Pakistan is a poor and aid-dependent state but it is also the only Muslim state armed with nuclear weapons. In the late 1990s, Pakistan had to deal with economic and technological sanctions from the U.S., which punished Islamabad for its nuclear aspirations and military coup d'état in fall of 1999. The India-Pakistan rivalry is crucial aspect that impacts the U.S.-Pakistan cooperation. After 9/11, Pakistani president Musharraf was concerned that the U.S. could turn their attention to India, thus strengthening the cooperation with Pakistan's rival. The terrorist attacks of 9/11 changed the national security environment and Washington had to adapt, so it could more effectively respond to newly emerging threats. Rise of strategic importance of Pakistan was a result of the U.S. hunt for Al-Qaeda and subsequent war in Afghanistan, as Americans needed to assure access to Afghanistan, logistical support for American forces, intelligence information about situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan's border regions. However, U.S.-Pakistan cooperation was influenced by divergent national security priorities. Keywords Pakistan, USA, Musharraf, Bush, U.S. support, strategy, Taliban, Al-Qaeda, assistance, 9/11 Rozsah práce: 122 928 znaků

Gegenstand der Arbeit: Die Erinnerung an die eigene Sterblichkeit – das exklusive Bewusstsein des Menschen als selbstreflexives Lebewesen an die Endlichkeit des eigenen Lebens – ist für ihn ein Aspekt, der aufgrund seines biologisch begründeten Selbsterhaltungstriebs ein hohes Angstpotential in sich birgt. Es beeinflusst uns zumindest implizit in vielfältiger Weise. Insbesondere durch die Medien werden wir häufig mit der eigenen Vergänglichkeit konfrontiert und dennoch scheinen wir nicht in ständiger Angst oder Panik zu leben, was zu der Frage führt: Wie gelingt uns das? Hier bietet die Terror Management Theorie von Solomon, Greenberg und Pyszczynski (1991) einen interessanten und mittlerweile breit erforschten Erklärungsansatz, der sozialpsychologische und evolutionspsychologische Erkenntnisse zu einer integrativen und funktionalen Theorie vereint, in deren Kern die eigene Kultur und deren akzeptierte Mitgliedschaft als Angstpuffer fungieren und die Stärkung der eigenen kulturellen Weltsicht (bzw. Abwertung fremder kultureller Sichten) als Bewältigungsmechanismus funktioniert. Obwohl die Theorie von Terror und Angst ausgeht, misslang bisher in der Terror Management Forschung der Nachweis eines systematischen Einflusses von Befindlichkeiten oder Affekten. Aber welche – wenn auch implizit wirkende – Rolle spielen Affekte im Terror Management Prozess? Dieser Frage widmet sich die vorliegende Arbeit und versucht eine systematische Antwort, indem sie die impliziten affektiven Prozesse durch eine multimethodal angelegte Untersuchung genauer analysiert. Hinzugezogen wird in diesem Zusammenhang außerdem das Persönlichkeitskonstrukt der Persönlichkeits- System- Interaktions- Theorie (PSI- Theorie) von Kuhl (1981). Untersuchungsdesign: Die Überprüfung der Hypothesen erfolgt über Varianzanalysen in einem experimentellen Design mit einer Stichprobe von 138 Personen im Alter von 18 bis 79 Jahren. Methode: Die Hypothesen werden über einen multimethodalen Ansatz geprüft. Neben der klassischen Überprüfung des Mortalitätssalienz- Effekts werden hierzu über verschiedene Parameter neben der expliziten Ebene auch implizite affektive Reaktionen erfasst. In diesem Zusammenhang werden psychophysiologische Reaktionen über das Objective Emotional Assessment (OEA, Boucsein, Schaefer, Schwerdtfeger, Busch & Eisfeld, 1999) erfasst und implizit- kognitive Reaktionen über den Implicit Positive and Negative Affect Test (IPANAT, Quirin, Kazén & Kuhl, 2009). Ergebnisse: Im Ergebnis der vorliegenden Untersuchung zeigte sich, dass zwar dem klassischen Mortalitätssalienz- Effekt erhöhter Fremdgruppenabwertungstendenz klar entsprochen wird (p= 0,00), der Affekt jedoch – wie zunächst vermutet – keine bedeutsame Rolle zu spielen scheint. Weder auf kognitiver noch auf physiologischer Ebene ergaben sich in der Experimentalgruppe signifikant erhöhte negative Befindlichkeiten (ps > 0,21). Schlussfolgerung: Ausgehend vom Untersuchungsergebnis werden ein stärker kognitiv orientierter Erklärungsansatz der Terror Management Prozesse unter Hinzuziehung des Einflusses prospektiver Handlungsorientierung sowie Implikationen für weitere Forschungsvorhaben diskutiert.

As democracy globally declines according to the indices that measure the level of democracy around the world, existing literature lines up a wide spectrum of explanations for this decline. However, the impact of foreign policy on the domestic democratic system is widely overlooked. In this research project I have investigated the possible contribution of human rights infringing elements in foreign policy to the decline of democracy in the US.  I have done a single case study with a constructivist approach, US foreign policy in the post Cold War era being the case, focussing on the War on Terror. This is done with Historical Institutionalism as the theoretical framework. The results of this study show that practices of detention without legal charges and torture strain the rule of law and the accountability of officials and violates the value of equality, a core value of democracy. I come to the conclusion that foreign policy does have impact on the quality of the domestic democracy.

This thesis is concerned with the Canadian state’s rhetoric of reconciliation, the logic of exceptionality that supports it, and the ways this logic helps soften Indigenous communities for resource development. In formulating my theoretical framework, I draw from Agamben’s theories of sovereignty and states of exception, Mark Rifkin’s reworking of Agamben’s theories to accommodate a settler-colonial context, Pauline Wakeham’s application of the logic of exceptionality to rhetorics of apology and terrorism, and Glen Coulthard’s concepts of translation (as the attempt to bring Indigenous discourses and life ways into the realm of a Western/settler-colonial discourse of state sovereignty) and grounded normativity (as a way of making visible the contingency of such narratives of state sovereignty). Following the work of James Tully and John Borrows in Resurgence and Reconciliation, particularly the argument that transformative reconciliation must involve reconciliation with the living earth, my project aims to show that official reconciliation actually prevents the possibility of transformative reconciliation because of the role it plays in furthering an extractivist agenda by “exceptionalizing" Indigenous peoples and life-ways to rhetorically contain Indigenous anti-colonial or anti-industry actions, physically contain Indigenous dissenters during moments of crisis (i.e. states of exception), pre-emptively frame Indigenous dissenters as terroristic, and foreclose discussions of ongoing colonialism. / Graduate

Following the 9/11 terror attacks, many Americans experienced some form of habit or mood-altering stress though, most had received their impressions of the violence via distributed media reporting rather than firsthand exposure. Researchers have found that the propagating effects of media broadcasting can exasperate the effects of terror. However, little is known of how reports of terror violence affect group dynamics in geographically distant nations. The purpose of this study, following terror management theory, was to understand if terrorist violence influences cognitive and implicit racial evaluations in a culturally similar, but geographically distant, population. The study's design was a quantitative natural experiment. Time of completing the assessment, either before or after the 2015 Paris Bataclan terror attack, comprised the 2-level independent variable; the dependent variables were the Race Implicit Association Test (IAT) and a cognitive evaluation of racial anxiety. Age and religiosity served as covariates. The target population included White citizen residents of the United States over the age of 18; 263 participants were derived from archival data. Comparisons of raw IAT scores showed an 8% increase in negative implicit racial evaluations following the attack; however, the MANCOVA failed to achieve multivariate significance (p > .05). Despite the lack of statistical significance, important details on implicit racial attitudes were uncovered. Results of this study have the potential to foster positive social change by informing individuals on how their implicit associations might be affected following exposure to reports of terrorist violence. Additionally, these findings may guide national security and intelligence professional's development of post-attack response measures and task forces.

Facing imminent death can be an unremitting problem for hospice patients who lack psychological support for existential concerns that contribute to depressive symptoms and suffering. According to terror management theory, spiritual and religious beliefs are a common means of coping with mortality at the end of life, and few studies have considered how hospice patients feel about their impending death. This was a quantitative, cross-sectional study that examined whether spirituality and religious coping moderated the relationship between imminent death concerns and depressive symptoms in 54 hospice patients. Participants completed a self-administered survey that included the Templer Death Anxiety scale, Brief RCOPE, Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale, and Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy Spiritual Well-Being scale. Data analyses included multiple regression, Pearson correlation, independent sample t tests, and Cronbach's alpha test of reliability. Spirituality and religious coping did not significantly moderate the relationship between imminent death concerns and depressive symptoms. Total spirituality, meaning, and peace were significant predictors of depressive symptoms. A recommendation is to develop more research using terror management theory with participants such as hospice patients who are directly facing their imminent death. Positive social change is promoted by highlighting the importance of discussing death and dying with hospice patients, and recognizing religion and spirituality as valid influences to psychological health. This study's findings could lead to further research in developing psychological interventions that target depression and minimize existential distress for patients at the end of their life.

Als (vorläufigen?) Abschluss seines dokumentarischen Lebenswerkes hat Vladimir Smirnov im Odessaer Universitätsverlag 'Astroprint' gemeinsam mit der Menschenrechtsorganisation 'Odessaer Memorial' den vierten Band seines 'Requiems des 20. Jahrhunderts' veröffentlicht, mit Errataverzeichnissen und Namensregistern.

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The aim of this thesis is to examine how the central pillars of Salafi-Jihadism are discussed in ISIS’s own magazines and how the pillars are related to Juergensmeyer’s concepts of cosmic war, satanization, and theater of terror. The material in this thesis has been sourced from the magazines Dabiq and Rumiyah, which were published by ISIS in the period 2014-2017. The magazines are initially aimed at an English-speaking audience, and it is intended for ISIS’ followers, but also for their enemies. A thematic analysis approach with a deductive orientation was employed and preconceived themes from what Shiraz Maher describes as the five pillars of Salafi-Jihadism, tawḥīd, jihad, takfīr, al-walā’ wa-l-barā’, and ḥākimiyya were used. The analysis shows that the magazines place a strong emphasize on the Salafi-jihadist pillars, and ISIS can therefore be placed within the Salafi-Jihadi tradition.

Previous research has found a correlation between death anxiety and self esteem. Researchers have found that both self-esteem and death anxiety play a significant role in an individual's behavior. The purpose of this study was to investigate a correlation, if any, between death anxiety and self esteem using death related scenarios. It was hypothesized the high death anxiety groups will have lower self-esteem than the low death anxiety group, and that the low self-esteem group will have higher death anxiety than the high self-esteem group. Results of an ANOVA indicate that there is a significant difference between the high death anxiety group and low death anxiety group concerning self-esteem. The results also indicate that there is a significant difference between the low self-esteem group and the high self-esteem group concerning death anxiety. Overall it was found that there was significant negative correlation between death anxiety and self-esteem.