Master of Science

thesisThis essay will elaborate on the South Caucasian conflicts of Nagorno-Karabakh between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which happened from 1988-1994, and those between Georgia and its breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia from 1991-1993. The goal is to show how Cultural Affirmative Philosophy may transform no-war-norpeace situations into new possibilities for gradual conflict resolution. The thesis argues that the roots of the current ethnic and territorial antagonisms in the Caucasus are not in ancient hatreds, but are the results of war machines that were put into motion during the 90s and continue to keep communities and decision-makers enslaved by transcendental dynamics. Despite all the existing obstacles, it is still possible to deactivate the war machines through the lines of flight between similarly nomadic actors online. New media activism, which is accurately described by the Deleuzo-Guattarian concept of the rhizome, can challenge barriers that divide postwar communities and create platforms for understanding of the grievances, hopes, and fears of each side

The 2011-2012 Russian protests and the precedents of protest in post-Soviet Eurasia

This study places the 2011-2012 Russian protests within the framework of Eurasian mass-civil mobilisation. Researchers have examined the shared and divergent properties of these events, commonly labelled „colour revolutions.‟ However, research has not employed the experience of the colour revolutions to understand the current civil unrest in Russia. Drawing on existing research, this study generates a „colour revolution‟ framework and applies it to the case study of the 2011-2012 Russian protests. This approach allows the Russian protests to be analysed in relation to „colour revolutions‟ in societies that are geographically, politically and historically proximate. This study finds that the current protests are the immediate result of perceptions of extensive electoral fraud. However, the underlying drivers are gradual socio-economic shifts toward the growth of the middle class, and the increasing predisposition of the Russian government towards a „managed democracy.‟ This thesis concludes that based on the idiosyncrasies and political diversity of the Russian pro-democracy protests, it must be considered a “Grey Revolution” – a mix of colours. Due to these factors it is unlikely that the movement will succeed in its goals in the short term. However, the need for future research to focus on the longer-term prospects of this „Grey Revolution‟ is clear

Weaving webs of insecurity: fear, weakness and power in the post-Soviet South Caucasus

This thesis' central aim is the application of a Wendtian-constructivist expansion of Regional Security Complex Theory (RSCT) on a specific case study: the South Caucasus. To that effect, three concepts of RSCT – amity/enmity, state incoherence, and great power penetration – are expanded and developed within the broader above-mentioned ontological-epistemological framework. Amity-enmity is elaborated into an integrated spectrum founded on varying ideational patterns of securitisation alongside objective characteristics, and encompassing conflict formations, security regimes and security communities. States are conceptualised as ideational-institutional-material "providers of security"; their incoherence is characterised over three tiers and two dimensions, leading to a distinction between vertical and horizontal inherent weakness, ostensible instability and failure. Great power penetration is dissected into its objective, subjective and intersubjective elements, resulting in a 1+3+1 typology of its recurring patterns: unipolar, multipolar-cooperative and multipolar-competitive, bounded by hegemony and disengagement. After the specification of a methodology incorporating both objective macro- and interpretive micro-perspectives, two working hypotheses are specified. Firstly, that state incoherence engenders high levels of regional enmity, and, secondly, that patterns of great power penetration primarily affect transitions of regional amity/enmity between conflict formations and security regimes. The framework is subsequently used to triangulate these hypotheses through an application of the theoretical framework on the post-Soviet Southern Caucasus. An initial macro-overview is subsequently provided of the Southern Caucasus as a regional security complex; the three expanded concepts are consequently investigated, in turn, from the discursive micro-perspective. The South Caucasus is categorised into a "revisionist conflict formation", the nature of its states' incoherence is characterised, and existing patterns of great power penetration are identified as competitive-multipolar. In the final chapter, the hypotheses are largely confirmed, and various scenarios as to the possible emergence of a regional security regime are investigated

The Internet's Impacts on Power Differentials in Security and Conflict

Through case studies and empirical statistical research, this thesis tests the theory that information and communications technologies (ICT), specifically the Internet, is a casual factor in shifting the global balance of power away from dominant states towards individuals and smaller states. The Internet affords acute advantages to individuals and smaller states, but it has yet to prove decisive against an armed nation state with the will to use violence, particularly in the case of aggressive authoritarian states. This thesis argues that while ICT exposes states to new security threats and a transference in power may be underway, the current evidence suggests that a dominant nation state’s security apparatus is still a more potent force, for now. These conclusions were reached through a holistic examination of ICT’s impact on security through the lenses of state versus state conflict (interstate), citizen-led revolutionary movements (intrastate), and violent non-state actors against the system (“extrastate”). However, this thesis found no conclusive data to support the notion that the Internet is concurrently revolutionizing interstate, intrastate or extrastate conflict to the point whereby a weaker adversary can achieve a desired political outcome through the unique use of cyber tools. While cyberspace adds a new virtual dimension to conflict, much like airpower added a third dimension to military conflict after World War I, cyber weapons have not yet developed to the point where they can replace weaponry in the physical domains. The Internet has neither fundamentally altered human nature nor the desires and competitions that fuel conflict; it may be transforming the experience of conflict, but not necessarily the outcomes. Thesis Readers: Dr. Ariel Roth and Dr. Lee Drutma

Isomorphic effects of managerial and directoral career paths

The extensive array of interlocking directorate research remains near-exclusively cross-sectional or comparative cross-sectional in nature. While this has been fruitful in identifying persistent structures of inter-organisational relationships evidence of the impact of these structures on organisational performance or activity has been more limited. This should not be surprising because, by their nature, relationships have strong longitudinal and dynamic qualities that are likely to be difficult to isolate through cross-sectional approaches. Clearly, managerial practice is inevitably strongly conditioned by the specific contingencies of the time and the information available through networks of colleagues and advisers (particularly at board level) at the time. But managerial and directoral capabilities and mental sets are also developed over time, particularly through previous experiences in these roles and the formation of long-lasting 'strong' and 'weak' relationships. This paper tests the influence of three longitudinal dimensions of managers and directors' relationships on a set of indicators of financial performance, drawing from a large dataset of detailing historic board membership of UK firms. It finds evidence of isomorphic processes through these channels and establishes that the longitudinal design considerably enhances the detection of performance effects from directorate interlocks. More broadly, the research has implications for the conception of collective action and the constitution of 'community'

The media and democratic legitimacy in EU foreign policy. The role of transnational, British and Romanian media in the EU's approach to climate change and its policy towards Russia

The issue of democratic deficit and crisis of legitimacy has been at the forefront of the development of the European project in the last twenty years. However, little attention has been directed towards analysing the way in which democratic legitimacy underlines the construction of the EU s foreign policy. This thesis draws on a broad understanding of democratic legitimacy which is seen to encompass various aspects: transparency, accountability, responsiveness and openness to public debate. It shows that the media had a positive effect (although in contrasting degrees) on the democratic legitimacy of the EU s foreign policy in two issue areas, highlighting the ways in which it achieved this. Drawing on insights from political theory, it argues that the European public sphere has the potential to foster the four characteristics highlighted above through the ability of the media to politicise foreign policy issues, which are commonly closed off from democratic scrutiny. Three types of interaction effects between the media and policymakers within the European public sphere are identified: indexing, bounding and agenda setting. Firstly, indexing captures the ability of policymakers to influence and shape media discourse in order to aid their interests and goals by communicating in a favourable manner their policies to the general public. Secondly, through bounding the media can have a constraining or limiting effect on the range of policies and their effectiveness that policymakers can pursue, even if the latter are not aware of or willing to engage with the frames constructed by journalists. Finally, agenda setting captures the ability of the media to purposively influence decision-making processes through its discourse. Empirically two distinct areas of EU foreign policy are explored: the EU s approach to global climate change and its policy towards Russia. Hence, the study makes a significant contribution to the understanding of EU foreign policy and to its international actorness. Secondly, it extends in a comprehensive manner the debate regarding the crisis of legitimacy and democratic deficit in the EU to the realm of foreign policy. Finally, it also contributes to the literature on Foreign Policy Analysis which engages with the issue of democratic legitimacy

Soft power and great power identity in Russian discourses

http://www.ester.ee/record=b4410554~S58*es

Unmet goals of tracking: within-track heterogeneity of students' expectations for

Educational systems are often characterized by some form(s) of ability grouping, like tracking. Although substantial variation in the implementation of these practices exists, it is always the aim to improve teaching efficiency by creating homogeneous groups of students in terms of capabilities and performances as well as expected pathways. If students’ expected pathways (university, graduate school, or working) are in line with the goals of tracking, one might presume that these expectations are rather homogeneous within tracks and heterogeneous between tracks. In Flanders (the northern region of Belgium), the educational system consists of four tracks. Many students start out in the most prestigious, academic track. If they fail to gain the necessary credentials, they move to the less esteemed technical and vocational tracks. Therefore, the educational system has been called a 'cascade system'. We presume that this cascade system creates homogeneous expectations in the academic track, though heterogeneous expectations in the technical and vocational tracks. We use data from the International Study of City Youth (ISCY), gathered during the 2013-2014 school year from 2354 pupils of the tenth grade across 30 secondary schools in the city of Ghent, Flanders. Preliminary results suggest that the technical and vocational tracks show more heterogeneity in student’s expectations than the academic track. If tracking does not fulfill the desired goals in some tracks, tracking practices should be questioned as tracking occurs along social and ethnic lines, causing social inequality

Governança multisetorial e o processo de governança da internet : um estudo de caso sobre crime cibernético e filtragem na internet entre 1990 e 2010

Tese (doutorado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Relações Internacionais, 2012.Texto em inglês, com os elementos pré-textuais, introdução e conclusão em português.Com o desenvolvimento do código HTML e do primeiro browser no começo dos anos 90, a internet deixou de ser uma rede acessada somente por um grupo relativamente pequeno de pessoas distribuídas por alguns países. A partir do momento em que houve a comercialização da internet, um número crescente de pessoas e atores começou a utilizar esse meio de forma a desenvolver suas próprias visões, ideias e interesses. O que começou como uma rede fundamentalmente usada por programadores e acadêmicos com o objetivo de criar acesso rápido a informações independentes da localização física do usuário se tranformou em uma rede de negócios, um meio de divulgação de direitos básicos, um fórum para qualquer tipo de informação, mas também um espaço para atividades mal intencionadas, crime cibernético ou ataques virtuais. Face a essa alta quantidade de problemas e oportunidades, um grande número de atores do setor público, do setor privado e da sociedade civil criou um novo fenômeno chamado governança de internet, baseado no conceito multi-setorial. A institucionalização desse processo aconteceu quando, em 2005, foi criado o Fórum de Governança de Internet pela Organização das Nações Unidas. Esta tese busca analisar o processo que criou o ambiente multi-setorial da governança de internet com foco nos dois fenômenos de crime cibernético e filtragem da internet. _______________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACTWith the development of HTML and the first browser in the beginning of the 1990s, the Internet was no longer a network exclusively for a relatively small group of individuals in a number of countries. With the commercialization of the Internet a growing number of individuals and actors started using this means to develop and follow their own visions, ideas and interests. What had started as a network basically used by programmers and scientists aiming at creating fast access to information independently of the physical location of the user, turned into a business network, a place to divulge basic rights, a forum for any kind of information but also a place for malicious activities, cybercrime, and virtual attacks. Given the high quantity of problems and opportunities a large number of actors from the public sector, the private sector and civil society developed a new phenomenon called Internet governance, based on a multi-stakeholder approach. The institutionalization of this process happened in 2005 when the United Nations Internet Governance Forum was set up. This thesis is analysing the process that built the multi-stakeholder Internet governance environment, with a focus on the two phenomenons cybercrime and Internet filtering