In the Post-Cold War era, the shape of international system has been changing into the ¡§One Super Power with Multiple Powers¡¨ which differs from the ¡§Bipolar System¡¨ in the Cold War era. Due to the new situation, states have to adjust their foreign policies. This thesis, based on theories of Neo-Realism and Neo-Liberalism, is focused on the bilateral foreign relations between PRC and European Union (EU). The diplomatic relations established between PRC and EC in 1975 and the ¡§EC-China Trade and Cooperation Agreement¡¨ in 1978 did not help to tighten the bilateral relations in the Cold War era. Considering the multi-faced factors such as economy and politics, etc., EU finally realized the importance of the Asia and PRC in the early 1990s. Since 1995, EU had announced six documents regarding its China policy: ¡§A Long Term Policy for China-Europe Relations¡¨ in 1995, ¡§Building a Comprehensive Partnership with China¡¨ in 1998, ¡§Report on the Implementation of the Communication "Building a Comprehensive Partnership with China" COM(1998)181¡¨ in 2000, ¡§EU Strategy towards China: Implementation of the 1998 Communication and Future Steps for a More Effective EU Policy¡¨ in 2001, ¡§Country Strategy Paper 2002-2006¡¨ in 2002, and ¡§A Maturing Partnership - Shared Interests and Challenges in EU-China Relations¡¨ in 2003. EU upgraded PRC to be one of six global strategic partners in 2003. To carry out its China policy, EU appealed to political and human rights dialogues, economic and trade relations, and EU-PRC cooperation. PRC¡¦s rapid economic growth in the early 1990s attracted EU¡¦s attention. PRC, in pursuit of continuous economic development and enhancement of its international prominence, happily accepted the friendliness expressed by EU. In order to develop good relations with EU, PRC made flexible changes in terms of internal and external policies. Despite the fact that the PRC-EU relations were significantly improved in the Post-Cold War era such as EU surpassed the US in 2004 as PRC¡¦s greatest trade partner, some disagreements remained in the areas of human rights and economic interaction. Therefore, the common goal and priority of cooperation between PRC and EU was to pursue ¡§economic and trade interests,¡¨ whereas ¡§same bed, different dreams¡¨ continued in universal value and strategic interests because of difference emphases. Both Neo-Realism and Neo-Liberalism have their limits in interpreting the overall situation between PRC and EU. Kenneth Waltz¡¦s Neo-Realism, stressing the international system and national interests, is ideal for this thesis subject but can hardly explain the yet-to-be-established balance of power, economy and cooperation. On the contrary, the Neo-Liberalism perfectly interprets the economic and trade interaction, cooperation, and institution between PRC and EU, but is limited in detailing the long-term PRC-EU relations since WWII.

The thesis makes a constructivist criticism of neo-realism&rsquo / s particular conceptualization of state through a comparative analysis of Turkey&rsquo / s five motions (2003-2007) on military involvement in Iraq. Firstly, neo-realism and constructivism with regards to the concept of state are explored. Then, through the lights of the theoretical discussion, Turkey&rsquo / s five military motions are examined. In the case study, parliamentary minutes are used as the primary historical evidences. In the parliamentary discussions, three themes appeared significant-&ldquo / institutional identity&rdquo / , &ldquo / legitimacy&rdquo / and &ldquo / interest&rdquo / - which provided the ground for a constructivist criticism of neo-realist understanding of state. These three themes obtained from the discussions are tapped under four major topics which have been the main issues for the constructivists: &ldquo / agency&rdquo / , &ldquo / norms&rdquo / , &ldquo / identity&rdquo / and &ldquo / interest&rdquo / . Thesis argues that foreign policy behavior is a political product and &ldquo / state&rdquo / is a social actor whose behavior can only be understood from the social, cultural and historical context in which the state-society relations are embedded. Hence, for the purpose of making a structural analysis, separation of the domestic and the international realm of state is a fallacy with which neo-realism is badly plagued. Constructivism, on the other hand, has the potential to bridge this gap and understand the foreign policy behavior of states more accurately since it gives credence to the inner diversity of states through problematizing the ideational elements in foreign policy making and in international politics.

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Whose internet regime? ¡§Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers.¡¨ Although its purposes are nonprofit and to be the global representation, ICANN was criticized that it has been controlled by United State unilaterally since it was built for ten years. The United Nations empowered International Telecommunication Union to establish the World Summit of Information Society (WSIS), and tried to make sovereign states to co-govern the internet regime in 2003 and 2005. However, it was failed. Hence, this thesis retrospects the causes of WSIS failure with neo-realism¡¦s perspective and analyses the historical events and relative documents. The study finds that the core reason of WSIS failure is because ICANN is the institutional product of hegemony in the historical context. On the other hand, the material inferiority of WSIS and the structural constriction lead to the total failure of anti-hegemony power.

In order to determine how Britain’s governance and sovereignty have changed since 1950, I developed a historical case study tracing Britain’s political and economic integration into the E.U. starting from the early post-World War II governments through the end of the Thatcher administration. This study uses Historical Institutionalism, which seeks to explain how changes in governance and state sovereignty come about outside of state control, as a ‘testing’ theory to determine whether Britain’s governance and sovereignty have changed since 1950. The hypothesis of this case study is: Did the past decisions on E.C. integration, made by Britain’s government officials and policy-makers, have unintended consequences which caused Britain to become dependent on or locked into paths which led to losses in British state sovereignty? This study concluded that ‘unintended consequences’ and ‘path dependencies’ were important factors in Britain’s integration into the E.U. However, I found a number of antecedent conditions such as Britain’s status as a weakening nation-state, its insecurities in an economically interdependent world, deteriorating trade relations with iii the Commonwealth and the misperceived status as an equal partner with the U.S. that should also be taken into account in providing a comprehensive explanation. Finally, this study found that ‘unintended consequences’ and ‘path dependencies’ did not lead to a loss of sovereignty for Britain. This case study embraces a nontraditional concept of sovereignty which defines it as constantly changing and which does not have to be linked to its territory. This new definition allows for Britain to lose sovereignty in traditional ways (domestic) and gain it in unconventional areas (E.U.). Therefore, I have determined that Britain’s sovereignty and governance have changed rather than been mistakenly ‘given away’.

Iranian digital film-making, which has emerged and developed since 2000 in the Iranian cinematic context, mainly follows a trend based on the nature of new media. However, this trend is subject to fluctuation because of specific aspects of Iranian cinema. In addition, due to the realistic cinematic culture of Iran and the presence of Iranian neorealism film-makers, we face the emergence of a new kind of film-making which has certain international effects in world cinema. These film-makers have found a new method to approach reality and represent it in their films. On the other hand, this new cinematic reality contains more elements from a representation of reality than the analogue one, due to the power of digital cameras and technology. In this research, firstly I investigate the emergence of digital film-making in Iran, which may be unique to some extent compared to other parts of world cinema, and I show the gradual development of this phenomenon up to 2013. This investigation will reveal which parts of Iranian cinema have undergone the most changes. In the next steps, I focus on Iranian neorealism (Iranian art house cinema) and also on Iranian big-budget films. In the former, I focus on changes in the ‘representation of reality’, which I argue is the main characteristic of this mode, and in the latter I show the newly established relationship between governmental desire and the new digital special effects. Thus, I believe I will cover most of the changes that have been occurring in Iranian cinema due to the digitalisation process.

A presente dissertação tem como objetivo ressaltar os caminhos dos fluxos literários estabelecidos dentro do macrossistema literário de língua portuguesa a partir dos romances São Bernardo, de Graciliano Ramos e Casa na Duna, de Carlos de Oliveira. A análise de ambos os romances é empreendida buscando destacar a codificação artística fruto de um rigoroso trabalho estilístico em correlação com a realidade social de ambos os escritores, evidenciamos assim a concepção (neo) realista da obra de arte como uma unidade sensível de forma e conteúdo que propicia um conhecimento do mundo dos homens sob a sociedade capitalista através dos destinos de Paulo Honório e Mariano Paulo. Buscamos também destacar elementos que evidenciam a apropriação que ambos os autores operam da tradição literária deste macrossistema, constituindo assim uma atualização do realismo como método de composição literária. / This paper aims to show the paths of literary flows established within the Portuguese literary macrossystem in the novels São Bernardo, by Graciliano Ramos and Casa na Duna, by Carlos de Oliveira. The analysis of both novels aims to highlight the artistic codification as a result of a close estilistic labor in relation to their social environment, emphasizing the (neo)realistic notion of the work of art as a sensitive unity of form and content which provides (self)consciousness of mens world in capitalism through Paulo Honório and Mariano Paulos destinies. We also try to highlight the aspects that show both writers appropriation of this macrossystem literary tradition, being an update of realism as a way of literary compostion.

Several contemporary theories in the neo-realist corpus, modifies earlier assumptions about unit level behavior. The explanatory value of these theories has to be tested. The aim of this research, was to test the explanatory value of Davide Fiammenghis theory about the security curve, and Nuno P. Monteiros theory about unipolarity. In order to test the theories, a case study was designed where Japans aggression against the USA in 1941, was used as a least-likely case. Inspired by the idea from neo-classical realism, that the perceptions of decisions makers can vary considerably from real conditions, I used primary sources to study the perceptions and calculations inside the Japanese government. Three critical foreign policy decisions, made by the Japanese government in 1940 and 1941 were analyzed. Fimmenghis theory were first rejected, yet when it was modified to fit the condition of asymmetric economic dependence, it fit well the data. The study also indicated, that Monteiros theory can explain state behavior, if a state anticipates that it could end up in unipolar, international system.

The aim of the thesis was to show the weakness of SAARC right from its origins as well as a great flaw in the making of the charter which excluded the notion of security as well as "bilateral" and "contentious" issues to be discussed in the organization. South Asia has for long been an area prone to violence and mistrust and the exclusion of elements of vital importance has further added to the weakness of SAARC. In the following work I will portray the dynamics and working of the region of SAARC as well as individual countries on how it affects the region as a whole and also why SAARC continues to be a toothless organization in-spite knowing the origin of the problem and why nothing is being done. Also, with the case study of India and Pakistan, it shows us that when two nations of totally opposite ideologies and bloody beginnings since independence exist within the region, the idea of integration is a far fetched dream.

Iranian digital film-making, which has emerged and developed since 2000 in the Iranian cinematic context, mainly follows a trend based on the nature of new media. However, this trend is subject to fluctuation because of specific aspects of Iranian cinema. In addition, due to the realistic cinematic culture of Iran and the presence of Iranian neorealism film-makers, we face the emergence of a new kind of film-making which has certain international effects in world cinema. These film-makers have found a new method to approach reality and represent it in their films. On the other hand, this new cinematic reality contains more elements from a representation of reality than the analogue one, due to the power of digital cameras and technology. In this research, firstly I investigate the emergence of digital film-making in Iran, which may be unique to some extent compared to other parts of world cinema, and I show the gradual development of this phenomenon up to 2013. This investigation will reveal which parts of Iranian cinema have undergone the most changes. In the next steps, I focus on Iranian neorealism (Iranian art house cinema) and also on Iranian big-budget films. In the former, I focus on changes in the ‘representation of reality’, which I argue is the main characteristic of this mode, and in the latter I show the newly established relationship between governmental desire and the new digital special effects. Thus, I believe I will cover most of the changes that have been occurring in Iranian cinema due to the digitalisation process.