the distance between them. The following cultural factors were added to this base gravity model to test their explanatory power: the stock of immigrants from the trading partner in Canada, whether the trading partner has English or French as a principal language, and each of four cultural dimensions as they were described by Geert Hofstede in his study of national differences in work related values. This study has established that culture does have a significant impact on Canadian and US trade. Inirnigration, English, Hofstede's Individualism/Collectivism, and Hofstede's Uncertainty Avoidance were each found to have significant regression coefficients. Countries with immigrants in Canada trade more with Canada, and English-speaking countries trade more with both Canada and the US. Individualism / Collectivism measures how members of a society relate to one another. It appears that collectivist societies trade more with Canada and the US. Uncertainty Avoidance measures how a society and its members deal with risk and it appears that countries with lower Uncertainty Avoidance ratings (i.e. less risk averse), trade more with Canada and the US. For the business person trying to compete internationally, cultural factors have been a concern for many years. However, this study suggests a prioritization of the cultural determinants of trade. With a greater understanding of the mechanisms through which culture impacts trade, managers can be more effective in the global marketplace.

By extending the study of international trade to include cultural factors, this paper demonstrates that culture has a direct impact on Canadian and US bilateral trade flows with the world. Various cultural factors of Canadian and US's trading partners were examined through a gravity model to determine their impact on 1990 trade flows. The gravity model explains trade between two countries in terms of the economic size of the trading partners and the distance between them. The following cultural factors were added to this base gravity model to test their explanatory power: the stock of immigrants from the trading partner in Canada, whether the trading partner has English or French as a principal language, and each of four cultural dimensions as they were described by Geert Hofstede in his study of national differences in work related values. This study has established that culture does have a significant impact on Canadian and US trade. Inirnigration, English, Hofstede's Individualism/Collectivism, and Hofstede's Uncertainty Avoidance were each found to have significant regression coefficients. Countries with immigrants in Canada trade more with Canada, and English-speaking countries trade more with both Canada and the US. Individualism / Collectivism measures how members of a society relate to one another. It appears that collectivist societies trade more with Canada and the US. Uncertainty Avoidance measures how a society and its members deal with risk and it appears that countries with lower Uncertainty Avoidance ratings (i.e. less risk averse), trade more with Canada and the US. For the business person trying to compete internationally, cultural factors have been a concern for many years. However, this study suggests a prioritization of the cultural determinants of trade. With a greater understanding of the mechanisms through which culture impacts trade, managers can be more effective in the global marketplace. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

The present work tells the story of the rise and fall of a pan-Balkan discourse from the mid-1920s to the eve of the Second World War through an examination of the intellectual output of southeast European diplomat-littérateurs—a range of intellectuals and literati who functioned as conduits between the realms of culture and politics—during the years of dislocation and turmoil following the Great War. It traces the emergence of transnational networks that coalesced around interwar pan-Balkanism, or the wide-ranging and diffuse movement that aimed to forge a union out of Yugoslavia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Greece and Turkey, as well as to build substantive intellectual and cultural links among these states. Beginning with the Locarno treaties and the attendant optimism for a united Europe, the Universal Peace Congress of 1929 in Athens, followed by an evaluation of the consecutive Balkan conferences of the early 1930s alongside the work of its varied proponents, this dissertation illustrates how the stigmatized regional moniker, “the Balkans,” was, in fact, re-inscribed and endowed with a new, positively-inflected meaning in the course of efforts to bring about a rapprochement. Moving beyond the scope of earlier scholarship that pitted the Balkans against the West, instead this work demonstrates the interconnectedness of Balkan and European intellectual networks, as well as local actors’ overwhelming subscription to the tenets of cultural internationalism. This work examines Greek, Yugoslav and Albanian foreign policy, geopolitical agendas, popular press as well as literature in order to demonstrate that alternatives to the nation-state as a method of state-building and intellectual organization were, in fact, under consideration. Ultimately, this dissertation depicts intellectual life in the Balkans as it unfolds over the course of the interwar decades and explains why the Balkan idea reemerged during this critical interlude.

Orientador: Marco Aurélio Nogueira / Banca: Marcelo Santos / Banca: Samuel Alves Soares / O Programa de Pós-Graduação em Relações Internacionais é instituído em parceria com a Unesp/Unicamp/PUC-SP, em projeto subsidiado pela CAPES, intitulado "Programa San Tiago Dantas" / Resumo: A identidade latino-americana influencia as dinâmicas políticas regionais entre os países da América Latina. Com foco na América do Sul, sub-região latino-americana, esta pesquisa averiguou o modo pelo qual os governos traduzem essa identidade em políticas nacionais no nível cidadão, na qualidade de estímulo ao processo de integração regional. Para isso, o trabalho analisou o Programa Escolas Interculturais de Fronteira (PEIF), gerido no contexto do Mercosul por seu Setor Educacional. Valendo-se uma perspectiva construtivista e, portanto, preocupada com a relação dialética entre os níveis da observação e da ação e o papel do poder na construção de verdades ontológicas, a investigação retomou em perspectiva histórica a integração regional na América Latina até o Mercosul. Em seguida, buscou-se verificar a integração do ponto de vista da governança regional para a Educação, com especial atenção às relações entre a Argentina e o Brasil e, também, no âmbito daquele bloco. Por último, exploramos o PEIF enquanto expressão dos efeitos da identidade latino-americana traduzida em política pública voltada ao fomento de uma cidadania fronteiriça de caráter sub-regional. O desenvolvimento da pesquisa nos levou a questionar a exequibilidade desse tipo de política em função da imposição de limites institucionais para a capacidade de agência dos indivíduos responsáveis por representarem a ideia de uma comunidade integrada no mundo real, ou seja, da qualidade dos papéis atribuídos aos interm... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The Latin-American identity influences political dynamics among countries in Latin America. Focused on South America - as a Latin-American subregion - I analyzed the way governments translate this identity into national politics of fostering an eventual identity regarding the regional integration processes at the citizenship level. In doing so, I examined the Programa Escolas Interculturais de Fronteira (PEIF), an intercultural program for border schools by Mercosur's Educational Sector. Considering a Constructivist approach, therefore concerned with the dialectical relationship between the levels of observation and action and with the role played by power in the construction of ontological truths, my research resumed the Latin American integration from a historical standing point up to Mercosur. Next, it investigated the regional integration from the Education perspective, especially the bilateral relation between Argentina and Brazil and in Mercosur's framework. At last I assessed the PEIF as an expression of the identity politics to promoting a sub-regional border citizenship. My research findings question the feasibility of this identity politics due to the imposition of institutional limits on the agency capability of the individuals responsible for representing the idea of an integrated community in the real world, that is, the quality of the roles assigned to the intermediaries between the citizen cognition level and the identity proposed in the scope of Mercosur. Fina... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Resumen: La identidad latinoamericana influye en la dinámica política entre los países de América Latina. Haciendo hincapié en Sudamérica, entendida como una subregión latinoamericana, se buscó averiguar como los gobiernos traducen esta identidad en políticas nacionales en el nivel ciudadano, como un estímulo a los procesos de integración regional. Para eso se examinó el Programa Escuelas Interculturales de Frontera (PEIF), administrado por el Sector Educativo del Mercosur. A través de un enfoque constructivista, por lo tanto, preocupado por la relación dialéctica entre los niveles de observación y acción y el papel desempeñado por el poder en la construcción de verdades ontológicas, nuestra investigación presenta la integración latinoamericana hacia el Mercosur desde una mirada histórica. A continuación, se estudió la integración regional desde el punto de vista de la Educación, en particular la relación bilateral entre Argentina y Brasil y en el marco del Mercosur. Por último, nosotros exploramos al PEIF como una expresión de los efectos de la identidad latinoamericana transformada en política pública de promoción de una ciudadanía fronteriza subregional. El desarrollo de la investigación cuestiona la viabilidad de esta política de identidad debido a la imposición de límites institucionales a la capacidad de agencia de los individuos responsables de representar la idea de una comunidad integrada en el mundo real, es decir, la calidad de los roles asignados a los intermediadores entr... (Resumen completo clicar acceso eletrônico abajo) / Mestre

Unsatisfied with critical responses to Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations?" this dissertation attempts to trace two central elements of his argument. First, "On Barbarians" traces the evolution of the civilized/ barbarian dichotomy from its origins in the nineteenth century to its recent incarnations in International Relations theory. The relevance of Europe's imperial heritage is emphasized, along with certain thematic threads in popular discourse: demography, surveillance, and the distinction between popular and elite culture. The ubiquitous self/other dichotomy, which is central to political identity, has been understood in European imperial discourse to mean European civilization and barbaric others. This rhetoric remains powerful, even in current IR discourse. By reinscribing this civilized/barbarian dichotomy, Huntington in effect uses International Relations theory as a form of identity politics. Second, this dissertation analyzes the presence of culture and identity in the discipline of International Relations theory. Despite specific empirical considerations, Huntington's underlying interest in culture and identity is well-founded, which this dissertation attempts to demonstrate using material from the history of International Relations, post-colonial, and critical theorists. In sum, "On Barbarians" illustrates the critical benefit of studying culture and identity to LR through a critical examination of the civilized/barbarian discourse.

Thesis (M. A.)--University of Canterbury, 2009. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 130-140). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Unsatisfied with critical responses to Huntington's "Clash of Civilizations?" this dissertation attempts to trace two central elements of his argument. First, "On Barbarians" traces the evolution of the civilized/ barbarian dichotomy from its origins in the nineteenth century to its recent incarnations in International Relations theory. The relevance of Europe's imperial heritage is emphasized, along with certain thematic threads in popular discourse: demography, surveillance, and the distinction between popular and elite culture. The ubiquitous self/other dichotomy, which is central to political identity, has been understood in European imperial discourse to mean European civilization and barbaric others. This rhetoric remains powerful, even in current IR discourse. By reinscribing this civilized/barbarian dichotomy, Huntington in effect uses International Relations theory as a form of identity politics. Second, this dissertation analyzes the presence of culture and identity in the discipline of International Relations theory. Despite specific empirical considerations, Huntington's underlying interest in culture and identity is well-founded, which this dissertation attempts to demonstrate using material from the history of International Relations, post-colonial, and critical theorists. In sum, "On Barbarians" illustrates the critical benefit of studying culture and identity to LR through a critical examination of the civilized/barbarian discourse. / Arts, Faculty of / Political Science, Department of / Graduate

This thesis investigates the advantages and limitations of applying culture to the analysis of violent conflict and peacebuilding, with a particular focus on liberal peacebuilding in Sierra Leone. While fully aware of the critique of the concept of culture in terms of its uses for the production of difference and ‘otherness,’ it also seeks to respond to the critique of liberal peacebuilding on the account of its low sensitivity towards local culture, which allegedly undermines the peace effort. After a careful examination of the terms of discussion about culture enabled by theoretical approaches to conflict in Chapter 2, the thesis presents a theoretical framework for the analysis of cultural aspects of conflict and peace based on the processes and effects of meaning-generation (Chapter 3), developing the conceptual apparatus and vocabulary for the subsequent empirical study. Instead of bracketing out the recursive nature of cultural theorising, the developed approach embraces the recursive dynamics which arise as a result of cultural ‘embeddedness’ of the analyst and the processes which s/he seeks to elucidate, mirroring similar dynamics in the cultural production of meaning and knowledge. The framework of ‘embedded cultural enquiry’ is then used to analyse the practices of liberal peacebuilding as a particular culture, which shapes the interaction of the liberal peace with its ‘subjects’ and critics as well as framing its reception of the cultural problematic generally (Chapter 4). The application of the analytical framework to the case study investigates the interaction between the liberal peace and ‘local culture,’ offering an alternative reading of the conflict and peace process in Sierra Leone (Chapter 5). The study concludes that a greater attention to cultural meaning-making offers a largely untapped potential for peacebuilding, although any decisions with regard to its deployment will inevitably be made from within an inherently biased cultural perspective.

The purpose of this study is to determine, if possible, North Central Texas views or attitudes toward international relations. These attitudes will be compared to studies on Southern attitudes to determine any similarities or dissimilarities. Literature on Southwestern attitudes is sparse; therefore, all data will be compared with that compiled by political scientists on Southern attitudes.