This thesis examines how the press of the erstwhile German Democratic Republic represented Iran in the years from 1949 – the year of the GDR’s formation – until 1989, the last complete year before its demise on 3 October 1990. The study focuses on key events in Iranian history such as the overthrow of the Mossadegh government in 1953, the White Revolution, the Islamic Revolution of 1979, and the Iran-Iraq war. It will be shown that although news and articles were based on selected facts, they still presented a picture of Iran that was at best distorted, the distortions and misrepresentations amounting to what could be described as 'factual fiction'. Furthermore, clear evidence will be provided that economical and political relations with Iran were a primary concern of the GDR’s leadership, and thus also of the GDR’s press and have therefore dominated the reporting on Iran. Whatever ideological concerns there may have been, they were hardly ever allowed to get in the way of amicable relations with the Shah or later with the Islamic Republic. Only in periods where the two countries enjoyed less amicable or poor relations, was the press free to critically report events in Iran and to openly support the cause of the SED’s communist Iranian sister party, the Tudeh. Despite East Germany’s diametric ideological environment and despite the fundamentally different role that the GDR’s political system had assigned to the press and to journalism, East Germany’s press was as reliant on the input of the global news agencies as any Western media. The at times almost complete reliance on Western news agencies as sources for news on Iran challenged more than just the hermeneutic hegemony the SED and the GDR’s press wanted to establish. After all, which news and information were made available by the news agencies to the media in both East and West was primarily determined by the business interests of said agencies. The study makes a contribution to three fields: Modern Iranian history, (East-) German history and media studies. The most valid findings were certainly made in the latter.

The administration of President George H. W. Bush from 1989 to 1992 saw several firsts in both American foreign policy towards the Middle East, and in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. At the beginning of the Bush Presidency, the intifada was raging in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and by the time it was over negotiations were already in progress for the most comprehensive agreement brokered in the history of the conflict to that point, the Oslo Accords. This paper will serve two purposes. First, it will delineate the relationships between the players in the Middle East and President Bush during the first year of his presidency. It will also explore his foreign policy towards the Middle East, and argue that it was the efforts of George H. W. Bush, and his diplomatic team that enabled the signing of the historic agreement at Oslo.

The objective of this study is to assess the growing role of Special Forces in modern warfare, with specific reference to the United States of America. The main question that the study seeks to address is what are the implications of the growing role of Special Forces in modern warfare? The study also seeks to ascertain why exactly this growth is occurring and whether or not this will have a bearing on the future of not only the manner in which the US conducts conflict but also global conflict as a whole. In order to address these issues the study will look at conventional and unconventional warfare and forces; the roles and missions of Special Forces and the composition of US Special Forces; the role of US Special Forces in modern warfare prior to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks; and the role of the US Special Forces in the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan. An analysis of conventional and unconventional warfare as concepts, as well as the forces that constitute conventional and unconventional forces was first done in order to provide some perspective into what these concepts and forces are and more specifically, what differentiates them. Specific reference was made here to the United States’ approach to warfare from the days of the American Revolution up to and including the end of the Cold War. Emphasis is placed on the growing role of US Special Forces throughout the study and this is achieved through the use of four major case studies, namely the 1991 Gulf War; Somalia (1992-1993); the Balkans (1995-2001); and the 2001 ‘Special Forces war’ in Afghanistan. The case studies that dealt with the 1991 Gulf War, Somalia and the Balkans elucidated the growing role of both unconventional warfare and specifically US Special Forces and Special Mission Units since the end of the Cold War. The case study of the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan provided the culmination of the shift from conventional to unconventional warfare and the execution of the campaign as a ‘Special Forces war.’ The study demonstrates that since the end of the Cold War in the 1990’s, unconventional warfare has increasingly become more ubiquitous and can be said to be replacing, or at least equalling in stature, conventional warfare. This has the possibility of dramatically affecting how warfare is executed both currently and more importantly, in the future. The study went on to show that unconventional warfare is not akin to conventional warfare, especially with regard to the forces needed to respond to such conflicts and that Special Forces are the forces most applicable and most effective in dealing with unconventional warfare. The study confirms that Special Forces are the solution to the growing prominence of unconventional warfare and that countries, and specifically the United States can more effectively counter the threat of unconventional warfare and unconventional forces by shifting Special Forces from a supporting component to conventional forces to a supported component. This would require a massive shift in alignment both for the United States as well as other major states’ militaries but as the study has shown, this is pertinent given that unconventional warfare and forces will most likely remain the primary threat that states and militaries will now face / Dissertation (MSS)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Political Sciences / unrestricted

This thesis deals with the current role of airpower in contemporary warfare. In last 100 years, the aircraft became an indisputable part of today's armed conflict. The aim of this work is to determine the mechanics behind airpower's functions in conflicts and to critically assess airpower's performance. The analyzed conflicts - Persian Gulf 1991, Kosovo 1999, Afghanistan 2001 and U. S.-led counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan - provide the diversity that is needed to reveal the position of airpower in contemporary strategy. The thesis is divided in three parts. The first part follows the evolution of airpower and its theory, providing context to further analysis of contemporary environment. The second part of the thesis identifies key theoretical concepts and modalities connected to airpower and analysis them on a general, theoretical basis. The third part of this thesis applies the concepts and modalities on the picked case studies in order to reach the suggested objectives by analyzing the conflicts and deriving empirical data. The conclusions of the thesis suggest that while slightly exaggerated, airpower grew to vital importance and became one of the key elements in today's conflicts.

No description available.

「情報」與「決策」存在著高度的密切關係，「情報」正確而及時則相對提高「決策」的正確性；反之，則降低「決策」的正確性。但同一個「情報」對不同的個人而言，會產出不同的「決策」結果，此即是「決策」不僅與「情報」有關，亦與個人的「認知」條件有著密切的關係。 　　因此，本文透過孫子兵法「情報」與「決策」的關係，架構出孫子的決策邏輯與位階性，再以此建構出情報決策「象限理論」，企圖系統性地解釋「情報」條件與決策者「認知」條件的複雜關係，並藉由第二次美伊戰爭的決策過程作為例證，說明導致決策錯誤的重要因素。並由「象限理論」中第一象限區域，及美伊戰爭決策缺失中，檢討並演繹出「國家安全決策新思維」，文中指出一個專業且中立的情報機關，除了要提升情報信息的客觀性外，更要避免、改變決策者先入為主的錯誤認知。經由本文所提出的「象限理論」、「決策方程式」、「個案分析」、「國家安全決策新思維」，將有助於瞭解並加速決策產出的質量與效能，進而有利於優質決策的產出。 / There is highly relationship between intelligence and decision-making. The correct and on time intelligence will make a good policy; but the wrong or slow intelligence will make a bad policy, on the contrary. The same intelligence for different individuals will result in different decision-making, which means decision-making has high relationship with intelligence and personal cognition. For this reason, this article constructs The Quadrangular Theory of Intelligence and Decision-making based on The Art of Sun-tzu theory, to explain the complicated relation between intelligence and personal cognition, as well as to state the important factor which leads to the wrong decision-making in the Second Gulf War. This article also point out an important concept: the professional and intelligence agencies will not only improve the objectively intelligence, but also will avoid policymaker's prejudiced cognition. The Quadrangular Theory of Intelligence and Decision-making will help to understand the whole situation and accelerate the high quality and high efficiency decision-making process.

Diploma thesis "Changing of a Media Coverage of the Iraq War ("Second Gulf War") in a Czech press in the Period 2003-2008" deals with news media position and their activities during the Second Gulf War. The goal of the thesis is to explain the media power during the public opinion influencing. This is the reason why the theoretical part of the thesis deals with a propaganda, agenda-setting function of the mass media and media framing. The Iraq war was the reaction to the September 11th 2001 events and president Bush claimed the war against global terrorism. This is the reason why the thesis deals with sociology of terrorism and connection of terrorism and the news media. Influencing of a public opinion deals with an extensive propaganda campaign of the USA and the UK politics in connection with an agenda-setting function of the mass media by political and media agendas. The goal of the analytical part of the thesis is to find media framing in Czech daily newspapers called Mladá fronta Dnes and Lidové noviny. Quantitative and qualitative research combination is focused on the Second Gulf War changing of media coverage during the six year period started by the allied invasion to the Iraq and ending by George Bush leaving a presidency.

阿拉伯聯合大公國（United Arab Emirates, UAE）並非中東大國， 但卻是世界重要產油國及海灣國家合作理事會創會成員之一。其自 1971 年獨立建國以來，除有內政危機外，同時還需因應周遭強權摩 擦及區域衝突，這些挑戰均係其國家安全之威脅。然而，阿拉伯聯合 大公國在首任總統翟伊德（Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan）的領 導下，充分發揮其務實且具彈性之外交政策面對外來的挑戰，成功確 保國家利益及生存。 本文分析重點在於闡釋阿聯外交政策之特色及實踐，並探討影響 其外交政策之內外因素，以對其外交政策有完整概念。 / United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a small state in the Middle East. But it is an important oil exporter in the world and an initial member of Gulf Cooperation Council. Since the seven members of UAE federation was established in 1971, the UAE government has been spontaneously dealing with the internal political crisis, frictions between major powers, and conflicts in this region, which were crucial threats to its national security. Nevertheless, under the leadership of the first President, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE government was capable to cope with these challenges with the practical and flexible foreign policy, and successfully safeguarded its national interests. The content of this thesis is first to analyze the features and conduct of UAE’s foreign policy. Then, how the internal and external factors affected the formulation of the policy will be followed.

Le phénomène des télévisions satellitaires a fait son apparition dans le monde arabe en 1990-1991. Date de l’instauration du Nouvel Ordre Mondial. Une progression foisonnante s’est produite, par la suite, profitant d’un espace géolinguistique étendu, d’une ouverture sans précédent et d’un financement généreux. Sont-elles l’expression d’un changement ou bien celle d’une adaptation ? Et au service de qui ? L’étude des chaines d’information en continu Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya ou « flexibles », Abou Dhabi et Al Manar est particulièrement intéressante pour répondre à cette question. Comprendre le fond de ce phénomène, les intérêts qu’il représente, qu’il sert, et les limites du changement qu’il est capable de produire, exige de dresser un état des lieux panoramique, une étude de la géopolitique qui a donné lieu à la naissance de ces télévisions, et qui a dicté les évolutions qu’elles ont subit. L’analyse du contenu et du discours vient repérer les expressions d’une culture démocratique, ou anti démocratique, dont dépend la nature du changement / Since 1990-1991, the number of satellite channels and viewers has grown exponentially in the Arab world, taking advantage of a geolinguistic space that afforded unprecedented degree of openness in a field previously dominated by t ightly-controlled state-owned television stations. The date also coincides with the inception of the New World Order, the waging of the first Gulf War which established a new regional order, and the stirrings of the society of communication. This study of news channels (Al Jazeera, Al Arabiya) and “flexible” channels such as (Abu Dhabi and Al Manar), aims to examine whether they are an expression of change or adaption and whether they serve to perpetuate the status quo of the powers that fund them.