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No description available.

The purpose of this study is to analyze the international political events and commentary presented in five comic strips from 1940 to 1970. The investigation focused on the narratives, individual episodes and characterizations presented in the strips. The research was taken from approximately 51,000 strips over the thirty year period. Four of the strips used in the study covered the entire period, and included: Li'l Abner - Al Capp, Little Orphan Annie - Harold Gray, Smilin' Jack - Zack Mosley, and Terr and the Pirates - Milton Caniff (1940-47) and George Wunder (1947-1970). One strip, Pogo, drawn by Walt Kelly, was available only from 1950-70.The three decade period was utilized in order to study a sufficient number of strips so the cartoonists' ideas and attitudes could be understood. The time period selected was a volatile period in international affairs in which the United States played a major role. The investigation concentrates on two major areas of international politics: World War II and the cold war era. The study reveals that the cartoonists in portraying these two major found events used their medium not only for entertainment but to support the United States in its international activities.In addition they used international political affairs and events as sources of information to draw action stories and make political statements. In this vein, World War II offered a great opportunity for the cartoonists. The narratives presented in the strips offered constant reminders of the war in Europe and Asia, and engendered American support for the war effort. The authors pushed American values and democratic principles while formulating a negative image of the Axis leaders and military. In this way, the cartoonists used their medium to propagandize their readers into full support for the war.During the cold war era, the cartoonists again in international affairs a rich source of information for their stories. The strips portrayed the intense rivalry of the cold war conflict initially focusing on the Soviet Union. Narratives were included which depicted the Soviet leaders negatively, especially Premier Nikita Khrushchev. The Russian people, Soviet life and Communism in general were also represented in the strips in a disreputable fashion. In addition, the vigorous competition of the arms and space races were depicted in the strips.The other major nation of the cold war, which the cartoonists characterized in their strips, was China. The authors wrote stories about the civil war in China and obviously supported the Nationalists. After the Nationalists were exiled to Formosa, the narratives focused on the People's Republic of China. The stories depicted the Chinese Communists' methods of governing and their leadership, especially Mao Tse-tung. The propaganda efforts of the Chinese Communists were frequently represented in the strips as well as the attempts to expand their influence in the Pacific area. In addition, the Sino-Soviet split was included, with the cartoonists' portraying the Chinese attempting to take over the leadership of the Communist world from the Soviets.The cartoonists also used their strips to convey information, ideas, and opinions about the third world areas of Vietnam, Latin America and the Middle East. With Vietnam, the stories centered on the war, while the authors represented the Vietcong and North Vietnamese as evil and detestable people. The influence of the Vietnamese war on the American political scene was also considered. In their narratives about Latin America, the cartoonists illustrated the area in terms of revolution, corruption and smuggling. Communism and Fidel Castro's Cuba were frequently used in the strips. Communism and oil were the two major themes the cartoonists used in the strips that dealt with the Middle East.This study presents a narrative of the strips with an analysis of the cartoonists' aims, objectives, and opinions. The work also contains an annotated bibliography.

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The UN secretary-general plays an important political role in world politics, yet the UN Charter describes him merely as "the chief administrative officer of the Organization". How did such a development come about? The existing narrative tends to emphasise the contribution made by Dag Hammarskjöld, the United Nation's second secretary-general from 1953 to 1961. This thesis argues that there are two problems with this narrative. First, it overlooks the precedents set under the first UN secretary-general, Trygve Lie, who was in office from 1946 to 1953. Second, it places too much emphasis on the personal role played by Hammarskjöld, and fails to adequately consider the importance of institutional factors. The main empirical contribution of this thesis is to highlight the importance of precedents set during the first years of the UN's existence while Lie was secretary-general. Through his active stance on political issues in relation to Iran, Palestine, Berlin, Chinese representation, and Korea, as well as his consistently strong defence of the UN's unity and principles, Trygve Lie succeeded in carving out space for the secretary-general to act autonomously on political issues, which later secretaries-general could build on. The thesis' main theoretical contribution is to emphasise the importance of institutional factors in the development of the UN secretary-general's political role. In a conceptual framework based on institutionalism, the thesis explains how the UN secretary-general should be understood to play a 'role' within the 'institution' of the United Nations, and how this makes change of the role and the institution possible. Furthermore, through an examination of the founding of the United Nations and early expectations for the role of the secretary-general, the thesis shows that the institution of the United Nations had been set up from the start in such a way that it not only allowed for an expansion of the office of UN secretary-general, but also made such an expansion likely. The body of the thesis demonstrates how this process played out over time, by examining Lie's activities as secretary-general, and offering a historical narrative of several episodes where the institution 'pulled' to expand the office, just as much as, or even more than, Lie 'pushed' for the same outcome.

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This study attempts to examine the international debt crisis in the 1980s from a primarily political perspective, to permit a greater understanding of the interaction between economics and politics in the course of crisis management The process of dealing with the current international debt crisis provides an pat case for investigation of how economic concerns affect political outcomes, and how political factors influence economic outcomes, and how political factors influence economic policies. This study concentrates on the two regions of Latin America and Eastern Europe where the debt crisis started. The study emphasizes that the international debt crisis started. The study emphasizes that the international debt problem has been increasingly politicized in the contemporary international relations, and that its solution, in addition to the economic aspects, calls for political willingness by all parties concerned.

Scholars assert that the Cold War began at one of several different points. Material recently available at the National Archives yields a view different from those already presented. From these records, and material from the Foreign Relations Series, Parliamentary Debates, and United States Government documents, a new picture emerges. This study focuses on the British occupation of Germany and on the Council of Foreign Ministers' Moscow Conference of 1947. The failure of this conference preceded the adoption of the Marshall Plan and a stronger Western policy toward the Soviet Union. Thus, the Moscow Conference emphasized the disintegrating relations between East and West which resulted in the Cold War.