President Ronald Reagan participated in more U.S.-Soviet summits than any previous U.S. president, as he met with his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev, on four occasions between November 1985 and June 1988. Prior to, during, and following each meeting with Gorbachev, Reagan often engaged in the rhetoric of public diplomacy, including speeches, statements, and media interviews. The four Reagan- Gorbachev summits accompanied significant changes in U.S.-Soviet relations, in the Cold War, and also within the Soviet Union. Many scholars attribute improved U.S.- Soviet relations to a change in Reagan’s Soviet rhetoric and policies, arguing that he abandoned the confrontation of his first term for conciliation during his second term. Other scholars argue that Reagan failed to abandon confrontation and, consequently, missed opportunities to support the liberalization of the Soviet system. Based upon close analysis of Reagan’s summit rhetoric, this dissertation contends that he did not abandon his confrontational policy objectives, but he did modify his rhetoric about the Soviets. Reagan reformulated the conventional Cold War rhetoric of rapprochement that emphasized nuclear arms controls as the path to world peace by emphasizing increased U.S.-Soviet trust as prerequisite to new arms treaties. Reagan’s summit rhetoric emphasized the need for the Soviets to make changes in non-nuclear arms areas as a means of reducing international mistrust and increasing the likelihood of new U.S.- Soviet arms treaties. Reagan advocated that the Soviets participate in increased bilateral people-to-people exchanges, demonstrate respect for human rights, and disengage from various regional conflicts, especially Afghanistan. Reagan adopted a dualistic strategy that combined confrontation and conciliation as he sought to promote those changes in Soviet policies and practices. During his second term as president, Reagan made his confrontational rhetoric less strident and also used more conciliatory discourse. At the same time, he subsumed his anti-Soviet objectives within his conciliatory rhetoric. This rhetorical strategy allowed Reagan to continue to advocate anti-Soviet objectives while at the same time seeking to promote improved relations and world peace. The findings of this dissertation suggest that existing scholarly views of Reagan’s summit rhetoric and his role in promoting the liberalization of the Soviet system should be reconsidered.

The purpose of this study is to explore the possibility of multilateral diplomacy, as an instrument, to advance women's rights in the realm of international relations. Multilateral diplomacy has proven to be an effective instrument for managing order and change in the international arena quite effectively. The United Nations, as an international organisation, provides a style of diplomatic interaction that is available for public scrutiny. Sensitive issues, such as the advancement of the status of women, have been prioritised on the global agenda and could be subsequently incorporated into the policies of participating states. The diversity of role players attending an international conference is another positive feature of multilateral diplomacy. By virtue of it's nature, multilateral diplomacy is therefore an effective instrument for focussing globally on the issue of women's rights. The position of women in international political theory is dealt with by theorists from various perspectives. The feminist theorists ensure that social and political debates on the authority, legitimacy, democracy and universal human rights are considered from a woman's perspective. Where women are and where they should be are two questions that are equally important and crucial to dealing with the advancement of women's rights on the global agenda. Global issues, such as war, have had a shift in perspective from security-awareness to humanitarian-awareness. In its partnership with civil society, the United Nations as a diplomatic instrument, has become a voice for women internationally. The patriarchic system of apartheid in South Africa managed to entrench discrimination within its legislation based on both race and gender. A particular focus is the national machinery set up within South Africa to ensure that what was agreed on to at the international conferences makes a difference to the lives of women in South Africa. This paper intends to build on the existing body of knowledge currently available on the status of women in international relations theory. From a diplomatic perspective, it examines how the instrument of multilateral diplomacy has contributed to the advancement of women's rights. / Thesis (MDips)--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Political Sciences / unrestricted

The diploma thesis named "Nixon-Brezhnev Summits in 1973 and 1974 in Czechoslovakian Press" deals with the presentation of summits between Leonid Brezhnev and Richard Nixon in contemporary Czechoslovakian dailies. It analyzes texts published by the media concerning the meetings in 1973 and 1974 in Washington and Moscow in the set period of more than one month around the meetings. Not only does the thesis research the degree of bias of the media content due to the ideological inclination towards the Soviet Union. It also analyzes the way in which the media in Czechoslovakia dealt with the presentation of both the enemy superpowers as partners. The theory part provides in introduction of the topic and basic historical context of the events. Furthermore it characterizes the respective meetings and the analyzed dailies. The practical part covers detailed qualitative content analysis of the selected representatives of the contemporary Czechoslovakian press, namely Rudé právo, Svobodné slovo, Mladá fronta and Lidová demokracie. Then the thesis compares the presentation of the respective summits and attempts to find the causes of the differences and trends in the in the presentation. As an addition the thesis also provides a comparison with similar meetings between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev,...

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The Doctoral Thesis "Analysis of Trade Relations between the European Union and Latin America from 1995-2011" focuses on the determination Latin America's potential as a trading partner for the European Union. It will be based on an analysis of the region's trade relationships between 1995 and 2011 through different econometric models and a macroeconomic analysis. It will make recommendations for improving economic relation policies with Latin America and the European Union as well as identify the sectors which could represent great potential for trade between both regions. The research is divided into seven chapters: The first chapter covers international trade theory; this part comprises the theoretical aspects directly related to international trade. The second chapter analyzes the macroeconomic features of Latin American countries and compares them with data from the European Union. A separate, detailed analysis of 17 Latin American countries was performed and the potential of each one to make their importance known to the world and define their geopolitical position is described. The third chapter details the trade policies of the European Union and Latin America. The fourth chapter discusses trade relations between Latin America and the European Union through a look at the trade agreements that have been signed between the European Union and Latin American countries and tries to identify possible causes of failures for agreements not signed. This chapter also studies the sectorial composition of trade between the two regions, emphasizing the asymmetry between these trades flows as they enter the countries studied. The fifth chapter, the heart of this research paper, analyzes the trade relations between the EU and Latin America through a gravity model, identifying the obstacles and barriers to international trade between the two regions. The second part of this chapter discusses institutional factors, which, as a result of the conclusions from the gravity model explained earlier in the chapter, play an important role in international trade between Latin America and the European Union. This section contains a comparative analysis of the situation of the institutional factors in the 29 Latin American countries which were analyzed in the gravity model. This chapter also includes a trade simulation between the Czech Republic and Latin America with the institutional factors in Latin America showing a 10% improvement. In the sixth chapter, the competitiveness of 17 Latin American countries is calculated using the results of the barriers to international trade through a new method based on the comparison of indicators, ranked by dimension and according to the weight thereof for a period of time. The last chapter focuses on the identification of the variables determining foreign direct investment in Latin America, represented by 29 countries and over a period of time from 1995 to 2011. It considers variables traditionally not considered such as the number of patents registered, the tax rate and institutional factors, which have revealed important explanatory variables as well as those traditionally considered such as GDP, inflation, population, the share of GDP by sector, income level, etc. The last part of this research lists the conclusions reached and proposes recommendations for economic relations policy development between Latin America and the European Union.

The diploma thesis "Strategic Defense Initiative" deals with the issue of the Strategic initiative on the basis of historical-political analysis. The SDI was a crucial topic during the 80s, which had political impacts on the development of the international events and the Cold war in general. This work presents brief history of the United States ABM systems and introduced historical context. Furthermore, the author analyzes possible reasons for the SDI announcement and reexamines Reagan's speech from March 1983. Persons and interest groups who were promoting strategic defense are also included in this analysis. Problems connected to the SDI and its brief description are also mentioned. The following chapter deals with Soviet reaction to the SDI. The seventh chapter dicusses the European reaction to the SDI. The topic is analyzed on the example of United Kingdom. Next chapter deals with the Anti Ballistic Missile treaty and its interpretations from the SDI prespective. Last chapter discusses US - Soviet summits which took place in the 80s with emphasis on the SDI.

This article is intended to explain core ideas resulting from processes of which Peruvian environmental legal system is derived; it is morean overview rather than a system characterization, as well as a perspective or sampling foresight representing Río +20 process meaning. In that sense, it examines the modern environmental regulations rising context and provides a brief retrospective of Peruvian environmental legal system development and prospective studies within the frame of green economy paradigms and the environmental governance, presenting only three prospective references aschallenges and trends on: Climate and Energy Law, a new legal Framework for a Green Economy and Sustainable Enterprise, and finally, stressing emphatically on mega-cities, Conurbation and Land use Planning issues given little attention usually law renders to this matters. / El ensayo pretende explicar las ideas fuerza de los procesos quedan origen al sistema jurídico ambiental peruano, una reseña antes que una caracterización del sistema, así como una perspectiva o prospectiva muestral a resultas de lo que representa el proceso denominado Río + 20. En ese sentido, da cuenta del contexto en que surge la normativa ambiental nacional moderna, igualmente ofrece una breve retrospectiva del desarrollo del sistema jurídico ambiental peruano y las prospectivas en el marco de los paradigmas de la economía verde y la gobernanza ambiental, mostrando solo tres referentes proyectivos a modo de desafíos y tendencias sobre el derecho climático y derecho energético, el imperativo de un nuevo marco legal parauna economía verde y empresa sostenible; y un gran énfasis al tema de las megaciudades, conurbación y ordenamiento territorial, con énfasis, debido a la poca atención que le suele brindar el derecho.