Le Brexit a fourni au Royaume-Uni une occasion unique pour redéfinir son rôle sur la scène internationale. Or, les rôles nationaux que souhaite projeter le gouvernement britannique ne sont pas nécessairement reçus comme tels par les membres de la communauté internationale, qui conçoivent la nouvelle identité du pays sur la base de leur propre perception . En se basant sur un travail similaire qui analyse la période d'avant la sortie officielle du Royaume-Uni de l'Union européenne, ce mémoire cherche à dresser un portrait à jour de la politique étrangère britannique depuis la mise en oeuvre du Brexit en 2020, qui inclue la façon dont celle-ci est perçue par la communauté internationale. En complément, ce travail propose des pistes de réflexion analytique afin d'expliquer certains éléments de ce portrait en intégrant la théorie des rôles à d'autres courants théoriques en Relations internationales. / Brexit has provided a unique opportunity for the UK with to redefine its role on the international stage. However, the national roles that the British government wishes to project are not necessarily received as such by members of the international community, who conceive the country's new identity according to their own perceptions. Building on similar work analyzing the period prior to the UK's official exit from the European Union, this dissertation seeks to provide an up-to-date picture of British foreign policy since the implementation of Brexit in 2020 which integrates how it is perceived by the international community. In addition, this work explores some theoretical explanations as to why British foreign policy has evolved the way it did by integrating role theory with other theoretical currents in International Relations.

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[pt] O presente trabalho busca analisar a saída do Reino Unido da União Europeia e seu impacto na fronteira entre a Irlanda do Norte e a República do Norte, ponto de tensão que a cada dia toma um papel mais central para a política britânica. O objetivo é entender como as duas perspectivas divergentes — da União Europeia e do Reino Unido — se inserem no Acordo de Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, e como essa divergência pode influenciar o resultado final do Brexit. O estudo conclui que as prioridades de negociação do Reino Unido, tiradas do referendo de 2016, são incompatíveis com uma fronteira aberta na Irlanda, parte integral do processo de paz e prioridade de negociação da União Europeia. Sem alteração nessas prioridades e sem a resolução do dilema político atual — causado pela falta de direção comum no Parlamento —, o Reino Unido pode sair sem um acordo, o que seria catastrófico para o processo de paz. / [en] The current dissertation aims to analyse Britain s exit from the European Union and its impact in the Irish border, an issue that becomes more vital by the day. The aim is to understand how two divergent perspectives — the EU s and the UK s — are inserted into the framework created by the peace process, and how the aforementioned divergence can influence Brexit s end result. We conclude that UK s red lines, drawn from the 2016 referendum, are incompatible with an open border in Ireland, an integral part of the peace process and one of EU s red lines. Without a change in negotiation priorities and the resolution of the current political dilemma, caused by the lack of a common focus in Westminster, the UK can crash out of the EU without a deal, which would be catastrophic for the peace process.

The refugee crisis is an ongoing challenge for the European Union. Refugees from the Middle East, the majority of them Syrians, are risking their own and their children’s lives, putting their money –both figuratively and literally speaking- on the chance of surviving the almost six-year long war in Syria.The brutal death of thousands of refugees in the Aegean Sea’s waters was the reason why the EU mechanisms have started to mobilize seeking a solution. The ‘problem’ was not possible to be hidden under the carpet anymore. It was reaching the highly developed Europe’s doorstep.The media coverage of the crisis has started to emerge in a greater extent throughout 2015, as a result of the ‘explosive’ increase of the refugee flows. In the beginning it was just a synthesis of innumerous personal tragedies, before it became an official European ‘problem’.If we ‘leap’ through time and refer on today, we can observe that the massive death toll in the Mediterranean was only the starting point of a vicious circle, which is strongly related with developmental, political and communication issues.Through this thesis my goal was to examine how four European newspapers (which represent both Europe’s North and South) have reported on the biggest humanitarian crisis in Europe since the World War II. What strikes me as a very interesting aspect is that the refugees, as representatives of the developing countries have come in the territory of the European developed countries. Therefore I believe that there is space for a wide development dialogue and I would like to examine at what point the media seized this opportunity to reflect on development issues, through their cover stories.I have performed a combination of quantitative/qualitative methods of analysis. A full scale content analysis of 85 articles has been performed as the quantitative part and this was my primary research method. My secondary method of analysis was about the visual elements used by the newspapers and I have relied on semiotics to examine 141 photographs.

No / Purpose: The aim of this research is to investigate how local company web sites can contribute towards the value and characteristics of city brands online, particularly where post-industrial cities are concerned, and to establish a predictive model for this. Design/methodology/approach: Interviews were conducted to gain an understanding of how post-industrial city brands can be influenced by local companies, leading to the notion of a 'constructed' city brand. An overarching brand model was developed based on the works of Christodoulides et al. and Merrilees and Fry and a survey of company web sites conducted. Structural equation modelling was then fitted to these data. Findings: Trustworthiness, responsiveness, online experience and emotional connection were confirmed as dimensions of company online brand value. It was further shown that company brand and constructed city brand are influenced by customer perceptions of brand value. Company brand was not, however, related to constructed city brand for the case study of Bradford, UK, which has a pervading negative reputation. Originality/value: A model incorporating company brand and city brand has been developed and validated for a typical post-industrial city that is in decline. The influence that local companies can exert on these brands via their web sites and behaviours was established. It is further demonstrated that company brands become disassociated from a city if it has a negative brand image.

No / This paper utilises computerised textual analysis to explore the extent to which both firm and country characteristics influence mandatory and voluntary risk reporting (MRR and VRR) variations both within and between non-financial firms across Germany, the UK and the US, over the period from 2005 to 2010. We find significant variations in MRR and VRR between firms across the three countries. Further, we find, on average, that German firms tend to disclose significantly higher (lower) levels of risk information mandatorily than UK (US) firms. German firms, on average, tend to reveal considerably higher (lower) levels of VRR than US (UK) firms. Our results document that MRR and VRR variations are significantly influenced by systematic risk, the legal system and cultural values. We also find that country and firm characteristics have higher explanatory power over the observed variations in MRR than over those in VRR.

No / Manuscript Type: Empirical Research Question/Issue: This paper examines the influence of corporate governance on risk disclosure practices in the UK and Italy and also studies the impact of those practices on market liquidity. Research Findings/Insights: We find that governance factors principally influence the decisions of UK (Italian) firms over whether to exhibit risk information voluntarily (mandatorily) in their annual report narratives. When we distinguish between firms with strong and weak governance (in terms of board efficiency) in each country, we find that the factors that affect mandatory and voluntary risk disclosure appear to be driven more by strongly governed firms in both countries. Furthermore, strongly governed firms in the UK tend to provide more meaningful risk information to their investors than weakly governed firms. In Italy, however, we find that strongly rather than weakly governed firms exhibiting risk information voluntarily rather than mandatorily improves market liquidity significantly. Theoretical/Academic Implications: This paper emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between mandatory and voluntary risk disclosure when studying the impact of corporate governance. Our findings differ across strongly and weakly governed firms, in terms of both the factors that influence risk disclosure practices and the exact informativeness of those practices. Practitioner/Policy Implications: The results support the current regulatory trend in risk reporting within the UK that emphasizes the importance of directors and encourages rather than mandates risk disclosure. However, the results generally signal a need for further improvements in the Italian context. Our evidence also supports the value of the confidence in the UK governance system, compared to that in Italy, which motivates British firms to provide highly informative risk information more often than Italian firms.

No / Mineral waters in Britain show a wide range of 87Sr/86Sr isotope compositions ranging between 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7059 from Carboniferous volcanic rock sources in Dunbartonshire, Scotland to 87Sr/86Sr = 0.7207 in the Dalradian aquifer of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The 87Sr/86Sr composition of the waters shows a general correlation with the aquifer rocks, resulting in the waters from older rocks having a more radiogenic signature than those from younger rocks. This wide range of values means that the Sr isotope composition of mineral water has applications in a number of types of studies. In the modern commercial context, it provides a way of fingerprinting the various mineral waters and hence provides a method for recognising and reducing fraud. From an environmental perspective, it provides the first spatial distribution of bio-available 87Sr/86Sr in Britain that can be used in modern, historical and archaeological studies