This work sets out to investigate the effects of natural resource conditions on interstate conflict. It is specifically concerned with understanding when states pursue a violent natural resource acquisition strategy and what the main factors explaining the choice between violent and non-violent resource acquisitions by states are. It has been hypothesized that conditions of natural resource scarcity and foreign resource concentrations have an impact on the conflict propensity of states; and furthermore, that the network level plays a fundamental role in conceptualising and assessing those conditions. In light of a large number of mechanisms posited in the literature, partly working in opposing directions, this study offers a conceptualization of resource conditions arising from threat and opportunity settings, a distinct multilevel resource access framework, and a structured approach to their empirical investigation. The main analysis is conducted in form of a fixed effects logistic model with standard errors clustered on the dyad-level and covering country-dyads of the period 1962-2010 with Military Interstate Dispute (MID) initiation as dependent variable. Overall, the findings of this research suggest that insights with regard to the resource conflict link could be enhanced by taking into account resource frameworks introduced in this work and the network level of analysis. In fact, significant support has been found for the conflict enhancing effect of resource scarcity conditions, especially so if conceptualized in form of perceived resource access security that is nested in the network dimension. With regard to foreign resource conditions this study identifies the costs of conquest as a key factor, even though empirical support is somewhat lower. The reason for this may be the opposing effect of the strategic oil hypothesis for which this analysis also finds considerable support, especially when captured through the network level. Overall, it appears that the conflict-related dynamics arising from a resource threat setting are stronger than those arising from an opportunity setting. The concepts and empirical findings of this study also have significant implications for the direction of future research as they shift the focus from resource ownership to resource access, and ultimately add to the understanding of the causes of war in general. In summary, the empirical findings of this study support that: 1. A conceptual distinction needs to be made between the set of mechanisms associated with resource scarcity (desperate predator mechanisms) and those associated with foreign resource concentrations (greedy predator mechanisms). This distinction is important because each set of mechanisms is nested in a different setting, threat vs. opportunity, respectively. As a result the underlying dynamics with regard to the nexus between resource conditions to interstate conflicts over resources are distinct. This has implications for the key aspects to consider under each set. 2. Resource scarcity should be framed in form of perceived resource access security when investigating scarcity-induced conflicts over resources. This implies a shift of focus from ‘how much’ to ‘who has control or access. Importantly, this means that even in face of general resource abundance, situations of individual resource scarcity are very possible and even likely. 3. The main dimension for assessing resource access security is the trade dimension, more specifically the degree of security with regard to imports of resources. 4. Access security through imports should be conceptualized in terms of embeddedness within global resource trade networks. 5. Unlike resource scarcity, conflicts associated with conditions of foreign resource concentrations should be assessed in terms of the degree to which such concentrations are perceived as an opportunity for conquest. 6. In addition to risks, the main dimension for assessing a resource acquisition opportunity is the degree of costs relative to benefits. 7. The network level appears to be helpful for assessing the degree to which a foreign resource concentration is perceived as opportunity, because it is able to (1) address the major risk factor associated predominantly with this resource-conflict mechanism, namely that of resource importer intervention; and (2) extend the assessment of potential benefits and costs beyond those only associated with the target state directly.

While the literature on the European Union’s foreign policy has heavily emphasized the EU’s marked preference for diplomacy and the conduct of dialogues, the rationale behind the salience of this practice has not yet been fully explored. Therefore, this thesis asks why the European Union promotes and conducts so many political dialogues with third countries in its external relations. The original contribution of this thesis is two-fold: theoretically, it contributes to the literature on the practice of dialogue in International Relations by moving away from theories stressing the rationality of the institutional actors involved in dialogical interactions. Instead, this thesis grounds itself in socio-psychology applied to institutions to conceptualize the practice of dialogue as a symbolically-framed interaction through which institutional identity is recognized and anchored. In doing so, this research demonstrates that the European Union promotes and conducts such an extraordinary number of dialogues with third countries in order to get recognition of its institutional identity as a distinct and relevant international actor. More specifically, the study sheds light on the mechanisms through which the dialogical interaction at the micro-level helps anchor the institutional identity of the EU at the macro-level. Empirically, the thesis contributes to a more nuanced and better understanding of one of the most complex and important relationships of our times – the transatlantic relationship — by presenting original findings on the multiple dialogical encounters occurring at different levels of representation: at the highest level of diplomatic meetings, at the interparliamentary level and at and the level of civil society. The present work thus departs from traditional perspectives on transatlantic relations by focusing on the micro-level of interaction and its symbolic implications at the macro-level. Through the conduct of interviews with European and American officials involved in these dialogues and several participant observations in the meetings, this study offers a fine-grained analysis of the dialogue as one of the most frequently tool of foreign policy used by the EU in its external relations.

The accountability relationships that surround the operations of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund are a key feature of global politics. These institutions continue to face criticism from both state and non-state actors over perceived ‘democratic deficit’, and yet the frameworks that we use to investigate the politics of accountability in international organisations (IOs) remain underdeveloped. By integrating the insights of rationalist and constructivist approaches to the study of IOs, this thesis provides clarifications to the conceptual tools available to analysts working in this field. In addition, through a dual focus on the politics of shareholder and stakeholder accountability at the Bank and Fund, important empirical advances are made over previous works. By placing contemporary developments in their historical context, a detailed picture is drawn of the dynamics surrounding shareholder states’ attempts to control these IOs, and of the processes through which relationships between IO staff and in-country stakeholders are reformed. The thesis closes by exploring the fruitful cross-pollination between the analysis of the politics of accountability and broader works on cosmopolitan global governance, concluding that through such a combination the former can be better ‘put to work’, and the real- world tractability of the latter can be enhanced.

Third-party intervention in civil wars is a phenomenon that presents a complex research puzzle in the fields of both International Relations (IR ) and Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA ). While intervention decisions impact the duration and result of a given conflict, they also have broader regional implications and political consequences for those that intervene. The central questions this thesis aims to address are ‘what are the dynamics behind US foreign policy choices vis-a-vis L ibya and Syria's internationalised intrastate conflicts?' and, more specifically, 'What were the components that underpinned the selection of different set of elements from the intervention spectrum at different times and scales during the Libya and Syria conflicts'. The existing literature points towards the relevance of both systemic and domestic level factors. Neo-classical realism (NCR ) is employed as the theoretical framework, and incorporates independent (threats to US interests vis-a-vis the L ibya and Syria conflicts) and intervening variables (elite Ideology/Obama Doctrine, US economic constraints, US elite perception of the opposition in Libya and Syria, congressional dynamics and public opinion) at the system and unit levels respectively. The dependent variable - US foreign policy choices – varies across three main forms: non-intervention, non-military intervention, and military intervention. NCR has proven to be a comprehensive theoretical framework to understand the rationale behind the US's suboptimal foreign policy choices. The results of the research conducted here reinforce the notion that it is problematic to explain foreign policy decisions exclusively from the perspective of a balancing against power or threats without considering the impact of intervening variables at the domestic level. The research also underpins the importance of political leaders and elites' perceptions (regarding opposition groups as well as of domestic political restraints) through which systemic incentives and constraints are filtered and the contours of interests and threats are identified.

The thrust of this study is to provide a critical reading of the configuration of borders through the discourse of one of the main institutions of the European Union (EU), the European Commission. My starting point is the observation of multiplication and transformation of EU and European borders as a result of the process of integration. This implies simultaneous processes of de-bordering, border construction and reconstruction. Despite that the overwhelming majority of current research tends to focus on one aspect of these trends at the expense of the others. My premise is that as a supranational institution, the European Commission is ideally placed to provide an empirical illustration of how these processes occurs. It has a vested interest and an ability to promote further integration and therefore, ambiguous border configurations in its discourse highlight current limitations to border transcendence that instead lead to multiplication and transformation of EU and European borders. The research provides a comprehensive examination of the different types of borders configured by the discourse of the European Commission, thus allowing analysis of how exactly these are articulated. It looks into a number of EU policy areas, border controls, free movement of people, social policy and the European Neighbourhood Policy and, employing the strategy of double reading, examines various Commission documents in the period after the adoption of the Single European Act. The main body of the thesis starts with a theoretical framework, which outlines the most important concepts used in the research, which inform the analysis in the subsequent empirical chapters.

The structural effect of what is known in the International Relations (IR) literature as the ‘polarity’ of any given moment has been a central theme in mainstream theories and across the discipline more widely. Yet there are at present competing perceptions of polarity across popular and scholarly discourse. Is the United States still a unipolar power? Are we currently in or about to enter a multipolar era? Or will the US-Sino relationship dominate world politics in the coming decades creating a new bipolarity? This thesis proposes a redefinition of the concept of polarity in order to be able to theoretically account for such competing visions of global order. It argues for the continued utility of the concept, particularly given its widespread use by practitioners and analysts alike, but that polarity analysis needs to be re-configured along more analytically eclectic lines than is the case in the existing literature. Using the English school of IR, the thesis builds a theoretical framework for redefining polarity, not as the distribution of material capabilities in the international system, but instead as the number of states that hold a particular status in international society. This framework is then applied to the period of 1815-2012 in order to understand the difference this makes to a macro-historical analysis of changes in the inter-state order. The historical analysis is used to demonstrate both the need for a new definition of polarity but also to draw a number of conclusions regarding the sources of perceptions of polarity.

This thesis analyses peacebuilding in Bosnia and Herzegovina, looking at the relation between state-building and transitional justice. It relies on reconciliation, as a socially constructed term, to look at how international and civil society organizations in the country, as well as Bosnian citizens, perceive processes put in place after the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords. In doing so, it contributes to debates in literature discussing how to approach peacebuilding holistically, identifying spaces for connecting top-down and bottom-up processes, supporting the establishment of a sustainable peace. The thesis relies on a constructivist framework, seeking to understand the frameworks and mindsets shaping reconciliation as a working concept for international and civil society associations and as an experience for Bosnian citizens. Such constructions are identified through thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews. The data was gathered through ethnographic fieldwork aimed at interviewing representatives of international organizations involved in transitional justice and state-building, non-governmental organizations approaching working on reconciliation, and Bosnian citizens who have lived in the country after the war. I support the view that a holistic approach to peacebuilding requires connecting state institutions with the building of political communities on the ground to foster a legitimate and viable process of social reconstruction.

Ownership refers to programme aid recipient countries establishing their own development priorities by leading development policymaking in partnership with donors, rather than donors prescribing priorities for these recipients. Ownership has become a central indicator of global aid effectiveness since the 2005 Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness. Simultaneously, donors have shifted towards a reliance on sectoral programme assistance which channels programme aid throughout whole sectors rather than using piecemeal projects. The donors comprising the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development-Development Assistance Committee (OECD-DAC) have institutionalized ownership as international aid policy, and are broadly of the view that ownership at the sectoral level is best promoted through a reliance on sector wide approaches (SWAps). However there is no settled understanding of what recipient leadership entails; there is lack of an institutional understanding of recipient contexts, and how these contexts can operationalize ownership; and there has been a spurious association between ownership and SWAps over time. By relying on Historical Institutionalism, this thesis discusses how broader institutional characteristics establish the context of recipient policymaking generally, and how these characteristics contextualize the operationalization of ownership during sectoral development policymaking, specifically. The evidence reveals that ownership can be simultaneously reflected and challenged in Jamaica.

The present research provides new insights into the main causes of the unsuccessful negotiation attempts made by the dispute parties in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict at different points in time throughout the peace talks from 1992 till 2013 and seeks to explain the failure of the sides to achieve a final settlement of the dispute. This research employs a qualitative research design and makes use of the congruence and process tracing methods whereby a time-series comparative analysis of six negotiation phases within the whole Nagorno-Karabakh peace process is undertaken. By studying both the domestic and international context in which the conflict has been embedded, as well as the contents of the proposed peace deals in the past, this study argues that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict resolution process has failed to produce a final settlement due to the absence of a ripe moment, i.e. a mutually hurting stalemate, and mutually enticing opportunity, a winning formula, the political willingness, the particular quality of the Armenian and Azerbaijani political leaderships, as well as the presence of self-oriented mediators.

China increasingly integrates into the international system, but has the social capitalist China been effectively contained by the Western-led liberal order? Most current literatures assume China’s ratification of international treaties as the signal to its full adoption of international norms, and scholars such as John Ikenberry thus argue that China is getting contained by the Western liberal order. However, a new wave of norm diffusion scholars suggests that even the ratified norms may not have the expected domestic impacts; the implementation process is decisive to the real changes ‘on the ground’. Following this vein, this thesis studies China’s implementation of international liberal norms in order to understand how the liberal world contains China in its order. This thesis compares the implementation of two WTO trading norms namely anti-dumping duty and countervailing duty in China as the representative case studies. The analysis suggests that these two norms have made important changes to China’s legal system, institution-building, field-level practices and its domestic discourse. By employing political comparative methods, it proves the WTO implementing instruments as effective in promoting the progresses of this implementation process. However, the analysis further suggests that the cultural match of these two international liberal norms with China’s social capitalist traditions also contributes to strong domestic resistances to the implementation process. The consequences of this dis-match are largely reflected in China’s field-level practices of and its domestic discourses over these two norms. This thesis provides a complex answer to the question raised at the beginning. As the case studies illustrate, although anti-dumping duty and countervailing duty conflict with China’s social capitalist traditions, China chooses to play by the rules because of its ‘problem-solving’ concerns and because of the pressure from the WTO and its members. China, both the state sectors and non-state actors, values its identity as a member of the international society, and is willing to act as the defender of the current international order. Even though, China is not a passive receiver of the liberal normative structure. The dis-match between the liberal norms and China’s social capitalist tradition inevitably results in the internal resistance to the tendency of China being fully contained by the international liberal order. This resistance will not be eliminated by any external pressure.