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The Second Congo War (1998–2003) is widely considered the deadliest conflict since World War II, yet it has received little attention by International Relations theorists. A closer look reveals that both this war and its precursor, the First Congo War (1996–7), were neither simply intra-state nor just inter-state conflicts; their central feature were transnational alliances between neighboring governments and Congolese rebel groups. In fact, with one exception, every episode of internal war in sub-Saharan Africa from 1990 to 2010 involved external support to the rebel side from at least one African government. In order to explain both the origins and the dynamics of transnational alliances, this dissertation develops a three-step theory. It explains why governments of weak states support foreign rebel groups, why they choose some groups from a specific country as alliance partners but not others, and why some of these allies subsequently behave uncooperatively towards their foreign sponsors, leading to the breakdown of alliances and the formation of new ones. The theory draws on both the rational choice literature and the realist school of thought. It also adapts insights from principal-agent theory. Overall, the three-step theory presents transnational alliances as the continuation of domestic politics by other means: both governments and rebel groups use them as an instrument in their own domestic struggle for power. Drawing on a wide range of sources, including over one hundred interviews – almost all of them conducted in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Uganda – the dissertation uses process tracing to apply the theory to seventeen transnational alliances from the Congo Wars and their aftermath. It also tests the theory’s first step more widely in a cross-case analysis of forty-two African weak state dyads. Together, this multi-method approach demonstrates both the internal and the external validity of the theory.

p>This thesis investigates the political economy of Saudi–East Asian industrial relations in the past six decades, between 1953 and 2013. The analysis focuses on industrial diversification in Saudi Arabia and how this has affected Saudi Arabia's relations with East Asian states. Accordingly, Saudi–East Asian relations, which have hitherto been understood as consisting of energy producer-consumer relationships, are re-framed as "industrialising–industrialised relationships". This thesis identifies the main dynamics of such relationships as diffusion of industrial technology from East Asian states to Saudi Arabia, which is considered to be a microcosm of a larger collective shift in the global economy, from "divergence" to "convergence" caused by the progress in human resources development (HRD) among developing countries. In order to capture that dynamics, this thesis develops two concepts: "techno-sovereignty" and "techno-diplomacy". Techno-sovereignty assumes a developing state's pursuit of greater level of self-reliance in industrial technology through investment in HRD and avoidance of dependence on single external source of technology. On the other hand, techno-diplomacy is defined as an advanced state's diplomatic strategy of implementing the transfer of industrial technology to a developing state in order to acquire other types of gain from that state in return. Saudi Arabia's pursuit of techno-sovereignty has been implemented in two steps: first, to invite foreign direct investment (FDI) from multiple advanced states for establishing industrial production; and, second, to "Saudise" the production over the years through the transfer of knowledge, skills and technologies from the foreign investor to national industrial workers. Saudi–East Asian industrial relations have followed these patterns: Japan has practiced techno-diplomacy towards Saudi Arabia mainly in return for oil; and Taiwan has done so mainly in return for diplomatic recognition – since Taipei has been in competition with Beijing since 1949 regarding its international legitimacy. Those quid pro quo relations have provided Riyadh with strong bargaining chips vis-à-vis Tokyo and Taipei in demanding industrial cooperation from them in the past decades. Currently, as the focus of industrial diversification in Saudi Arabia shifts from capital-intensive heavy industries to labour-intensive manufacturing industries, the insufficiency in HRD in Saudi Arabia, deriving from the "rentier" nature of its society, increasingly poses obstacles to further progress of the process. Accordingly, East Asian states' contributions to the development of HRD institutions in Saudi Arabia have been coming to the fore in their bilateral industrial relations in addition to the FDI, the trend which is likely to remain important in the coming years.

This thesis explores China’s engagement with global nuclear order since 1949. In particular, China’s engagement refers to the process of creating, consolidating and maintaining nuclear order by assessing the methods it adopts, as well as the motivations behind its policy and the implications of its actions for global nuclear order. Overall, it is argued that in the 1950s and 1960s, even before nuclear order existed, China had an inadvertent hand in its creation, contributing to American and Soviet thinking about how best to build an order, as well as offering its own ideas based on socialist proliferation. Then, in the 1980s and 1990s, China engaged in the process of consolidating nuclear order by developing alternative thinking on nuclear deterrence that challenged mainstream strategies such as mutual assured destruction; and by joining important institutions, for instance the Non Proliferation Treaty in 1992 and the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996. In addition, during this period, China began to promote a new vision for nuclear order: that of a more representative order. China’s current engagement, at a time when global nuclear order is perceived by many to be under significant strain, is less clear: while China remains committed to key global nuclear institutions and a minimal nuclear strategy; Beijing is also wary of deeper commitments, in particular multilateral arms control processes that might unfairly constrain its nuclear force capabilities relative to other nuclear weapons states.

There exists a certain consensus among scholars and French diplomats that the golden era of the exceptionally close and amicable relations between France and its former sub-Saharan colonies is over. Nevertheless, the conclusions that these researchers arrive at regarding the current state of France’s African policy are rather different. The aim of the thesis is to determine which of the three paradigms concerning France’s African policy – the incremental adaptation, normalisation or confusion – best describes the French response to the crisis in Côte d’Ivoire under the Gbagbo regime. The contribution of the thesis is the analysis of continuities and changes of this specific Franco-African relationship, also known as Françafrique, within the framework of international relations regime theory. The thesis argues that France’s diplomacy towards the Ivorian crisis and her role in the multilateral conflict resolution strategy, reveal her growing inability to defend the constitutive principle of the Françafrique regime: grandeur. Her pursuit of middle power status through maintaining hegemonic relations to her favourite former colony was considerably challenged by various domestic and systemic factors, among which the Ivorian power struggles and Gbagbo’s duplicitous politics played a considerable part. Moreover, the thesis also points to the persistence of some old rules and decision-making procedures of the Françafrique regime, especially the resilience of informal networks. These old practices collide with France’s growing desire to make her African policy more transparent, coherent and efficient. It is therefore concluded that the coexistence of these opposite tendencies in France’s response to the Ivorian crisis under Gbagbo, as well as the inconsistent resort to the Françafrique principle, rules and decision-making procedures are best explained by the confusion paradigm of France’s African policy.

The North-South divide is one of the central political characteristics of the UN climate change negotiations. But while the Group of 77 coalition has been the main negotiating group for the South, developing countries have often faced challenges to their unity, magnified by the recent establishment of smaller negotiating groups. How has 'the South' hung together? This thesis investigates how developing countries have formed negotiating groups over the two decades of the UN climate negotiating process. It explains the origins of the different negotiating groups that have formed over this time, as well as the timing of their emergence and the scope of their membership. In particular, while scholarly attention has focused on the G77, Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) and most recently the Brazil-South Africa- India-China (BASIC) coalition, this thesis corrects the relative neglect in understanding the many other negotiating groups that have formed. While conventional explanations highlights the shared material interests that underpin group formation, this thesis advances a constructivist argument that emphasises instead the importance of collective identities in shaping norms of 'appropriate association' – the social bases of whose one's friends and allies are. It highlights the regional basis for many of these negotiating groups that cut across shared material circumstances, and draws upon historical institutionalist insights on critical junctures and path dependence to place this larger pattern of Southern coalition formation in the appropriate historical and institutional context of the UN system. It demonstrates the continuing persistence of countries identifying as the 'South', where despite changing material circumstances and disagreements among developing countries, the salience of the G77 as the constitutive institution of this identity remains. Above all, in investigating the processes of coalition formation among developing countries in the climate context, this thesis deepens scholarly understanding about the contemporary meaning of the 'South'.

This thesis explores perspectives of 30 women hosting international students in a rural, coastal town in Costa Rica through an International Studies lens - interdisciplinary, critical, and bridging theory and practice. Analysis of 30 semi-structured interview sessions, which included 2 questionnaires, conducted over 10 weeks living with 3 host mothers contributes to understanding the impact of study abroad on host families. Hosting is discussed as a preferred form of paid care work in that it is flexible and enjoyable. Women host for the income as well as for the joy of mothering students. Host perspectives are shared regarding benefits and challenges of and lessons learned from hosting. Recommendations are made for homestay program administrators and international educators, including recommendations for addressing power dynamics to ensure reciprocal exchanges.

This research project operates from the perspective of the author as graphic design practitioner and considers how practice-based visual methods may be used to form a novel system of analysis in graphic design research. The focus of this research is the Conservative Party poster, produced for the British General Elections held between 1979 and 2010. With practice at the core of the research methodology, visual design methods have been configured and applied to a range of material in order to generate insights about how visual language is used in a variety of contexts. The research includes a review of the graphic communication of the British political poster, existing visual methods, and practice-based research within the field of graphic design. From there, a system of practice-based methods was devised, and then applied to the Conservative Party posters. The design system employs methods that disassemble each poster into its individual components (type, image, hierarchy, colour and negative space), mapping each using simple visual techniques, before reassembling these components to identify trends and insights in relation to various political themes. In order to test this design system, these methods were applied to a very different type of visual communication material produced for Sense, a charitable organisation that advocates for the rights of deaf-blind people. This proved valuable to the study, and demonstrated how this system could function in a very different context. The output of this study proposes potential visual devices for aiding visually impaired readers engage with photographic imagery. The findings and visual outputs of this investigation are described in this thesis, and are also housed in a series of three books that form the practice component of this research project. This thesis aims to highlight the value of practice-based methods within graphic design research, and specifically, methods more exclusively available to the graphic design practitioner. Practice is of central importance to this research project, forming the core of the methodology, as well as the outputs produced in response to the research findings. Through establishing the visual characteristics of the Conservative Party poster (1979-2010), this research seeks to demonstrate how a novel system of practice-based methods might help further an understanding of visual communication design.

The focus of the thesis is on labour, business, social and cultural history of Italian immigration to post WWII Toronto. In particular, this study addresses fundamental issues such as ethnic niching, unionization, urban proletarianization and entrepreneurship. From this perspective, this investigation addresses and analyses a list of key questions. How did a mass of former peasants, unskilled workers, artisans and merchants become urban wage-earners or small business entrepreneurs in an urban and Capitalist society? How did the process of unionization work? How did an economic ethnic niche develop? What role did 'ethnicity' play in the processes of both urban proletarianization and unionization as well as entrepreneurship? What made immigrant unionization and entrepreneurship successful or a failure? What other factors impinged on these processes? Lastly, what impact did these processes have on the host society? In addressing these questions the thesis focuses on the role played by a specific industry in enabling immigrants to find their place in the new host society. More specifically, the research has looked at the construction industry that, between the 1950s and the 1970s, represented a typical economic ethnic niche for the Italian community. In fact, tens of thousands of Italian males found work in this sector as bricklayers, labourers, carpenters, plasterers and cement finishers, while hundreds of others became small employers in the same industry. The analysis of the cultural and structural factors that were at the origin of the Italian niche of the construction industry is the central point of this study.

The thesis is made up by four studies, on the comprehensive theme of integrated and subjectspecific science education in Swedish compulsory school. A literature study on the matter is followed by an expert survey, then a case study and ending with two analyses of students’ science results from PISA 2003 and PISA 2006. The first two studies explore similarities and differences between integrated and subject-specific science education, i. e. Science education and science taught as Biology, Chemistry and Physics respectively. The two following analyses of PISA 2003 and PISA 2006 data put forward the question whether there are differences in results of students’ science literacy scores due to different types of science education. The expert survey compares theories of integration to the Swedish science education context. Also some difference in intention, in the school case study, some slight differences in the way teachers plan the science education are shown, mainly with respect to how teachers involve students in their planning. The statistical analysis of integrated and subject-specific science education comparing students’ science results from PISA 2003 shows no difference between students or between schools. The analysis of PISA 2006, however, shows small differences between girls’ results with integrated and subject-specific science education both in total scores and in the three scientific literacy competencies. No differences in boys’ results are shown on different science educations.