A vast literature has identified the importance of childcare for understanding cross-national variation in women’s employment, and has particularly emphasised the role of the state in ensuring the delivery of services. This thesis explores variation within market-based childcare systems in order to understand how systems with less state provision may support or constrain maternal employment. The thesis argues that understanding whether childcare markets ‘work’ or not in supporting maternal employment requires a deep understanding of the interplay between market and state, as the specific policy approach taken can shape the structure of the market in profoundly different ways. This issue is explored via comparative case studies of the United States and the United Kingdom, two countries known for their market-based approach to childcare, but with stark and persistent differences in maternal employment behaviour, especially working time. Drawing on a mix of qualitative (policy documents) and quantitative (national statistics) data, the US and UK systems are compared along a series of dimensions comprising the two key components of the market-based system: the structure of market provision and the policy approach. The similarities and differences of these systems are analysed through the lens of the characteristics of services known to be important for the use of care for employment purposes: availability, cost and quality. The United States and United Kingdom have generally similar childcare systems when compared to other countries which rely more heavily on the state or the family to ensure childcare provision, which is in line with their common characterisation as liberal welfare regimes. However, there are important differences in the structure of their childcare markets which affect their ability to support maternal employment: for example, the US market poses fewer affordability constraints for maternal employment given the availability of relatively low cost care provision (albeit of questionable quality); the UK market in contrast provides care at higher cost, although this is likely of better quality. This variation in market provision is shaped by differences in the policy approach taken by each country: the US approach is primarily designed to soften the rougher edges of the market in what is otherwise considered a private sphere; in contrast the UK approach actively attempts to shape the childcare market into a system in line with policy goals. The consequence of this is that the US approach does not prevent a wide range of market provision from forming to cater to diverse tastes and budgets, but this necessarily includes a substantial degree of lower quality care. The UK approach more actively constrains the types of provision which are available, which on the one hand reduces supply and contributes to higher cost provision, but also sets higher standards for care provision. Together these findings suggest that understanding how market-based care systems do or do not support maternal employment requires not only an appreciation of the broader institutional context in which they are situated, but also the intended and unintended ways that policy-making can shape their structure.

Adding a much needed historical and comparative dimension to current debates about Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), the present thesis provides an analysis of the changing construction and treatment of childhood hyperactivity in Britain and the United States, focusing on the period from 1960 to 2010. The focal point is the historical discrepancy between the two countries in diagnostic and therapeutic practices, and the question of how and why perspectives have increasingly converged over the past 20 years. Whereas British medical and educational professionals continued to rely on environmental explanations and interventions for the vast bulk of disruptive behaviour in school children, the American concept of hyperactivity disorder from the 1960s onwards became increasingly inclusive and biomedical in orientation. This expansion was closely related to the rise of psycho-stimulants as a widely employed treatment for hyperactivity and attention problems in the US. British and other European clinicians, on the other hand, resisted drug treatments up until the mid-1990s, when rates of diagnosis and prescription grew dramatically on both sides of the Atlantic. A key aim of this study is to explore and explain the rise of ADHD and Ritalin in both the American and British contexts, looking at the interplay of political, professional, institutional and socio-cultural factors that have contributed in each case. The study concentrates on three distinct but interconnected spheres which, both separately and in combination, have underpinned and shaped approaches to hyperactivity in the two countries: medicine, education and the wider public arena, represented by parent support groups. While chapters 2, 3 and 4 focus on the medical debates and practices surrounding hyperactivity, and the points of connection and disconnection between the two medico-psychiatric communities, chapters 5 and 6 examine the role of schooling, disability activism, and educational policy, especially that relating to special educational needs. Finally, chapter 7 explores the issue of parent activism which has been an important factor in the growth and critique of ADHD in both settings.

<p> A conventional view of events in contemporary Iraq since 1990 suggests that there were two wars in 1991 and 2003 between Iraq and a US/UK led cohort of countries separated by an interval of relative peace marked by the imposition of economic sanctions on the country. This dissertation proposes an alternative view, arguing that the war with Iraq was one continuous war that began in 1991 and ended in 2003, followed by what is correctly called "belligerent occupation". A process oriented model of violence bridges two divergent literatures in the field of Anthropology-the anthropology of war and the ethnography of violence-and acts as a lens with which to see war with greater definition; and subsequently, to see that there was but one war with Iraq. The understanding ofviolence I propose illuminates the substance and process of war and is articulated through a careful analysis of three realms of violence. The Physical Realm is where harm is done to the bodies of individuals. This realm exists in the immediate context of the Network Realm, where violence is embedded in social institutions and processes. The Network Realm is in turn sustained by the Symbolic Realm, where violence is enmeshed in broader cultural symbol systems that have the power to create and sustain an ethos in which harm towards others is enabled. Each of these realms contributes to the creation and sustenance of war, yet the symbolic realm remains the primary key to enabling violence in both network and physical realms. Each realm of violence is illustrated in this dissertation by examples from the US/UK - IRAQ War, 1991-2003, drawn from my experience of living in the country and extensive historical research. The argument of this dissertation imposes a different structure on how the course of events now unfolding in the geographical region of Southwest Asia is understood. In this narrative there is a series of escalating stages. A long-standing conflict between the governments of Iraq and Kuwait was escalated when the Government of Iraq occupied the country of Kuwait in 1990. When a cohort of countries led by the US government intervened in the occupation of Kuwait, the conflict escalated into a state of war which lasted until 2003. Eventually that war was ended by yet another occupation; this time, however, it was the country of Iraq that was occupied. At the time of completing this dissertation there is a great deal of internal resistance to the occupation of the country-the contours of how it will finally unfold remain uncertain.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In 1958 the United States and United Kingdom signed the Mutual Defense Agreement which allowed the two countries to share information and technology concerning nuclear weapons. This paper examines the history of this agreement and the Polaris and Trident Sales agreements which followed. The main focus of the paper is the motivating interests of both countries to maintain these agreements today.

This thesis is a history of American and British efforts to halt or retard the Pakistani nuclear weapons programme. It assesses US and UK non-proliferation policy towards Pakistan from the Indian nuclear test of May 1974 to the decline of anti-proliferation activity in 1979 and 1980. A broadly chronological analysis of key government and media sources from American and British archives highlights the development of non-proliferation policy and the factors that influenced anti-proliferation activity. Scrutiny of British-and not just American-involvement in Pakistan's nuclear programme permits an assessment of the existence of a 'non-proliferation special relationship' between Washington and London. This study demonstrates that successive British governments played a significant role in creating, shaping, and at times adversely affecting, non-proliferation activity on the sub-continent. Additionally, this thesis demonstrates that the UK frequently deprioritised non-proliferation concerns in favour of economic considerations, creating tension between London and Washington. Thus, it is shown that there was a close working relationship between the US and UK governments, but the relationship was riven with fissures. Alongside this examination of British policy, this study also examines American policy and attitudes, demonstrating that infighting and conflicts between strategic priorities impaired the effectiveness of American non-proliferation policy. Furthermore, this study offers a detailed examination of the cultural underpinnings of UK-US non-proliferation policy directed against Pakistan. It demonstrates that-contrary to popular and long-lasting media representations-the paradigm of an 'Islamic bomb' played no part in the creation and application of non-proliferation policy. This thesis makes it clear that in UK-US efforts to halt or retard Pakistani nuclear attainment, issues of credibility and global standing were far more significant than religious factors. Overall, this study examines a key moment in non-proliferation history and offers new findings on the Anglo-American relationship and the role of cultural factors in shaping foreign policy.