Surveying an extensive range of British travel texts, the thesis explores the manner in which the Balkans have been viewed as a significant `other' of British civilisation over the last one hundred and fifty years, particularly from 1989 to 2001, between the demise of the communist adversary and the rise of `global terrorism'. The thesis pursues three major objectives, all of which advance upon previous studies of cross-cultural representation and travel writing. Firstly, I argue that despite its heterogeneous nature, balkanist discourse has passed through three distinct paradigms. These are denigration before 1914, romanticisation in the inter-war years, and, after an ambivalent mixture of sympathy and disappointment during the Cold War, a return to denigration in the 1990s. Secondly, I contend that such paradigms are dependent not on conditions within the Balkans, but on the forms and transformations of the travellers' own cultural background. Most importantly, I explore the links between the three paradigms and the cultural moments of imperialism, modernity and poshnodernity. I examine, for example, how pre-1914 denigration reveals close similarities to colonial discourse, how inter-war romanticism reflects the modernist quest for exoticism and psychological escape, and how the reappearance of denigration coincides with the advent of postmodern scepticism. As a central component of such study, I explore how the changing identity positions of British travellers since 1850, shifting from the imperial subjects of the Victorian age to today's postromantic generation, have impacted on balkanist representation. The third major objective is to analyse how these constructions have served economic and political power. Making use of that Foucauldian strand of poststructuralism common in postcolonial studies of cultural discourse, I examine the way in which British support for Ottoman hegemony in the Balkans in the nineteenth century, which denigratory representation helped to vindicate, found its equivalents in the shifting patterns of western influence and conquest that the Balkans have been subject to in the twentieth century.

The thesis analyses the Croatian city of Vukovar as a way of animating theoretical debates about the relationship between security, emancipation and practice. It claims that emancipation must be understood through experiences of security and insecurity as they are lived. Located in security studies, it begins with a critical reading of the Welsh School. Ken Booth's original move to associate security with emancipation opened up new possibilities for reimagining the field and for practicing security, but subsequent developments orientated the security as emancipation move towards closure. A genuinely open way of exploring this move is the context of Andrew Linklater's adaptation of Habermasian discourse ethics. In this way an engagement between Booth and Linklater is opened which runs throughout the thesis. The second part introduces Vukovar. It details the violence of late-1991 seen in the city, and outlines how the emergence of Croatian democracy represents a form of settlement. Yet patterns of memorialisation and reconstruction in Vukovar entrench a pro-Croat narrative of settlement at the expense of non-Croats who are unjustly excluded. Furthermore, interviews with leaders of local civil society, religious and political groups suggest that difference and contestation, rather than settlement, characterise the post-war period in Vukovar. The third part presents an analysis of the emancipatory practices which take place within the local context of contestation. Interviews with NGOs in Vukovar support Booth's emphasis on civil society groups as agents of emancipation. Subsequent interviews challenge his view in important ways as the human limits of emancipatory practices are revealed. However, even when such limitations are taken into account, certain civil society practices show how Booth and Linklater's respective understandings of emancipatory practice are played out in what are termed microdialogic communities. These alternative dialogues open new spaces and allow dominant understandings of the war to be challenged.

No description available.

This thesis examines the extent to which and the conditions under which Turkish foreign policy is Europeanised. In doing so, it analyses the formal, behavioural and discursive dimensions of Europeanisation in Turkish foreign policy since 1987 to assess the extent to which the European Union (EU) foreign policy principles and norms are institutionalised. The empirical puzzle is derived from the focus of the literature on the Europeanisation of non-members that has concentrated on Central and European Countries (CEECs) before their accession to the EU. Foreign policy is a policy area that remains under-examined within the context of non-member state Europeanisation. This thesis addresses this gap, focusing on the case of Turkey. At the theoretical level, it applies the insights of rational choice and constructivist approaches that inspire two broad models, the External Incentives Model (ElM) and the Social Learning Model (SLM), to the study of 'foreign policy change'. The thesis examines normative and substantive areas of foreign policy and distinguishes a formal, behavioural and discursive dimension of Europeanisation. In the normative area, it analyses the formal dimension of Europeanisation over Turkey's adherence to good neighbourly relations and the behavioural dimension of Turkey's peace-making initiatives through mediation and Official Development Assistance (ODA). In the substantive area, it analyses the formal dimension of Turkey's alignment with the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and the behavioural dimension of the geographical direction of high profile official visits. Finally, the discursive dimension of foreign policy statements is analysed with reference to both the normative and the substantive areas. The empirical analysis of the five areas shows that EU rules were initially not institutionalised in Turkish foreign policy. The analysis reveals that Europeanisation in all five areas started in 1987; rather than in 1999 as is commonly believed. Yet Europeanisation before 1999 came in the form of policy adjustment, while the transformation of foreign policy only occurred after 1999 in the substantive areas and after 2002 in the normative areas. Moreover, the thesis finds that in four areas covered, with the notable exception of the behavioural dimension of Europeanisation covered by peace-making initiatives, policy retrenchment occurred after 2005. Furthermore, the thesis argues that different degrees and directions of Europeanisation are better captured by the ElM than the SLM. In particular, the analysis reveals that the Europeanisation of foreign policy in Turkey is triggered by domestic factors. Among them, the degree of compatibility of the position of the governing parties with EU foreign policy principles and norms and the degree of domestic capacity best explain different degrees and directions of Europeanisation. Before 1999, and particularly before 2002, domestic capacity was low and did not allow a transformation type of Europeanisation to occur even at times when the governing parties pursued a strong pro-EU orientation.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited. / Since the ROK and North Korea stand face to face in the Korean Peninsula, there has been constant concern about the risk of war. In this situation, prevention of war on the Korean Peninsula is much more important than anything else. It is feasible when the balance of conventional military forces is kept. The purposes of this thesis are to compare each side's ground forces as major military strength, to develop the ROK ground force structure planning for ground force balance of the ROK against North Korea, to identify the important factors for reinforcement of ground forces in wartime, and to present the Combat models considered for the Korean Peninsula. In addition to those it proposes the U.S. presence in Korea and the improvement of early-warning capabilities. / http://archive.org/details/balanceofroknort00kims / Major, Korean Army

The Kingston Plains are nine-and-a-half square miles of stump prairie -- a field of stumps from a previously logged forest -- in the central Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Through a mix of personal essay and research, this nonfiction work explores the author's fascination with the area by examining its soil, forest ecology, lumber history, fire ecology, and potential symbolism for a different way of processing the world around us.

Inaug.-diss.--Leipzig. / Lebenslauf. "Literatur": p. [99]-105; bibliographical foot-notes.

Thesis (M.A.)--Johnson Bible College, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-85).

This thesis is a case-study of Slobodan Milosevic as a prototype of the "criminal" leader. Challenging the existing consensus among Western liberals, for whom Milosevic is unquestionably criminal, it asks whether and to what extent Milosevic is a criminal leader. It approaches this by first dissecting the Western construction of Milosevic as a criminal leader into its key components -- his actions and intentions, his motivations, his personality and psychology, and his comparison with other "criminal" leaders. This normative-driven construction is then empirically tested, using two main sources. The speeches of Milosevic, fundamentally misrepresented by many Western commentators, are analyzed. The second primary source used is semi-structured interviews (supported by public opinion poll data). Strongly influenced by bottom-up studies of the Hitler and Stalin regimes, two leaders that can be seen as crucial cases of the criminal leader, this research is particularly concerned with exploring how ordinary people in Serbia - heavily neglected in the existing Western literature - view Milosevic. This allows us to ascertain whether and to what extent the Western, liberal construction of Milosevic as a criminal leader has domestic/field validity. What the interview data reveals is a sharp discrepancy between the external (Western) and domestic (Serbian) viewpoints. The Serbian interviewees overwhelmingly view Milosevic not as a criminal leader, but as a "bad" (unsuccessful) leader and/or as a victim. This discrepancy is translated into, and used to develop, a general concept of the criminal leader. This conceptualization emphasizes both the externally constructed nature of the criminal leader (policy dimension) and the importance of studying the criminal leader from below (domestic dimension).

In the post-Cold War era, the Balkans came to exemplify the power of resurgent nationalisms freed from the straitjacket of bipolar stability. The break-up of the Yugoslav federation suggested that exclusivist ethno-national identities trumped the logic of political and economic integration. Yet, by the early 2000s, regional cooperation made significant inroads into South East Europe. This study addresses the puzzle of why the Balkan states have engaged in a number of multilateral schemes in fields such as military security, trade, infrastructure development, energy, despite the region's divisive historical legacies and political instability. The thesis explores the impact of three factors: regional interdependence denoting the socio-economic and political linkages which contribute to the convergence of Balkan states' material interests, external push referring to the policies for fostering regional cooperation adopted by key actors such as the EU, US, and NATO, and identity politics: the discourses on the borders, cultural make-up and history of a Balkan regional entity as well as the latter's relationship with constructs like Europe and the West. The thesis argues that external projection of power, rather than regional interdependence, accounted for the development and growth of Balkan regionalism. However, the push from outside was legitimised by Balkan collective identity built upon myths of belonging to and exclusion from 'civilised Europe'. Regionalism was not solely a reflection of the supply and demand for integrative frameworks, but amounted to a symbolic strategy for transforming the volatile Balkans into South East Europe by the adoption of the institutional norms and practices of international clubs such as the EU and NATO. The case of regional cooperation in South East Europe contributes to the debates about the politics of interest and the politics of identity in the field of International Relations, and raises questions about the nature of power in contemporary Europe and the international society.