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The Himalaya plays a vital role in shaping the hydro-climate of South Asia and beyond, but their climate has not yet been monitored and modelled as well as some other regions. As the summer monsoon is the dominant climate system over South Asia, including the Himalaya, realistic simulation of the South Asian summer monsoon (SASM) should be a prerequisite for the satisfactory simulation of the Himalayan climate. The present research tests the assumption that higher resolution modelling will provide improved representation of the SASM, both regionally and over the Himalaya region. The first part of this research assesses the strength and stability of the temporal relationships between the monsoon rainfall indices (MRIs) and the large-scale monsoon circulation indices (MCIs), as a precursor to using such indices for model evaluation. The remainder of the thesis evaluates model performance in simulating various characteristics of SASM, mainly with regard to precipitation. In particular, the sensitivity of a regional climate model (RCM) simulation to domain size and added value of high resolution RCM simulation are evaluated. For this purpose, the Hadley Centre unified model - HadGEM is utilized in its regional and, in few instances, global configurations. The RCM simulations are performed at 0.44° and 0.11° horizontal resolutions and they are forced by the ERA interim dataset. Results show that i) the MRI-MCI relationship exhibits considerable low-frequency variability, ii) RCM simulation of SASM, particularly precipitation, shows sensitivity to domain size and simulation with a moderately sized domain that partially excludes bias prone equatorial Indian ocean outperform those with larger domains, iii) high resolution RCM simulation adds value in many aspects of SASM precipitation, including the seasonal mean, relative frequency distribution, extremes, and active and break monsoon composites, but the improvements are generally seen over the Indo-Gangetic plain rather than the Himalaya. The findings promote use of a high resolution RCM over a moderate sized domain (~ 25,000,000 sq. km) for the realistic simulation of SASM, but the study needs to be repeated with multiple realizations and different RCMs before arriving at a robust conclusion.

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis explains the military relationship between the United States and Pakistan in the context of their divergent national security interests. During the Cold War, U.S. concerns focused on the global contest between democracy and communism. In this competition, Pakistan was seen as an important ally. However, Pakistan viewed India as its primary threat and considered global ideological concerns as secondary in importance. At times, each country benefited from the other, but neither ever fully met the other's most important needs. The United States did not support Pakistan in its wars with India and Pakistan did not confront communism except to help oust Afghani governments non-compliant with Pakistan's interests. Pakistan's military held power for more than half of Pakistan's existence and became the U.S.' key ally in South Asia. Pakistan's pursuit of nuclear weapons distanced U.S. relations in the post-Cold War environment. The terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 catapulted Pakistan's importance as an ally but at the cost of supporting a military regime and the erosion of a democratic government in Pakistan. This thesis argues that Pakistan's military now shares a relationship with the United States that builds regional stability but which may also hold political consequences in the United States. / Major, United States Marine Corps

Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis analyzes the Indian Air Force's (IAF) robust modernization campaign and explores why the IAF is on the path to transforming itself from an air force dedicated to air defense to one capable of global force projection. The stunning examples of airpower in the two Gulf Wars, Kosovo, and Afghanistan proved to the Indian leadership the value of modern airpower. Thanks to the amazing growth of the Indian economy, the IAF is gradually acquiring the weapon systems characteristic of a global aerospace force. Pakistan and China are concerned about the motivations behind IAF's modernization efforts and already have begun to improve their own air capabilities in response to any conventional or nuclear contingency. The responses of Pakistan, in particular, indicate the lowering of the nuclear threshold in South Asia. On the other front, a potential arms race between India and China is anticipated. The United States may be able to neutralize the damaging effects of India's military build-up by increasing its arms exports to both India and Pakistan. Specifically, the sale of American F-16s to both countries would fortify bilateral relation with the United States, maintain the fragile security balance in South Asia, and minimize China's influence in the region. / Captain, United States Air Force

This thesis explores cosmopolitan and humanist literary interventions by Palestinian, Israeli, Indian and Pakistani writers to the rise of ‘ethnically’ defined cultural and political narratives of community. It uses a comparative framework to look at contemporary authors such as Amitav Ghosh, Raja Shehadeh, Kamila Shamsie, Uzma Aslam Khan and David Grossman, who deconstruct the biologically defined border as a repressive literary, cultural and political metaphor in favour of more open-ended categories of identity and community. I argue that in deconstructing the epistemology of the exclusive boundary through cosmopolitan and humanist philosophies, these international writers demonstrate the impossibility of shedding all borders in their own work. Their ‘borderless’ aesthetic that constantly conjures the border is thus indicative of the interrelated nature of cosmopolitan and sectarian identities in a globalized modernity. Moreover, it is suggestive of the ambivalent relationship between politically-conscious postcolonial texts (which draw political lines) and the emerging field of World literature that is coming to be defined by its ability to appeal to the 'universal'.

This thesis examines the Indian system of personal laws (‘the PLS’), under which the state applies a version of religious doctrine to the family matters of citizens whom it identifies as belonging to different religious groups. There has been a lengthy and persistent debate over the PLS, particularly in relation to its discriminatory effects upon women. However, another problem with the PLS has been little commented-upon. Supporters of the PLS emphasise its positive impact on religious freedom to such an extent that there is a pervasive assumption that the PLS is, indeed, good for religious freedom. But there has been surprisingly little critical assessment of the truth of this claim in either academic or political debates. This thesis, a work of applied normative legal theory, attempts to fill this important gap in the literature on the PLS. The thesis addresses the question of how the PLS affects one conception of religious freedom, namely religious autonomy. Its principal findings are that the PLS interferes with the religious autonomy of those subject to it by affecting their religious options (by interfering with their freedom from religion and their freedom to practice religion) and by harming their self-respect (by discriminating on the grounds of sex and religion, and by misrecognising their religious identities). Furthermore, the thesis finds that the PLS cannot be defended in the name of religious autonomy based on the possibility of exit from the system, the advantage of having the ‘option of personal law’, the power it gives people to bind their future selves, the expressive potential of the personal laws, the contribution it makes to membership in a religious community, the contribution it makes to religious group autonomy, or the recognition or validation it provides for religious identities. These conclusions imply that concerns relating to religious autonomy constitute an important set of objections to the PLS. The thesis then considers several reform proposals, including certain modifications of the PLS, a move towards a millet system, ‘internal’ reform of individual personal laws and the introduction of a Uniform Civil Code. It particularly focusses on one reform possibility – religious alternative dispute resolution – which has not been considered closely in the Indian context.

This master's thesis sets out to interpret relations of India and Bangladesh and the course of their foreign policies in the light of geographical, geopolitical, demographic, and other realities and new paradigms, which determine forming of their mutual relations. The aim of this thesis is to highlight the geostrategic significance of Bangladesh for India and for the development of the surrounding region. This thesis also portrays the historical role of India in the emergence of Bangladesh and their relations since 1971 until today. It also deals with the key areas of Indian foreign and security policy towards Bangladesh, including economic cooperation, cooperation in the area of defence, legal and illegal migration, local and regional connectivity, energy, and water management. Given the topicality of the subject matter, this thesis draws information primarily from official documents published by governmental agencies, research institutes and think tanks, as well as from publicly accessible agreements, memorandums, arrangements, joint statements, press releases and other reliable sources. To a limited extent, it also sources Indian, Bangladeshi, and other media. Keywords: India, Bangladesh, India-Bangladesh Relations, South Asia, Indian Subcontinent, Neighbourhood First Policy, Foreign Policy

La présente thèse de doctorat consiste en une enquête globale sur la participation du Golfe à plusieurs systèmes spatiaux, - politico-administratifs et économiques, régionaux et mondiaux -, et sur la constructionprogressive qui en résulte. L’enquête a ainsi cherché à renouer les fils de deux « histoires » généralement conçues comme distinctes et à éclairer les interactions qui en procèdent. La première est celle de l’impérialisme britannique et anglo-indien dans le Golfe, de son fonctionnement, de ses implications spatiales, idéologiques et de son imaginaire au XIXe siècle. Il s’est donc agi de retracer la construction politicoadministrative mais aussi géo-historique, d’un espace, le Golfe. La seconde s’est attachée à démontrer l’insertion du Golfe à différents espaces économiques, macro-régionaux et mondiaux, par l’étude de divers flux de produits. Le propos est organisé en deux grandes parties, subdivisées en 5 chapitres chacune, et il s’y s’ajoute une importante série d’annexes. Le Livre premier (chapitres 1 à 5), intitulé « Espaces, pouvoirs etviolences », porte sur la mise en place, par plusieurs « outils » majeurs, de l’impérialisme britannique et angloindien dans le Golfe. Le Livre second (chapitres 6 à 10) a pour titre « Flux, connexions et internationalisation ». Il se concentre sur l’internationalisation croissante du monde khalijien au cours du XIXe siècle et sur la progressive création de cet espace composite appelé le « Moyen-Orient », qui est centré autour du Golfe, et dont nous soutenons qu’il fut empiriquement inventé aux Indes. Est également mise au jour l’insertion économique du Golfe dans ce que les historiens ont appelé « the expanding world economy », à travers le double effet d’un désenclavement accentué au fil des décennies et d’une progressive augmentation quantitative des flux commerciaux, tout en ne perdant pas de vue les liens marchands et les interpénétrations avec les espaces macro-régionaux, fortement actifs au cours du XIXe siècle. / This thesis is a comprehensive study of the Arabo-Persian Gulf’s involvement in various ‘spacesystems’ —politico-administrative, economic, regional, and global— and the ensuing construction of the Gulf as a space. It aims to gather together the threads of two stories that are generally seen as separate, thereby illuminating the interactions between them. First, this thesis seeks to contribute to the understanding of British and Anglo-Indian imperialism in the Gulf: its operation, its spatial and ideological implications, and the ‘imaginaries’ it created. It reveals the politico-administrative and geo-symbolic creation of a space, the Gulf. Secondly, the aim is to emphasise, by examining various flows of products, the insertion of the Gulf into different economic areas, both at a regional and global level. The first volume (chapters 1 to 5), entitled“Spaces, Powers and Violence”, explains the setting of British and Anglo-Indian imperialism in the Gulf, through the use of different tools. The second volume (chapters 6 to 10), entitled “Flows, Connections and Internationalisation”, focuses on the growing internationalisation of the Gulf during the long nineteenth century, and on the gradual creation of what was, in the opinion of the author, a “composite” space, the Middle East. It is argued that the Middle East, centred on the Gulf, was empirically invented in India. Further, this second volume emphasises the insertion of the Gulf into what historians term “the expanding world economy”, through an on-going opening up of the region, and an increase in trade flows. At the same time, it recognises that economic links and interpenetrations with macro-regional areas remained strong.

Why does the implementation of policies for educational improvement often disappoint? The literature suggests that pitfalls in the formulation stage can hamper successful implementation. This research aims to develop insights into the process of policy formulation in order to establish how this may affect subsequent policy implementation using a case study of Pre-Primary Education in Bangladesh. Uniquely, I have been able to study the development of PPE policy when it was taking place since I was directly involved in the process as a professional advisor working for a donor. The first research question investigated how the pre-primary policy was formed. This had two parts in terms of i) developing understanding of the phases of policy formulation and the stakeholders involved, and ii) analysing the discourses that informed the policy. The second research question enquired into the development of the implementation strategy and its feasibility, and compared expectations with the data available on the characteristics and impact of the initial implementation. This enabled the identification of aspects of policy formulation that shape current and future implementation. Special attention was given to the development of policy that prioritised underprivileged children throughout the process, because of the extent of unequal provision and because this was a high profile goal for educational development. The analysis of policy development derived from relevant policy documents and keyinformant interviews highlighted charismatic and politicised approaches to educational reform, which lacked the involvement of beneficiaries and those tasked with implementation. This has consequences for subsequent impact and the sustainability of the new policy. The initial implementation was generally considered inadequate and uneven by the respondents. It reflected aspirational planning linked to the EFA goals, with ambitious aims to provide a "quantitative breakthrough" in access and attainment without a realistic assessment of the resources available and the capacity to mobilise them. When the implementation strategy was updated and included in the third national programme of primary education (PEDP III), a more phased and comprehensive approach to planning was introduced. However, reports on programme implementation have identified delays and difficulties in starting PEDP III, albeit improvements between year 1 and 2 have been noted. In particular, the implementation strategies identified were insufficiently detailed and different stakeholders' needs were not properly assessed. More equitable delivery to underprivileged children remains poorly articulated. Part of the reason appears to be diminished political will and inconsistent leadership. Finally, opportunities to collaborate with the NGO service providers have not been fully exploited and the implementation planning for PEDP III appeared to have relied excessively on external expertise, with implications for the ownership and continuity of the policy on pre-school. Based on these findings, suggestions are offered to the development partners, the Government and the NGOs to improve the integration of policy and implementation strategies to increase the probability of sustained improvements in Pre Primary provision.