In Asia, the recent rapid growth in production of higher value, more pesticide intensive, horticultural crops and inland aquatic foods in linked agri-aquatic systems poses numerous environmental, health and wider livelihood threats in these often multi-use aquatic systems. ‘Green Revolution’ technologies have enhanced food security and pesticides have been promoted, however, the sustainability of prolonged pesticide use from a functional, environmental and socio-economic perspective is increasingly questionable. Further, despite international pesticide trade agreements and country-specific legislation, illegal practices still prevail. In Thailand and Sri Lanka the influence of pesticide marketing and regulation on pesticide use and hazards was investigated. Community livelihood relationships with three very different agri-aquatic systems (in Central and Northeast Thailand and Northwest Sri Lanka), pesticide use and associated aquatic and health hazards were explored with respect to surface water use and well-being status. Quantitative and qualitative data collection methods utilised participatory community appraisals, household surveys, pesticide fate in surface waters and dietary risk assessment and modelling, key informant semi-structured interviews and stakeholder workshops, to assess these relationships. Enhanced environmental and human pesticide hazards were contributed by pesticide sales incentives and weak regulation allowing illegal practices to prevail. Preliminary risk assessments found greater aquatic and human dietary pesticide hazards within communities, with the poorest at greatest vulnerability from applying pesticide and higher dependency on threatened natural aquatic food resources. The poorest in communities were most likely to overuse pesticide in Sri Lanka and were most vulnerable to illegal practices in the pesticide industry that are often linked with unauthorised traders and credit arrangements. Most horticultural production is for fresh wholesale markets with no food safety controls, and despite growing demand for safer horticultural produce, most farmers perceive pesticides as necessary, the associated hazards low and have little knowledge of safe food production and markets. These circumstances help sustain pesticide use. Some unofficial certification and misleading labelling in the ‘safe’ fruit and vegetable sector in Thailand potentially misinforms consumers and undermines trust that may threaten pesticide reduction efforts. Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) and vegetable Integrated Pest Management (IPM) are evolving practices and techniques of producing horticultural crops with less or no pesticide, the latter sometimes through Farmer Field Schools (FFS), however, evidence of success varies. Teaching through lectures and more lengthy and costly participatory methods is evident, with the former more successful on GAP and higher educated farmers and the latter with IPM and worse-off farmers, particularly when addressed within livelihood issues as a whole. However, production scale, farmer enthusiasm, produce marketing and facilitator expertise all influence outcomes, particularly with IPM, whilst proper evaluation could improve progress. Growing rural consumer interest in organic produce offers further incentives for small to medium scale farmers to implement IPM and reduce pesticide use and hazards. As value of aquatic resources was an incentive to reducing pesticide use, particularly the most dangerous products, exploration of this component of agri-aquatic systems is another exciting prospect for empowering farming community livelihoods over established and failing fear based chemical practices. Such new practices may lead the way towards affordable and trustworthy agri-aquatic systems produce with ethical certification. Greater pesticide use savings on a wider scale come from use of efficient flat fan spray nozzles compared with conventional pesticide spray nozzles. Complementary policies and stakeholder co-operation could aid pesticide use and hazard reduction efforts. A number of recommendations arose from the research.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional alliance grouping the six oil- and gas-rich Arabian states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain, was founded in 1981 with the purported aim of "effect[ing] coordination, integration and inter-connection between Member States in all fields in order to achieve unity between them" (GCC Charter: Article 4). Most political observers, nevertheless, insist that this alliance was born out of a common concern among these rich but sparsely populated and militarily vulnerable states for their security and political stability within a politically volatile region, and the need for a regional alliance with sufficient capability to safeguard their interests, sovereignty and political stability. This study was undertaken with a set of interacting aims in mind; besides the subsidiary aim of examining the structure and operation of the GCC from the perspective of competing theoretical approaches to federalism with a view to exploring their viability vis-à-vis the case of integration which the GCC represents, this study primarily aims at evaluating the GCC, as well as the political and social basis of cooperation, among its member states in the light of attitudes and perceptions within Gulf society. With regard to the former concern, the aim is to consider how useful theories of federalism are in understanding and interpreting the GCC. With regard to the latter concern, the study aims, to explore Gulf social perception of the factors underlying the emergence of the GCC, its institutions, objectives, policies and problems confronting it with a view to determining the extent and nature of both the attitudinal similarities, and discrepancies existing between different social Gulf groups as well as identifying the complex network of historical, socio-cultural and institutional affinities operating across state boundaries within the GCC. To explore perceptions of the policies and aspects of cooperation which the GCC considers central to its efforts to bring about greater unity among its member states, two surveys were undertaken among two contrasting groups: one based on a sample of top-ranking officials at the GCC Secretariat General and another based on the sample of students at Kuwait and Qatar universities.

The main aim of this thesis is to examine urban movements in Istanbul, Turkey. More specifically, the research has two principal objectives: first, to expand the existing conceptual framework of urban movement studies by critically examining the present literature on urban movements and considering people’s experiences in the cities of global South; and second, to make an empirical contribution to the literature on urban movements in general and the developing literature on urban movements in Turkey, in particular by analysing political mobilisation surrounding contested urban regeneration projects in Istanbul, Turkey. The thesis argues that the research framework of current urban movements’ literature is too static and limited to be able to develop a dynamic, relational and comparative approach to the analysis of mobilisation in urban space in different geographies. The case materials presented demonstrate that the political and social relations established between actors of urban politics are enmeshed in a dynamic political process, and that the motivations that inform the development of urban movements can change over time. In addition, the issues causing conflicts and political mobilisation are perceived and experienced differently under different conditions, which results in a diversification of the ways in which mobilisation is pursued. As such, a-priori assumptions about the emergence and goals of political mobilisation in urban space – for example, assumptions that urban movements necessarily are progressive and a part of a wider political agenda – is shown to be inadequate for examining the dynamics of mobilisation in different settings. In developing these theoretical arguments, the research constructs a dynamic relational framework to the analysis of political mobilisation in urban space, contributing in turn to the existing conceptual framework of urban movement and political mobilisation studies. Empirically, these issues were explored through case studies of two urban renewal areas in the historical neighbourhoods of Istanbul, Turkey, using a qualitative Critical Realist methodology. Like many other megacities, Istanbul has experienced an immense process of socio-economic and spatial restructuring in which the state has played a fundamental role. Moreover, in these new urbanisation dynamics, urban renewal projects have become conspicuously contested, leading to mobilisation at a variety of spatial and governmental scales. This thesis focuses on the different responses of local people in two urban renewal areas in order to examine the factors that enable and inhibit mobilisation. Specifically, the research is framed around two contrasting cases: the Fener-Balat-Ayvansaray renewal area, which is taken as a case of political action, and the Suleymaniye renewal area, which is taken as the case of inaction. The research findings show that the intervention of the state is not the only factor causing mobilisation in the localities. Other factors include: the condition of the built environment and the formation of spatial relations in the localities; the condition of the property market and how property owners value their assets in terms of its exchange and use values; the political relations between the state and the residents; social relations within the localities; and the implementation process of the urban renewal projects. These factors are derived from the empirical findings of the research and combined into a dynamic conceptual framework that contributes to reconfiguring existing analyses of urban movements. As such, by its critical relationship to existing urban social movement theory and through its novel methodology, the thesis aims to make significant contributions both to the conceptualisation and empirical analysis of contentious politics in urban space.

This research uses discourse analysis to examine Japan's UN security policy after the Cold War period using three cases: the Gulf Crisis, the Cambodian peace process and the promotion of the human security policy. The key argument is that there is a need for a new IR theory-based approach that could explain foreign or security policy decision-making process and could also provide the analysis at both the domestic and the international level simultaneously. This research therefore adopts Wendt's Constructivism, along with the use of 'identity' as the key analytical platform, from which the 'recursive Constructivist model' is developed. Unlike popular literature, this research suggests that 'identity transformation' and the level of conformity between the identities projected internationally (international -role identities) and those embraced domestically (domestic-type identities) are the key factors determining Japan's foreign and security policy preferences. On the interpretation of Japan's post-Cold War security development, this research argues that it could be understood via the UN framework, and not only from the traditional perspective of the Japan-US alliance. Apart from the fact that it could be understood via the process of 'identity transformation', this research provides strong evidence and suggestions that Japan's assertive foreign and security pursuits in the post-Cold War era are the result of the nation's changing sets of ideas and beliefs on the link between 'national' and 'international' security. The original contributions of this research are two-fold. The theoretical contribution is a modification of Wendt's original framework of identity transformation into the so-called 'recursive process of identity transformation. ' The application of 'identity' and the 'recursive Constructivist model' to Japan's UN security policy in this research is significant because it is the first example among research in the field of Japanese studies to use a different analytical framework and tool in examining Japan's foreign and security policy. The model's ability to capture the intertwined process of social interactions at both the domestic and the international level is also important as it contributes to further IR theoretical development and a better understanding on Japan's foreign policy decision-making process. Also, the value-added benefit of the examination of human security policy is another vital substantive contribution, as this is the first exploration of this issue within the context of Japan's UN security policy.

This case study investigates the impact of task-based language teaching (TBLT) and mediation procedures on the teaching of business presentations at a university in Thailand. A task-based course was developed, which took into account national and institutional education policies regarding the development of business-related knowledge and skills and the limited English proficiency and knowledge of the business world possessed by the learners. Three core tasks, namely Describing Company Profiles, Describing Products, and Describing Trends were designed utilising Willis’ framework (Willis, 1996). The course was delivered over the course of six sessions to two groups of students (n = 22 and 25 respectively). Mixed methods data collection techniques were employed to examine 1) the appropriateness of the designed tasks, 2) the effectiveness of TBLT, 3) the effectiveness of mediation procedures integrated in task implementation and 4) suggestions for the improvement of tasks, TBLT and mediation practices. The data was collected through pre- and post-intervention questionnaires, observer and student interviews, research journals, class observation notes, and audio and video recording of class interactions from four observers and the two groups of students mentioned above. The qualitative analysis of data focused on participant perceptions of TBLT and mediation as well as on participant recommendations. The findings indicate both positive feedback and the existence of a number of critical issues. Participants were generally satisfied with the use of a wide range of materials and the usefulness of course content. The most significant participant concerns were related to teaching and learning conditions, content relevance and coverage, task complexity and difficulty, task materials, language focus (i.e. vocabulary and grammar teaching), peer feedback and teacher feedback, peer engagement as well as teacher mediation. Implications are also discussed, particularly the greater incorporation of explicit grammar teaching and the increase in number of teaching hours to allow for individual presentation practice and mediation on linguistic difficulties.

This thesis is composed by three essays and applies econometric methods to analyse different economic research questions. The first essay (chapter 1) studies the effect of Turkish public television on the voting behaviour of people in the early years of television broadcasting in Turkey. The second essay (chapter 2) analyses the intergovernmental grant allocation in Turkey to shed light discussion whether political motivations play role while central government transfers money to municipalities. The third essay (chapter 3) investigates the phenomenon of flypaper effect and its relation to the local tax effort, by using a new panel data set which consists of all province and district municipalities in Turkey. The first essay estimates the effect of television broadcasting on the vote shares of main political parties and voter turnout in 1970s. We particularly focus on main left wing party (Republican Peoples’ Party, RPP) and right wing party (Justice Party, JP) in 1969 and 1977 elections. Our main hypothesis is that television news content was biased in favour of the incumbent party in government due to the law which allows government to appoint general-director of the Turkish State Television Company (TRT). Hence Left ideological director-generals were appointed to the Turkish State Television Company in the first years of broadcasting. As a result of this, a left wing party, RPP, enjoyed this fact by increasing their vote shares in the elections in 1977; however the main right-wing party, JP, witnessed the vote shares to decrease in the same elections. Therefore we find that television reception influences the voting behaviour of the citizens. An estimation result also shows that voter turnout decreases with the introduction of television. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first one which explores this fact and use very detailed election data in Turkey. The second essay (chapter 2) is related to the public finance literature which studies the transfers of intergovernmental grants from central government to municipalities. In Turkey, intergovernmental grants are transferred to the municipalities based on per capita rule only. This chapter explores whether there was a political motivation of revenue sharing system in Turkey using unique and new dataset. We employ Regression-Discontinuity Design to test this argument to get rid of possible endogeneity between grants and vote shares. We find that politically aligned municipalities to the party in central government enjoy about extra 7 Turkish Liras per capita in grants on average. This effect is stronger in municipalities where the elections were more competitive, i.e. the margin between vote shares of two main parties was very low. Moreover, we do find no evidence of alignment effect on municipal revenues and expenditures. In the third chapter, we investigate the phenomenon of flypaper effect by using a panel data set that consist of all province and district municipalities between 1997 and 2005 in Turkey. We benefit from dynamic panel data specific Generalized Methods of Moments (GMM) estimator to identify flypaper effect. Estimation results show that the flypaper does exist for the Turkish municipalities. This result is controlled by various econometric specifications where we consider endogeneity between fiscal variables. Coefficient estimates also reveal that Turkish municipalities experience substitution effect of unconditional grants on the revenue collection efforts of localities which means that grants substitute local revenues causing lesser local tax effort.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / This thesis examines the origins and implications of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) established in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. It analyzes the organization from the Chinese, Russian, and Central Asian states' perspective. Chinese and Russian motives for creating the SCO appear to have been threefold. First, both sought an organization dedicated to providing security and stability to the Central Asian region. Second, both wished to foster stronger economic ties with the oil and natural gas-rich former Soviet republics. Finally, both favored stemming the influence of external powers, notably the United States. The Central Asian states' motives for joining the SCO emanate from security and economic needs. The increase in the U.S. military presence in the region since October 2001 has drawn no response from the SCO. Although some Russian politicians and military officers have criticized it, the governments of China and Russia seam to realize that the U.S. presence may help bring stability to the Central Asian region. Many uncertainties burden the SCO's future. It may constitute another failed attempt to establish a security alliance or turn into a significant voice in international politics, especially with the inclusion of additional members. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

The U.S.-Japan Security Alliance was the foundation of the United States' bilateral alliance system during the Cold War. The alliance suffered severe strains in the immediate aftermath of the Cold War primarily due to the loss of its primary mission, containment of Soviet expansion. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 breathed new life into the alliance. Japan quickly joined in the anti-terrorism coalition, providing logistical support to U.S. forces involved in the War on Terrorism. North Korea's October 2002 admission of a covert nuclear weapons program also changed the strategic dynamic for Japan, pushing it towards "normal" nation status. Multilateralism in Asia developed a life of its own during the 1990's. Numerous multilateral organizations were created to help resolve regional security issues. China is attempting to use multilateral security forums as a means to balance against U.S. regional power. Japan also proposed developing a new multilateral security regime in the Asia-Pacific. This thesis examines issues related to the future of the U.S.-Japan Security Alliance and the possible emergence of a new multilateral security regime in the Asia-Pacific. The United States should enhance the U.S.- Japan Security and lead the way on developing a new multilateral security regime for the Asia-Pacific. / US Navy (USN) author.

This thesis examines the contemporary religious renewal and discourse on modernity of the Shi‘a Imami Ismaili Muslims of Nizari branch (hereinafter Ismaili) in post-Soviet Tajikistan. These developments are set against their reunion with the worldwide spiritual leader, the Aga Khan IV, and their convergence with the transnational (or global) Ismailis, following seven decades of Soviet isolation. The subject of ‘religious renewal’ among Ismailis of Tajikistan remains barely explored both in post-Soviet and Western academia. It is situated against the backdrop of rapidly expanding body of scholarly analysis on Central Asian Islam, which until recently was framed predominantly through securitisation discourses. These discourses provided a distorted picture of the nature of Islam in post-Soviet Central Asia. While not negating the relevancy of the aforementioned securitisation discourses, this thesis challenges their portrayal of both ‘international Islam’ and Islam in Central Asia as monolithic entities. It also questions how the former is being perceived as anti-Western, and therefore anti-modern, and the latter as a passive receiver. Drawing on the notions of ‘multiple modernities’ (Eisenstadt 2000) and ‘discursive tradition’ (Asad 1986), this thesis emphasises the multiplicity, diverse trajectories and distinct patterns of Islamic discourses on modernity not just among, but within each Central Asian state. It provides a better understanding of the complex and constantly evolving nature of Islam in Central Asia and its dynamics with modernity. Moreover, the research findings contribute to the understanding of modernity and secularisation, and indeed westernisation, as not identical in Central Asia. They highlight that dynamics between Islam and modernity are inclusionary, which interact, cross-fertilise and transform one another critically and creatively, rather than through a dichotomous relationship between the traditional and the modern, Islamic and secular (and/or Western). This work builds its analysis on local archives, reports, oral memories and multiple interviews with various stakeholders from within the Ismaili community and outside, in Gorno-Badakhshan region of Tajikistan and beyond. It depicts how contemporary readings of modernity within Ismailism in Tajikistan and its discourses derive extensively from the religious and temporal guidance of the Aga Khan that are entrenched in Ismaili doctrines and values of Islam. It also portrays how these discourses are then informed, altered and recreated acutely by various dynamics both within the faith and without, including the historical past and growing globalisation. As a result, this paper came to argue that these dynamics [within and without] are contested widely among the local Ismailis. They instigate systematic and indigenous approaches and answers that go beyond the ‘traditional’ discourses on Islam and modernity, and, nevertheless, accentuate the continuity of the Ismaili tradition.

Thesis advisor: John R. Sachs SJ / This dissertation explains how divine grace, that is, God's self-communication to humanity, is a communitarian reality specifically in its participative, dialogical, and prophetic core as well as its manifestations, characteristics, and consequences. It draws from two main sources: Karl Rahner's understanding of grace and the pastoral statements and reflections of the Federation of Asian Bishops' Conference (FABC) from 1974 to 2010. Religious and cultural pluralism and the abiding poverty in Asian communities are the realities that frame the discussion both of the FABC documents and the main theme of this dissertation. The FABC believes that in order to respond to God's call for the Asian Church to be "a communion of communities", the Asian Church--hierarchy, religious, and laity--must reckon with these permanent realities through which God reveals divine self and will. They must therefore figure significantly upon the Church's ways of evangelizing, theologizing, and living in community. For this reason, the FABC understands being a communion of communities as God's call for the Church to be more participative, dialogical, and prophetic in evangelization and attitude with and towards other communities. The life-giving relationship in the experience of grace does not remain restricted to God and individual persons. God gives Godself gratuitously not simply to individuals but to the whole human community. Divine self-giving creates loving, self-donating persons in communion with Godself and one another. The community is therefore a privileged place where one experiences grace especially in the shared effort to respond to God's unifying presence and call to greater participation, dialogue, and prophetic action with other communities. As the ground of grace, God's presence and activity in the world is always participative in human realities, dialogical with persons, and prophetic in its thrust for the poor. The response to this grace also takes on communitarian characteristics, that is, participative, dialogical, and prophetic attributes. Self-consciousness and self-forgetfulness form a significant dialectic that takes place in the experience of grace--both on the side of the Giver and of the recipients of the gift. A community that enjoys God's grace is constantly aware of the fact that the grace is due to God's gratuitous, selfless love for all. At the same time, grace empowers a community towards self-forgetfulness as God's self-communication always calls forth shared self-denial and servanthood as witnessed to by the total self-outpouring of Christ to the world. The grace of God therefore becomes clearly manifest in a community whose members willingly participate in fostering well-being, when they strive for deeper harmony through constant and open dialogue, and most of all, when they take care of their poor sisters and brothers. / Thesis (STD) — Boston College, 2012. / Submitted to: Boston College. School of Theology and Ministry. / Discipline: Sacred Theology.