Constructivist theories from International Relations have long been interested in the European Union and its identity. There is a lack of studies from the critical constructivist strand which, unlike its conventional counterpart, tries to explain how identities are created by discourse. This study seeks to explain how European identity is constructed and reinforced by the EU's cultural heritage policy, using The European Heritage Label as case study. This initiative's 48 selection panel reports, 38 promotional videos, and 10 site descriptions are used as data. The methodological approach was qualitative, since Topoi Analysis, a sub-category of Critical Discourse Analysis, was used. The results show that the EU's cultural heritage policy reinforces the categories of inclusive identity. while at the same time, but with less frequency, also constructs a more exclusive European identity. These findings bring implications for theory, future research, and the EU itself.

Student Number : 0005589F - MA research report - School of International Relations - Faculty of Humanities / This research report identifies the role that the land redistribution in Zimbabwe plays and has played in the country’s politics and its foreign policy toward both South Africa and Britain. The situation in Zimbabwe is explained in full using a wide range of sources. Zimbabwean history is investigated in-depth to reveal the path the country has followed, and what factors from the past have led to the country’s situation today. International relations discourse and international law are evaluated in order to explain the country’s complicated situation in academic terms, while South African and British foreign policy are analysed in order to gauge international and regional reactions to the crisis.

Iran's foreign policy is consistent and is fundamentally realist with a revolutionist vision while the means are rationalist is the central argument of this dissertation. I make use of the English Schools three traditions of realism, rationalism and revolutionism in analyzing the speeches of Iranian statesmen to identify the ways in which the dynamics of the three traditions have evolved since 1997 and what it means for interpreting the developments of Iran's foreign policy ventures. I utilize both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis in examining the speeches of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, the presidents since 1997. The quantitative method employs a customized software generating figures that represent the recurrence of realist, rationalist and revolutionist terminologies in all the documents downloaded from the official websites of the Iranian statesmen as well as the United Nations and select news agencies and affiliates. The quantitative phase of the analysis, meanwhile, carefully examined selected statements of the supreme leader and the presidents uncovering the foreign policy argumentations and justifications, which were studied alongside foreign policy actions and classified under the three traditions. The findings suggest that Iran's foreign policy is the same as in the other states of international society – it is consistent and dynamic. It is simultaneously realist, rationalist and revolutionist with each tradition serving a specific purpose, which cannot be disentangled from the other two.