Many scholars perceive state sovereignty as absolute, inviolable, indivisible, final, binding and stagnant. That perception emanates from inter alia political, social, cultural and environmental contexts of the modern era. Most literature converge that the doctrine of sovereignty first received official codification at the Peace Treaty of Westphalia in 1648. Contemporary international norms, particularly the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) doctrine, are arguably an environment and culture of current global politics. With human rights and democracy having taken centre-stage in contemporary political discourses, sovereignty is affected and influenced by such developments in international politics. Hence the argument that globalisation, among others, has eroded, weakened and rendered the doctrine of sovereignty obsolete. This study, using Zimbabwe‟s Operation Murambatsvina as a case study, demonstrates that sovereignty is neither unitary in practice, nor sacrosanct; it is dynamic and evolves, thus, in need of constant reconfiguration. To this end, the study uses the qualitative research methodology. / Political Sciences / M. A. (International Politics)

Taking as its starting point Nietzsche’s and Foucault’s theses on liberalism and war, and Dillon and Reid’s extensive engagement thereof, this thesis offers a critical conceptualization of drones and drone warfare. I argue that deployment of drones specifically over and against bodies and communities in conflict zones in and between Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia, and until recently, Libya, is the material practice of a legal and political doctrine and precedent that has been established and policed most prominently by the United States and its military and intelligence apparatuses since the end of the Cold War. This novel precedent, however - due to its necessarily mutually constitutive relationship with a perceived danger said to be emerging from specific spaces, bodies, and communities in the decolonized and still-colonized worlds - locates its ontological and thus political genealogy in the anthropological knowledge that legally justified the (in)humanity of peoples and communities in these spaces during the era of high imperialism that lasted roughly from the nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. I theorize this as a mode of political, tragic nihilism through a reading of some key theories of Deleuze and Guattari, Foucault, and Nietzsche and specifically, their import to the field of critical security and international relations theory. I demonstrate that the semiotic image of the drone is a highly pertinent point of departure through which we can understand these political stakes of strategic discourses enunciating the imperatives of both the Revolution in Military Affairs as well as recent global counterinsurgency/counterterrorism operations, specifically as they relate to claims about what it is drones are said to productively offer such militaristic projects. Ultimately, I argue that it is through the semiotic image of the drone as a clean, precise tactic that furthers the strategic goals of counterterrorism to target specific bodies that we can begin to politically theorize a particularly malignant political nihilism symptomatic of contemporary liberal societies. However, I also suggest that it is through Nietzsche’s politics of nihilism that we can begin to think about radical critical interventions that resist such a dangerous mode of politics. / Graduate

Thesis (MMAS)--Command and General Staff College (CGSC), 2003. / Available via the World Wide Web.

Zugl.: Neubiberg, Universiẗat der Bundeswehr München, Diss., 2005.

Why has international society been unable to develop political and judicial collective-security arrangements to limit external aggression? The thesis argues that efforts to limit aggression in moral and legal theory have created an unjust order in which great powers have used these theoretical traditions to reinforce their power in the global order. The thesis argues that is not a new development but can be found in one of the oldest traditions of moral reflection on war, the just war tradition. To substantiate this point, the thesis critically surveys the philosophers of the ancient Greek, Roman, Medieval Christian Renaissance, and early modern theorists of just war and demonstrates that their just war ideas contain assumptions about exclusion, identity and power reflecting their cultural superiority which underlie the practices and theories of the leading states and justifications of their aggressive wars. The thesis connects these moral reflections to the emergence of modern international law and the European pluralist international society of states based on mutual respect for sovereignty and the norm of non-intervention, highlighting how justifications of its colonial aggression against non-Europeans established an unjust solidarist order against them which persists in the post-Cold War era. To conclude it presents suggestions for improvement in the current pluralist international arrangements to address the issue of aggression.

This work covering the period 1795 to 1948 has four main features. It firstly examines the role of international and domestic factors in determining regional interaction and cooperation between South Africa and Chile. Secondly, it documents the whims of the international community, and more particularly the world powers which was a motivating factor in Chilean and South African politics, economy, society and their bilateral relations. Thirdly it covers the period when Britain rose to world power status. Eventually, this gave way to her displacement by Germany and then ultimately the United States. This study's fourth feature is that it marks the first documented account of direct contact between the inhabitants at the Cape of Good Hope and Latin America. The period ends with a cornerstone in the history of South African-Chilean bilateral relations when direct diplomatic and consular relations were established by both South Africa and Chile in May 1948. / M.A. (History)

Doctorat en philosophie et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Arabic text / الحمدُ لله الذي أكْرَمَنَا بِنُورالعلمِ المُبَدِّدِ للظُلمات, وعصَمَنا به من الأهواءِ المُرْدِية والآراءِ المُضلة رافع الإصْرَ عنَّا, جاء بالدين الوَسَطِ وحَذَّرَ من الوَكْسِ والشَطَطِ وبعدُ : فإنَّ أحقَ العلومِ بالتَّسْطِيرِ وأنفَسهَا عند الجَمْعِ والتَّحْبِيرِ , تِبْيَان وجهِ الحقِّ فيما تتعَاورهُ الأفهام بالجهلِ تار ة , وتار ة بما عرض لها من الأَوْهَامِ , ومن المهم تَجْديد وتَرْسِيخِ المفاهيم السياسية في ضوء نظام الشريعة الإسلامية, مِفْتَاح الهداية ونَهْجِ السعادة, بل وتصحيحها مما اعْتَراهَا من التشويه والزَّيفِ إذ ذاك من أفضل النوافل وأعظمها نفعا وعائدة, وأوفرها خيرا وفائدة. واعلم أن الناس أصنافٌ مختلفون وأطوارٌ مُتباينون يتقاطعون بالإيثار تابعا ومتبوعا ويتساعدون على أعمالهم آمِرا ومَأْمُور ا , فكان لزاما أن أحرر بحثا للرسالة, وانْصَبَّ الإختيار على السياسة ليوافق المقال الحال, فالإنتفاضات والثورات الشعبية تَتْرَا في دولنا الإسلامية, والمرحلةُ تستلزم المشاركة وتوضيح المفاهيم الشرعية, وجلاء الحقائق وإسْقَاطها على الواقع وتصحيح المسارات, فالرأي العام بين مُوجِبٍ ومُبيحٍ للثورات, وسَاكتٍ ومُطيعٍ لهذه الحكومات. لذلكَ ارتأيتُ أن أُبْحِرَ في خِضمِّ هذه الأمواج الفكرية المُتلاطمةِ , وأُشَمِرَعن ساعدي راجيا أن أبلغ الحقيقة الصائبة, وأُرْشِد القارىء الكريم إلى فَهْمِ السياسةِ الراشدة / Recent political turmoil and developments in the Muslim World have motivated me to present this dissertation aimed at renewing, correcting and deepening an understanding of political concepts in light of the Islamic code. It is thus my endeavour to relate them to current reality as I perceive it. A primary concern that I address herein are debates revolving around political rebellion; namely, their permissibility or the need to remain sycophantic towards prevailing political authorities. / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Islamic Studies)

This research provides a novel outlook on the emergence of norms in world politics. Guided by a constructivist theoretical framework and a process tracing methodology, it tests Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink's pioneering life cycle model of norms (1998) with an unexplored case study. By investigating the processes that led to the legally binding Plastic Waste Amendments of the Basel Convention, it evaluates the model’s main mechanisms and studies the question of ‘How can we explain the emergence of a norm on plastic pollution within the scope of the Basel Convention?’ To do so, it combines an in-depth analysis of the international relations literature, official reports, and carefully selected interviews with actors involved in the global governance of plastic and the World Ocean. This research shows that co-construction processes between ideas, agents, and structures are at play in the emergence of norms. It offers a detailed understanding of the processes of norm emergence in world politics, original insights for the global governance of plastic pollution in the World Ocean, and opportunities to answer the challenges brought by transnational environmental issues. The findings of this research will likely be of particular interest for global environmental governance scholars and to those looking for pathways to foster global cooperation. / Cette recherche offre une perspective nouvelle sur l’émergence des normes en politique mondiale. Guidé par un cadre théorique constructiviste et une méthodologie basée sur le traçage des processus, elle teste le modèle de cycle de vie des normes de Martha Finnemore et Kathryn Sikkink (1998) par l’entremise d’une étude de cas inexplorée. En étudiant les processus qui ont menés aux amendements juridiquement contraignants sur les déchets de plastique de la Convention de Bâle, elle évalue les principaux mécanismes du modèle de cycle de vie des normes et étudie la question suivante : « Comment expliquer l’émergence d’une norme sur la pollution des plastiques dans le cadre de la Convention de Bâle ? ». Pour ce faire, cette étude combine une analyse approfondie de la littérature des relations internationales, des rapports officiels et des entretiens soigneusement sélectionnés avec des acteurs œuvrant dans la gouvernance globale du plastique et de l'océan mondial. Cette recherche montre que des processus de co-construction entre idées, agents et structures contribuent à l'émergence des normes. Cette recherche offre une compréhension détaillée des processus d'émergence des normes en politique mondiale; des perspectives originales pour la gouvernance globale de la pollution plastique dans l'océan mondial; et des opportunités pour relever les défis posés par les enjeux environnementaux transnationaux. Les résultats de cette recherche seront probablement d’intérêt pour les spécialistes de la gouvernance environnementale globale et pour ceux qui cherchent des moyens pour renforcir la coopération mondiale.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / This paper examines an international SDP NGO in relation to the most challenging limitations facing the current Sport for Development and Peace sector. Employing an existing academic framework of the contemporary SDP sector, this case study explores under what conditions an SDP organization might begin to emancipate themselves from such limitations.