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Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bailey / For decades, realism reigned as the predominant paradigm for understanding international relations. In recent years, however, competing theories of international relations have emerged. This paper engages with one of these recent theories, constructivism, and argues that it better explains Saudi foreign policy than the balance-of-power theory that has come to dominate realist scholarship. By analyzing critical foreign policy decisions by Saudi Arabia throughout its history and leveraging ideas like “omnibalancing,” this paper argues that Saudi foreign policy is consistently ideological and concerned with domestic policy.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the current requirements of teacher evaluation at Saudi Arabian universities and to develop a teacher evaluation program that would fit the current need and support Saudi social and religious values. The site of the study was Ring Abdulaziz University (R.A.U.) in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Population of the study included a random sample of senior students and faculty from the Women's Section of the university. Of 350 surveyed students, 224 responded, and 55 out of 150 surveyed faculty responded. The Dean and the Vice Deans of the Colleges of Science, Medicine, Arts and Literature, and Economics and Administration in the Women's Section were interviewed. The study involved two phases. The first phase was the assessment, for which interviews and surveys were employed. Interviews of top administrators at R.A.U.'s Women's section had two aims: to get top administrators' views of the current requirements of teacher evaluation at K.A.U., and to define the need for employing a formal system of teacher evaluation. The faculty survey sought faculty members' views on the methods of instructor evaluation currently employed and their preferences regarding a wide range of instructional evaluation techniques. The student survey sought to ascertain students' wishes to improve the process of learning by participating in teacher evaluation. Development of a proposed teacher evaluation program followed an analysis of the interviews and surveys. The second phase of the study was the field review. The proposed teacher evaluation program was reviewed by a selected sample of 13 top administrators at K.A.U. in both the Men's and Women's sections and by two top administrators in both King Saud University and King Faisal University. Field reviewers were asked about program clarity and the feasibility of its employment. Findings from phase one, the assessment, indicated the need for a formal evaluation system to replace the currently employed practice of teacher evaluation. This finding led to the development of a teacher evaluation program that takes into account the felt need of students to participate in the evaluation process without fear of any kind of reprisal from faculty and the desire of faculty not to have their status within the university system compromised by such a process. Findings of phase two, the field review of the program, resulted in a revised and final version of the program. The final teacher evaluation program contains three major components: (1) campus orientation, designed to acquaint faculty and students with the program and help them to understand its purpose and adjust to its employment; (2) students' rating, which includes a questionnaire to be used by students to evaluate instruction, along with various options for administering the questionnaire; and (3) data analysis, interpretation and improvement strategies.

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This study was conducted to evaluate the effect of curing and mix design parameters, such as cement content and water to cementitious materials ratio, on the strength and durability characteristics of plain and silica fume cements exposed to a hot-marine environment. Specifically, the effect of curing and mix design parameters on chloride diffusion, shrinkage and carbonation of cement mortar specimens exposed to a hot-marine environment was evaluated. The results indicated that high water to cement ratio significantly influenced the durability performance of concrete through: (1) accelerating chloride diffusion and carbonation, (2) increasing the shrinkage and weight loss, and (3) reducing the compressive strength. Similarly, increasing the cement content increased the shrinkage for a given w/c ratio. However, the chloride diffusion and carbonation were minimized and strength was enhanced due to increasing cement content. The mix design parameters, namely, water-cement ratio and cement content significantly influenced the performance of both Type I and Type V cements, while the influence of these parameters on the performance of silica fume cements was insignificant. Although Type I cement mortars performed better than Type V cement mortars, the performance of silica fume cement was the best in terms of reduced chloride diffusion, carbonation and shrinkage, and enhanced strength. The beneficial effects of silica fume cements, were however, only evident in specimens subjected to good curing. Therefore, to extend the useful service-life of reinforced concrete structures exposed to hot-marine environments, the following mix design is recommended: (i) cement content should not be less than 350kg/m³; (ii) Type I cement with 10% silica fume; (iii) water to cementitious materials ratio of not more than 0.45; (iv) good curing.