The aim of the dissertation thesis is to compare the political relations of the Russian Federation and four Visegrad countries and to identify various aspects which contribute most to the differences in the form, content and closeness of the relations. The core of the thesis is a comparative case study focused on the comparison of context of individual bilateral relations. These will be viewed as a clash of two foreign policies. Neoclassical realism will serve as the theoretical background for the analysis of Russian and Visegrad countries´ foreign policies. The methodological apparatus of international political economy will be used as well.

The diploma thesis deals with the analysis of international economic relations between the Czech Republic and Mexico. The goal of the thesis is to evaluate Mexico as a business territory in general and then in relation to the Czech Republic. It means the balance of trade between the both countries which are the perspective export and import items if there are any investment flows and where is it possible to find opportunities for deepening of bilateral relations-either at business or investment level.

The diploma thesis is diveded into 4 parts: basic information about the Republic of South Africa, Export of the goods to the Republic of South Africa, Import of goods from the Republic of South Africa, cultural differences. The thesis focuses on the atractivity of the Republic of South Africa as a business partner for the Czech companies.

The main aim of thesis is to display the current economic situation of the Republic of Belarus, to map out economic cooperation between the European Union and the Republic of Belarus and its mutual future development. This thesis is focused on the most fundamental questions of mutual cooperation in business, trade and investment.

This Master's thesis deals with Sino-Japanese relations. Its aim is to answer to what extent the economic relations between China and Japan are affected by their political disputes, and whether political or economic interests are preferred. The first chapter tries to identify the most influential cultural and historical factors for the contemporary Sino-Japanese relations and also deals with the Senkaku Islands territorial dispute. The second chapter describes the development of the political and economic relations between China and Japan since the Second World War up to the present. The third chapter is dedicated to the future perspectives of the Sino-Japanese political and economic relations and to the changing roles of China and Japan in the Asia-Pacific region.

Separate essays on entrepreneurship, joint venturing, and trade comprise this thesis. The emergence of entrepreneurship is common in the real world but relatively less so in classical economic models. If industry incumbents are attributed with full rationality and perfect foresight, then there are few, if any, profitable opportunities left for new entrants (entrepreneurs) to exploit. This essay explains how entrepreneurs can emerge in a dynamic world when firms must choose between a technology strategy that is either statically or dynamically efficient. A model is developed which shows how such opportunities for new entry can occur when incumbents are caught in a Prisoners’ Dilemma game involving technology strategy. A relevance measure and policy implications are then explored. Joint ventures, especially of the R&D type, are becoming increasingly important as a way to gain needed technological and market competencies. Unfortunately, many joint ventures have the characteristics of a Prisoners’ Dilemma. Firms may cooperate or defect in the venture. If contracts, side-payments, and third-party verification of the venture outcome are unavailable, then the dominant solution to the Prisoners’ Dilemma (mutual defection) results. This paper proposes the use of an ex-ante auction to obtain a Pareto-improvement for these ventures. A Pareto-improvement is assured when non-transferable costs and benefits of firms are not conditional on joint venture strategies. When this condition is not met restrictions are required to obtain the Pareto-improvement. The problem of trade between countries that share an international open access resource is becoming significant as the world reaches the limits of critical shared resource stocks. It is modelled as a world with one primary factor, two intermediate goods, one final good (harvested from the open access resource), and two nations where it is assumed that either the trading takes place over one stage (nations are price-takers), or two stages (nations have market power). Imperfect competition and open access generated externalities affect the trading efficiency. To maximize world welfare this essay recommends subsidizing R&D where comparative advantage exists, and creating international agreements to ensure the one-stage game structure is used when trading. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

Separate essays on entrepreneurship, joint venturing, and trade comprise this thesis. The emergence of entrepreneurship is common in the real world but relatively less so in classical economic models. If industry incumbents are attributed with full rationality and perfect foresight, then there are few, if any, profitable opportunities left for new entrants (entrepreneurs) to exploit. This essay explains how entrepreneurs can emerge in a dynamic world when firms must choose between a technology strategy that is either statically or dynamically efficient. A model is developed which shows how such opportunities for new entry can occur when incumbents are caught in a Prisoners’ Dilemma game involving technology strategy. A relevance measure and policy implications are then explored. Joint ventures, especially of the R&D type, are becoming increasingly important as a way to gain needed technological and market competencies. Unfortunately, many joint ventures have the characteristics of a Prisoners’ Dilemma. Firms may cooperate or defect in the venture. If contracts, side-payments, and third-party verification of the venture outcome are unavailable, then the dominant solution to the Prisoners’ Dilemma (mutual defection) results. This paper proposes the use of an ex-ante auction to obtain a Pareto-improvement for these ventures. A Pareto-improvement is assured when non-transferable costs and benefits of firms are not conditional on joint venture strategies. When this condition is not met restrictions are required to obtain the Pareto-improvement. The problem of trade between countries that share an international open access resource is becoming significant as the world reaches the limits of critical shared resource stocks. It is modelled as a world with one primary factor, two intermediate goods, one final good (harvested from the open access resource), and two nations where it is assumed that either the trading takes place over one stage (nations are price-takers), or two stages (nations have market power). Imperfect competition and open access generated externalities affect the trading efficiency. To maximize world welfare this essay recommends subsidizing R&D where comparative advantage exists, and creating international agreements to ensure the one-stage game structure is used when trading. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

This study attempts to cast empirical light on the traditionalist-revisionist debate regarding the impact of the Soviet Union's collapse on U.S. foreign policy decision-making. To accomplish this goal, the relationship between human rights and U.S. foreign aid decision-making is examined before and after the Cold War. In doing so, the author attempts to determine if "soft" approaches, such as the use of a country's human rights records when allocating aid, have garnered increasing attention since the end of Cold War, as traditionalists assert, or declined in importance, as revisionists content.

Orientador: Tullo Vigevani / Banca: Feliciano Sá Guimarães / Banca: Sebastião Velasco Cruz / O Programa de Pós-Graduação em Relações Internacionais é instituído em parceria com a Unesp/Unicamp/PUC-SP, em projeto subsidiado pela CAPES, intitulado "Programa San Tiago Dantas" / Resumo: Entre o fim do governo George W. Bush e o primeiro mandato do governo Barack Obama os Estados Unidos iniciou sua participação na Parceria Transpacífica (PTP). A fim de entender as motivações norte-americanas para este acordo regional de comércio, a dissertação trabalhou com a hipótese de que a evolução do novo regionalismo asiático, a partir dos anos 2000, teve um peso significativo na estratégia estadunidense de comércio. Destacam-se a ASEAN+3 e a ASEAN+6, grupos liderados pelo Japão e China para incrementar a integração econômica do Leste Asiático. Diante da emergência desta configuração, os Estados Unidos estiveram excluídos do processo. Para averiguar esta afirmação utilizamos a plataforma Inside Trade, entrevistas e notícias de jornais relevantes; arquivos da Casa Branca (relatórios dos principais órgãos decisórios e discursos); relatórios anuais e outros documentos do USTR; além de arquivos do Departamento de Estado (em especial do Escritório de Assuntos do Leste Asiático e Pacífico). A análise do material empírico revelou que o receio de exclusão dos Estados Unidos e da predominância da China como ator político no comércio intra-asiático foram questões frequentemente levantadas pelo empresariado e policy-makers da política comercial norte-americana. Além de circunstâncias regionais, o envolvimento dos Estados Unidos no acordo se explica pelo seu interesse em moldar as regras que conformam o regime global de comércio. Demonstramos que expandir a presença política do paí... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Between the end of George W. Bush's government and Barack Obama's first term, the United States began its participation in Transpacific Partnership (TPP). In order to understand american motivation for this regional trade agreement, our hypothesis supported that new asian regionalism dynamics had a weight in US trade policy strategy. We highlitgh ASEAN+3 and ASEAN+6, groups leading for Japan and China to increase economic integration of East Asia. In this configuration, the United States had been excluded. Aiming to check this, we use the "Inside Trade" platform, interviews and news of important newspapers; the White House archives (reports of the main agencies and discourses); annual reports and other documents from USTR; also US Department of State's archives (especially the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs). The empirical analysis reveal that fear of United States' exclusion and the China's predominance as political actor in intra-asian trade were often raised by business and policy makers of US trade policy. Beyond regional reasons, US envolvement is explained by its interest to shape the rules conforming global trade regime. We demonstrate that raising US political presence and constraining chinese emergence were fundamental tasks to achieve this goal. / Mestre

Orientador: Sérgio Luiz Cruz Aguilar / Banca: Mauri da Slva / Banca: Gustavo Enrique Santillán / Banca: Agnaldo dos Santos / Banca: Marcos Cordeiro Pires / Resumo: Ao formular seu Novo Conceito de Segurança, a China vinculou diretamente a ideia de segurança à garantia das condições para seu desenvolvimento econômico. Diante da grande acumulação de capital via superávit em transações correntes e necessidades cada vez maiores de matérias-primas, abertura de novos mercados e influência política para estabelecimento de um mundo multipolar, a China lançou-se em um movimento de internacionalização de sua economia. Como estratégia de aproximação com o "mundo em desenvolvimento" os chineses resgataram o discurso do "Espírito de Bandung", em contraposição à tese de uma renovação da dependência ao estilo Norte-Sul. Partindo de uma relação estritamente comercial, os chineses passaram a fornecer capital na forma de investimento estrangeiro direto, financiamentos diversos e programas de ajuda internacional. O momento pareceu propício, uma vez que a ascensão de outras forças "emergentes" alimentou o retorno do debate sobre a Cooperação Sul-Sul. As relações da China com a América Latina não fugiram a esse padrão. Esta pesquisa, pois, questionou em que medida é possível afirmar que as relações entre a China e América Latina podem ser consideradas típicas de um modelo Sul-Sul, ou nos termos colocados pela diplomacia chinesa, que prezam pelo benefício mútuo em oposição a ideia do jogo de soma zero. Para responder à pergunta central da investigação, a abordagem proposta, portanto, buscou elucidar os seguintes aspectos: 1) verificar em que medida a conjunt... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: When the "New Security Concept" was formulated, the Chinese diplomacy sought to relate the security idea directly with the guarantees for China's economic development. Given the high capital accumulation via current account surplus, the higher needs for raw materials and energy sources, the political requirements for the establishment of a multipolar world, and the seeks for new markets for its exportations, China laid itself in an economic internationalization movement. As part of the strategy of its relations with the developing world, China used the discourse of the "Spirit of Bandung" to opposing the thesis that its ascension could contribute for new dependency relations. If firstly the approximation was based on commercial relations, in the 21th century, the Chinese began to provide capital to the developing world in several forms: foreign direct investment, different credit lines and foreign aid. The moment was propitious, once the emerging powers' rise seemed to feed the debate about south-south cooperation. This research sought to understand the relationship between China and Latin America inside this context. Therefore, we investigated to what extent the relations between China and Latina America can be seen as a south-south pattern or "mutually beneficial", as the Chinese diplomacy often affirms in its public documents. To answer the central question, we proceeded as follows: 1) we verified in what extent the new century's conjuncture has favored the south-south coo... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor