In his analysis of modern theatre aesthetics, Hans-Thies Lehmann notes that performance has the ability to "destabilize the spectator's construction of identity and the 'other' " (Lehmann 5). This research project endeavours to test Lehmann's statement by applying it to the hybrid diasporic identity. Through the creation of a postdramatic performance text that focuses on the Palestinian diaspora and what Salman Rushdie refers to the longing for the 'imaginary homeland,' this thesis documents the creation of a performance text inspired by Edward Said's contrapuntal analysis. In the first chapter, I define diaspora and hybridity and I provide the necessary context for my hybrid identity: Palestine and its diaspora. I detail the relationship between postdramatic theatre and identity, and I explore how the hybrid identity can be embodied in performance through an understanding of counterpoint and Said's contrapuntal analysis. In the second chapter, I explain the methods I used to create my performance text and to analyze my research and creative process. Finally, in my third chapter, I articulate the successes and failures of my research process and performance text through a final reflection.

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Refugee camps in Lebanon are harsh, continuously and rapidly deteriorating environments. In addition to poverty, numerous wars and the restrictions of civil rights, refugee camps that were not designed as a long-term settlement were made to accommodate their residents in addition to their descendents for a period that has lasted over 59 years. Since the establishment of the camps in 1948 the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have fallen victim to multiple wars and as a result most camps have witnessed major destruction of homes and infrastructure, and a few were entirely destroyed. Today, the planning and development of the camps are highly restricted by the local government, building material is banned from entering the camps and horizontal as well as vertical expansion is prohibited by Lebanese law. According to the United Nations Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) the hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon have the highest rate of people living in "abject poverty" in the Middle East. Meanwhile, the refugee community and the international aid agencies working in the camps are caught in the dilemma of investing in the development of a sustainable environment in a settlement with a temporary purpose and an uncertain future. This thesis explores the problems facing the built-environment in the camps within the political and socio-economic context, and takes the camp of Burj El Barajneh as a case study for deeper investigation. It then suggests three possible solution approaches that address the environmental problems within different future scenarios. The thesis also looks at the feasibility and requirements of an energy generation plant to provide part of the energy needs of the camp of Burj El Barjneh. Finally, a set of conclusions and recommendations are derived that address the refugee community, the international aid agencies and the host country. The significance of this study is to mitigate a possible humanitarian and environmental crisis in the most dire of refugee situations in the Middle East, with the hope that conclusions drawn from this study can be applied to refugee communities elsewhere in the region.

Although academic interest in TQM increased substantially in the last decade, still the gap in the literature is hardly surprising given that research and theory in TQM implementation are still at a very early stage in the West. To-date, there are only a handful of empirical researches reported in the literature that have attempted to identify what constitute as constructs of TQM that can be manipulated to effectively implement TQM. All but very few are studies done in developed economies. Moreover, knowledge of TQM in developing economies is almost totally lacking. Against this backdrop, this researcha ddressesth e identified gaps in the literature on TQM. Thus this thesis focuses on the effective implementation of total quality management in Palestine, a developing economy, through an empirical investigation of critical quality factors. The research methodology involves combining quantitative and qualitative methodologies to identify the key quality factors cited in the literature and considered by consultants and experts as essential to successful TQM implementation. The research design also included: Lan empirical investigation to assessth e level of TQM awarenessa nd understandingi n the Palestinian context, 2. determining which key quality factors are critical to successful implementation using a survey questionnaire, 3. determining what tactics and techniques are used in addressing and implementing these critical quality factors by Palestinian organisations, using semi-structured interviews, 4. determining the prerequisites of effective TQM implementation in the pre-launch stage using in depth interviews. By complementing and integrating the findings, an implementation framework was constructed with the support of the knowledge acquired from the literature review. A simple and practical step by step with implementation guidelines framework aiming at assisting Palestinian organisations in planning on effective implementation of TQM was constructed. The research findings indicate that top management commitment and involvement, employee commitment and involvement, managing by customer-driven system and processes and continuous performance improvement, are essential to effective implementation of TQM. This implies that Palestinian organisations recognise and implement the same critical quality factors found in Western countries. The proposed framework is built around four major constructs that relate to top management commitment, employee commitment, customer-driven system and processes, and continuous improvement. It emphasises an implementation approach of top-down deployment and bottom-up participation focussing on businessp rocessesth at add value to customers atisfaction. In conclusion, this empirical research revealed that TQM could be implemented in the developing economies (such as Palestine) as Palestinian organisations subscribe to the same quality factors as those found in the developed economies.

This dissertation focuses on the ‘theo-political’ core of US Christian Zionism and Jewish Religious Zionism. The political militancy characterizing two Millenarian/Messianic movements such as Christian Zionism and Jewish Religious Zionism constitutes a still under-researched and under-theorized aspect that, at present, is paramount to address for its immediate and long terms implications in the highly sensitive and volatile Israeli-Palestinian issue, in the US and Israeli domestic domain, and in the wider international community. Although processes of the ‘sacralisation of politics’ and ‘politicisation of religions’ have already manifested themselves in countless forms over past centuries, Christian Zionism and Jewish Religious Zionism are unprecedented phenomena given their unique hybridized nature, political prominence and outreach, mobilizing appeal amongst believers, organizationalcommunicational skills and degree of institutionalization. / Consortium for Peace Studies at Calgary University

Recognising water as a central relational location of the asymmetric Israel- Palestinian conflict, this study critically analyses the peacebuilding significance of Israeli, transboundary water and peace practitioner discourses. Anchored in a theoretically-constructed framework of hydropolitical peacebuilding, it discursively analyses the historical, officially-sanctioned, as well as academic and civil society water and peace relations of Israelis and Palestinians. It responds to the question: How are Israeli water and peace practitioners discursively practicing hydropolitical peacebuilding in the Middle East? In doing so, this study has drawn upon a methodology of interpretive practice, combining ethnography, foucauldian discourse analysis and narrative inquiry. This study discursively traces Israel¿s development into a hydrohegemonic state in the Jordan River Basin, from the late-19th century to 2011. Recognising conflict as a power-laden social system, it makes visible the construction, production and circulation of Israel¿s power in the basin. It examines key narrative elements invoked by Israel to justify its evolving asymmetric, hydrohegemonic relations. Leveraging the hydropolitical peacebuilding framework, itself constituted of equality, partnership, equity and shared ii sustainability, this study also examines the discursive practices of Israeli transboundary water and peace practitioners in relationship with Palestinians. In so doing, it makes visible their hydrohegemony, hydropolitical peacebuilding, and hydrohegemonic residues. This study¿s conclusions re-affirm earlier findings, notably that environmental and hydropolitical cooperation neither inherently nor necessarily constitute peacebuilding practice. This work also suggests that hydropolitical peacebuilding may discursively be recognised in water and peace practices that engage, critique, resist, desist from, and practice alternative relational formations to hydrohegemony in asymmetric conflicts. / British Council/Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Fonds québecois de recherche sur la société et la culture (FQRSC).

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Financial dependency and a trend in donor-driven gender equality and women’s empowerment projects in the occupied Palestinian territories (oPt) have undoubtedly had an effect on the way in which NGOs are working and evolving: often projects are designed to fulfill donor requirements – and thereby policies - instead of creating an agenda which is politically and socially “home grown”. This paper analyses the USAID gender policy paper (as an example of foreign donor policy) and interviews conducted with legal, programme and gender experts in the oPt, exploring the challenges and gaps between policy and practice. The research uses qualitative research methods to analyze USAID discourse - exploring concepts such as representation, ideology and power - and general assumptions and perspectives towards women’s equality and empowerment in the Opt versus how this translates into practice.

The justification of war is a central issue in international relations, and the characteristic political response to war is to adopt a story that offers a degree of explanation. Narratives play a central role in garnering public support for wars to be seen as legitimate. Soft power, which includes sociocultural factors such as the state's image, credibility, shared values, and moral authority, also plays a crucial role. In the digital age, with the rise of social media, diplomacy has transformed and become a primary source of news with unparalleled global reach. Consequently, digital diplomacy has become essential for states to communicate their policy objectives directly to their audience through compelling social media narratives, especially during times of war. There have been few studies examining the relationship between soft power, digital diplomacy, and strategic narratives during wartime. This study uses visual narrative analysis (VNA) to address this gap by analysing eight video tweets published by the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) during the Israeli-Hamas war from October 7, 2023, and the six months after. The results show that the Israeli MFA used strategic narratives to legitimise the war. Notably, they used visual representations to emphasise Israel’s right to self-defence and its proximity to Western ideals, to garner support. Strategic narratives provide a storytelling which invoke the past to illuminate the present and future and create a shared identity in the context of the Israel-Hamas War.

This thesis seeks to answer the following question: How and to what extent does identity and Self-Other perception influence the foreign policy of the EU and Russia toward the establishment of a sovereign and viable Palestinian State? The thesis scrutinises the assumption that identity and Self-perception as well as perception of ‘otherness’ play a vital role in defining foreign policy-making, with policy toward the Middle East being no exception. The investigation focuses on how the EU’s and Russia’s desire to reinforce their ‘global actorness’ on the international stage informs their involvement in the Middle East peace process. This assumption brings into the analysis the dynamic of constructivism in the shaping of foreign policy. Through a constructivist approach, the thesis attempts to explore how Self-Other perception informs foreign policy-making, specifically by the EU and Russia, in relation to Palestinian statehood. Thus the thesis problematises existing views about the role of established IR schools in understanding foreign policy-making (namely, in terms of peace-making). The study seeks to deepen our understanding of the role of identity and Self-Other perception in EU and Russian foreign policy-making by going beyond conventional understanding of foreign policy-making that are fixated on ‘power’, with special reference to the question of Palestinian statehood. In this vein, I advance the argument that, contrary to the old assumptions of schools such as realism and liberalism, there is a role played by identity and ideas that needs to be assessed in the context of EU and Russian peace-making in the Middle East. The thesis tests these assumptions using a qualitative methodology to investigate the making of foreign policy by the EU and Russia. Discourse analysis is the main method employed to interpret the role of identity and Self-Other perceptions. This is done through a study of discourse made up of official documents and statements as well as interviews with diplomats with current and past involvement in the formulation of EU and Russian foreign policy.