This mini-dissertation examines the role of the United Nations, the African Union and the three relevant sub-regional organizations namely the Southern African Development Community (SADC), the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR) in the post-conflict period in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). These organizations played a threefold role based on the monitoring, intervention and assistance regarding the reconciliation and reconstruction process. To some extent, their strategies contributed to activate the reconstruction and the reconciliation process after nearly a decade of instability caused by the war in the country. However, in spite of the combined efforts of these actors, the conflict persists and continues to take innocent human lives, leaving the survivors affected by hostilities and violations of human rights that they have experienced. The study sets out the political situation in the DRC during the conflict, then analyzes the resurgence of the conflict beyond the ceasefire and later explores the role played by each actor relatively to its mandate after the free and democratic elections of 2006, which mark the starting point of the reconstruction and reconciliation process. In analyzing these interventions, the study refers to the protocols, objectives and results of each organization. From this perspective, the study argues that each conflict has its realities and does not necessarily comply with the standard solution (negotiations and military interventions). As for the DRC, this approach has not provided the expected solutions. The nature of the conflict, the history of the DRC and the Congolese people is new to the different organizations and impacts considerably on the way they perceive and deal with the situation. The study found that each of the international organizations is mandated, in one way or another, to deal with issues such as those rose in the DRC post-conflict period namely rapes, outrageous criminality. Yet, none of the organizations reached the results envisaged by its statute. Taking the best from each other, these organizations need complementarity when addressing the reconstruction and reconciliation in the DRC post-conflict period. Therefore, these multiple agents fit together to address the challenges in the DRC post-conflict period. The study also emphasizes that initiation of tolerance showed through civilian reconciliation constitutes a prerequisite to any possible and durable peace in the country. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

While it has become the United Nations (UN) responsibility to peacekeep the world’s most conflict ridden countries, so too has their impact on the physical environment increased. Large numbers of personnel require equally vast amount of logistical requirements and equipment for the sustainment of operations. Base camps are the focal points from which operations are managed in the field. The ability of peacekeeping base camps to handle their solid waste, both on-site and off-site in low capacity environments, has gained greater attention as environmental concerns have increased globally. Interviews conducted with the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) (acting as a current Troop Contributing Country (TCC) to the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo) determined the problems facing appropriate solid waste collection, treatment and disposal methods utilized in and outside peacekeeping base camps and their specific limitations. It was found that there was inefficient monitoring and follow up processes involved with solid waste contracting providers; that there is a need for the inclusion of focused solutions during the operational planning stages; and, there is a deficiency in placed responsibility both from within a TCC and between the UN as to how and whom should manage the solid waste emanating from within base camps. This MA dissertation achieved the understanding that there must be greater focus placed on the delineation of responsibility for the management of solid waste within base camps in the documents that initially structure operations between TCCs, the UN and host nations, thereby limiting the impact on the physical environment from peacekeeping to the furthest extent possible. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Geography, Geoinformatics and Meteorology / MA / Unrestricted

Face à la mondialisation qui a profondément transformé le milieu international, l’Organisation des Nations Unies, dont le projet est assez mondialiste sur le fond (paix durable pour toute l’humanité), est restée en réaction. Elle semble n’avoir pris conscience des enjeux de la globalisation économique qu’à la veille du XXIe siècle, en posant les lignes de sa refondation lors des Sommets (2000 et 2005) d’entrée dans le IIIe Millénaire. Malgré les initiatives, les avancés politiques de l’ONU restent peu significatives. A défaut d’une profonde réforme politique, s’est imposée l’idéologie de la « Gouvernance globale » et son mot d’ordre néo-libéral du « moins de politique, moins d’Etat ». Or le défi politique de la mondialisation se décline en fléchissement de la souveraineté des Etats, affaiblissement de la démocratie, brouillage des identités (citoyenneté), globalisation de l’insécurité, péril écologique etc. Face à ces défis, l’universalisme onusien et le multilatéralisme sont bien en panne ; le dépassement de l’Etat-nation parait aussi inévitable que l’avènement d’un Etat mondial est impossible. La perspective régionaliste semble donc plus pertinente pour aborder les menaces globales. Cette thèse défend l’hypothèse d’une reconfiguration du monde en un système oligopolaire de grands ensembles régionaux dirigés par des institutions communautaires (UE, UA). C’est une logique de « grands espaces », inspirée des grands projets amphictyoniques historiques (Projets de paix perpétuelle), et qui postule de nouvelles communautés régionales de sécurité, articulées par une ONU refondée. Cette refondation est pensée autour du droit international adossé à une nouvelle éthique globale. L’avenir des Nations Unies et du système international passe moins par la « global governance » inspirée du marché, que par la construction de grands pôles régionaux politiques en articulation avec l’intégration économique. / In the face of the globalization that has profoundly changed the international environment, the United Nations, whose project is fairly globalist on the substance (lasting peace for all mankind), has remained in reaction. It seems to have become aware of the stakes of economic globalization only on the eve of the twenty-first century, setting the lines of its refoundation at the Summits (2000 and 2005) of entry into the Third Millennium. Despite the initiatives, the political progress of the UN remains insignificant. In the absence of a deep political reform, ideology of "Global Governance" and its neo-liberal slogan of "less politics, less state" imposed itself. But the political challenge of globalization is declining in sovereignty of states, weakening of democracy, blurring of identities (citizenship), globalization of insecurity, ecological peril, etc. Faced with these challenges, UN universalism and multilateralism are failing; the overcoming of the nation-state seems as inevitable as the advent of a world state is impossible. The regional perspective thus seems more relevant to address global threats. This thesis defends the hypothesis of a reconfiguration of the world into an oligopolar system of large regional ensembles led by community institutions (EU, AU). It is a logic of "great spaces", inspired by major historical amphictyonic projects (Perpetual Peace Projects), and postulates new regional security communities, articulated by a refounded UN. This refoundation is thought around international law backed by a new global ethic. The future of the United Nations and the international system is less influenced by "global governance" inspired by the market than by the construction of major regional poles in coordination with economic integration.

La maladie carieuse a pour conséquence la déminéralisation de l’émail et de la dentine et la dénaturation du collagène de la dentine. En combinant la microscopie et spectroscopie multiphotoniques, nous avons démontré que l’intensité de la fluorescence (2-Photon Excited Fluorescence = 2PEF) et de la seconde harmonique (Second Harmonic Generation = SHG) de la dentine sont fortement modifiées pendant le processus carieux et nous avons découvert que le ratio SHG/2PEF est un paramètre fiable pour suivre le processus carieux. À présent nous souhaitons évaluer la sensibilité de la méthode en déterminant les limites des signaux mesurés pour détecter les premiers stades de la lésion carieuse. Nous avons noté une modification des spectres 2PEF de l’émail (à partir d’ICDAS (International Caries Detection and Assessment System) 1) et une modification des spectres 2PEF et SHG de la dentine (à partir d’ICDAS 2) dès les premiers stades du processus carieux. Nous avons également l’intention d’étudier la modification de la structure de la dentine lors du processus carieux grâce à la variation du signal de la SHG ; et plus précisément la (ou les) causes du « shift » vers le rouge du spectre de 2PEF observé lors du processus carieux. L’objectif serait une future application de ces signaux optiques dans le diagnostic clinique cariologique. / Multiphoton microscopy and nonlinear spectroscopy is used to investigate caries process in dentin. Though a major calcified tissue of the teeth, the organic dentin phase comprises type I collagen fibers. Caries drive both dentin demineralization and collagen denaturation. Multiphoton microscopy is a powerful imaging technique because the biological materials are transparent to infrared frequencies and can be excited to penetration depths inaccessible to one photon confocal microscopy. The laser excitation greatly reduces photodamage to the sole focal region, and the signal to noise ratio is improved significantly. The method has been used to follow pathological processes involving collagen fibrosis or collagen destruction based on their 2-photon excited fluorescence (2PEF) emission and second harmonic generation (SHG). Combining multiphoton imaging with nonlinear spectroscopy we demonstrate that both 2PEF and SHG intensity of human dentin are strongly modified during tooth caries process and we discover that the ratio between SHG and 2PEF signals is a reliable parameter to follow dental caries. The ratio of the SHG/2PEF signals measured by nonlinear optical spectroscopy provides valuable information on caries process, specifically on the degradation of the organic matrix of dentin. The goal would be to bring these nonlinear optical signals to clinical application for caries diagnosis.

This paper analyzes the the past and current security landscape in Northeast Asia with particular emphasis on the Korean Peninsula and the United States' involvement there. The paper assess policy successes and failures and presents several new policy options. The proposals include economic and diplomatic solutions to encourage the normalization of relations on the Korean Peninsula.

The deictic property of pronouns, words that stand for proper names and only take on referential status in the context of a specific utterance, is a fascinating area of study inasmuch as pronouns are pivotal to the construction of a sense of subject. The process of constructing the literary self is especially problematic as it also involves the equivocal placement in time and space of the written subject. This thesis examines that process In relation to the way two contemporary women writers make use of first- and second-person pronouns in two texts, and in so doing proposes a theory of women's first-person fiction as a subversive strategy to write outside the dominant patriarchal ideology. Part I: When "I" speak(s) to "you", not only does the text mark empty spaces to be filled, offering up literary béances as signposts to ravishment, but reader, text, and writer also participate in a triadic exchange of personal positions that turns the fixed origo of the deictic "I, here, and now" into another twist of the kaleidoscope, a temporary tableau of subjectivity. When "I" speak(s) to "you", language converts into speech by making the personae the dramatic necessity of the linguistic act; but literary speech localizes itself within a context that is endlessly locatable: with every reader and every reading, a different instantiation. By writing letters to their children, diaries to themselves, or literary products that exclude themselves from main-stream genres, women find in the false dialogism of "you"-addressed monologues a way of sustaining the illusion that one can write outside of patriarchal ideologies by denying the arbitrariness of the sign. "S/he" is patently a fictional construct, and the third person the venerable mode of epic and novelistic narration. When I speak to you, we seemingly short-circuit that channel and make of our communication both a detour around the symbolic order and a transparently direct line to the Other. Part II: In Oriana Fallaci's Lettera a un bambino mai nato this direct line is an umbilical cord, and her speech a series of lessons told as fables. The unnamed "you" makes possible the transmission of personal experience in a form that seems harmless and childish. Fallaci makes her work innocuous by stripping it of references to time, place, or person, so that the journalist, a chronicler of public History, is able to don the mask of private writer communicating personal history. This act is made possible by the equivocal functioning of the pronouns. Part III: Marguerite Duras, a self-avowed exile from writing at the time she wrote the three Aurélia Steiner texts, and, above all, from writing as a coherent story with well-crafted characters that develop along the linear exigencies of beginning, middle and end, finds in the peripatetic nomination of "you" and "I", an opening to a "post-Holocaust" solution to narrative. The shifting lines of Aurélia's tri-partite story are paralleled in the proliferation of "shifters" which fracture and disperse the unity of the text, preventing total mastery by the reader, while also frustrating the reader's efforts to construct a monolithic sense of self and Other. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate

Une étude des matériaux à base de polymères et de cristaux liquides de type PDLC (pour Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals), élaborés par la méthode de séparation de phases induite par rayonnement ultraviolet (UV), a été effectuée pour des mélanges comportant le cristal liquide nématique E7 et le monomère tripropylèneglycoldiacrylate (TPGDA). Ces matériaux possèdent des fonctionnalités électro-optiques intéressantes notamment dans les vitrages à transparence contrôlée. Une analyse par spectroscopie infrarouge des réseaux de polymères élaborés a permis de déduire qu’une conversion quasi-totale des fonctions réactives de type acrylique du monomère est obtenue pour un mélange contenant 70% de cristal liquide et 30% de monomère. Ces matériaux ont été, ensuite, étudiés par différentes techniques de caractérisation, telles que la calorimétrie différentielle, la microscopie optique à lumière polarisée, la microscopie électronique à balayage, et la spectroscopie UV-visible, qui ont permis d’obtenir des renseignements sur les propriétés thermophysiques, morphologiques, et spectrales de ces systèmes.Une modélisation de la réponse électro-optique des films PDLC a été effectuée en utilisant un modèle simple, basé sur une hiérarchie de paramètres d’ordre. Ce modèle, dont les calculs sont effectués dans deux approximations théoriques (RGA et ADA), a donné une description convenable du comportement électro-optique de ces systèmes complexes. L’étude menée sur la confrontation de ce modèle à l’expérience a permis l’obtention d’un certain nombre de résultats intéressants qui sont utiles à la compréhension et à l’amélioration de la réponse électro-optique des films PDLC. / A study of materials based on polymers and liquid crystals of type PDLC (for Polymer Dispersed Liquid Crystals), elaborated by the method of phase separation induced by ultraviolet radiation (UV), was carried out for mixtures containing the nematic liquid crystal E7 and the monomer tripropyleneglycoldiacrylate (TPGDA). These materials possess interesting electro-optical features in particular for privacy windows with controlled transparency.An analysis by infrared spectroscopy of the elaborated polymer networks allowed to deduce that a quasi-total conversion of the reactive acrylic functions of the monomer was obtained for a mixture containing 70 % of liquid crystal and 30 % of monomer. These materials were, then, studied by various techniques of characterization, such as differential scanning calorimetry, polarized optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and UV-visible spectroscopy, who allowed to obtain informations on the thermophysical, morphological, and spectroscopical properties of these systems.An attempt was made to rationalize the electro-optical response of PDLC films by using a simple model, based on a hierarchy of order parameters. Using the theoretical description from two theoretical approximations (RGA and ADA), this model gave a proper description of the electro-optical behaviour of these complex systems. The study led on the confrontation of this model to experimental results, allowing to obtain some interesting results which are useful in understanding and improvement of the electro-optical response of PDLC films.

The thesis primarily aims to describe main events and a role of the United Nations in Iraq in 2002-2005. However, since broader knowledge in needed, the thesis also deals with historical events in Iraq and in the UN Security Council. Equally, it seeks to explain in a concise manner the specificities in Iraq that played or play an essential role. In the period after the American invasion in 2003 the thesis confront US expectations and plans with the reality on Iraqi soil and UN standpoints. In fact, the link through the whole thesis is the depiction of the relationship between the US and the Security Council and after the invasion also with UN Assistance mission in Iraq (UNAMI). Given the limited extent the thesis is concluded by the elections to the permanent Iraqi parliament in December 2005.

Entre 1992 e 2005, representantes de 11.921 organizações não governamentais (ONGs) participaram de conferências realizadas pela Organização das Nações Unidas (ONU) e pela Organização Mundial do Comércio (OMC). Tendo em vista que, tradicionalmente, apenas os representantes dos Estados-membros dessas duas organizações seriam admitidos, a crescente presença de atores não-governamentais nesses eventos foi considerada uma das evidências empíricas do surgimento de uma sociedade civil global. Contudo, alguns críticos afirmam que a sociedade civil não seria global, mas concentrada geograficamente em alguns países. Nosso objetivo é analisar se, de fato, existe tal concentração e quais suas principais características. Com esse objetivo, analisamos a distribuição geográfica das sedes das ONGs credenciadas para esses eventos, discutindo dois dos principais argumentos contrários à idéia de sociedade civil global: o primeiro afirma que a sociedade civil não é global porque seus atores estão concentrados em países do Norte (gerando um desnível Norte-Sul, com predomínio numérico e político de ONGs do Norte sobre as do Sul); o segundo, defende que a concentração das ONGs espelha as atuais constelações de poder em âmbito internacional (pois as ONGs seriam, predominantemente, de países localizados no eixo Europa-América Anglo-Saxônica). Considerando que todos seríamos parte da sociedade civil global, procuramos constatar de onde são as pessoas e organizações que efetivamente têm participado das discussões e decisões a respeito de questões que dizem respeito a todos (os habitantes do planeta). / Between 1992 and 2005, 11921 representatives of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) participated in conferences held by the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO). Given that, traditionally, only representatives of Member States of these two organizations would be admitted, the growing presence of \"nongovernmental\" actors in these events was considered one of the empirical evidence of an emerging \"global\" civil society. However, some critics argue that civil society is not global, but geographically concentrated in some countries. Our goal is to examine whether, in fact, exist that concentration and their main characteristics. With this objective, we analyzed the geographic distribution of headquarters of accredited NGOs to conferences, discussing the two main arguments against the idea of global civil society: the first asserts that civil society is not \"global\" because their actors are concentrated in North countries (creating a North-South divide, with numerical and political dominance of NGOs from the North on the South); the second claims that the concentration of NGOs reflects the current constellation of power in the international arena (as the NGOs would be predominantly of countries located in EuropeAmerica Anglo-Saxon). Whereas we would all be part of global civil society, we see where are the people and organizations that have effectively participated in the discussions and decisions about issues that concern all (the inhabitants of the planet).

Cette thèse vise à mettre en place une méthode de calcul automatique de forme optimale pour les antennes, par modification de la forme des motifs métalliques constituant les éléments rayonnants d'une antenne. La première partie propose un état de l'art des deux principales thématiques de cette thèse. Le chapitre 1 présente la simulation électromagnétique des antennes, basée sur la méthode des équations intégrales et résolue par éléments finis de frontière. Le chapitre 2 présente l'algorithme d'optimisation de forme utilisé, qui couple une analyse de sensibilité avec la méthode Level Set pour l’évolution de la géométrie. La deuxième partie s’intéresse à l'application de cet algorithme d'optimisation au problème qui a motivé cette thèse, à savoir le calcul de la forme optimale d'un motif métallique sur un élément rayonnant. Le calcul des champs électriques et magnétiques est effectué par la méthode des équations intégrales, qui renvoie notamment l’observable à minimiser : le coefficient de réflexion de l’antenne. Les chapitres 3 et 4 présentent les aspects théoriques de ce travail, dans le domaine continu et le domaine discret respectivement. La troisième partie explique la mise en œuvre numérique des résultats établis théoriquement dans la partie 2. Le chapitre 5 décrit la boucle globale de l'algorithme d'optimisation de forme. Les résultats obtenus par cet algorithme sont présentés dans le chapitre 6 : ils s’appuient sur plusieurs éléments rayonnants dont la forme de la métallisation évolue afin d’optimiser le coefficient de réflexion ainsi que d'autres critères dérivés. / This thesis aims at establishing a method which computes automatically the optimal design of an antenna, by modifying the shape of metallic patterns constituting the radiating elements of an antenna. In the first part is proposed a state of the art of the two main topics of this thesis. The electromagnetic simulation of antennas based on the integral equations method and solved by the boundary elements method is presented in Chapter 1. Chapter 2 presents the utilized shape optimization algorithm, which combines a sensitivity analysis and the Level Set method for tracking the evolution of the geometry. The second part deals with the application of this optimization algorithm to the problem that motivated this thesis, namely computing the optimal shape of a metallic pattern on a radiating element. The electric and magnetic fields computation is performed by the integral equation method which returns, among others, the observable to minimize: the reflection coefficient. Chapters 3 and 4 present the theoretical aspects of this work, in the continuous domain and the discrete domain respectively. In part 3 is explained the numerical implementation of the theoretical results established in part 2. Chapter 5 addresses the global loop of the shape optimization algorithm. The numerical results obtained by this algorithm are set out in chapter 6: they are based on several radiating elements whose shape of the metallization evolves in order to optimize the reflection coefficient as well as other derived criteria.