Daisaku Ikeda is the Buddhist leader of one of the most visible religious movements today, the Soka Gakkai International (SGI). In this thesis, the main research question concerns the peace philosophy of Ikeda and its contribution to peace theory. Daisaku Ikeda and the SGI have been the subject of several scholarly studies in the fields of religious history and sociology. The focus of this research is on the significance of Ikeda's contributions in the field of peace studies, where his work has not yet been the subject of systematic investigation. It is argued that the originality of Ikeda's philosophy of peace resides in two main elements. First, the starting point is consistently human life and its potential for peace and happiness, not the omnipresence of conflict. Second, he offers a coherent system linking the individual, dialogical and global levels, which can be represented as a triangle made of three conceptual frameworks, that of Humanistic Psychology (Human Revolution), Communicative Rationality (Dialogue) and Cosmopolitan Democracy (Global Civilization). It is also argued that while being inspired by Ikeda's Buddhist spirituality and his loyalty to his mentor Josei Toda, this secular humanist approach to peace offers an effective and original way for all people to participate in the construction of a better world, regardless of their religious or ideological affiliation, social background or cultural practices.

This dissertation examines the construction of new national borders in the former Russian Empire after the First World War, between Soviet and British imperial intervention. This forgotten process of border-making had enormous consequences for the shape of the Soviet Union and the 20th-century international order. Through an interdisciplinary approach combining diplomatic, intellectual, military, and material histories, incorporating government documents, memoirs, and personal papers, this work puts the formation of the Soviet Union in international context and connects it with the on-the-ground development of new ideas about the nation-state. The contingent decisions and everyday practices of local Soviet and British officials drew borders around national territories and imagined national spaces in ways that still shape Eastern Europe and Eurasia 100 years later.

Thesis advisor: Alan Rogers / Abstract: Splintered Loyalties: The Revolutionary War in Essex County, New Jersey By Gregory Francis Walsh Dissertation Director: Professor Alan Rogers "Splintered Loyalties" is a study of the people of Essex County, New Jersey and their experiences during the American Revolution. It is a careful analysis of their struggle to understand sweeping political change and their efforts to act in their community's best interest. This dissertation explores the momentous impact the Continental Congress's decision to declare independence had on Essex residents and stresses that both the British and American governments continued to fight for the hearts and minds of the people of Essex well after 1776. Relying on Essex County's military, economic, and judicial records and the public and private writings of ordinary people and their leaders, this project illustrates the waxing and waning of popular support for America's war effort between 1775 and 1783. Popular memory of the Revolution often divides the wartime population into distinct Patriot and Loyalist camps. This dissertation,however, argues that such a dichotomy recognizes neither the complexity of Patriots' and Loyalists' relationships with their wartime enemies nor the varying levels of commitment that Essex Patriots demonstrated in the war to establish a new republic. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: History.

This paper explores portrayals of Catherinian Russia in British and American periodicals during her reign, between 1762 and 1796. Catherine II had an incredibly eventful reign as she enacted important domestic reforms, engaged in two major wars with the Ottoman Empire, executed three partitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and created the League of Armed Neutrality, among other accomplishments. Britain and America equally experienced momentous change during this period, most notably with the American War for Independence. This paper examines how British and American periodicals reacted to the significant events of Catherine's reign using published materials such as news reports, opinion essays, book reviews, poems, Parliament proceedings, and letters to the editor. This paper first discusses the image of Catherine II as a monarch and a woman in British newspapers. I analyze the transformation in the British perspective from a favorable view of the empress to a condemnatory one beginning in 1780 and juxtapose it to Catherine's portrayal in American periodicals in which the empress suffered from a negative reputation for a majority of her reign. I then shift focus from Catherine as an individual to Russia as a whole. I explore the derogatory views of the Russian nation and people largely expressed in British and American newspapers and identify how this prejudice, in turn, affected the image of Catherine II. The major themes of this analysis are foreign policy between Russia, Britain, and America, during Catherine's reign in the 18th century, gender constructs, and ethnocentrism.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.