State failure represents one of the most pressing concerns for international security in the 21st century, and Afghanistan represents one of the most concerted efforts ever witnessed to address this phenomenon in a lasting and sustainable way. This thesis takes the position that part of the difficulty in finding a remedy for state failure relates to the contradictions and dilemmas inherent within the state-building enterprise itself. The trade-offs required by certain fundamental aspects of state-building must be better understood if they are to be effectively managed, and these trade-offs cannot be understood without critically analysing the basic assumptions of state-building. To come to grips with these assumptions in concrete terms, this paper examines the European Union’s involvement in Afghanistan as a case study to apply and develop the analytical framework of “dilemma analysis.” The first major goal of this research will be to outline the tensions within state-building, and to assess their usefulness for explaining some of the difficulties facing state-builders in general terms. The second goal will be to analyse the significance of the specific combination of dilemmas relevant to the case of Afghanistan, in order to show how those dilemmas interact with each other to constrain the EU’s options for effective state-building. The third goal is to identify ways in which the EU and the international community in general can benefit from dilemma analysis when conducting state-building interventions in the future.

This thesis assesses institutional-learning by the European Union (EU) in Afghanistan. The assessment is carried out by delineating the developments and changes in relevant EU policies through the years 1993-2010 using process tracing. The analysis is based on an extensive review of EU documents, regulations, statements, publications and interviews together with third party evaluations and a survey of the relevant academic literature. The research question which the thesis addresses is to assess whether a policy change in EU state-building efforts is discernible and whether this change can be attributed to institutional-learning or to other causes. It also provides evidence that the state-building efforts by the EU form part of an institutional process of development by the EU to establish itself as a global actor. The assessment therefore focusses around four components: the EU, institutional-learning, state-building and Afghanistan. The aim of the thesis is to analyse the nexus between the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and EU-led state-building in fragile and/or post-conflict countries outside of the Union's enlargement sphere while taking into account the change in actorness on the part of the EU. This analysis is grounded on two interlocking frameworks. By using data and developments in the Afghanistan country study, elements of the state-building Framework are scrutinised for evidence of the different categories of institutional-learning and adaptation derived from the institutional-learning Framework. By pinpointing the learning processes within the EU as an organisation and in its state-building policies, and by analysing the limitations of its approach to these, the thesis concludes with a recommendation of how to make EU-led post-conflict state-building in forthcoming cases of fragile states more effective.

This study examines the socialist project in Mozambique under the political party Frente de Libertação de Moçambique or Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) from the time of independence in 1975 to the end of its 15-year war with Mozambique National Resistance (MNR/RENAMO) in 1994. After achieving independence from a brutal and obstinate system of Portuguese colonialism in 1975, the chief organization that led the anti-colonial struggle, FRELIMO began a process of creating a socialist-oriented modern nation, modelled on existing examples worldwide. Facing widespread hardship and seemingly insurmountable challenges as well as crumbling communist regimes elsewhere in the world, FRELIMO’s efforts however, soon came to end in the late 1980s. This thesis critically engages the factors that led to the failure of the development of socialism in Mozambique with particular focus on the way that historians and scholars have understood such factors. Combining a review of the existing historiographical literature on the topic as well as data drawn from primary sources from the historical events under study, the aim of the research is to provide an alternative understanding of the collapse of this much-touted and widely observed period of transition for this southeast African country. The thesis suggests re-conceptualizing the notion of single-state self-sufficient socialism as conceived of by FRELIMO, particularly in nations historically subjugated to colonialism and more recently the dictates of international capital, and in doing so also contends that a number of key elements of socialist theories of development have been overlooked in the process. In the context of a recent global economic recession and the seeming deterioration of state authority in the face of globalization, it is necessary to examine the confluence of historical paths that led to the current situation and in this sense the thesis will contribute another view of these histories.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1934. / On cover: University of Pennsylvania. "Citation summary": p. 330-339.

This thesis investigates the origins and impact of electrical telegraphy in Germany between 1830 and 1880, situating them within the context of long-term transformations in the theory and practice of communication. It uses the development of telegraphy as an analytical lens through which to explore the connections between actors at the heart of the socio-economic transformations taking place in Germany during the period. Both as an innovation and as a tool of communication, this thesis argues, the telegraph epitomised the simultaneously growing interdependence and differentiation between people and places which was a defining characteristic of modernity. By exploring the motivations and interactions of scientists, entrepreneurs, state officials, and ordinary users who engaged with the technology, this thesis highlights the diverse expectations which were placed upon telegraphy, and the many different directions in which its development was pulled. In doing so, it reveals the ties between the ‘modernising’ processes with which the technology has been associated. It challenges linear narratives of technological innovation which focus exclusively upon individual or state actors, emphasising the cooperation and collaboration across society which was necessary to produce the telegraph. It similarly questions triumphalist interpretations of the 'communications revolution' so often attributed to the nineteenth century, emphasising instead the tensions and divisions which it also generated. Revisiting the themes of industrialisation, capitalism, community and bourgeois class-formation in nineteenth-century Germany in this light, this thesis emphasises their intrinsic interdependence, and the inevitable mixture of hopes and anxieties, expectations and frustrations, which it produced.

Este trabalho trata da relação entre competição, estrutura e agência nas Relações Internacionais. Ele se estrutura em três partes. A primeira parte contextualiza o estudo na agenda de pesquisa dos Estudos Estratégicos Internacionais. Para tanto, discute-se a pertinência do debate agente–estrutura, bem como delimitam-se os pressupostos ontológicos que nortearão o restante do trabalho. A segunda parte é o artigo. Analisam-se os efeitos da competição no processo de evolução dos sistemas políticos internacionais, sistemas políticos nacionais e estados. Por conta disso, discute-se a ontologia de cada objeto de análise e, em seguida, busca-se os mecanismos causais que conectam suas respectivas trajetórias evolutivas. De acordo com os atores e meios envolvidos, três dimensões de competição social são identificadas: competição internacional; construção do estado; e concorrência regulada. A hipótese de trabalho é que os resultados das interações entre as estratégias escolhidas pelos agentes para enfrentar o tipo de competição com que se deparam causam mudanças na estrutura dos sistemas políticos internacionais, nacionais e nas características das organizações políticas estatais. Na terceira parte, discute-se as implicações teóricas e práticas decorrentes do trabalho, bem como são assinaladas perspectivas para a continuação da agenda de pesquisa. Sugere-se que a incorporação de conceitos e categorias desenvolvidas pela literatura de Teoria de Sistemas e da Complexidade é fundamental para a superação de dicotomias ontológicas e epistemológicas nas ciências sociais. Ademais, argumenta-se que o aperfeiçoamento das organizações políticas é indissociável da compreensão de que a busca por defesa e segurança pelos estados não é apenas uma força destruidora, mas também pode produzir efeitos que potencializam a coesão social e expandem direitos fundamentais. Logo, propõe-se que a agenda de pesquisa decorrente desse trabalho deverá se debruçar sobre a questão de quais são as condições em que interações competitivas contribuem para o surgimento de organizações políticas capazes de sobreviverem e atuarem no sistema político internacional contemporâneo, bem como proverem segurança, bem-estar e direitos políticos para seus cidadãos. / This paper deals with the relationship among competition, structure and agency in International Relations. The study is structured in three parts. The first part contextualizes the work in the research agenda of the International Strategic Studies. Therefore, we discuss the relevance of the agent-structure debate, and delimit the ontological assumptions and that will guide the rest of the study. The second part is the article. It analyzes the effects of competition in the process of evolution of international political systems, national political systems and states. On that account, discusses the ontology of each object of analysis, and then seeks the causal mechanisms that connect their evolutionary trajectories. According to the actors and means involved three dimensions of social competition are identified: international competition; construction of state; and regulated competition. The working hypothesis is that the results of the interactions among the strategies chosen by agents to cope with the kind of competition they encounter cause changes in the structure of international political systems, national political systems and in the characteristics of the state political organizations. In the third part, it is discussed theoretical and practical implications resulting from study, and also prospects for the continuation of the research agenda. It is suggested that the incorporation of concepts and categories developed by Systems and Complexity Theory is fundamental to overcoming ontological and epistemological dichotomies in the social sciences. Moreover, it is argued that the improvement of our political organizations is inseparable from the understanding that the search for security and defense by states is not only a destructive force, but can also produce effects that enhance social cohesion and expansion of fundamental rights. Therefore, it is proposed that the research agenda derived from the study should lean over the question of what are the conditions under which competitive interactions contribute to the emergence of political organizations able not only to survive and act in the contemporary international political system, but also provide security, welfare, and political rights to its citizens.

Este trabalho trata da relação entre competição, estrutura e agência nas Relações Internacionais. Ele se estrutura em três partes. A primeira parte contextualiza o estudo na agenda de pesquisa dos Estudos Estratégicos Internacionais. Para tanto, discute-se a pertinência do debate agente–estrutura, bem como delimitam-se os pressupostos ontológicos que nortearão o restante do trabalho. A segunda parte é o artigo. Analisam-se os efeitos da competição no processo de evolução dos sistemas políticos internacionais, sistemas políticos nacionais e estados. Por conta disso, discute-se a ontologia de cada objeto de análise e, em seguida, busca-se os mecanismos causais que conectam suas respectivas trajetórias evolutivas. De acordo com os atores e meios envolvidos, três dimensões de competição social são identificadas: competição internacional; construção do estado; e concorrência regulada. A hipótese de trabalho é que os resultados das interações entre as estratégias escolhidas pelos agentes para enfrentar o tipo de competição com que se deparam causam mudanças na estrutura dos sistemas políticos internacionais, nacionais e nas características das organizações políticas estatais. Na terceira parte, discute-se as implicações teóricas e práticas decorrentes do trabalho, bem como são assinaladas perspectivas para a continuação da agenda de pesquisa. Sugere-se que a incorporação de conceitos e categorias desenvolvidas pela literatura de Teoria de Sistemas e da Complexidade é fundamental para a superação de dicotomias ontológicas e epistemológicas nas ciências sociais. Ademais, argumenta-se que o aperfeiçoamento das organizações políticas é indissociável da compreensão de que a busca por defesa e segurança pelos estados não é apenas uma força destruidora, mas também pode produzir efeitos que potencializam a coesão social e expandem direitos fundamentais. Logo, propõe-se que a agenda de pesquisa decorrente desse trabalho deverá se debruçar sobre a questão de quais são as condições em que interações competitivas contribuem para o surgimento de organizações políticas capazes de sobreviverem e atuarem no sistema político internacional contemporâneo, bem como proverem segurança, bem-estar e direitos políticos para seus cidadãos. / This paper deals with the relationship among competition, structure and agency in International Relations. The study is structured in three parts. The first part contextualizes the work in the research agenda of the International Strategic Studies. Therefore, we discuss the relevance of the agent-structure debate, and delimit the ontological assumptions and that will guide the rest of the study. The second part is the article. It analyzes the effects of competition in the process of evolution of international political systems, national political systems and states. On that account, discusses the ontology of each object of analysis, and then seeks the causal mechanisms that connect their evolutionary trajectories. According to the actors and means involved three dimensions of social competition are identified: international competition; construction of state; and regulated competition. The working hypothesis is that the results of the interactions among the strategies chosen by agents to cope with the kind of competition they encounter cause changes in the structure of international political systems, national political systems and in the characteristics of the state political organizations. In the third part, it is discussed theoretical and practical implications resulting from study, and also prospects for the continuation of the research agenda. It is suggested that the incorporation of concepts and categories developed by Systems and Complexity Theory is fundamental to overcoming ontological and epistemological dichotomies in the social sciences. Moreover, it is argued that the improvement of our political organizations is inseparable from the understanding that the search for security and defense by states is not only a destructive force, but can also produce effects that enhance social cohesion and expansion of fundamental rights. Therefore, it is proposed that the research agenda derived from the study should lean over the question of what are the conditions under which competitive interactions contribute to the emergence of political organizations able not only to survive and act in the contemporary international political system, but also provide security, welfare, and political rights to its citizens.

No description available.

As an important tool of state- and nation- building, capital city relocation is a policy option that is currently considered in more than 30 states around the world, including South Africa. The project is especially appealing for post-colonial states. At its core, it involves a physical move of governing institutions to a new location a city that either already exists, or is constructed specifically for the purpose of serving as a capital. The relocation is likely to affect political, economic and societal status quo within a state including matters of national security. The latter is a sensitive matter for post-colonial states, but the link between capital city relocation and national security is not well understood. The study develops a framework that analyses the capital city relocation - national security nexus, to assess the overall impact of the project, as well as the specific benefits and drawbacks for security. The framework relies on Buzan's five-sector approach to security, and employs it to develop a list of indicators to track changes to national security of the post-colonial states post-relocation. Hence this study aims to contribute to the strand of the Security Studies literature and to fill (in part) an evident lacuna on capital city relocation, by exploring the cases of Nigeria (1991) and Kazakhstan (1997) from a security perspective. / Mini Dissertation (M Security Studies)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Political Sciences / MSecurity Studies / Unrestricted

Military Democratic Intervention is a common strategy of foreign interaction especially since World War II. However, the question why some interventions are successful in implementing democracy and others are still not answered satisfactorily. Whereas the scientific debate so far focused on mission specific characteristics including variables such as personnel or financial equipment of interventions, the underlying assumption of this work is that external democratized countries need to exhibit the same preconditions as countries internally democratized. Therefore, the transition and state-building literature is investigated and five clusters of preconditions for successful democratization is developed. With a Qualitative Comparative Analysis, a dataset comprising 27 cases, eight variables and the outcome variable, the author provides evidence for the significance of all five clusters. Most importantly, the level of human development and modernization as well as the predecessor regime type and the experience with democratic experience strand out. Further, the combination of the variables of high GDP, an ethnically homogeneous society and a democratically ruled neighborhood are identified as variables sufficiently influencing successful democratization after a military intervention. These results...