“Armaments and Economic Performance”. The literature on military expenditure (milex) is scrutinized with respect to five areas. Investment is reduced when milex increases. Most studies have found economic growth hindered by higher milex. No clear association between milex and employment is found. However, the same amount of other public expenditure creates more jobs. There is some evidence for milex as counter-cyclical instrument in the US. The result for studies if milex is used in electoral cycles in the US is contradictory. Disaggregated data are emphasized as a possible solution to get more definite results. “The Economic Costs of Civil Wars”. The empirical studies of the economic costs of internal armed conflicts are divided into accounting and modelling methods. Cost is seen as the difference between the counterfactual production without conflict and the actual production. The average economic cost of internal armed conflict is a 3.7% yearly reduction of GDP. There are large differences between the estimates. One of the reasons for pursuing such studies is to give improved basis for more cost-effective post-conflict reconstruction, which is better achieved with an accounting method. “War and Economic Performance – Different Data, Different Conclusions?” This article studies the importance of armed conflict for economic growth by replicating an earlier analysis with new data on conflicts. The basic model investigates how conflicts in 1960-1974 affect economic growth in 1975-1989. Koubi finds that “wars are conducive to higher growth”. Koubi’s finding is confirmed when different conflict data is used in a similar research design. “The Role of External Factors in Economic Growth: A Comparative Analysis of Thailand and the Philippines 1950-1990”. Can differences in economic performance be explained by external factors? Both historical and regression analyses are utilised to answer the question. Three external factors are analysed: International trade, foreign direct investment, and external debt. In the regression analysis none of the external factors qualify as statistically significant. The historical analysis finds two external factors discriminating between the two countries. Thus, they might explain the differing growth rates of Thailand and the Philippines: Manufactured exports and external debt.

Is the risk of civil conflict related to the quality of government? This dissertation contributes to the quantitative research on this topic. First, it provides a more nuanced account of the role of the government in influencing the risk of civil conflict. In doing so, the dissertation bridges a gap between the quantitative literature, which primarily focuses on types of regimes, and the qualitative literature, which emphasizes variations in how political authority is exercised within these institutions. Second, the dissertation introduces novel measures of the quality of government, and tests their association with civil peace across countries, over time. The dissertation consists of an introductory chapter and four separate essays. Essay I examines the risk of conflict across different types of authoritarian regimes. The statistical results suggest that single-party regimes have a lower risk of civil conflict than military and multi-party authoritarian regimes. The finding is attributed to the high capacity for coercion and co-optation within single-party institutions. Essay II studies whether cross-national variations in the occurrence of civil conflict are due to differences in the quality of government. The essay finds that governments that are not able to carry through such basic governing tasks as protecting property rights and providing public goods, render themselves vulnerable to civil conflict. The focus of Essay III is on patronage politics, meaning that rulers rely on the distribution of private goods to retain the support necessary to stay in power. The statistical results suggest that patronage politics per se increase the risk of conflict. The conflict-inducing effect is mediated by large oil-wealth, however, because the government can use the wealth strategically to buy off opposition. Essay IV argues that patronage politics can also lead to violent conflict between groups. The results from a statistical analysis, based on unique sub-national data on inter-group conflict in Nigeria, are consistent with this argument. Taken together, the findings of this dissertation suggest that both the form and degree of government have a significant influence on the risk of civil conflict.

There has been much literature about the economic effects of terrorism in democratic countries, but this literature often considers democracy to be a binary variable. This paper sought to explore how the effects might differ depending on the strength of a democracy. In the end, I found that the numbers of attacks and the effects of those attacks do not follow a linear path. The results for autocracies and anocracies require further analysis, but democracies have revealed interesting results. It seems that democracies as a whole have more terrorist attacks, but, within this group, the more democratic a country is the fewer attacks are carried out.

By comparing the post-conflict reconstruction patterns of Cyprus and Sri Lanka, it is possible to evaluate what was or was not effective in the Cyprus case and how these lessons may be applied to Sri Lanka. Considering the underlying similarities of the two islands’ respective conflicts, the focus determining the best course of action for Sri Lanka, so that it does not face the same stalemate situation as Cyprus. The recommended policy contrasts with the consociationalist models proposed for Cyprus, and is instead based on the unique Basque model of autonomy.

This study aimed to examine the relationship between empathy-related constructs of English instructors at Atilim University Preparatory School and certain demographic features such as age, gender, educational background, and experience. The scale which consists of a demographic inventory, a questionnaire, and a semi-structured interview were developed by the researchers. The scale consists of &quot / Interpersonel Reactivity Index (IRI)&quot / . The results of the questionnaire were analyzed through SPSS 15.0. This data gathering instrument was implemented on 90 English instructors working at Atilim University Preparatory School. The results of the interviews were analyzed tghrough content analysis. The result of the study revealed that there is a relationship between perspective-taking and empathic concern tendencies of English instructors and their age and experience.

Why do some individuals choose to participate in rebellion, and what recruitment tactics can rebel groups use to affect this decision? These questions are central to the study of civil war because rebel groups must raise troops in order to challenge the government and to survive as an organization. Indeed, much of the civil war literature builds on participation as a key causal mechanism, yet it is rarely specified in theoretical or empirical models. The dissertation attempts to open this black box by tackling three sets of gaps in the existing literature; these relate to the assumptions made in most studies, the theoretical bases for understanding participation and recruitment, and the record of empirical testing. Essay I examines whether a particular type of recruitment practice, ethnic mobilization, is associated with higher levels of violence. The results show that when rebel groups mobilize along ethnic lines, there is a higher risk for intensified violence. Essay II employs new data on rebel troop size to study what factors affect participation in rebellion. The findings indicate that concerns over personal security rather than economic and social incentives best explain participation. Essay III addresses coerced recruitment, positing that conflict dynamics affect whether rebel groups shift from voluntary to coerced recruitment. Using micro-level data on the conflict in Nepal, the results show that the more losses rebels suffer on the battlefield, the greater the number of individuals they subsequently abduct. Finally, the Nepal case study presented in Essay IV suggests that indoctrination as a recruitment strategy was more important to rebel leaders than other facets of the insurgency. Taken together, this dissertation indicates that there is analytical leverage to be had by examining not only the individual’s decision to participate, but also the rebel group’s recruitment strategy, and that these rebel strategies are flexible and contingent on conflict dynamics.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Canterbury, 2008. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 132-140). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Following the war in Kosovo in 1999, the international community embarked on the most extensive international peace- and state-building project to date. From the early UN administration of Kosovo until the end of 'supervised independence' in 2012, various international organisations played a critical role in shaping the post-war polity. Throughout this engagement, the international community was driven by normative commitments to multi-ethnicity. However, while international organisations were committed to making Kosovo 'multi-ethnic', lack of clarity prevailed about what this goal entailed, or why it was so important. The thesis seeks to answer two inter-related questions: what was meant by multi-ethnicity on the part of its proponents, and what explains the prominence of commitments to this idea. Taking the form of three sections, the thesis examines these commitments' origins, manifestations, and explanations. International normative commitments to multi-ethnicity are found to originate in a shifting conception of the relationship between ethnic diversity and legitimate statehood during the twentieth century. Their manifestations in Kosovo are studied in three policy domains: the return of displaced persons, decentralisation of government to the local level, and minority rights. The thesis finds that international efforts in the pursuit of multi-ethnicity in Kosovo exhibited conflicting notions of multi-ethnicity, which shifted from integrationist ambitions to notions that reconciled the reality of segregation between ethnic groups on the ground through a 'politics of recognition'. The goal of multi-ethnicity remained, but was transformed. Explanations for the commitments to multi-ethnicity are found in both normative and consequentialist considerations, by uncovering unspoken underlying assumptions, and in the identity and self-image concerns of international actors. These findings indicate the power of the normative environment in shaping the actions of international organisations and provide insights into the thus far under-theorised normative dimension of the international state-building project in Kosovo.

The purpose of this thesis was to take a deep look into the history of race in American foreign policy in two White House administrations. The presidencies of Dwight D. Eisenhower and Bill Clinton were examined in which the influence of racism in domestic politics was demonstrated as a factor which shaped, and continues to shape, U.S. foreign policy. The research found that 1) segregation, 2) the concept of “primitiveness” formed due to the history between black and white nation-states and 3) the idea of “the other” used by the media and political elite are three manifestations of the consideration of race in Eisenhower’s foreign policy, particularly with respect to Ethiopia. The research also found that 1) American discomfort with white suffering, 2) the normalization of violence in black countries and usage of the term “tribalism,” and 3) the significance of ethno-racial identity all demonstrate the role of race in Clinton’s foreign policy which resulted in the disproportionate political prioritization of the Western Balkans over Rwanda.

St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands, is similar to other tourism dependent Caribbean nations where the tourism industry is dependent upon the `4 S's'- sun, sand, sea, and sex. This researcher posited that the phenomenon of sex tourism exists in St. Thomas as it does in other tourist destinations in the Caribbean like Jamaica, Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic and Barbados (Bailey and Ricketts, 2003; de Albuquerque, 1998; Munshi, 2006; Ryan and Kinder, 1996). The lacuna of any U.S. Virgin Islands sex tourism literature prompted this researcher to conduct an exploratory case study in St. Thomas to learn whether or not sex tourism exists in the U.S. territory. Using a qualitative approach, this study finds that sex tourism does exist in St. Thomas. This information is pertinent to Conflict Analysis and Resolution because of sex tourism's strong involvement with the spread of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS, human rights violations, gender based violence, human trafficking, and other social challenges. Examining sex tourism from three different sources, this researcher uses Human Needs theory and feminism to frame the research. The findings of this study are of interest to academia, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and tourism industries.