The privatization of outer space has in recent years crossed the boundary from science fiction to science fact. As such, this thesis argues that creating and diffusing an intersubjective shared idea of an apocalyptic imagined future through securitizing speech acts, where humanity's only chance of survival will be an established permanent privately owned and operated colony in outer space, will be a crucial aspect required to build an epistemic community large enough and with enough influence to reconceptualize outer space from an international regulatory and regime perspective. This in turn will serve as a catalyst for the normalization and legitimization of free-market private enterprise in outer space. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Maria Lucia Miotto Master Thesis Abstract in English Although more and more works are showing convergence between the many documents regarding the ethics of artificial intelligence, none of them has tried to explain the reasons for this convergence. The thesis here proposed is that the diffusion of these principles is due to the underlying action of an epistemic community that has promoted the spread and the adoption of these values. Then, through network analysis, this thesis describes the AI ethics epistemic community and its methods of value diffusion, testing for the most effective. Then, to test the first result, two case studies, representative of political opposites, the United States and the People Republic of China have been analysed to see which method of diffusion has worked the most. What seems evident is that scientific conferences remain a primary factor in the transmission of knowledge. However, particular attention must also be given to the role played by universities and research labs (also those of big tech-companies) because they have revealed to be great aggregators for the epistemic community and are increasing their centrality in the network.

aj Two years ago there was a need to re-define the position of The North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the system of international relations and to identify it`s main threats and their perception. The strategic concept from the 1999 has become obsolete document which couldn't adequately react to new threats. In the 2009 the process of creation new strategy started. There was assembled a group of experts under lead of Madeleine Albright to stimulate a discussion across member states about the nature and task of NATO and the current perception of security through a number of seminars and conferences. Subsequent analysis of the current security discourse served to NATO Secretary General as a form of recommendations for the preparation of the new strategy. The process of creation was as important as its outcome document, because it included the general professional public in addition to national governments. In my diploma thesis, besides the main themes of the new strategy, I will focus mainly on reflection of Czech debate on the new strategy. I introduce the concept of epistemic communities by Peter Haas, through which I define epistemic Czech group that dealt with the creation of a new NATO strategy.

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In December 2015, the world leaders gathered in Paris trying to address the urging challenges with climate change. The product of this meeting is called the Paris Agreement. Beforehand, many argued that another failure could not be accepted and the policymakers must let science influence the policy process. The aim of this study was to explore, through the epistemic community approach, in what way IPCC where able to influence the Paris Agreement. The results shows that the Paris Agreement was highly influenced under the topic sustainable development, while IPCCs assessments for mitigation and adaption was partly implemented.

In 2012, National Research Council published a new science education framework that explains the science practices and its importance in understanding the process of knowledge development. The students were expected to engage in all the practices by grade 12. All science teachers need some kind of support to improve their understandings of these science practices (NRC, 2012). An important key component of engaging teachers in scientific investigations is to have the teacher participate in a research laboratory experience (NRC, 1996). Research Experiences for Teachers programs (RET) serve as a promising form of professional development to achieve this goal. These programs allow teachers to experience scientific inquiry. The context of the study was a Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program supported by National Science Foundation It was located in an United States university Environmental Engineering program. There were five preservice and ten inservice teachers in this research. In addition, there were six professors and eight graduate students who served as mentors. Each teacher worked with a specific professor and graduate student mentor in their research projects that are related to the management of the nitrogen cycle, provision of clean water, or urban infrastructure improvement. Also, four professors from engineering and science programs were interviewed to find out what each science practice means to them. The research design of this study was mixed methods that combined quantitative and qualitative research approaches into a single study. In this study, two teachers were selected for the case study based on their experiences and improvements. The study utilized different data sources such as surveys, interviews, observations, and documents. Each research question was addressed based on the results of overall analysis of all the teachers, as well as the results of each case. To find out whether there was a statistically significant difference between the pre-, mid-, and post teacher surveys, repeated measures ANOVA was used for each item. In addition, for the items that showed a statistical difference a Tukey test was conducted to find -which surveys -were significantly different from each other. Also, partial eta squared effect size was calculated for each item. Professor and graduate students' surveys were analyzed by a repeated measures ANOVA and Tukey tests. All interviews were transcribed by the researcher. The data from the interviews were coded and analyzed using a qualitative analysis software. In order to analyze the data in the observations, coding of the qualitative data procedure was employed. The teachers' poster presentations were evaluated by using the researcher-created rubric that has the criteria for each expected part of the poster presentation. The findings of this research suggest that teachers have naive understandings of science practices before they participate in an RET program because they do not have opportunities to learn what those practices mean. The findings also suggest that the teachers still have naive understandings after they participate in an RET program. This is a very important contribution to the literature, in that it is difficult for the teachers to teach those practices in their classrooms if they do not have complete and appropriate understandings of what those practices actually mean. The findings also indicated that teachers' participation in the RET program helped them to improve their abilities to engage in science practices but they need more experience, knowledge, and abilities to engage in the specific practices where they had least improvements. The analysis also indicated that the teachers who actively engaged in the science practices, had productive discussions with the graduate student mentors and participated the quick lessons they gave, read the literature for their research, used new techniques and methods, and participated in the research group meetings improved more on the abilities of engaging in science practices compared to the teachers who did not have the opportunity to participate in the practices because of the structure of their projects, had low interest, and received most of the information directly from the graduate students.

The paper examines the approach taken by Russian government to control money laundering by creating the preventive framework which has undergone significant changes over the past six years. With respect to the prevention of money laundering, the discussion involves a review of international standards and norms which constitute the global AML regime. Recognizing the need for adding the domestic dimension to the studies of international regimes with the help of two-level game theory, the paper further analyzes the preventive pillar of the domestic AML regime in Russia in comparison with the global standards. It concludes that the federal law, which is the cornerstone of the domestic AML regime, as well as institutional framework created in Russia, both formally comply with the international norms. The analyses of the practical implementation of the AML legislation in the financial institutions focus on legislative base for the regulated, behavioral patterns of the banks in the AML prevention, and the conflicts and debates, lately emerged within the domestic AML regime. This paper aims to show how new regulations have influenced both domestic AML regime and its main actors. The paper concludes that the existent domestic regime lacks interaction and communication between its actors which leads to the breach of the main principle and goal of a regime – cooperation. The paper argues that the representatives of banking community in Russia could play the role of epistemic community proposed by the cognitive theory of international regimes. Given the functions of epistemic community it could foster better understanding of the context and purposes of the AML regime, thus, decreasing uncertainty and facilitating cooperation between the parties. The paper will conclude with the recommendations on the future research about how risk-based approach to banking regulation of the AML prevention rather than traditional rule-based compliance method can be effective.

<p>The paper examines the approach taken by Russian government to control money laundering by creating the preventive framework which has undergone significant changes over the past six years. With respect to the prevention of money laundering, the discussion involves a review of international standards and norms which constitute the global AML regime. Recognizing the need for adding the domestic dimension to the studies of international regimes with the help of two-level game theory, the paper further analyzes the preventive pillar of the domestic AML regime in Russia in comparison with the global standards. It concludes that the federal law, which is the cornerstone of the domestic AML regime, as well as institutional framework created in Russia, both formally comply with the international norms.</p><p>The analyses of the practical implementation of the AML legislation in the financial institutions focus on legislative base for the regulated, behavioral patterns of the banks in the AML prevention, and the conflicts and debates, lately emerged within the domestic AML regime. This paper aims to show how new regulations have influenced both domestic AML regime and its main actors. The paper concludes that the existent domestic regime lacks interaction and communication between its actors which leads to the breach of the main principle and goal of a regime – cooperation.</p><p>The paper argues that the representatives of banking community in Russia could play the role of epistemic community proposed by the cognitive theory of international regimes. Given the functions of epistemic community it could foster better understanding of the context and purposes of the AML regime, thus, decreasing uncertainty and facilitating cooperation between the parties. The paper will conclude with the recommendations on the future research about how risk-based approach to banking regulation of the AML prevention rather than traditional rule-based compliance method can be effective.</p>

In order to understand how and why the white continent ended up being reserved for peaceful use, scientific investigation and international cooperation, this thesis analyses the history of Antarctic international relations between the 6th International Geographical Congress and the signature of the Antarctic Treaty. Following Giddens\' Theory of Structuration, Adler & Pouliot´s communities of practice perspective and Haas and Adler´s epistemic community concept, the following research proposes a multi-level and multi-dimensional framework aimed to overcome the limitations of the usual interpretations of the origins of the Antarctic regime. Making use of archival material from Argentina, Australia, Chile, the United Kingdom and the United States of America, this research emphasizes the role that science played in the international relations related to Antarctica along with political, economic and ideational aspects. Through the following pages I show how the initial impetus for Antarctic exploration originated rather in a sincere scientific desire, than in any geopolitical interest in the Southern regions. The latter would only develop once the economic interest was fostered by the emergence of Antarctic whaling, which would install a logic of territorial competition. Eventually, the instrumentalisation of science by the political interest would both limit the freedom of manoeuvre of scientists and scientific institutions but also allowed them to develop a more intensive Antarctic programme and influence the political decision-making process. It would be eventually the scientific community, through the promotion of international cooperation during the International Geophysical Year, who would enable to search a viable political formula to settle the Antarctic question. However, only when favourable circumstances were combined with the presence of a constituted international epistemic Antarctic community, the structured values attached to the Antarctic activity could be crystallized in principles incorporated in an international agreement for Antarctica. At last, the role of science and the values attached to its practice were recognized in the Antarctic Treaty, while at the same time the exclusivity of the political sphere on Antarctic questions was demanded by the nation-state governments, relegating scientists and scientific institutions to their fields of expertise and guaranteeing the conditions through which their practice could be satisfied. Considering that, the Antarctic regime appears as a crystallization of a complex and extensive sociological process in which science played a key role and, the same time, acknowledged the position of the state as the prominent political actor in Antarctica. / Esta tese procura entender como e por que o continente branco acabou sendo preservado para uso pacífico, investigação científica e cooperação internacional, analisando a história das relações internacionais antárticas entre o 6º Congresso Geográfico Internacional e a assinatura do Tratado Antártico. Seguindo a Teoria da Estruturação de Giddens, a perspectiva das comunidades de práticas de Adler e Pouliot e o conceito de comunidade epistêmica de Haas e Adler, a pesquisa propõe um marco analítico multinível e multidimensional destinado a superar as limitações das interpretações usuais das origens do regime antártico. Fazendo uso de material de arquivo da Argentina, Austrália, Chile, Estados Unidos e Reino Unido, a pesquisa enfatiza o papel que a ciência desempenhou nas relações internacionais referentes à Antártida juntamente com os outros fatores envolvidos, tais como o político, econômico e ideacional. Nas páginas a seguir, analiso como o ímpeto inicial para a exploração antártica originou-se de um desejo científico sincero, mais do que qualquer interesse geopolítico na Antártida. Este último só se desenvolveria uma vez que o interesse econômico fosse estimulado pelo surgimento da indústria baleeira na Antártida, que resultou na instalação de uma lógica de competição territorial. No final, a instrumentalização da ciência pelo interesse político limitou a liberdade de manobra dos cientistas e instituições científicas, mas também permitiu que desenvolvessem um programa antártico mais intensivo e influenciassem o processo de decisão política. A comunidade científica, através da promoção da cooperação internacional do Ano Geofísico Internacional, permitiu a busca de uma fórmula política viável para resolver a questão antártica. Entretanto, somente quando circunstâncias favoráveis foram combinadas com uma comunidade epistêmica internacional antártica constituída, os valores estruturados ligados à atividade antártica se cristalizaram em princípios incorporados em um acordo internacional para a Antártida. O Tratado da Antártida reconheceu eficientemente o papel da ciência e os valores ligados à sua prática, ao mesmo tempo em que reivindicou a exclusividade da esfera política na questão antártica para os governos dos Estados nacionais, relegando cientistas e instituições científicas a seus campos de atuação especializados e garantindo as condições através das quais a sua prática poderia ser alcançada. A partir dessa perspectiva, o regime antártico aparece como a solidificação de um processo sociológico complexo e extenso no qual a ciência desempenhou um papel fundamental - mesmo quando não foi exclusivo - e, ao mesmo tempo, aceitou a posição do Estado como ator político proeminente na Antártica.

This thesis examines perspectives of the two influential U.S. think tanks, the Brookings Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations, on Turkish foreign policy under the leadership of the Justice and Development Party (JDP) from 2002 to 2010. It attempts to analyze the perceptions of the noted institutions about the JDP&rsquo / s foreign policy by referencing their reports, articles, interviews and seminars. The study had four aims. First, it aims to analyze the JDP&rsquo / s foreign policy in the eyes of the two think tanks. Second, it shows the objective of the two institutions for shaping the framework of the discussions on the United States-Turkey relations and Turkish foreign policy by emphasizing the epistemic community. Third, this thesis intends to clarify divergences and convergences in the perceptions of the two think tanks. Fourth, it indicates the continuity, change and rupture in the JDP&rsquo / s foreign policy choices from the viewpoint of the Brookings Institution and the Council on Foreign Relations. Consequently, the thesis states that &ldquo / the given framework&rdquo / in the relations between the United States and Turkey has been largely determined by the U.S.&rsquo / activities.