In recent years a growing number of scholars within the field of Foreign Policy Analysis have asserted that an understanding of the interface between national identity and foreign policy is of paramount importance. Indeed one of the driving forces behind the surge of interest in this topic area is the recognition that foreign policy decision-makers are not immune to the effects of national identity, being themselves a product of the society in which they live. This body of work seeks to highlight the role American exceptionalism played in influencing the Bush administration’s foreign policy decision-making process following the events of September 11th. For many Americans, the events of September 11th served as a cruel re-minder that the United States remained vulnerable to outside attack much like it had been prior to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor. Both events are now indelibly scarred into the American psyche. While each attack left Americans with a sense of vulnerability, they could have at least consoled themselves with the thought that Pearl Harbor was a reaction to the perceived threat that the United States would pose on entering the Second World War. September 11th only lead Americans to the sobering realization that the citizens of other nations took a growing affront to their very ideals and way of life. Sensing this insecurity, the Bush administration seized the opportunity presented by September 11th and began reshaping the identity of the United States, its enemies and the rest of the world in order to justify its foreign policy. This thesis suggests that in the absence of the September 11th terrorist attacks and the resultant shift in identity, the neoconservatives would not have had the same chance to exert their considerable influence on the administration. In order to achieve its objectives, this research notes that the Bush administration employed a foreign policy decision-making process that not only circumvented executive branch proficiency but also often completely disregarded it. Moreover it is also apparent that key foreign policy decision-makers were overconfident in America’s exceptional nature, mainly its economic and military superiority, which consequently clouded its assessment of public diplomacy’s value. Examination of the administration’s defense posture in the wake of September 11th has revealed that many of its early initiatives did not match the threats faced by the United States. One thing is certain, in the absence of the September 11th terrorist attacks, the Bush administration would have been unable to justify a foreign policy doctrine as outlined in the 2002 National Security Strategy. Finally this research seeks to add to the field through an assessment of public opinion in particular that of the Facebook Generation, an up and coming cohort. Appreciation of public opinion is crucial as it provides a perspective through which to understand how the American public sees the nation’s self-image and how it wants the country to act on the international stage. From a foreign policy decision-making perspective, this information is invaluable because it reveals what types of risks the public is willing to take. As a result, it is imperative that researchers begin to understand this generation’s point of view, given the uncertain nature of the international environment that lies ahead.

Les modèles météorologiques à aire limitée sont aujourd'hui dotés de systèmes d'analyse de données observées propres, pour la plupart. Ces analyses combinent en général une ébauche provenant du modèle et des observations dans le but de rafraîchir les structures décrites par le modèle à aire limitée. Néanmoins, l'information provenant du modèle coupleur présente également un intérêt. En effet, le modèle coupleur est en général un modèle global bénéficiant de techniques d'assimilation de données performantes, qui permet de fournir une bonne description des grandes échelles notamment. L'objectif de ce travail de thèse est d'injecter l'information issue du modèle coupleur directement dans l'assimilation variationnelle tridimensionnelle (3D-VAR) du modèle à aire limitée, en tant que nouvelle source d'information. Concrètement, on décrit le vecteur d'information entrant dans l'assimilation du modèle à aire limitée comme étant la concaténation des différentes sources d'information : l'ébauche du modèle, les observations et les grandes échelles de l'analyse du modèle coupleur. Ce formalisme utilise une mesure de l'incertitude sur les sources d'information, décrite par les covariances entre les erreurs des différentes sources d'information. Des simplifications sur les covariances croisées entres les sources d'information sont proposées, afin de pouvoir développer le formalisme en vue de le rendre applicable simplement dans un logiciel d'analyse déjà existant. Une première utilisation de ce nouveau formalisme est faite dans un modèle académique unidimensionnel “en eaux peu profondes”, en mettant en oeuvre un modèle coupleur et un modèle couplé. Ces expériences montrent des résultats neutres à positifs, suivant les configurations, limités par le cadre simplifié de ce modèle académique. Dans le cadre de l'application de cette méthode dans les modèles utilisés à Météo- France (modèle global ARPÈGE et modèle à aire limitée ALADIN), une évaluation des statistiques liées aux erreurs sur les sources d'information est menée. Tout d'abord le choix des échelles venant de l'analyse du modèle global est fait, pour ne garder que les plus grandes structures (environ 240 km). Puis les statistiques sont calculées à partir de travaux précédents utilisant des méthodes ensemblistes pour échantillonner les erreurs. L'étude de ces statistiques permet de décrire les propriétés des covariances d'erreurs (écarts types, isotropie, etc.) et de quantifier l'erreur commise en appliquant les simplifications proposées. L'évaluation sur des cycles d'assimilation d'une quinzaine de jours montre que l'introduction des grandes échelles de l'analyse du modèle global a un impact légèrement positif en terme de score objectif. Néanmoins, malgré des différences visibles et systématiques engendrées par l'utilisation de cette nouvelle source d'information, aucun cas d'étude sur des champs diagnostiques, comme les précipitations, ne permet d'illustrer cet apport en terme de temps sensible ou de phénomènes météorologiques spécifiques. Ce travail de thèse propose donc une technique d'analyse en aire limitée permettant de prendre en compte des informations provenant du modèle coupleur, en plus des observations, pour corriger l'ébauche du modèle. Il ouvre la voie à d'autres recherches, notamment en sélectionnant d'autres échelles venant du modèle coupleur à considérer ou en l'étendant par l'ajout de la dimension temporelle.

This thesis explores how a series of Hollywood films allegorised the contradictions of American foreign policy between 1999 and 2009. These contradictions are underlined in pictures that use military intervention as a subtext. My argument considers the role of allegory in an array of genres, including war pictures, Westerns, and comic book adaptations. The case studies I analyse allegorise a bipartisan consensus surrounding military intervention. I postulate that this consensus was crystallised in the Kosovo War of 1999 and later became apotheosised in the 2003 Iraq War. I contend that, in pictures as diverse as There Will be Blood (2007) and The Dark Knight (2008), political allegory critiques the bipartisan allure of both neoconservatism and liberal interventionism’s promises of exporting American democracy. Moreover, these narratives examine the ideas of International Relations theorists as diverse as Walter Mead, Walter McDougall, and Joseph Nye. The theories propounded by these authors become embodied in different characterisations, leading to storylines that connote ideological friction and philosophical inconsistency. Consequently, Hollywood cinema during this period highlights a contradiction in American foreign policy, a theme that is further encoded in narrative elements that focus on the strained politics of coalition building and winning hearts and minds.

This study investigates the language use through which Hillary Clinton constructs her political identity by examining the extent to which the First-Person Plural Pronoun (FPPP) is important in the political discourse of this American woman politician. Drawing on Brown and Levinson’s (1987) notion of face and face-work, this study demonstrates how Hillary Clinton, as a woman in a position of power, actively exploits the referential flexibility of the FPPP in her campaign discourse to construct and negotiate her identities to strategically enhance her political power and/or protect her threatened negative face in different face-threatening situations. The study also demonstrates how Clinton actively exploits self-affiliation to acquire, neutralize or challenge power in her campaign discourse. The study also suggests a role of the power differential between the affiliator (candidate) and the affiliated group in determining the strategic function of the FPPP in the candidate’s discourse. The study also shows a key role of the macro-linguistic context in interpreting the meaning of the FPPP in the candidate’s discourse, and thus, a more profound understanding of the political identity of the candidate.

From the initial emergence of Intelligence Studies as a recognised academic discipline in the 1980s to the present day, official voices have been preeminent. This is especially true of counter-espionage. Only a few histories on the evolution of American counter-espionage have developed entirely exogenously from those who have worked within the country’s intelligence community. Unsurprisingly, this has had a rather distorting effect on our understanding of the context and nature of American counter-espionage. This thesis considers how America changed from a nation that partly defined itself at the outset by constricting the state apparatus of domestic spying to creating one of the largest domestic security systems. Meanwhile counterespionage changed from being used only during states of exception, to a state of permanence. In exploring the rise of American counter-espionage, this thesis makes three important claims of three key eras – the Revolutionary, the Gilded and the Progressive. First, it argues that the framers of the United States Constitution endeavoured to counteract the creation of a centralised security service. Second, it argues that this framework for limited counter-espionage, established by the framers, began to unravel following the Homestead Strike in 1892 and the passing of the ‘Anti-Pinkerton Act’. Lastly, it critically assesses the Progressive Era, where the foundation for the modern surveillance state was laid, with the creation of the Bureau of Investigation, the 1917 Espionage Act and a new state interventionist spirit. Along with progressivism, this thesis argues that the other dominant influences on the expansion of American counter-espionage were Britain and the private sector. More broadly, this thesis argues that Intelligence Studies has taken a wrong turn. In seeking to restore the ‘missing dimension’, it has at the same time created a separate field of study that often fails to connect to wider ideas of constitutional history, labour history and civil rights. Therefore, whilst analysing the origins, expansion and influences on America’s domestic security apparatus, the thesis continually connects the use of counterespionage to the political events that initiated its use. I do this so as to provide a critical revisionist account of American counter-espionage that challenges the existing narrative on the rise of spying in America.

This thesis explains the evolution of US ballistic missile defence (BMD) policy between 1989 and 2010, by moving beyond the political rhetoric and intellectual obfuscation that surrounds the policy in the literature. By developing an explanatory framework to rigorously and systematically analyse the impact of different dynamics on policy, it explains the rhythms of day-to-day policy in particular context; explains the medium term shifts in the domestic political space within which day-to-day policy debate occurred, and explains the long term move towards acceptance and the gradual normalisation of BMD in American security policy. The primary argument of the thesis is that the particular configuration of domestic political institutions and party political pressures at any given time has been far more important in shaping BMD policy during each presidential administration since the end of the Cold War than has previously been acknowledged. Secondly, it argues that developments in the international system and technology have gradually altered the context within which this domestic political debate has occurred. Finally, it shows that domestic political influences, and the gradual shift in the contours of the domestic debate are the key reasons why BMD has gone from being one of the most divisive, zero-sum political issues in American national security thinking, to something that has largely become normalised, with debate now only occurring at the margins.

This thesis is a study of American local government in the 1920s and 1930s and the role played by political party machines. It reviews the growth of overtly corrupt machines after the end of the Civil War, the struggle by the Progressives to reform city halls throughout America at the turn of the twentieth century and the rise of second phase machines at the end of the First World War. It analyses the core elements of machines, especially centralization of power, manipulation of incentives, leadership and “bossism”, and use of patronage. Throughout it emphasises that first and foremost, machines were small monopoly businesses whose vast profits, derived from improper and corrupt use of government levers, were allocated among a small group of senior players. Using the Kansas City Democratic machine of the infamous Tom Pendergast as a case study, it examines challenges to machines and the failure of the local press to expose Pendergast’s wrongdoing. It analyses elements of machine corruption, first in the conduct of elections where numerous fraudulent tactics kept machines in power and, second, in the way machines corruptly manipulated local government, often involving organized crime. Finally, the thesis examines the breach of ethics of machine politics, measuring the breaches against the pragmatism of bosses. Numerous larger-than-life characters appear in the thesis from bosses such as Tweed of Tammany Hall infamy, Alonzo “Nuckie” Johnson, Frank Hague and Tom Pendergast, the gangster John Lazia, as well as men who did business with or fought Pendergast, such as future president Harry S. Truman, Missouri U.S. Attorney Maurice Milligan and even Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The US has been involved in the majority of transitional justice measures established since the 1990s. This study explores this phenomenon by examining the forces that shape US foreign policy on transitional justice. It first investigates US influence on the evolution of the field, and then traces US involvement in three illustrative cases in order to establish what US involvement entails, why the US gets involved and how the US has impacted individual measures and the field as a whole. The cases include: the Khmer Rouge Tribunal in Cambodia; the trial of Liberian President Charles Taylor and the Liberian Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and the Justice and Peace Process in Colombia. These cases represent different transitional justice measures, transition types and geographic regions – all key dimensions in the field. These measures were also all established in the 2000s, a period which reflects a different historical moment in the field’s evolution. The cases shed light on the actors who play a key role in the field – from presidential administrations to Congress to the State Department and others. The study is based on nearly 200 interviews and archival research undertaken in the US, The Hague, Cambodia, Liberia and Colombia, providing a strong basis on which to draw conclusions about US foreign policy on transitional justice.

Since 2004, the CIA has been engaged in a covert campaign using remotely-operated drones to conduct targeted killings of suspected al-Qaeda and Taliban militants in the Afghanistan/Pakistan region. The rapid escalation of this programme under the Obama administration has attracted the close attention of the media and of academic experts working in the foreign policy, defence and legal fields. However, while such attention has enhanced our understanding of the scale, effectiveness and legality of drone warfare, there has been little attempt to explain the origins of the programme and place it within wider US counterterrorism practice. This dissertation meets that need, making an original contribution to the study of American counterterrorism by tracing the historical origins of the programme back to a small but influential group of policy makers within the Reagan administration. The thesis reveals how a shared hardline vision of how best to deal with terrorists set in motion legal and technological developments which eventually culminated in the CIA’s drone programme three decades later. By identifying the parallels between the drone campaign and the demands of the hardliners within Reagan’s government, the thesis challenges the commonly held notion that the CIA’s entry into drone warfare marks an unprecedented escalation of US counterterrorism practices resulting from a post-9/11 mind-set. Instead it presents evidence that current US counterterrorism practice is the result of a gradual evolution over the past three decades. Rather than placing the focus upon the drones themselves, this historical review reveals that the CIA’s unmanned aircraft are simply the current tool which enables the United States to pursue the counterterrorism goal it has held for decades – the ability to unilaterally neutralize anti-American terrorists in safe havens around the world. The thesis reveals that the drone campaign should not be regarded as a product of post-9/11 policy, nor the result of the seductive nature of remote control warfare. Instead, the use of drones should be seen as the embodiment of America’s long-term counterterrorism goal.

This thesis compares the availability and use of information about cannabis by members of two distinguished legislatures. It reviews the historical, social, legal, and moral contexts of cannabis use in Britain and the United states. It compares contemporary legislative politics in the two countries, with special reference to the relationship between the legislature and the executive, the roles ot Members of Parliament (MPs) and Members or Congress (MCs) in their respective houses and societies, and the usual sources and channels of information available to Members. It compares and contrasts the preparation and passage of the U.S. "Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970" and the U.K. "Misuse of Drugs Act 1971", giving particular attention to the way that Members became informed about cannabis, and how they were able (or unable) to use their information in the creation of the two laws. Particular emphasis is given to differences be tween the two systems. These differences are especially striking when the passage of legislation is viewed from the point of view of the participant. From the comparisons and contrasts made in this study several conclusions have emerged, chief among them that: 1) MC's had significantly more power in determining the policies and details of legislation than did MPs; 2) Source and uses of information were significantly greater in Washington than in Westminster; 3) The most important stage in both houses for Members to influence legislation was the committee stage; 4) Information was a valuable resource for MCs, but, at least in this instance, was of little uses to MPs; 5) Simply increasing sources of information will not improve the quality of legislation unless more opportunities for Members to use that information are also provided; 6) With regard to the problems now facing both countries, the availability and use of information by legislators is likely to play a critical part in future social-policy formation, and correspondingly; 7) A lack of opportunities for Members to obtain and use information is likely to impair not only the legislative process, but the future of the two societies as well.