The diploma thesis Women in CIA: From Typists to Trailblazers? analyzes the role of women in the CIA. The development of female workforce within the CIA is tracked in connection to key reforms of the American intelligence community and demands of liberal feminism. The thesis mainly deals with the change of the role of women in the US society and studies areas of intelligence work where gender discrimination against women took place. Although in the past years the number of women on different positions in the CIA proportionally increased, the Agency top management faces a relative scarcity of women. This lower representation of women in the CIA's leadership can diminish effective accomplishment of the CIA's mission. Key Agency's report served for analysis of the transformation of the status of women in the CIA and also for indentifying concrete problems leading to scarcity of women in the CIA's leadership. The author also proposed some incentives for enhancing female representation in the Agency top management.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine whether the context of ad pictures differs between Chinese ads and US ads and whether it can influence consumers' ad attitudes. Design/methodology/approach: An ad content analysis and a laboratory experiment were conducted to test the hypotheses. Findings: Findings suggest that contextualized ads appear more frequently in Chinese magazines because East Asians have a context-dependent mode of thinking while westerners have a context-independent mode of thinking. However, the effect of culture on advertising is moderated by product class (goods vs service), product category, and magazine category. Moreover, East Asians prefer contextualized ads to non-contextualized ones, while westerners prefer non-contextualized ads to contextualized ads. However, the effect of culture on ad attitudes may be moderated by ad involvement. Research limitations/implications: The limitations of this study stem from its being based on ad samples from China and its use of students to test ad attitudes. Practical implications: The findings allow managers to better determine whether and under what conditions to use contextualized or non-contextualized advertisements. Originality/value: The study's examination of the effect of culture on the context of ad format and effect of context on persuasion in this context constitutes a unique and valuable contribution to the literature. The paper also contributes much to the literature by checking cultural differences across 17 magazine categories, compared to the vast majority of studies analyzing ad content between eastern and western cultures, which have been based on ads from only a few sources.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine whether the context of ad pictures differs between Chinese ads and US ads and whether it can influence consumers' ad attitudes. Design/methodology/approach: An ad content analysis and a laboratory experiment were conducted to test the hypotheses. Findings: Findings suggest that contextualized ads appear more frequently in Chinese magazines because East Asians have a context-dependent mode of thinking while westerners have a context-independent mode of thinking. However, the effect of culture on advertising is moderated by product class (goods vs service), product category, and magazine category. Moreover, East Asians prefer contextualized ads to non-contextualized ones, while westerners prefer non-contextualized ads to contextualized ads. However, the effect of culture on ad attitudes may be moderated by ad involvement. Research limitations/implications: The limitations of this study stem from its being based on ad samples from China and its use of students to test ad attitudes. Practical implications: The findings allow managers to better determine whether and under what conditions to use contextualized or non-contextualized advertisements. Originality/value: The study's examination of the effect of culture on the context of ad format and effect of context on persuasion in this context constitutes a unique and valuable contribution to the literature. The paper also contributes much to the literature by checking cultural differences across 17 magazine categories, compared to the vast majority of studies analyzing ad content between eastern and western cultures, which have been based on ads from only a few sources.

The thesis examines the figure of the american general William Tecumseh Sherman and his activities during the American Civil War in modern historiography. In addition, the main focus is on evaluating his military campaign in Georgia, North, and South Carolina in the years 1864-1865. Nevertheless, the emphasis is on General Sherman by the different perceptions of individual American historians. This thesis aims to evaluate the development of their perspective or to reveal their tendency and subjectivity. This work tries to present individuals perspectives on Sherman՚s campaign, which is to create an objective picture on his campaigns. Therefore, historian՚s various ideas about the campaign՚s issues, such as total and destructive war, repression or violence against the civilians, looting, and robberies, are investigated. Not only the view of historians is examined, but also the southern narrative, the perception of general contemporaries and individual participants in the march, such as escaped slaves and, last but not least, Sherman himself. Key Words: The United States of America, American Civil War, William Tecumseh Sherman, Historiography, March to the Sea, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina

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This thesis explores the role of hope within the Biden administration’s biographical narrative during the year after the Capitol attack on January 6th. The thesis provides for both an exploration of the case and how hope within national identity representations can be analyzed, as well as the value of hope after a disruptive event with consequences for the nation’s self-understanding. Previous research has focused mainly on fear of the outside or internal anxiety as drivers of state identity representations while implicitly assuming the occurrence of universality or a stable identity within the state. Instead, the theorizing on hope proposed by the thesis suggests that the American subject is unfinished and incomplete within its identity representations and requires hope to move forward, while also immunizing notions of fear and anxiety. While a complete identity can never be reached, American identity representations are sustained by manifesting hope for the future. Even though the American collective subject may never reach its desired unity, the hope that it someday might allow for the continuation of identity representations of the striving subject.

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[pt] A dissertação de mestrado busca explorar a proposta do ex-presidente dos Estados Unidos Donald J. Trump de construir uma barreira física ao longo de toda a fronteira sul durante os anos de sua campanha eleitoral e posterior presidência (2015 - 2020). Mais especificamente, busca-se questionar o papel desempenhado pelo muro fronteiriço, construído apenas parcialmente em termos físicos, mas amplamente fortificado em termos discursivos e simbólicos, considerando a retórica afetivamente carregada de Trump que narrou um cenário de crise existencial nos Estados Unidos, apelando para sentimentos de insegurança ontológica entre seu eleitorado. Enquanto o projeto para construir o muro físico na fronteira encontrava-se cheio de inconsistências e desafios técnicos, o muro simbólico evocado por Trump repetidamente através do discurso parecia desempenhar um papel mais abrangente que ia além da barreira física, tornando-se elemento central na agenda política de Trump ao longo toda a sua presidência no que diz respeito à política de imigração. Quais são, então, os caminhos possíveis para entender como e por que o muro resiste discursiva e politicamente, mesmo quando parece falhar na prática? Para esta tarefa, o trabalho de pesquisa emprega uma abordagem dupla, primeiro sugerindo pensar criticamente sobre os enquadramentos discursivos de Trump sobre o muro de fronteira por meio de uma abordagem lacaniana à segurança ontológica e, em segundo lugar, adotando um olhar mais atento ao contexto sócio-econômico ao qual o muro responde, e que permite que este ressoe tão amplamente através do discurso, explorando as experiências vividas pela parcela dos apoiadores de Trump que encontravam-se empobrecidos e muitas vezes raivosamente ressentidos sob décadas de hegemonia neoliberal progressista. / [en] This Master s dissertation seeks to explore former US president Donald J. Trump s proposal to build a physical barrier along the entire Southern border throughout the years of his campaign and presidency (2015 - 2020). More specifically, it seeks to question the role played by the border wall, built only partially in physical terms but extensively fortified in discursive and symbolic ones, considering Trump’s affectively charged rhetoric which narrated a scenario of existential crisis in America, appealing to feelings of ontological insecurity among his constituency. While the project to construct the physical border wall itself was filled with inconsistencies and technical challenges, the symbolic wall evoked by Trump repeatedly through discourse seemed to play an overarching role which went beyond the physical barrier, and was a core element in Trump’s political agenda throughout his entire presidency wherever immigration policy was concerned. What, then, are the possible pathways for understanding how and why the wall withstands discursively and politically even as it seems to fail practically? For this task, this work of research employs a two-fold approach by first suggesting thinking about Trump s discursive framings of the border wall critically through a Lacanian approach to ontological security and, secondly, by arguing for a more attentive look towards the social and economic contexts to which the symbolic wall responds and which enables it to resonate so widely through discourse, exploring the lived experiences of impoverished and often angrily resentful Trump supporters under decades of progressive-neoliberal hegemony.

This thesis investigates global fight against terrorism in North West Pakistan and Afghanistan from a 21st century perspective in 2018. It focuses on local attitudes towards the War on Terror and their interplay with geo-strategic, regional, international and Pakistan’s domestic landscapes. In doing so, it questions the efficacy of existing academic and policy approaches towards achieving sustainable peace in North West Pakistan in particular and South Asia in general. It also evaluates the impact of regional rivalries especially in between Pakistan and India on the achievement of US foreign policy interests. Part-1 reviews existing literature on terrorism especially in post 9/11 setting. It examines the international discord of agreeing on a single definition of terrorism and its ramifications. It sequentially focuses on character of security in North West Pakistan and neighbouring Afghanistan since colonial times. It also identifies various traditional, religious and societal angles of Pashtun tribes; which always inspired them to fight against external powers. Part-2 combines academic investigations with empirical evidence. The results are correlated with current discussions on modern terrorism, geopolitical pulls and regional rivalries to create a holistic picture. It identifies local attitudes and regional rivalries as major impediments towards achievement of sustainable peace. Research findings indicated that predominant Western academic debates on the conflict were foreign policy inspired with little local and veteran input. By adapting a pragmatic approach the terrorism challenge can be addressed and the region can contribute towards the continuation of ‘Rules Based Order’ within the current phase of Great Power Rivalry.