From academic scholarship to military policy and international law, legitimacy is regarded as critical in shaping the course and outcome of violent political conflict. Yet, our understanding of the conditions for legitimacy and its effects in the context of armed conflict has been limited by multiple challenges and inconsistencies. My dissertation addresses longstanding debates in the literature on armed conflict by turning attention to two key features of legitimation: the asymmetry between legitimacy and illegitimacy, and the relationality of legitimation. I argue that these concepts, which have been theoretically and empirically overlooked or underdeveloped in research on armed conflict, offer a path to overcoming the challenges associated with the study of legitimacy in this context. I advance this claim through three studies. The first study empirically develops the assertion that while the conditions for legitimacy vary by case, the conditions for illegitimacy transcend regional contexts, representing a more global phenomenon. Comparative analyses of 30 cases of civil conflict from 1978 to 2008 reveals significant patterns across space and time in the conditions for civilian perceptions that government sanctioned violence is illegitimate. And yet, consistent with existing literature, my analyses revealed no patterning in the conditions for legitimacy. Through historical research into the details of these 30 cases, I identify three general mechanisms that result in perceptions of illegitimacy. The second study turns attention to the effects of illegitimacy for violent non-state groups. Using historical and discursive data, I examine the effects of illegitimacy at this level through an in-depth study of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in Turkey. I introduce important correctives to existing theories, examining the cumulative effects of multiple sources of legitimation and showing that illegitimacy can provide much needed flexibility for oppositional groups. The third study examines the causes and conditions that lead to intrastate conflict recurrence. Combining quantitative analyses with comparative and historical research, I identify four distinctive pathways to conflict recurrence. I show how the conditions associated with each pathway shape the networks in which relationships of legitimacy and illegitimacy are embedded, and I discuss how these conditions mediate the effects of legitimacy and illegitimacy on conflict recurrence. By focusing on the asymmetry and relationality of legitimacy and illegitimacy, this work engages fundamental assumptions that are widely taken for granted and overlooked in scholarship on legitimacy in violent conflict and suggests significant revisions to existing theories of legitimation in armed conflict. Through this shift, my research identifies previously unobserved patterns in how evaluations of rightness and acceptability are made across space and time, allowing us to better understand the power dynamics that shape and constrain the networks of actors engaged in armed conflict.

Intrastate conflicts in Sub-Saharan Africa are a development tragedy and a security dilemma that requires more prevention and better intervention from the international community. Such engagement necessitates a robust early warning system, which can determine, with a sufficient degree of accuracy, the countries most at risk of experiencing intrastate conflict. This research summarizes and critiques current efforts to conceptualize intrastate conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa and determine what factors best explain the likelihood of intrastate conflict onset. The research examines the challenges of empirically modelling the human behaviour that underlies intrastate conflict, as well as some promising avenues for overcoming challenges posed by data issues and existing methodological shortcomings. The research concludes that with improved data and research design, and more attention being paid to how statistical significance reflects pathway(s) to violence, the development of an intrastate conflict early warning system is possible.

Florida is a state in the southeastern region of the United States. Its infrastructure allows for several travel modes including: rail, automobile, bus, aircraft, and ship. However, most intrastate travelers in Florida are limited to two practical choices: travel by car (ground mode) or travel by air (air primary mode). Due to the dramatic growth of Florida’s population over recent years, traffic has become a critical factor that impacts Florida’s development. This thesis focuses on intrastate air primary mode and develops decision making models that could aid government and airline companies to better understand travelers need and as such plan to provide economical and feasible alternatives for passengers. In addition, this work presents a model to assist individual travelers to evaluate various mode alternatives and better plan for upcoming trips. In the first part of this thesis, two decision models are discussed: Time-Based and Cost-Based models. For each model, two scenarios are considered. Break-even air flight lengths for the commercial airport pairs in Florida are calculated. The results suggest that some airport pairs should open intrastate nonstop flights based on time and cost factors. In the second part of this thesis, a forecasting methodology is applied to predict demand of intrastate air passengers in Florida. Firstly, factors affecting demand are introduced and relevant data are collected. Gravity models are built through linear regression method. The results show that there is a potential increase on the demand for intrastate travel for some airport pairs in Florida. Findings from the forecasting tool support the results obtained by the mathematical models developed in the first part of this work. The third component of this thesis is an interactive comparison system built using Excel VBA. The tool allows a passenger to specify personal preferences related to time, cost in order to suggest which travel mode would be more effective based on the individual’s specified parameters.

The ongoing Syrian conflict has been subject to considerable amount of political polemics. Nevertheless, little scholarly work has been conducted in order to comprehend the complexities as well as underlying reasons behind the intensity, scope, and duration of the conflict in Syria. Through qualitative methodology, this research examines the character of the Syrian conflict, by conducting an in-depth and nuanced case study of the Syrian civil war. While some theories of intrastate conflict and civil wars, concentrate on the domestic character of internal conflicts within states, transnational theories focus on external factors in examining intrastate conflicts. Both theoretical framework fail to take into account the broader picture of intrastate conflict and civil war. This study makes a contribution to the intrastate and civil war theories by introducing an expanded model for analyzing intrastate conflicts and civil wars. With respect to the Syrian conflict, utilizing this approach is instrumental in order to more efficiently and thoroughly comprehend the character of the Syrian conflict. Secondly, this study determines that states, which are multi-ethnic, multi-religious, multi-cultural, and geostrategically and geopolitically significant, tend to have protracted civil war and intrastate conflict. This research concludes that the unrecognized character of the Syrian conflict is unique due to the notion that it is operating, and being influenced, by four concentric forces of tensions, which are occurring simultaneously. In addition, it is critical to understand the interactions, contradictions, and excesses created by these four concentric circles of tensions. These interactions, contradictions and excesses shape the nature, scope, intensity, violence, death toll, and duration of the conflict and civil war in Syria.

A FAREWELL TO ARMS: NON-MILITARISATION AND THE PARADOX OF MILITARY INSECURITY Nathan James Frank Williams Abstract A small number of scholars and political leaders have praised the economic and social benefits of 'non-militarisation' - the policy of possessing no national armed forces. While 26 states currently practice this policy, the security implications of non-militarisation have, until now, largely escaped critical assessment. However, it is this very question of security in the absence of a military which is perhaps the decisive issue for any state considering non- militarisation. Barbey's (2015b) study suggests that, since World War II, non-militarised states have been immune to interstate war. However, since World War II, intrastate war has proven to be both the more frequent and destructive form of warfare. Using a mixed-methods approach this dissertation seeks to quantify and explain the causal effect of non-militarisation on intrastate conflict. It begins by testing the hypothesis that non-militarised states suffer less years of intrastate war than states with a military, using cross-sectional logit analysis on all country-years between 1989-2008. It consistently finds a sizable negative relationship, suggesting that in a given year the probability of intrastate war occurring in a...

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Diploma paper describes the process of dissolution of a company without its liquidation. The main accent is put on transformation in a form of intrastate merger in accordance with the legal form of company, analysis of its legal regulation in force as compared with prior regulation forced until 30. 6. 2008.

This thesis aims to explain how the involvement of secondary parties affect the duration of intrastate armedconflicts. It argues that the acquisition of secondary support in favor of rebel groups is likely to lead to an extended duration of intrastate armed conflict. By granting a relatively weaker rebel group secondary support, a secondary party ought to directly alter the balance of power and capabilities in benefit for the rebels. The secondary party could thereby be able to level the balance of capabilities between a government and a rebel group, creating a situation in which the, at first, stronger government now have to face a rebel group capable of surviving longer. Using a structured focused comparison on two cases, the results find secondary support in the form of funding or economic support given to relatively weak rebels to be an important influence on extending the duration of intrastate armed conflicts. Nonetheless, further research might have to be made in order to fully understand the even more detailed mechanisms behind the strong influences of economic secondary support on conflict duration.

Academics and practitioners often assume that arms and violence against civilians are positively correlated. Existing research on small arms and light weapons (SALW) and major conventional weapons (MCW) imports, however, find that arms are a weak explanatory factor for intrastate violence. When the focus is on arms imports’ impact on the level of one-sided violence (OSV) specifically, earlier studies’ findings suggest that the comparative organisational size of armed actors is an important conditioning variable that influences the direction and magnitude of the impact arms imports have on rebel and government perpetrated OSV. Using OLS regression models, this thesis finds that increasing SALW imports are linked to no increase in the level of rebel perpetrated OSV and a marginal decrease for the level of OSV perpetrated by large government forces. MCW imports have a negative correlation for large rebel groups and governments, but no impact for small rebel groups or government forces. In all specifications, the magnitude of the impact arms imports conditional on troop size have on rebel or government perpetrated OSV remains small. This suggests the need for policymakers to focus on humanitarian and economic interventions, rather than arms when pursuing protection of civilians.

The reasons why some countries suffer from high levels of violence are still poorly understood despite the important attention they have received in academia. One of the potential drivers explaining spatial and temporal differences in organised conflict is the culture surrounding violence. This paper specifically attempts to explain: How does a culture of violence impact the likelihood and intensity of organised conflict? I build a theoretical framework which describes a culture of violence constituted of (at least) four dimensions. I propose that a society with a stronger culture of violence is more likely to experience armed conflict and less likely to have non-violent conflicts. I also hypothesize a positive effect on conflict intensity. I perform an exploratory factor analysis to investigate the dimensions of a culture of violence and use zero-inflated Poisson regressions to test its effect on organized conflict. The exploratory factor analysis reveals the existence of not four but at least five dimensions of culture of violence. A culture of violence does not appear to influence the likelihood of conflict. However, when conflict does occur, culture of violence seems to increase the intensity of conflicts. Unfortunately, this paper does not find sufficient support to reject the null hypotheses.