Theoretical understandings of war have been dominated by the thought of Clausewitz for a number of decades. His thought is valid in many respects, but for various reasons it is open to misinterpretation and misunderstanding; furthermore, a number of his observations (particularly on the prevalence of chance and uncertainty in war) are not fully explored and substantiated theoretically. This thesis is an attempt to present and elucidate a new theoretical understanding of war's nature which complements Clausewitz's theories and addresses these concerns: this is the understanding of war as a form of violent conflict which is not bound by rules. The thesis consists of five main chapters. The first is an in-depth study of Clausewitz, which will provide an exegesis of his theories and highlight the deficiencies in his thought, before positing how understanding war as ‘violent conflict without rules' could be used to address and explain them. The second chapter is a study of the theory of rules, examining in particular the role they play in moderating conflict: we can find that amongst other things, rules lend predictability and psychological security to a contest, restrict the scope of physical harm and tend to preserve the political and social status quo. As war lacks rules (in the sense that there are no ‘rules of war' as there are ‘rules of chess'), it therefore lacks these benefits. A following chapter on the laws and customs of war will address cases where war appears to be bound by rules, and clarify my position. The final two chapters explore the implications of war's lack of rules with reference to two areas which are most commonly associated with war. The fourth chapter on strategy will explore how this military concept is necessitated by war's ruleless nature; the final chapter will examine the uniquely violent, physical nature of war through the same theoretical prism, and will show how the technological innovation associated with war is a consequence of its lack of regulation, and a potent contributor to the chance and uncertainty which plagues warfare.

The aim of the current research program was to investigate the social context of escalation in response to continued pushy behaviour in the workplace. In doing so, this research program contributes to the development of communication skills by investigating the entire context of skills required for effective communication in managing everyday conflict in the workplace. The response class, Responding to continued pushy or dominating behaviour in the workplace, was selected as a vehicle for examining the context of escalation for two reasons. Firstly, this response class, by the very nature of pushy behaviour, embodies a continued interaction. In the past, assertive communication research has focused on one off responses rather than a continued interaction. Secondly, this response class has been identified in previous research as being of interest to assertiveness trainees (Cooley, 1979, Lefevre & West, 1984, Wilson & Gallios, 1993). The theoretical premise of the current research program resides in the application of Social Rules Theory to the difficult face-to-face communication situation, or response class, of responding to continued pushy behaviour in the workplace. In doing so, this approach also takes into account dialectical theory, conflict resolution theory, and the concept of response components that can be selected and/or combined in order to meet the requirements, or rules, of a specific situation. In adopting the Social Rules approach, the current research program addresses the key criticisms of the traditional approach to assertion and assertion training, namely that people behaving assertively are sometimes negatively evaluated for assertive behaviour (Wilson & Gallois, 1993); and that assertion traditionally focused on the expressiveness of a response at the unintended cost of social or contextual appropriateness (Crawford, 1988); that finding a response is assertive does not delineate which aspects of the response are producing which types of effects (Galassi, 1978; Mullinix & Galassi, 1981). Most importantly, the current research contributes to the field by examining the negative response class in terms of a response sequence of escalation, rather than a one-off response. This is new research and contributes to the field theoretically and to the conceptualisation of assertion and communication. In order to meet the goals of the current research program, the response class Responding to continued pushy behaviour in the workplace, was defined precisely in terms of the situational context. This response class implies a workplace relationship of an ongoing nature. Four other variables were involved in defining and investigating the situation. These were status, gender of message sender, gender of message receiver, and response level (initial response, first escalation or second escalation). The current program of research was carried out in a series of three related studies, and these four variables were examined in each of the three studies. The purpose of the first study was to elicit social rules and goals for interpersonally effective and appropriate escalation strategies in response to pushy dominating communication in the workplace. This study was conducted in two parts, a qualitative questionnaire completed by 20 females and 20 males, and two focus groups, one for females and one for males. Content analysis revealed a set of rules for an escalation sequence for each combination of status and gender. These rules were then operationalized, filmed and analysed in the second study. One hundred and twenty-three participants (64 females and 59 males) with work experience watched the operationalized responses and rated them on a series of seven scales. These scales were effectiveness in stopping the pushy behaviour (task effectiveness), effectiveness in maintaining the relationship (maintenance effectives), social appropriateness, interpersonal skill required, risk involved, personal difficulty in making the response, and likelihood of making the response. Analyses included descriptive statistics, which indicated that the operationalized responses were perceived to be effective and socially appropriate. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) were also conducted and revealed a number of significant interactions for each status level (manager, colleague, subordinate). The third and final study in this research program adopted a qualitative approach to examine continued pushy or dominating communication in the workplace. Eighty-two (45 female and 37 male) participants completed a qualitative questionnaire utilizing an open-ended approach. This questionnaire was designed for the purpose of the third study to elicit the typical behaviours, emotions and cognitions participants have in response to continued pushy behaviour in the workplace. Also, a data analysis process was designed specifically for the third study to provide an analytical procedure that was as systematically rigorous and replicable as possible. This process is explained in detail in Study 3. The results of the third study revealed differences between actual behaviour and rule based behaviour in response to continued pushy behaviour, namely that actual responses are more public and direct in nature, and more likely to promote destructive conflict escalation. This finding implies that typical responses are not as effective as rule based responses, highlighting the benefits of applying social rules to manage difficult face to face communication situations. In summary, the current research project utilized a multi-method approach in a series of three studies to reveal the nature of Social Rules based responses and typical responses. The results of this research program have implications for both the theory and practice of effective communication and effective communication training. Evaluation of both social rules based and typical responses have implications for communication trainees who wish to make informed choice based on a consideration of functionally effective behaviour and personal satisfaction. For example, social rules for escalation in response to continued pushy behaviour from a male manager may indicate that it is most effective for a female subordinate to acquiesce. However, the female subordinate may choose to violate social rules and risk being perceived as inappropriate and damaging the relationship, to achieve a super-ordinate goal or for personal satisfaction. Conversely, the social rules and responses developed in the current research program have implications for professional effectiveness in the workplace by providing guidelines for dealing with dominating behaviour.

This study investigated the communication rules in the family structures of the Maasai and the Akamba cultures with the aim of comparing the core symbols emanating from the rules. The researcher used the qualitative design to identify and compare the communication rules of the rural Maasai of the Rift Valley Province and the rural Akamba of the Eastern Province of Kenya. The study focused on male and female adult individuals in family situations who were familiar with the traditional expectations of their cultures. Data was collected through focus group and in-depth interviews. From the data it was concluded that although the Maasai and the Akamba are from two different ethnic groups of Africa, namely the Nilo-Hamitic and Bantu respectively, the core symbols of their communication rules that are similar far outnumber those that are different. This phenomenon was noted when comparing the different levels of relationship within the family structures, namely, communication between spouses, communication between parents and children, and communication between siblings. One of the important findings of this study is that there are more similarities than differences in the cultures of the Maasai and the Akamba at family level. Therefore, the similarities of core symbols could imply that ethnic differences should not lead to the assumption that cultural practices will be significantly different. However, similar cultural practices or core symbols might not necessarily rule out conflict, as was indeed the case with the Maasai and the Akamba.Another finding was that the most outstanding core symbol in both cultures was respect, which was the fulcrum of most of the other core symbols in the communication rules. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)

This study investigated the communication rules in the family structures of the Maasai and the Akamba cultures with the aim of comparing the core symbols emanating from the rules. The researcher used the qualitative design to identify and compare the communication rules of the rural Maasai of the Rift Valley Province and the rural Akamba of the Eastern Province of Kenya. The study focused on male and female adult individuals in family situations who were familiar with the traditional expectations of their cultures. Data was collected through focus group and in-depth interviews. From the data it was concluded that although the Maasai and the Akamba are from two different ethnic groups of Africa, namely the Nilo-Hamitic and Bantu respectively, the core symbols of their communication rules that are similar far outnumber those that are different. This phenomenon was noted when comparing the different levels of relationship within the family structures, namely, communication between spouses, communication between parents and children, and communication between siblings. One of the important findings of this study is that there are more similarities than differences in the cultures of the Maasai and the Akamba at family level. Therefore, the similarities of core symbols could imply that ethnic differences should not lead to the assumption that cultural practices will be significantly different. However, similar cultural practices or core symbols might not necessarily rule out conflict, as was indeed the case with the Maasai and the Akamba.Another finding was that the most outstanding core symbol in both cultures was respect, which was the fulcrum of most of the other core symbols in the communication rules. / Communication Science / D. Litt. et Phil. (Communication)