The Role of Emotions in Austrian Neutrality and Current Austrian Foreign Policy

The present Maters thesis explores the emotional association of Austrian citizens with the country's policy of neutrality. This study employs a constructivist approach and uses a critical discourse analysis of nine interviews with a non-probability sample to explore emotions. The results suggest that emotions such as disappointment, shame, gratitude, security, nostalgia, and pride are commonly associated with neutrality in Austria. The implications of these emotions on current Austrian foreign policy are discussed, with the study finding that emotions are likely to impact the process and outcome of decision-making in foreign policy. This study contributes to the existing literature on constructivism, neutrality, and emotions in international relations and provides a different perspective on understanding Austrian neutrality.The present Maters thesis explores the emotional association of Austrian citizens with the country's policy of neutrality. This study employs a constructivist approach and uses a critical discourse analysis of nine interviews with a non-probability sample to explore emotions. The results suggest that emotions such as disappointment, shame, gratitude, security, nostalgia, and pride are commonly associated with neutrality in Austria. The implications of these emotions on current Austrian foreign policy are discussed, with the study finding that emotions are likely to impact the process and outcome of decision-making in foreign policy. This study contributes to the existing literature on constructivism, neutrality, and emotions in international relations and provides a different perspective on understanding Austrian neutrality

Quantification of the damming and sediment trapping capacity of landslides and their dammed lakes: the example of the Hintersee landslide dam

International audiencePerennial landslide dams interrupt the sediment connectivity of rivers. Although most landslide dams do not persist for more than a few days, those that do can exhibit significant sediment trapping capacity. While water can pass through or over the dam, the sediment load is trapped upstream of the dam until the dam breaks or gradually erodes, or is completely filled with deposits. The volume of sediment stored in this way can reach up to three times the volume of impounded water, as we find by back-analyzing the lake Hintersee in southeastern Germany. In this work, we reconstruct the pre-landslide topography using Petrel and then use the Gerris shallow-water flow solver with a Voellmy rheology to back-analyze this landslide-dammed lake in the Bavarian Alps. We test several landslide release scenarios and different landslide rheologies to obtain the best-fitting reconstruction of the dam topography. We then fill the landslide dam with water and sediment using simple slope algorithms and validate the results against the current topography. Finally, we compare the landslide deposit thicknesses, water depths, and trapped sediment thicknesses of our different scenarios in order to provide new insight into the damming and sediment trapping capacity of landslides