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This dissertation analyzes the creation of national parks in Mexico between 1934 and 1940 as a program of national unity and federal resource control on the heels of revolutionary upheaval. In radical new ways, national park formation marked a complementary relationship between revolutionary social change and the environment. The creation, administration, and defense of these parks symbolized larger processes reordering how regulatory legitimacy came about and what factors shaped policy implementation. The parks, mostly within one or two hours of Mexico City, protected temperate forests but overlapped with longstanding communities. While some scientists critiqued peasant forest use techniques, the inclusive politics of the revolutionary government and the vibrant opinions of residents prevented their eviction from these national spaces. By articulating visions of their patrimony and zealously debating their rights to national territory, peasants, scientists, industrialists, and bureaucrats transformed revolutionary reforms into conspicuous environmental policy. This purposeful inclusion allowed citizens to forge national identity with explicit attention to the natural world.To demonstrate the assertion that social change had an environmental component, I use four case studies of Lagunas de Zempoala, La Malinche, Popocatepetl and Iztacci­huatl, and Tepozteco National Parks. These examples demonstrate the similarities and differences among the parks and their particular social, political, economic, and cultural implications. Tourists to Zempoala, communal property holders in Malinche, resin collectors on Popo and Izta, and activists in Tepozteco remind us that environmental issues pervaded the life stories of thousands of people. Parks were not whimsical oases for wealthy urbanites--they became tangible representations of how revolutionaries nationalized their natural territory. Revolutionaries planned their agenda for change based on the endowments of nature, they envisioned overcoming differences through the wealth of their surroundings, and they configured a revolutionary state to oversee that process.My study engages Mexican historians who have failed to consider the environment as a crucial factor in the construction of the new regime and revises world histories that underestimated conservation efforts in lesser developed countries. Rather than a story of environmental declension, it provides fresh insight into the everyday working relationships among communities, governments, and their resources.

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution of China (the Cultural Revolution)from 1966 to 1976 is considered an unprecedented political and social upheaval in Chinese modern history. Model Plays were produced as the core of the Cultural Revolutionary propaganda in an effort to promote a new discourse of political and cultural ideology of and for the worker-farmer-soldier class. As images of heroic proletarian revolutionary women were expansively represented onstage, conventional gender norms and boundaries were challenged. This paper assesses the "woman" messages carried by Model Plays and the vision of Chinese women's liberation they depicted on the Cultural Revolutionary theatric stage. By analyzing images of Model woman characters in Model Plays, the author argues that these model plays and operas offer an idealized vision of Chinese women's emancipation and to certain extent serve as an empowering influence on women's social practice in real life during the Cultural Revolution; on the other hand, however, they reveal a central tension in the Chinese revolutionary discourse with respect to gender: women could be re-conceived as heroes, public actors fighting fearlessly for collective goals, yet these women heroes seemly could only take form in the absence of private ties: family bonds, marriage, and motherhood. So while there is something "new" and, perhaps, even liberating in these newly imagined women characters, the form they take falls short of truly reconfiguring gender relations in Chinese society.

his thesis is a discussion on the affective politics of images, with attention given to the communities and forms of citizenship they create, both digital and real, and their role in contemporary revolutions in the Middle East/North African Region. Employing Ariella Azoulay's (2008) theoretical framework of a civil contract of photography, this thesis locates and examines how a “citizenship of photography” is mobilized through current trends of citizen photojournalism and communication technology. By exploring the citizenship and community building potential of images, digital and real, an account of the revolutionary possibilities of images is formed. Drawing on recent scholarship and theoretical frameworks in the field of visual studies, media studies, and citizenship, this thesis develops a complex narrative of how images become iconic, connect individuals, and become an integral component in contemporary revolutionary change.

This study analyzes the Bangladesh Crisis by building upon previous works that have applied microeconomic theory to international relations. One of the most innovative lines of inquiry from the realist school is to study international relations through analogy with microeconomic theory. Although used to analyze conflict, war, and the workings of the international system, a strict application of microeconomic theory to interstate crises is rare. This thesis will endeavour to contribute to this linkage.

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This study aims to explain the Stuxnet-attack against Iran in 2009-2010 by using the IR-theory of structural realism. By doing so the theory also faces the challenge of the impact of the information revolution on security and international relations. The structural realism that is at hand is that of Kenneth Waltz and his Theory of International Politics from 1979.The study reaches the conclusion that Waltzs focus on the structure of the international system and the distribution of capabilities applies well to the case of Stuxnet as a cyber attack. The creators of the sophisticated Stuxnet, USA and Israel, also indicates that when it comes to this certain aspect of the information revolution and IR, states seem to still be the main actor. Finally the character of one of the major features of the Stuxnet-attack; the internet, is shown to have an anarchic structure that fits well as an extension of the realist view of the international system.

In 1960, Fidel Castro’s newly founded revolutionary government created the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC) in an attempt to bring women into the revolutionary process. Vilma Espín, herself a former revolutionary, was asked to lead the FMC in the changes that it brought to women living all over Cuba. This thesis will examine the personal influence that Espín had on the FMC, analyzing her significance in the running of the mass organization, and assessing how during these early years of the revolution women’s roles evolved under the guidance of the FMC.

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A group of students from the Peace and Development master program at Linnaeus University in Växjö have conducted a field study on agriculture in Ribaue district, Nampula, Mozambique. This study took place over a period of five weeks starting from the beginning of April. The purpose of the research was to perform a socio-economic study to gain a better understanding of the conditions under which the population of Ribaue live, the majority of which are small-scale farmers. Also, how they manage to access resources in order to improve their livelihoods and how small-scale farmers are striving to reach a lifestyle that is more sustainable. This study concentrates on the potential introduction of the Green Revolution Strategy, which is linked to food security and combating poverty, in Mozambique. It asks the question: under what conditions can it be possible for a Green Revolution Strategy to be developed and implemented in the district of Ribaue in Nampula, and which are the necessary prerequisites for a successful implementation of such a strategy? We have, through interviews, observations and participation in various activities, discovered the main issues that need to be addressed in the district. The Green Revolution Strategy exists in theory on the national level but has not yet been fully implemented in practice. Very few producers in Ribaue have heard of the concept ‘Green Revolution’, however, certain parts of its content were known to farmers, such as improved seeds and fertilizers. Furthermore, the gender conditions are still in favor of men, although some significant progress has been made. Better access to education and credit, improved infrastructure, and more effective spread of information and communication are some of the prerequisites that need to be addressed in Ribaue and they are presented in this study.