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By contrasting the uses of image-as-evidence and documentary-as-witness, this report challenges some of the maxims of documentary film studies and exposes the ways in which different forms of audiovisual media construct distant conflict. More specifically, the report analyzes a purposive case selection of videos/films related to the Syrian uprising: the first set of visual data includes a montage of 13 YouTube videos claiming to show the aftereffects of the 21 August 2013 chemical weapons attack in Syria; the visual analysis in section two centers upon a selection of 15 short documentary films produced by the Syrian Abounaddara Collective. Theoretically, the study advances the value of witnessing in the re-envisioning of documentary film. My research demonstrates the relative weakness of both legalistic and journalistic approaches to depicting war that treat visual material primarily as recorded fact or evidence. In its place, the report advances a new form of documentary with a higher degree of interpretive acumen based on the "emergency cinema" model developed in Syria -- what I term "documentary-as-witness." / text

‘Bless you, may you bury me’ is a common refrain among older people in the Syrian capital Damascus, directed especially towards children and young adults when they help with daily tasks or provide joy by their play or achievements. The sentiment expresses the hope that the old may die before the young and be mourned by them. It makes explicit the interlocking of life-cycles, through aging and mortality, and presumes an understanding of ideal kinship temporality where successive generations succeed one another in their proper order. It also hints that there is no certainty in this process. Sustaining these ideals is contingent on persistent material and symbolic work, a tempering of hope with memory and experience. These types of daily reckoning of personal and kinship time through mortality and life courses are rarely explored in the literature on Middle Eastern kinship. But how do these formations of time and generation sustain and transform? Anthropological theorising on the ‘Arab Family’ models it as cyclically reproducing roles, while socio-historical discussions of regional ‘transformations’ in politics and society understand them as lineal and successive. Both contain implicit speculations about the perceptions of time and the role of generations. Neither model, however, fully addresses the instrumentality of the types of temporality and generation they presume. What is it about the unfolding of familial and social generations and the temporality they imbue that is so integral to the models of kinship and society used to understand the region? And what is happening when historical change and familial generations interact? Based on 18 months of fieldwork, this thesis explores the interrelationships of Damascene life courses and their reciprocity with the historical context in which processes of birth, maturation, procreation and death take place. It describes subjective dispositions manifested at specific points in the life course and the manner in which individuals relate to past, present and potential selves, through memory, narrative and historicity, and through the unfolding sensual experience of time, place and objects. These inter-generational relationships illustrate not a recycling, but rather an historical and historicising process through transformative exchange and reciprocity. By tracing the shifts in the narratives of kinship in and through time, I consider Damascene history and time as emergent properties of inter- and intragenerational dynamics within a supple kinship system. I assert that however much kinship activities such as eating together, transmitting property, marrying, bringing up children and giving them names may be concerned with maintaining order and propriety, they are also contentious creative forces whose tensions and joys are paramount to Syrian social transformation.

This thesis examines the work of the missionaries from the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) and the rise of a Protestant community in Ottoman Syria, from the commencement of the missionary station at Beirut in 1823, to the dissolution of the community in 1860. The primary goals of this thesis are to investigate the history of this missionary encounter and the culture of the new community. This analysis is guided by the theoretical framework of Practice Theory and employs gender as a lens to explore the development of the Protestant identity. It argues that the Protestant community in Ottoman Syria emerged within the expanding port-city of Beirut and was situated within both the American and Ottoman historical contexts. The social structures that defined this community reflect the centrality of the ABCFM missionaries within the community and reveals a latent hierarchy based upon racial difference. However, tensions within the community and subversions to the missionaries’ definition of Protestantism persisted throughout the period under review, which eventually led to the fragmentation of the community in 1860. The contribution of this thesis lies in its investigation onto the activities of women and their delineation of Protestant womanhood and motherhood, as an important manifestation of Protestant culture. This work demonstrates the centrality of women to the development of the Protestant community in Ottoman Syria and reveals the complex interpersonal relationships that defined this missionary encounter.

This thesis challenges the assumption that states are rational unitary actors by examining how, in the United States, the personality traits of the president determine whether or not he will choose military intervention when the domestic and international conditions align to render it a possibility. These conditions are filtered through the lens of the president's own cognitive schema, which cannot be purely rational and, moreover, is likely to include a mélange of traits that converge to create a marked preference for action, reinforced and incentivized by the domestic political system. If Bill Clinton provides an example of the interventionist impulse among U.S. presidents in his actions in Bosnia, Barack Obama offers an exception through his restraint in Syria. Today, the Trump presidency raises questions about the likelihood of U.S. involvement in the enduring Syrian Civil War.

Leadership development is adopted as a strategy to become a learning organisation. The emphasis on leadership or transfer of leadership training is perceived as central to the development of a learning organisation, which is the only sustainable competitive advantage in response to an increasingly unpredictable business environment. Leadership development may be seen as oriented towards building capacity in anticipation of unforeseen challenges. In this vein, developing leadership behaviours/capabilities might be a priority for successful organisations. This suggests that organisations should be able to develop their leaders by ensuring the harmony between the requirements of corporate strategy and the context in which they work. Given the fact that leadership is such essential part of organisational development, the methods for developing the leadership behaviours/capabilities must be present. Without defining leadership behaviours/capabilities, and their development methods, organisations may fail to optimize the outcomes of their leadership. This indicates the importance for understanding how leadership development (LD) is approached. Consequently, this study explores how LD occurs and what factors influence this phenomenon in the Arab context using evidence from Syria, and develops an integrated model to support the introduction of LD to organisations operating in the Syrian/Arab context. This study utilises a qualitative multiple-case design to understand and explain the character of and the influence on LD in the Arab world using evidence from Syria. Specifically, the study was based upon a sample of three cases of for-profit companies. Research data was gathered through 36 in-depth semi-structured interviews with the middle and top management levels. The findings reveal that LD occurs through the process that begins once a company identifies its leadership needs. This occurs by analysing internal/external environment to select the leadership behaviours/capabilities required, and their development methods. It was noted that this process seems to be similar among the three companies, but the type of behaviour/capabilities required tends to be context specific. Additionally, the findings reveal that there were two types of factors that influence LD at the three companies: Factors were seen as determinant factors through which the decisions of whether to introduce LD were made; and factors influencing the successful application of LD. The findings also reveal that there is a dynamic interaction between the mechanism used for understanding the weakness to identify leadership needs from one side and the context in which the companies operate from the other side. This relationship poses the basis for each company to select what fits its internal/external needs. This was evident through the types of behaviours/capabilities required and the purpose of each development method adopted by each company for developing the behaviours/capabilities required. The findings provide several contributions, but the major contribution is the discovery of how LD is applied in an Arab context, what behaviours/capabilities and development methods work best with for-profit companies in this context, how companies operating in an Arab context identify leadership needs for development, and what factors they perceive as determinants of LD and what factors influence the implications of LD. The study makes an additional contribution by developing an empirical model for introducing LD in an Arab context using evidence from Syria. The model was based on the data obtained from the field study. This could be appropriate for the Syrian/Arab context from one side that shares the same traditional characteristics, and companies working in these contexts (Arab) from the other side.

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The Syrian regime used chemical weapons against its own citizens in 2013, and since then the U.S. has debated whether they should intervene or not. The purpose of this study is to find, analyze and explain the arguments presented by American politicians regarding the intervention in Syria. The study will be a qualitative and abductive desk study, that is done through a text analysis. This study will examine the different arguments from the politicians over the years and explain the arguments over the years through the theoretical lenses used. The theoretical lenses that will be used in thesis study is humanitarian intervention, democratic peace, just war, realism, and liberalism. The findings of this thesis will be arguments that are coming directly from the politicians, by looking into published statements, speeches, press-releases et cetera. This study will look into three selected representatives each from the Republican Party and the Democratic Party. What this study has found is that the representatives from the two parties present rather similar arguments for intervention as well as non-intervention in Syria. They argue that interventions are necessary for humanitarian reasons, as well as for protecting American national security and interests. For non-intervention they argued that the U.S. was not affected by the conflict, and that intervention would drag the U.S. into another war. The theoretical lenses in this study could all somewhat explain the arguments presented by the politicians, and it became clear that the politicians are stuck in the same pattern when it comes to policies on this issue. Thus, the American foreign policies regarding Syria became rather predictable. For future research it is necessary to find if this is true in other western countries, or if it is a phenomonen isolated to the U.S.

Esta pesquisa objetiva produzir uma narrativa histórica da Síria com ênfase no período de 2000 até 2011. O interesse é investigar como se formou a oposição política ao regime de Bar al-Asad durante a primeira década do século XXI e quais as relações dessa oposição política com a atual insurreição síria, que se iniciou em 2011, verificando as origens dessa oposição nos anos anteriores à ascensão de Bar al-Asad à presidência. A primeira parte conta como se organizaram grupos políticos na Síria desde o final do século XIX até o final do século XX. A segunda parte narra a ascensão de Bar al-Asad ao poder no ano 2000 e sua relação com os grupos oposicionistas durante toda a década de 2000 a 2010, e constitui o cerne da investigação. A terceira parte narra como a insurreição síria tomou forma ao longo do ano de 2011, iniciando-se de forma pacífica e evoluindo para o confronto armado. Para a composição da narrativa, a maior variedade possível de fontes de informação foi analisada com a finalidade de trazer informações atualizadas e de diversos pontos de vista: buscamos organizar os fatos, narrá-los de maneira concisa e indicar suas fontes. Apresentamos como resultado de nossa investigação uma história social, combinando narrativas acadêmicas, historiográficas, políticas e artísticas para produzir um texto informativo e respeitoso que contribua com o debate acerca da história da Síria, sua cultura e sua sociedade. / This research aims to produce a narrative history of Syria, with emphasis on the period from 2000 to 2011. Our main interest is to investigate how the political opposition to the regime of Bar al-Asad was formed during the first decade of this century; and the relations of that political opposition to the current Syrian uprising, which began in 2011, verifying the origins of the opposition in the years before the rise of Bar al-Asad to the presidency. In the first part, we explain how political groups in Syria organized themselves since the late nineteenth century to the late twentieth century. In the second part, which constitutes the core part of this research, we present the rise of Bar al-Asad to power in 2000 and its relationship with the opposition groups throughout the decade. The third part shows the Syrian uprising taking shape along the year 2011, beginning peacefully and evolving into armed confrontation. For the composition of the narrative, the widest variety of sources of information was analyzed in order to bring up to date information and different points of view: we sought to organize the facts, narrate them concisely and indicate their sources. We present as a result of our investigation a social history, combining academic, historiographical, political and artistic narratives to produce an informative and respectful text to contribute to the debate about the history of Syria and its culture and society.

Comment les habitants ont-ils vécu d’une part la construction dans les années 1970 d’un grand périmètre irrigué dont les terres ont été collectivisées, d’autre part la décollectivisation intervenue une vingtaine d’années plus tard ? Ces deux événements constituent deux ruptures qui modifient à chaque fois les conditions de vie et de travail ainsi que l’environnement des habitants à travers l’occupation des sols, les services publics et les paysages. Trois périodes se succèdent dans les discours des interlocuteurs, chacune s’érigeant comme un point de comparaison pour les deux autres : la première est une sorte d’époque immémoriale pendant laquelle les premiers arrivants, vivant chichement et dépendant de la pluie divine pour leurs cultures, se seraient approprié les terres de ce plateau présenté comme désertique ; la seconde est caractérisée par une mainmise de l’Etat sur les terres et un contrôle des personnes qui s’accompagne d’un sentiment de sécurité et de prise en charge au sein d’une collectivité hiérarchisée ; la troisième est marquée par une augmentation des marges d’enrichissement mais également une dégradation des services publics et une précarisation des plus démunis dans un contexte plus concurrentiel, d’où une instrumentalisation des identités pour légitimer ou exclure de l’accès aux ressources. / How did the dwellers experience the implementation of the Al-Assad State Farm, a large-scale collectivised irrigation project in the 1970s, and its subsequent dismantling two decades later ? These two events reshaped living and working conditions, public service delivery, land use, the physical environment and landscape. Interlocutors’ discourse construes three successive periods, with each one as a point of comparison for the two others: the first, “time immemorial”, during which first comers, frugal and dependent upon Providence for rain for agriculture, appropriated plateau lands, described as a part of the desert. The second period was characterised by State seizing of the lands and control of both space and dwellers. In parallel this hierarchical community structure produced a sense of security and State support. The third was a period of relative increase in wealth, a degradation of public services, and the social exclusion of impoverished people due to a more competitive context. Exclusion from and access to resources was legitimised through the instrumentalisation of identity.