This thesis addresses an identified gap in the field of rebel governance and rebel funding, by theorizing and investigating how differences in rebel group funding sources affect a group’s engagement in rebel governance, distinguishing funding through natural resources from funding through non-natural resources. It is highlighted that these sources differ in three fundamental ways: their necessity for civilian labor and cooperation, the extent to which equipment, technology and infrastructure are required, and the expected time of pay-off. It is hypothesized that the degree to which a rebel group depends on natural resources determines the likelihood to which it engages in rebel governance - i.e. intervenes in all security, political, social, health and educational spheres of civilian life. This hypothesis is investigated through a comparative case study of two rebel groups from 2003 to 2018: the Taliban in Afghanistan, which generated its funding primarily through Afghanistan’s opium economy, and the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, later known as Al-Qaeda in Maghreb, which generated its funding through ‘criminal activities’ such as kidnappings for ransom. The findings suggest some level of support for the hypothesis. Inconsistencies in the findings limiting generalizability and the need for further investigations are discussed.

My research seeks to explain the evolution of trade policy debates among American business leaders between World War I and the 1960s. The key finding is that a new framework for discussing trade policy was widely adopted after the United States became a creditor nation during World War I. This framework related tariffs and imports to exports, international lending and American foreign policy. High levels of imports ceased to be a threat and instead came to be seen as a pre-requisite for high levels of exports and a well-functioning global economy; raising the levels of imports, including through tariff cuts, became a strategy for providing American allies and debtors with dollar revenues. This new insight into the political economy of American foreign economic policy is based on new evidence from the archival records of business associations and a wide range of other primary and secondary sources. In addition to bringing to light new evidence, my research also addresses some of the gaps that still exist in the literature on the history of the foreign economic policy of the United States, the Cold War and transatlantic relations.