This thesis explores the politics of drugs and addiction in Iran in light of processes of state formation. The case of Iran provides a paradigm of what has come to be known as the 'War on Drugs' in a political and cultural setting that has been characterised, by most of the area studies literature, by other investigations and scholarly questions. Iran, nevertheless, represents an outstanding case for the study of the War on Drugs; it is at the geopolitical crossroads of international drug routes, it has one of the world highest rates of drug 'addiction' - estimated at between 2-3% and 6-7% of the entire population - and it has progressively seen the rise of synthetic, industrial drugs, such as methamphetamines (shisheh). The thesis situates the phenomenon of drug use in the social and political history of Iran with a particular attention to the transformations taking place after the Islamic Revolution in 1979. It provides a genealogical map of policy experimentations in the field of drugs, while it also casts light on the rationale that governs the formation and transformation of state practices vis à vis drugs, especially during the reformist and post-reformist period (1997-2013). To do so, the research combines extensive archival research using Persian sources (newspapers, reports, films, memoires, etc.) starting from the early 1900s, with ethnographic fieldwork in public clinics, rehab centres, drug using hotspots and, more generally, the street. The outcome is an in-depth engagement with narcotic politics, which unearths unstudied dynamics of Iran's contemporary politics and society. Instead of moralising approaches, what is unveiled is a state that adopts both rhetoric and practice that are secularised and in tune with Western models of policymaking. Eventually, the thesis reveals how the image of the Iranian state has not only been misplaced, but it has also been a myth.

Implementing risk management (RM) effectively in construction projects and organisations has long been recognised as key to ensuring successful project performance. Therefore, it has become increasingly vital for construction organisations to have RM as an integral part of their project management practice. Such necessity has driven significant increase in research on RM practice in the construction industry. However, little research has been conducted to systematically investigate the RM implementation in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)’s construction industry. Therefore, this research study was aimed at thoroughly investigating RM implementation in this industry toward developing an appropriate framework for improving existing practice. Specifically, this research study has developed a RM framework for enhancing RM implementation practice in construction firms and an informed list of best practice recommendations, all of which aid as a road map for implementing an effective RM system, thereby contributing to the enhancement of practice. In addition, the research has developed a RM maturity model purposely for measuring firms’ existing RM maturity level and identifying key areas for further improvement. Mixed method approach was chosen for the purpose of addressing the research aim and objectives. The first stage of the approach involved a comprehensive review of relevant literature. Then, a pilot study and two questionnaire surveys were designed and distributed to professionals from construction organisations in the GCC countries. Moreover, six case studies from real-life projects were conducted. The RM framework was validated through a series of experts’ interviews. This research has identified and ranked 62 key risk factors affecting construction project performance, and were categorised under four levels, namely: country level, industry and market level, firm capability level, and project implementation level. Also, this research study has identified 28 RM maturity criteria and 15 critical barriers to RM implementation. These were used to develop a comprehensive RM maturity system, which can serve as a guide for determining the RM capability of construction organisations to enable them decide on the most appropriate implementation strategies. Moreover, the case studies provide rich in-depth qualitative data that explains, among others, the status of RM implementation in practice and the level of maturity displayed by GCC construction organisations on this subject. The cross–case comparison results substantiated the survey findings, and highlighted the influence of the firms’ characteristics on the RM implementation. Also, the findings serve as a case-study from GCC countries from which other countries in the Middle East and developing world can benefit immensely from the lessons learnt, since these countries share a lot in common as far as RM practices are concerned. The empirical results and outcomes of this research are arguably the first to be presented for the GCC construction industry, and therefore have a high potential of contributing significantly to the existing body of knowledge and understanding in RM. The results of this research do not only fill a major gap in the literature on the subject of RM practice in this industry, but also offer greater awareness and understanding of RM implementation in construction firms. Future studies would be conducted to assess the RM maturity in other projects or in other countries and to investigate the relationship between the RM maturity and improvement in project performance. For instance, the case studies would be performed to uncover RM implementation and the associated managerial implications which will allow practitioners to understand the real implementation issues in practice and the experience of firms that is worth learning from.

abstract: Immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers. Three words describing the same group of people. Individuals seeking a better, safer life. Western media is focused right now, in 2016, on the humanitarian crisis from the Middle East to the European Union; just like two years ago it was centered on the huge numbers of unaccompanied minors immigrating into the United States from Central America. Media changes its focus but problems do not end with a change of headlines. Unaccompanied minors are the most vulnerable population looking for asylum. This study looks at two different immigration flows of unaccompanied minors: one from the Middle East going to the European Union; and the other one from Central America to the United States. This research finds similarities and differences between these two flows of migrant children related to the reasons why they leave their countries of origin, their experiences during the trip to the destination countries, the asylum process, the legal status of these children and how these minors are perceived by societies in the destination countries. Using a human rights law framework, this thesis will explore the continuum of violations of human rights that these children endure on their journey from their origin countries to their destination states. Through interviews with former and current direct providers of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, previous scholarly work, documentaries and news articles on the subject, it will make clear that these two flows of children fleeing to different destinations have much more in common than what may be initially perceived. This emergent, exploratory and inductive qualitative research will bring light to asylum law and question why the social responsibility to protect children seems to skip the most vulnerable ones: unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. / Dissertation/Thesis / Documents to be included in addendum / Masters Thesis Social Justice and Human Rights 2016

abstract: To understand the visual culture and art education practices within three ideologically distinct kindergartens, I employed an interdisciplinary approach, utilizing tools from the fields of art, education, anthropology, literary theory, visual studies and critical social theory. Each of the three schools was considered to be the "best" of its kind for the community in which it resided; TBS was the original bilingual school, and the most Westernized. It was set in the heart of a major city. The second school, OBS, operated from an Islamic framework located in an under-developed small transitioning suburb; and the last school, NBS, was situated in Al-Jahra, an "outlying area" populated by those labeled as bedouins (Longva, 2006). The participants' attitudes towards art education unfolded as I analyzed my visual observations of the participants' daily practices. I have produced a counter-hegemonic visual narrative by negotiating my many subjectivities and methods to gain new knowledge and insights. This approach has provided a holistic understanding of the environment in each site, in which attitudes and practices relating to art education have been acquired by the community. Operating from three different educational paradigms, each school applied a different approach to art education. The more Westernized school viewed art as an individual act which promoted creativity and expression. In the Islamic school art was viewed as an activity that required patterning (Stokrocki, 1986), and that the child needed to be guided and exposed to the appropriate images to follow. In the bedouin school, drawing activities were viewed as an opportunity for representing one's individual story as well as a skill for emergent literacy. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2012

Can a nation without being an independent state reach democracy? According to some researchers a democratization process cannot happen without having an independent state with control over their own territories. The Kurdish people without a given state are divided between four authoritarian states in the Middle east and in opposite to its neighbors' have Kurds ambition to become democratic always existed. The purpose pf this thesis was to analyze if Iraqi Kurdistan is heading towards democracy and to find what the driving factors behind the democratization process are. The thesis used a qualitative text analysis approach with a complementary case study where the thesis focused on Larry Diamonds internal and external factors as a guiding instrument to determine what political mechanisms have driven Kurds and politicians' transition to democracy and peace. The analysis presented that authoritarian division, authoritarian development, free values, civil society, peaceful pressure and limits of sanctions and aid conditionally drove them. For answering the research problem, is a democratization processes possible for non-independent states? It is possible, Kurds in Iraq have so far accomplished to establish an electoral democracy, and a consolidated democracy is not impossible if legitimacy among politicians are increased and if freedom of expression is uncontrolled by politicians and if corruption decreases.

O objetivo principal deste trabalho é analisar o crescimento da Al Jazeera, a rede de TV árabe que mudou a realidade da imprensa no Oriente Médio e em poucos anos se tornou uma das mais vistas no mundo. A rede de TV foi fundada em 1996 em Doha, Catar, durante um período de grandes mudanças no país. Até o ano anterior, um governo conservador limitava os avanços, mas um golpe de Estado levou ao poder o atual Emir, que começou a promover reformas liberais resultando assim em mudanças significativas ao país. A criação da Al Jazeera era parte de um plano de modernização. Em 2001, o canal árabe ganhou notoriedade quando transmitiu os vídeos de Osama Bin Laden. Desde então, o mundo voltou os olhos para o que estava sendo produzido lá. Em 2006, a emissora lançou um canal em inglês, a fim de mostrar as notícias de uma perspectiva árabe. A pesquisa foi baseada na bibliografia especializada e nos trabalhos teóricos de comunicação que complementam com observações in loco e entrevistas com a equipe da Al Jazeera em Doha. Nesta dissertação, analisam-se o contexto de surgimento da Al Jazerra, a cobertura de algumas guerras e transformações, o surgimento de outros veículos e a criação do canal em inglês com o intuito de compreender o processo de consolidação e expansão dessa rede. / The main purpose of this paper is to analyze the growth of Al Jazeera, the Arabic TV network that changed the reality of media in Middle East and in a couple of years became one of the world most watched station. The TV network was founded in 1996 in Doha, Qatar, during a great changing time in the country. Until last year, a conservative government restricted the progress, but a coup brought to power the current Emir, who began promoting liberal reforms resulting in significant changes to the country. The creation of Al Jazeera was part of a modernization plan. In 2001, the Arabic channel gained notoriety when broadcasted videos of Osama Bin Laden. Since then, the world turned its eyes to what was being produced there. In 2006, the station launched a channel in English, in order to show the news from an Arab perspective. The research was based on specialized literature review and theoretical works which complement with on ground observations and interviews given by Al Jazeeras staff in Doha. In this thesis, we analyze the context of the emergence of Al Jazerra, covering wars and some social transformations, the emergence of other media and creating the channel in English, in order to understand the process of consolidation and expansion of this network.

Por meio de dois artigos, um de revisão bibliográfica e outro de pesquisa empírica, este trabalho busca examinar os impactos para o Egito, e as repercussões para o Oriente Médio, da ascensão da Irmandade Muçulmana ao poder após a deposição de Hosni Mubarak, ditador egípcio durante três décadas. O caso do Egito é o objeto da pesquisa pois exemplifica de forma cristalina como as aberturas democráticas nos países árabe-muçulmanos representam um enorme desafio para essas sociedades. A atuação da Irmandade Muçulmana em um ambiente de liberdade era aguardada por observadores dentro e fora do Oriente Médio pois, como principal movimento adepto do chamado islã político, seu sucesso ou fracasso poderiam indicar a possibilidade de êxito na construção das democracias locais, uma vez que parece inevitável o islamismo, como sinônimo de islã político, ser o primordial beneficiário da ruína dos regimes despóticos que grassam na região. Como base para esta análise, o primeiro artigo busca, por meio de uma revisão bibliográfica da história e da ideologia da Irmandade Muçulmana, desde sua fundação, em 1928, as explicações para o comportamento do grupo após a queda de Mubarak. O segundo artigo, por sua vez, estuda a conduta da política externa do Egito e reconstrói a forma como a ditadura de Mubarak desempenhava suas relações exteriores, comparando esta com a política externa do Egito durante o governo de Mohamed Morsi, irmão muçulmano eleito presidente do país em junho de 2012. Por fim, o segundo artigo busca entender os impactos provocados pelo período de governo da Irmandade Muçulmana na política externa do Egito na fase seguinte, após a deposição de Morsi (julho de 2013), em que o país passou a ser liderado pelo marechal Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, cujas ações na seara internacional são manifestamente tomadas em oposição não apenas à Irmandade Muçulmana, mas a qualquer elemento que possa ser identificado com o islã político. / Through two articles, a literature review and an empirical analysis, this paper seeks to examine the impacts to Egypt, and the implications for the Middle East, of the rise to power of the Muslim Brotherhood after the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian dictator for three decades. The case of Egypt is the object of research because it exemplifies in a crystalline way how the democratic openings in the Arab-Muslim countries represent a huge challenge for these societies. The performance of the Muslim Brotherhood in a freer environment was expected by observers inside and outside the Middle East because, as the main supporter of the movement called political Islam, its success or failure could indicate the possibility of success in the construction of local democracies, since it seems inevitable that Islamism, as synonymous with political Islam, be the primary beneficiary of the ruin of the despotic regimes that are rife in the region. As a basis for this analysis, the first article seeks, through a literature review of the history and ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood, since its founding in 1928, the explanations for the behavior of the group after the fall of Mubarak. The second article, in turn, studies the conduct of foreign policy of Egypt and reconstructs how the dictatorship of Mubarak played its foreign relations, comparing this with the foreign policy of Egypt during the reign of Mohamed Morsi, muslim brother elected president of the country in June 2012. Finally, the second article seeks to understand the impacts caused by the period of government of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt\'s foreign policy in the next stage, after the deposition of Morsi (July 2013), in which the country was led by Marshal Abdel Fattah al-Sissi, whose actions in the international arena are clearly taken in opposition not only to the Muslim Brotherhood, but the elements which can be identified with political Islam.

O presente estudo tem por objetivo caracterizar as Guerras do Líbano (1975-90) como resultantes do processo de desintegração do Império Otomano no quadro definido pela aceleração histórica de acordo com Yves Lacoste. Ela evidencia o processo/projeto balcanizador, ou seja, de divisão territorial em base étnica, do Líbano e do Oriente Médio iniciado com o expansionismo europeu a partir do séc. XIX e a continuidade dada a tal processo pelas modernas geoestratégias israelenses, as quais, com suas rupturas, logram imprimir moto próprio à sua operação na Região. Desta forma, traçamos um painel histórico da evolução do Líbano dentro do quadro de tensões geopolíticas regionais e internacionais, como a queda do Império Otomano, a fundação de Israel e os movimentos nacionalistas árabe e judeu, os refugiados palestinos e as crises no Golfo Árabe-Pérsico (as Guerras do Iraque de 1980 e 1991), que se constituíram em fatores de instabilidade para o território libanês. Assim, as Guerras do Líbano (1975-90) permitiram que o território libanês passasse a servir como campo de batalha para as guerras do Oriente Médio, nas quais se insere as invasões israelenses do Líbano, em 1978 e em 1982, com seus intentos balcanizadores. / This study aims to characterize the Lebanon War (1975-90) as a result of the process of disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the framework defined by historical acceleration according to Yves Lacoste. It shows the process / project balkanizing, i.e., territorial division based on ethnic, Lebanon and the Middle East started with the European expansion from the Nineteenth century and continuity to this process given by modern geo-strategic Israelis, which, with its ruptures, manage to print their own motto accord to its operation in the region. Thus, we draw a historical overview of developments in Lebanon within the framework of regional and international geopolitical tensions, as the fall of the Ottoman Empire, the founding of Israel and the Arab and Jewish nationalist movements, Palestinian refugees and the crisis in the Gulf Arab Persian (Iraq wars of 1980 and 1991) that formed factors of instability for the Lebanese territory. Thus, the Lebanon War (1975-90) allowed the Lebanese territory passed serve as the battleground for wars in the Middle East, which falls in the Israeli invasions of Lebanon in 1978 and 1982, with its attempts balkanizing.

Submitted by Maria Dulce (mdulce@ndc.uff.br) on 2014-02-24T19:32:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Salgado Neto, Luiz-Dissert-2013.pdf: 3370161 bytes, checksum: 26f6ba5b13b8bec954798cc7eafa20f3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-02-24T19:32:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Salgado Neto, Luiz-Dissert-2013.pdf: 3370161 bytes, checksum: 26f6ba5b13b8bec954798cc7eafa20f3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / A presente pesquisa tem o objetivo de analisar os fundamentos culturais do apoio ao sionismo nos Estados Unidos. Por meio da análise de cinco periódicos de amplitude nacional, buscou-se apreender os elementos culturais presentes em avaliações sobre a Questão da Palestina e em discursos pró-sionistas no período de 1936 e 1948. O objetivo do estudo foi analisar como essas avaliações e esses discursos mobilizaram representações, valores, percepções, crenças e imagens na análise do conflito entre árabes e sionistas, bem como na defesa da criação de um Estado judeu na Palestina. Esta pesquisa propôs uma articulação entre política e cultura. Dessa forma, buscou-se avaliar, ao fim do estudo, como fundamentos culturais influenciaram a postura política de uma parcela significativa da sociedade norte-americana, que pressionava o governo dos Estados Unidos a apoiar a criação de um Estado judeu na Palestina. / The goal of this research is to analyze the cultural grounds of the support to Zionism in the United States. Through an analysis of five periodicals of national amplitude, this study seeks to apprehend the cultural elements present in evaluations of the Palestine Question and in pro-Zionist discourses in the period between 1936 and 1948. The objective of this study was analyze how these evaluations and discourses mobilized representations, values, perceptions beliefs and images in the views of the conflict between Arabs and Zionists, as well as in the defense of the creation of a Jewish State in Palestine. This research propounded an articulation between politics and culture. Therefore, it sought to evaluate, at the end of the study, how cultural grounds affected the political behavior of an important segment of the American society, which pressed the United States government to support the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine.

Submitted by Maria Dulce (mdulce@ndc.uff.br) on 2014-05-23T20:34:18Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Salgado Neto, Luiz-Dissert-2013.pdf: 3370161 bytes, checksum: 26f6ba5b13b8bec954798cc7eafa20f3 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2014-05-23T20:34:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Salgado Neto, Luiz-Dissert-2013.pdf: 3370161 bytes, checksum: 26f6ba5b13b8bec954798cc7eafa20f3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / A presente pesquisa tem o objetivo de analisar os fundamentos culturais do apoio ao sionismo nos Estados Unidos. Por meio da análise de cinco periódicos de amplitude nacional, buscou-se apreender os elementos culturais presentes em avaliações sobre a Questão da Palestina e em discursos pró-sionistas no período de 1936 a 1948. O objetivo do estudo foi analisar como essas avaliações e esses discursos mobilizaram representações, valores, percepções, crenças e imagens na análise do conflito entre árabes e sionistas, bem como na defesa da criação de um Estado judeu na Palestina. Esta pesquisa propôs uma articulação entre política e cultura. Dessa forma, buscou-se avaliar, ao fim do estudo, como fundamentos culturais influenciaram a postura política de uma parcela significativa da sociedade norte-americana, que pressionava o governo dos Estados Unidos a apoiar a criação de um Estado judeu na Palestina.