Dependency in the twenty-first century? The political economy of China–Latin America relations, by Barbara Stallings

Dependency in the Twenty-First Century? The Political Economy of China–Latin America Relations, by Barbara Stallings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. vii+82 pp. US$20.00 (paper), US$16.00 (e-book)

“We will not treat you like Africa”

Four specialists discuss the social and environmental impact and the perspectives of the partnership between China and Latin America in 2016

Enlisting the gatekeeper: chain-referral and elite access in foreign policy analysis

How can ordinary journalistic and academic researchers, young doctoral candidates in particular, get past the gatekeepers and access the exclusive world of elite policy-makers and top executives for purposes of interviewing? This is the question this case study will address. The author found that non-random “snowball sampling” or chain-referral can begin with the gatekeepers, who themselves give access to elite interviewees. In the context of a process tracing study, this is a potent methodology. In short, the key to getting “snowball access” rolling is the interpersonal relationships that the researcher should establish with the first few persons who grant an interview

Geopolitics in Central America: China and El Salvador in the 21st century

The chapter discusses the diplomatic relationship between the PRC and El Salvador. It is organized in four sections. The first reviews El Salvador’s economic and foreign relations. The second summarizes Taipei’s history with El Salvador (1954–2018). The third examines PRC-El Salvador relations. The fourth concludes, prospecting future relations, and briefly assessing Washington’s reaction. The chapter is useful for those wanting to understand China’s presence in Central America in the wake of increasing geopolitical competition between the United States and the PRC

Latin America in/and the AIIB: a constructivist analysis

This research focuses on the relationship between Latin America and China. The authors try to answer the question of why the countries of the region have been passive in the context of their interaction with the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). The relevance of the topic stems from the gradual increase in China’s importance and presence in the Latin American region. Today, China is one of the key economic partners of several Latin American countries. To date, however, countries in the region have not been very active in their engagement with the AIIB, despite the existence of specific material incentives. Methodologically, the study is based on a constructivist approach. According to the authors, alternative paradigms of international relations, such as liberalism and realism, fail to explain the paradox of stubborn inaction by the countries of the region. This is due to the fact that the historically rooted and culturally bound procedural nature of international relations allows constructivism to uncover the individual facts that led to this result. The authors conclude that governments in the Latin American region have “constructed” between themselves quite a few customary modes of behaviour which debilitate their demonstrated capacity for agency in international affairs. This has created a vacuum of effective strategy in relations with China in the region. Moreover, this pattern of engagement is not limited to China and is evident in the relations of regional countries with the US and other extra-regional powers

Computational studies of electronic and thermal properties of low dimensional materials

The control of low dimensional materials holds potential for revolutionizing the electronic, thermal, and thermoelectric materials engineering. Through strategic manipulation and optimization of these materials, unique properties can be uncover which enable more efficient and effective materials development. Towards the determination of nanoscale strategies to improve the electronic and phononic devices, computational simulations of modified low dimensional materials have been carried in this research. First, the electronic properties of chemically func tionalized phosphorene monolayers are evaluated with spin-polarized Density Functional Theory, as a potential method to tune their electronic properties. The functionalization not only leads to formation of additional states within the semiconducting gap, but also to the emergence of local magnetism. The magnetic ground state and electronic structure are investigated in dependence of molecular coverage, lattice direction of the molecular adsorption and molecule type functionalization. Furthermore, the physical and transport properties of phosphorene grain boundaries under uniaxial strain are evaluated by the use of Density Functional based Tight Binding method in combination with Landauer theory. In both grain boundary types, the electronic bandgap decreases under strain, however, the respective thermal conductance is only weakly affected, despite rather strong changes in the frequency-resolved phonon transmission. The combination of both effects results in an enhancement in the thermoelectric figure of merit in the phosphorene grain boundary systems. Finally, the thermoelectric properties of carbon nanotubes peapod heterostructures are studied and compared to pristine nanotubes using also the Density Functional based Tight Binding method and Landauer theory. It is found that the fullerene encapsulation modifies the electron and phonon transport properties, causing the formation of electronic channels and the suppression of vibrational modes that lead to an improvement of the thermoelectric figure of merit. The results of this thesis highlight the potential of strategic manipulation and optimization of low dimensional materials in improving their unique electronic and thermal properties, revealing promising avenues for improving electronic and phononic devices.:ABSTRACT i ZUSAMMENFASSUNG ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv LIST OF FIGURES ix LIST OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS xviii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation 1 1.2 Objectives and outline 6 2 Computational Methods 8 2.1 Density Functional Theory 8 2.1.1 The Many-Body System Hamiltonian and the Born-Oppenheimer approximation 9 2.1.2 Thomas-Fermi-Dirac approximation model 10 2.1.3 The Hohenberg-Kohn theorems 12 2.1.4 The Kohn-Sham orbitals equations 13 2.1.5 Exchange-correlation functionals 15 2.2 Density Functional Based Tight Binding method 16 2.2.1 Tight-binding formalism 17 2.2.2 From DFT to DFTB 20 2.2.3 Parametrization 22 2.3 Atomistic Green’s functions 23 2.3.1 Non-Equilibrium Green’s functions for modeling electronic transmission 23 2.3.2 Non-equilibrium Green’s function for modeling thermal transmission 27 3 Tuning the electronic and magnetic properties through chemical functionalization 3.1 Introduction 33 3.1.1 Black phosphorus as a 2D material 33 3.1.2 Chemical Functionalization of low dimensional systems 35 3.1.3 Bipolar Magnetic Semiconductors 36 3.2 Computational approach 38 3.3 Interface effects in phosphorene by OH functionalization 39 3.3.1 Single molecule functionalization 39 3.3.2 Lattice selection 43 3.3.3 Coverage 45 3.4 Chiral functionalization effect in phosphorene 48 3.5 Functionalizing phosphorene towards BMS 51 3.6 Summary 53 4 Tuning transport properties through strain and grain bound-aries 4.1 Introduction 54 4.1.1 Strain in low dimensional materials 54 4.1.2 Grain boundaries 56 4.2 Computational approach 58 4.2.1 Molecular systems 58 4.2.2 Electron and phonon transport and thermoelectric figure of merit 58 4.3 Structural modification by strain in GB systems 60 4.4 Electronic structure modification by strain in GB systems 63 4.5 Thermal transport modification by strain in GB systems 65 4.6 Thermoelectric figure of merit of strained GB systems 68 4.7 Summary 71 5 Tuning transport properties through hybrid nanomaterials: CNT peapods 73 5.1 Introduction 73 5.1.1 Carbon-based nanostructures 73 5.1.2 CNT peapods as hybrid nanomaterials 76 5.2. Computational details 77 5.2.1 CNT peapod model 77 5.2.2 Quantum transport methodology 78 5.3 Structural properties of CNT peapods 79 5.4 Electronic properties of CNT peapods 80 5.5 Thermal properties of CNT peapods 83 5.6 Thermoelectronic properties of CNT peapods 85 5.7 Summary 88 6 Conclusions and outlook 91 Appendices Appendix A Supplementary information to phosphorene functionalization A.1 Spin resolved density of states of 1-OH system 96 A.2 Spin valve model 97 Appendix B Supplementary information to phosphorene grain boundaries 98 B.1 Projected Phonon Density of States in GB1 98 B.2 Thermoelectric transport properties of GB2 99 Appendix C Supplementary information to CNT peapods 101 C.1 Geometry optimization of CNT peapods with larger CNT diameter 101 C.2 Additional analysis of electron transport properties 102 C.3 Phonon band structure of different CNT structures 104 C.4 Additional analysis of thermoelectric performance 105 REFERENCES 105 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 131 PRESENTATIONS 132Die Kontrolle niedrigdimensionaler Materialien birgt das Potenzial für eine Revolutionierung der elektronischen, thermischen und thermoelektrischen Technologien. Durch strategische Manipulation und Optimierung dieser Materialien können einzigartige Eigenschaften aufgedeckt werden, die eine effizientere und effektivere Materialentwicklung ermöglichen. Um Strategien im Nanobereich zur Verbesserung elektronischer und phononischer Bauelemente zu ermitteln, wurden in dieser Forschungsarbeit rechnerische Simulationen modifizierter niedrigdimensionaler Materialien durchgeführt. Zunächst werden die elektronischen Eigenschaften von chemisch funktionalisierten Phosphoren-Monoschichten mit Hilfe der spinpolarisierten Dichtefunktionaltheorie als potenzielle Methode zur Abstimmung ihrer elektronischen Eigenschaften bewertet. Die Funktionalisierung führt nicht nur zur Bildung zusätzlicher Zustände innerhalb der halbleitenden Lücke, sondern auch zum Auftreten von lokalem Magnetismus. Der magnetische Grundzustand und die elektronische Struktur werden in Abhängigkeit von der molekularen Bedeckung, der Gitterrichtung der molekularen Adsorption und der Funktionalisierung des Moleküls untersucht. Darüber hinaus werden die Transporteigenschaften von Phosphoren-Korngrenzen unter uniaxialer Belastung mit Hilfe der auf Dichtefunktionen basierenden Tight-Binding-Methode in Kombination mit der Landauer-Theorie untersucht. In beiden Korngrenzentypen nimmt die elektronische Bandlücke unter Dehnung ab, die jeweilige Wärmeleitfähigkeit wird jedoch nur schwach beeinflusst, trotz ziemlich starker Änderungen in der frequenzaufgelösten Phononentransmission. Die Kombination bei der Effekte führt zu einer Erhöhung der thermoelektrischen Leistungszahl in den Phosphorkorngrenzensystemen. Schließlich werden die thermoelektrischen Eigenschaften von Kohlenstoffnanoröhren-Peapod-Heterostrukturen untersucht und mit denen von reinen Nanoröhren verglichen, wobei auch die auf Dichtefunktionen basierende Tight-Binding-Methode und die Landauer-Theorie verwendet werden. Es wird festgestellt, dass die Fullereneinkapselung die Elektronen- und Phononentransporteigenschaften modifiziert und die Bildung von elektronischen Kanälen und die Unterdrückung von Schwingungsmoden bewirkt, was zu einer Verbesserung der thermoelektrischen Leistungszahl führt. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit verdeutlichen das Potenzial der strategischen Manipulation und Optimierung niedrigdimensionaler Materialien zur Verbesserung ihrer einzigartigen elektronischen und thermischen Eigenschaften und zeigen vielversprechende Wege zur Verbesserung elektronischer und phononischer Bauteile auf.:ABSTRACT i ZUSAMMENFASSUNG ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv LIST OF FIGURES ix LIST OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS xviii 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Motivation 1 1.2 Objectives and outline 6 2 Computational Methods 8 2.1 Density Functional Theory 8 2.1.1 The Many-Body System Hamiltonian and the Born-Oppenheimer approximation 9 2.1.2 Thomas-Fermi-Dirac approximation model 10 2.1.3 The Hohenberg-Kohn theorems 12 2.1.4 The Kohn-Sham orbitals equations 13 2.1.5 Exchange-correlation functionals 15 2.2 Density Functional Based Tight Binding method 16 2.2.1 Tight-binding formalism 17 2.2.2 From DFT to DFTB 20 2.2.3 Parametrization 22 2.3 Atomistic Green’s functions 23 2.3.1 Non-Equilibrium Green’s functions for modeling electronic transmission 23 2.3.2 Non-equilibrium Green’s function for modeling thermal transmission 27 3 Tuning the electronic and magnetic properties through chemical functionalization 3.1 Introduction 33 3.1.1 Black phosphorus as a 2D material 33 3.1.2 Chemical Functionalization of low dimensional systems 35 3.1.3 Bipolar Magnetic Semiconductors 36 3.2 Computational approach 38 3.3 Interface effects in phosphorene by OH functionalization 39 3.3.1 Single molecule functionalization 39 3.3.2 Lattice selection 43 3.3.3 Coverage 45 3.4 Chiral functionalization effect in phosphorene 48 3.5 Functionalizing phosphorene towards BMS 51 3.6 Summary 53 4 Tuning transport properties through strain and grain bound-aries 4.1 Introduction 54 4.1.1 Strain in low dimensional materials 54 4.1.2 Grain boundaries 56 4.2 Computational approach 58 4.2.1 Molecular systems 58 4.2.2 Electron and phonon transport and thermoelectric figure of merit 58 4.3 Structural modification by strain in GB systems 60 4.4 Electronic structure modification by strain in GB systems 63 4.5 Thermal transport modification by strain in GB systems 65 4.6 Thermoelectric figure of merit of strained GB systems 68 4.7 Summary 71 5 Tuning transport properties through hybrid nanomaterials: CNT peapods 73 5.1 Introduction 73 5.1.1 Carbon-based nanostructures 73 5.1.2 CNT peapods as hybrid nanomaterials 76 5.2. Computational details 77 5.2.1 CNT peapod model 77 5.2.2 Quantum transport methodology 78 5.3 Structural properties of CNT peapods 79 5.4 Electronic properties of CNT peapods 80 5.5 Thermal properties of CNT peapods 83 5.6 Thermoelectronic properties of CNT peapods 85 5.7 Summary 88 6 Conclusions and outlook 91 Appendices Appendix A Supplementary information to phosphorene functionalization A.1 Spin resolved density of states of 1-OH system 96 A.2 Spin valve model 97 Appendix B Supplementary information to phosphorene grain boundaries 98 B.1 Projected Phonon Density of States in GB1 98 B.2 Thermoelectric transport properties of GB2 99 Appendix C Supplementary information to CNT peapods 101 C.1 Geometry optimization of CNT peapods with larger CNT diameter 101 C.2 Additional analysis of electron transport properties 102 C.3 Phonon band structure of different CNT structures 104 C.4 Additional analysis of thermoelectric performance 105 REFERENCES 105 LIST OF PUBLICATIONS 131 PRESENTATIONS 13

Sustainable banking: the role of multilateral development banks as norm entrepreneurs

This article explores the role of multilateral development banks (MDBs) in originating norms of sustainable banking that have attracted and supported green private finance, a role not widely known in the management literature. Any prospect of achieving the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 presupposes mobilizing the estimated US$23.3 trillion currently locked‐up in risk‐averse private savings to bridge the gap between developing countries’ demand for capital and the current global financial architecture’s capacity to supply it. The three biggest obstacles to sustainable banking identified by the authors are discussed: (1) The uncertain bankability of projects; (2) non‐transparency in tracking sustainable capital flows; and (3) no universal mechanism capable of making matches between green investment supply and demand; and what MDBs have actually done to overcome these roadblocks, and might do in future, is also discussed. Seen through the lens of “applied constructivism”, MDBs are revealed to be norm entrepreneurs proactive since at least the 1970s in socially constructing most of the basic norms and practices of sustainable banking which the private sector relies on or is now striving to take up. MDBs are typically the first “port of call” for international governmental organizations (IGOs) and civil society organizations wishing to establish a sustainable financial framework for development; and are the likeliest political agents to pioneer sustainable banking in future. MDBs would do well to develop an awareness of the methods of Constructivism, which they have actually been unwittingly using, to empower themselves to meet the challenges of the 21st centur

The sustainable practices of multinational banks as drivers of financial inclusion in developing countries

Lack of access to banking is a major problem that contributes to inequality in the developing world. For this reason, financial inclusion is a crucial objective of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In this study, we investigate the impact of the sustainable practices of multinational banks (MNBs) on financial inclusion. Drawing from a sample of 24 developing countries and 28,089 individuals, we obtain robust evidence about the positive effect of sustainable practices on financial inclusion. We find that MNBs increase the use of mobile bank accounts in the developing world. We also find that when these MNBs follow sustainable practices, the use of mobile bank accounts positively intensifies. These findings are consequential because mobile banking is one of the most powerful means to achieve financial inclusion in the developing world

Sustainable banking and trust in the global South

Trust in banking plays a significant role in promoting financial inclusion. Multinational banks (MNBs) have the potential to enhance trust by adopting sustainable banking practices. We investigate the impact of MNBs' adoption of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) practices on trust in banking in 38 developing countries. Using an instrumental variable approach and control function estimation, our findings indicate that sustainable practices by commercial MNBs are positively and significantly associated with increased trust in banking. The results remain consistent across different samples, lending robustness to our findings. By demonstrating the importance of sustainable banking in fostering trust, this study contributes to the limited literature on trust in banking in the global South

Sustainability and trust: financial inclusion in the Global South

Lack of access to banking and financial services appreciably hinders development, particularly in the global South. For this reason, financial inclusion is a crucial objective of the Sustainable Development Goals. One main barrier to financial inclusion is the lack of trust in banking. From a sample of 40 developing countries and 82,724 individuals, we verify that multinational banks can increase trust in banking by incorporating sustainability criteria into their business model