Global ETD Search

131	Case studies in terrorism-drug connection: the Kurdistan Workers' Party, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and the Shining Path Sahin, Fuat Salih 08 1900 (has links) This study scrutinizes the drug-terrorism nexus critically with intent to conceive possible remedies for the problem. The vast turnover of the global illicit drug industry constitutes the largest portion of organized crime enterprises' income. Different circles have argued that these enterprises are not the sole actors of the drug business, but terrorist groups, whose ultimate aim is a political change rather than financial strength, also profit from the “business.” The controversial nature of the problem fuelled heated debates and requires an in depth and impartial analysis, which was the main subject of the current study. At the first stage, three different cases, the PKK, the LTTE, and the SL, were studied either to prove or deny the alleged phenomenon. The sampled groups' ideology, structure, and operations helped understand the motives pushing the organizations into the ‘business.' Subsequently, several recommendations capturing vital issues both in countering terrorism and breaking terrorism-drugs link were spelled out. Terrorism -- Case studies. Drug traffic -- Case studies. Partiya Karkere Kürdistan. Sendero Luminoso (Guerrilla group) Terrorism-drug connection case studies Kurdistan Workers Party Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Shining Path
132	Interetnisk konflikt eller samförstånd : En studie om etnopolitik i Kurdistan/Irak / Inter-ethnic conflict or mutual understanding: A study of ethno-politics in Kurdistan/Iraq Sofi, Dana January 2009 (has links) This thesis concerns the differences in how ethinic groups co-exist in two different environments in the same country, with a focus on the ethno-political. My research questions are: Why are ethnic or interpersonal relations characterized differently in different regions? How and why do conflicts or agreements arise in specific environments? The aim is to understand the connection between inter-ethnic relations and environmentally specific factors. I am concerned with those mechanisms and processes which determine the type of ethnic relation – as conflict or mutual understanding - in specific environments. The thesis uses case studies of two contrasting multiethnic cities with different interethnic relations – Erbil and Kirkuk in Kurdistan/Iraq. My explanatory model consists of four main factors: I) historical factors in terms of critical events; II) institutional factors such as institutional efficiency and security; III) structural factors such as group size, territorial base and different tolerance systems; and IV) social relational factors such as the significance of inter-ethnic contacts and social capital. The empirical work demonstrates that the relations between the above mentioned factors in the respective environments determine the outcome of the inter-ethnic relations. The results show that one factor can be more important than another factor, but how the factors impact upon one another and under what circumstances is of significance. The presentation of environmentally specific differences shows that ethnic groups do not have static boundaries and are not necessarily hostile to one another. Conflict is not the given form of relationship between ethnic groups. That is, the result can be read as a critique of those who necessarily see potential conflicts between groups with cultural differences and those who essentialize cultural groups. In this context one can see a chain of interrelated factors; the relevance of which is dependent on the specific situation. Some of the negative factors that can increase the possibility of conflict and decrease the possibility for peaceful co-existence include: Instability in the political climate; insecurity; institutional ineffectiveness; segregation; undefined relations of power; and an ethnic composition maintaining the balance of power. If these factors combined result in a high level of complexity, which makes ethnicity stand out in terms of ethnic competition, the likelihood of ethnic conflict is significant. Ethnicity ethnic relations ethno-politics conflict understanding Kurdistan/Iraq Kirkuk Erbil turning points mobilization struggle security dilemma territorial division group size group formation ethnic composition institutional effectiveness inter-ethnic social capital Sociology Sociologi
133	"Utan bok är det ingen riktig undervisning" : En studie av skolkulturella referensramar i sfi / "Without book there is no real teaching" : A study of school cultural frames of reference in sfi Gustavsson, Hans-Olof January 2007 (has links) Experiences of teachers in SFI, Swedish for (adult) Immigrants, indicate that during their schooling earlier in life, SFI students have developed skills, abilities, values, ideas and expectations about teaching and learning that differ somewhat from the prevailing communicative oriented theory of second language teaching which is emphasized in SFI. In the thesis these aspects are referred to as different school cultural frames of reference. The aim of the thesis is to generate knowledge about SFI-students’ school cultural frames of reference of relevance for SFI teaching. The considerable number of immigrants from Iraqi Kurdistan during the 1990s has led to an empirical focus related to this geographical area. From a critical perspective, in some respects a research interest of this kind can be seen as contributing to a division between ‘us’ and ‘them’, in a wider sense a part of exclusion and a maintenance of the segregated Swedish society. In a special section is given an account of this research ethic question, together with arguments from intercultural pedagogy that support a focus on school cultural frames of reference. The theoretical platform for the thesis is sociocultural theory. The concepts of social representations, pedagogical code, classification, framing, power distance, diaspora and distinctions of knowledge also are used. The thesis is based on two data materials. The first consists of data from interviews and talks with students and teachers in SFI, all from Iraqi Kurdistan. The second consists of data gathered through observations, classroom observations, interviews and talks during two visits in the KDP-administrated region of Iraqi Kurdistan, each visit being for a period of about one month. This data material also includes text materials, mainly textbooks in EFL for grade five and six, and course books about EFL teaching used in teacher education. The thesis illuminates several aspects that provide an understanding as to why SFI students from Iraqi Kurdistan can have certain abilities, values, ideas and expectations about teaching, learning materials, learning, teacher and student roles that differ from the communicative oriented second language teaching emphasized in SFI. However, results from the study also underline the importance of a ‘weak’ use of this understanding in a SFI teaching context. school cultural frames of reference Iraqi Kurdistan SFI EFL second language teaching communicative oriented teaching social representations pedagogical code classification framing power distance knowledge abilities learning diaspora abduction intercultural pedagogy Education Pedagogik
134	The label 'terrorist' : PKK in Turkey Seloom, Muhanad January 2017 (has links) This thesis examines how the ‘terrorist’ label affects those that are labelled by this designation, particularly with reference on a subsequent choice to use violence in the context of an ethno-nationalist conflict. Drawing on the PKK as a case study, the study asks: what effect did the labelling of the PKK as a ‘terrorist organisation’ by the Turkish government have on the use of violence by Kurds in the Turkish-Kurdish ethno-nationalist conflict? The invocation of the label terrorist in any conflict often means both the labeller and the labelled are predisposed to use violence. This study argues that this process of labelling leads the labeller and the labelled to frame one another as an existential threat. To date, the effects of using the label ‘terrorist’ in an ethno-nationalist conflict context remain relatively understudied in both social and political sciences. The period under analysis extends from 1992 to 2015, corresponding to the period during which the Turkish government continuously designated the PKK as ‘terrorist’. In conflict discourse, belligerents use demeaning labels against each other to gather support, legitimacy or simply to increase combatants’ morale. The study argues that the label terrorist is a constituent element of the conflict. The Turkish government uses the label terrorist as a tool to securitise the Kurdish-Turkish ethno-nationalist conflict. The Turkish government’s labelling of the PKK as ‘terrorist’ places the Kurdish issue in the broader framework of securitisation, a theory in International Relations. While securitising the Kurdish issue has bestowed more powers to the Turkish government to combat violence described as ‘terrorist’, the resolution of the ethno-nationalist conflict became increasingly more complex leading to protracted waves of violence. Analysing data collected through semi-structured qualitative interviews with Kurds from Turkey, the study reveals that the impact of the label terrorist is far more complex than previously assumed in the existing academic literature. The specific effects of the label terrorist on any given conflict, however, are the subject of an empirical question to be settled through rigorous research. Drawing on the Labelling Theory of Deviance fathered by Howard S. Becker and complemented by discourse analysis, this study finds that the application of the label terrorist against the PKK increases the perception of victimization among its wider Kurdish community. Secondly, the research demonstrates that the invocation of the label terrorist against the PKK places the group’s actors and sympathizers in a situation that makes it harder for them to engage in peaceful means of resolving the conflict. The interplay between these two consequential effects of victimisation and political exclusion leads to the conclusion that there is an indirect relationship between designating an ethno-nationalist armed group ‘terrorist’ and the choice to use violence.
135	Promised Soils : Senses of Place Among Yezidis in Dalarna and Sheikhan Lindqvist, Maria January 2021 (has links) This is an ethnographic study that focuses on Zahmanê Êzîdîa Li Dalarna, the Yezidi cemetery, in Borlänge. The Swedish town of Borlänge has one of the largest Yezidi diaspora communities in Western Europe; a majority emigrated from the Northern Iraqi region of Sheikhan during the 1990s and early 2000s. The overall aim of this project is to investigate how the Yezidi community in Borlänge puts Zahmanê Êzîdîa Li Dalarna into use, the meanings ascribed to the site by individual interviewees, and how these relate to ritual places and practices in Sheikhan. The empirical material stems from observations and interviews among members of three extended Yezidi families in Borlänge and in Sheikhan, and archival material from the Church of Sweden. Fieldwork in Sheikhan focused on the valley of Lalish and the cemetery sites in the Yezidi villages in Sheikhan. The empirical material is presented, analysed and discussed through a theoretical framework of place, creation and maintenance of social memory through ritual practice, and the concept of transfer of ritual. The empirical material reveals that salient ritual actions and elements from ceremonies in Lalish and the Yezidi villages in Sheikhan are transferred to Borlänge, and there put into use for ritual practices and for creating and maintaining a collective identity outside of Iraq. Yezidi Yezidi cemetery Dalarna Borlänge Zahmanê Êzîdîa Li Dalarna Iraq Iraqi Kurdistan Sheikhan Lalish transfer of ritual social memory jema’iyye Çarşema-sor Wednesday ritual berat diaspora funeral rituals mortuary practices Ethnology Etnologi Religious Studies Religionsvetenskap
136	Conservation Biology in Poorly Studied Freshwater Ecosystems: From Accelerated Identification of Water Quality Bioindicators to Conservation Planning Al-Saffar, Mohammed Abdullah 08 March 2016 (has links) No description available. Animal Sciences Aquatic Sciences Biology Conservation Ecology Environmental Studies Wildlife Conservation Zoology Ephemeroptera Plecoptera Trichoptera Dichotomous Key Taxonomic Impediment Species Concepts Integrative Taxonomy DNA Barcoding Genetic-Based Analyses Prioritization Distribution Modeling West Palaearctic Middle East Iraq Kurdistan Region
137	Honor Crimes and the Embodiment of Turkish Nationalism, 1926-2016 Gallo, Sevin Marie 09 June 2016 (has links) No description available. History Gender Studies Middle Eastern History Middle Eastern Studies Latin American History Latin American Studies World History Comparative Honor Crimes Honor Honour Women in Turkey Kurdish Women Gendered Violence Nationalism Modernization Popular Culture in Turkey Kurds Kurdistan
138	National Security Concerns And The Kurdistan Region In A New Middle East: From Rebellion To Statehood : The Influences Of Power, Threat Enviornment And Opportunity Structures On The Choice Of Becoming An Independent State Gailan, Mohammed January 2017 (has links) Under which conditions do some nations and de facto state actors with relative power assert their statehood and independence? What factors should we focus on when we assess such cases? How much can we relate a nation’s choice and path to statehood and independence to its national security concerns? The aim of this case study has been to answer the questions asked above and explain why nations during some periods do not choose to declare independence and form their own state and during other periods they aim to do so. The case of the Kurdistan region of Iraq has been selected and studied both due the drastic regional changes in the Middle East since Saddam Hussein’s fall and the rise Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. During 2003-2005, the US invaded Iraq, toppled Saddam Hussein and destroyed the Iraqi army. Unlike the expectations that the Kurds would declare independence, they did not do so. However, 14 years after the fall of Saddam Hussein and establishment of the new Iraq, the Kurds aim to declare independence and form their own state. Hence, the puzzle is why not then and 14 years later? Inspired by realism, nationalist movement theory and rational strategic actor, three interrelated hypotheses have been tested and verified, which lay ground for a theoretical and explanatory model for this and similar cases within the fields of security studies and international relations. Process tracing has been used as an additional analytical tool in order to detect critical junctures and the chain of events that have produced the two different outcomes. The empirical material is mainly based on a fieldwork conducted in the Kurdistan region followed up by 12 individual qualitative interviews with a number of highly ranked Kurdish political and military officials including the President of the Kurdistan region, the Foreign Minister of the Kurdistan region, a senior Foreign and Security Advisor, three Peshmerga Generals and six members of both Kurdistan and Iraqi Parliaments. Building on the previous research, the findings of this study suggest that the choice and decision for becoming an independent and sovereign de jure state is closely related to a nation’s national security concerns and it is the same factors that causes a nation to declare/not declare independence during different periods of time. They are: (1) changes in power relations and access to a certain degree of indirect/direct external support and cooperation, (2) the existence/non-existence of national security threats and threat environments and (3) the rise of opportunity structures, strategic thinking and the ability to mobilize resources. National Security Power Threat environment Strategy Military Kurdistan Independence Statehood Opportunity Cooperation Resources Middle East Terrorism Iraq Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap
139	State Territorial Structuring in Iraq (1920-2020): The Impact of Group Identities, Ideas, Interests, and Foreign Influence Jaff, Rébar 12 April 2022 (has links) Since the creation of modern-day Iraq by the British Empire in 1920, the country’s state territorial structuring has been an ever-evolving source of political instability and conflict. Iraq’s ethnic and sectarian groups have been locked in a near constant struggle over questions of self-rule, shared rule, and secession. Consequently, the territorial model of federalism has never been far from political discussions, negotiations, and territorial disputes. Federalism was finally officially adopted in 2005, giving a new definition to Iraq’s territorial model. But while federalism seemed a natural means of managing Iraq’s long-standing ethno-sectarian divisions and was democratically ratified in a process that included most ethnic and sectarian groups, the model has failed to materialize, and territorial structure remains a major point of contention between the groups. The overarching aim of this dissertation is to shed light on two key questions. First, how have the dynamics between the major ethnic and sectarian groups of Iraq shaped the evolution of the country’s territorial structure from 1920 up to and beyond the federal constitution in 2005? Second, what can the trajectory of this evolution teach us about why federalism was adopted but has failed to materialize? I shall argue that Iraq’s territorial structuring over the past century has been systematically influenced by at least one of four “I”s: the groups’ ideas concerning territorial structuring, their conceptualizations of group identities, their definitions of group interests, and the influence of foreign actors. Focussing on the Shiite Arabs, the Sunni Arabs, and the Kurds, I will examine how these four factors have interacted to shape the territorial organization of Iraq over four key time periods: (i) the foundation of Iraq in 1920 to Saddam Hussein’s rise to the presidency in 1979, (ii) Saddam’s rule from 1979 to 2003, (iii) Saddam’s deposition in 2003 to the adoption of the federal constitution in 2005, and (iv) the post-constitutional period from 2005 to the present. I thus hope to explain how evolving inter-group dynamics over the past century have impacted the development of Iraq’s territorial structure, arguing that this sheds light on both the reference to federalism in the 2005 constitution and its subsequent failure to materialize. This dissertation thus demonstrates the powerful ways in which Iraq’s territorial structuring has been shaped by past trends in ethno-sectarian dynamics, putting us in a better position to understand the complexities of the country’s current territorial politics. Iraq Middle East Kurdistan Sunni Shiite Shi'a Shia Kurdish Identities Identity Politics Post-Colonialism Territorial Structuring State Territorialization Political Borders Iran Religious identities Ideas Interests Saddam Hussein Talabani Barzani Kurds Kirkuk Baghdad Erbil Basra Federalism Federation Self-Rule Autonomy Independence Ethnic conflict Sectarian conflict Chemical weapons Civil War Self-Government Constitutional negotiations Constitution Jaff Rebar

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