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This thesis explores the role of ‘alternative’ international journalism – broadly conceived – in geopolitics. Theoretically anchored in the typically poststructuralist and discourse-focussed subdiscipline of critical geopolitics, and drawing on literature from journalism and media studies, it is concerned with journalistic constructions of the Global South during the latter half of the twentieth century. Its central case study is the Gemini News Service, an ‘alternative’ news features agency, active 1967-2002, which focussed on providing news coverage of and for the Global South and, crucially, having journalists in the Global South report about the places they were from. The agency was opposed to the superficial, conflict-ladened ‘parachute’ reporting of the hegemonic, Western-controlled global media and sought to utilise its large network of freelance journalists to provide more, ‘better’, ‘fuller’ and ‘richer’ accounts of the newly-postcolonial world. It supplied analytical, long-form articles to more than 100 subscribing newspapers; combining the readership of these titles, Gemini advertised that it had a daily audience of ‘millions’ for its journalistic content. This thesis will argue that these dispatches were, in many senses, an alternative to the geopolitical renderings of the hegemonic global news media. Gemini’s popular geopolitical discourses actively rejected the notion of a world characterised by a binary superpower rivalry, insisting, instead, that it was the attainment of independence and the fights for more equitable and just forms of global governance by scores of states, new on the international scene, that defined the geopolitics of this era. The thesis asks questions of Gemini’s alterity and concludes that while the agency may have been considered ‘radical’ in many traditional journalistic circles, there were numerous practical, conceptual and cultural constraints that prevented it from producing a popular journalistic geopolitics that was counterhegemonic or decolonising. This thesis, then, considers Gemini’s articles to be significant producers, for a wide international readership, of geopolitical ‘knowledge’ about the decolonising and newly-postcolonial world. It contends that critical engagement with popular geopolitics has largely ignored such ostensibly ‘alternative’ ways of ‘knowing’ and representing the world and seeks, therefore, to unearth and highlight these overlooked means by which a large number of people – predominantly in the Global South – gained a mediated experience of geopolitics and an understanding of their place within it. It contends, though, that in thinking about the (de)colonisation of popular journalistic ‘knowledge’ it is crucial to also consider the subject of journalism itself, as a practice, ideology, profession and set of texts with distinct philological characteristics. It argues that Gemini, alongside a host of other actors who have sought to intervene on this issue, have thought about the decolonisation of the popular news media solely in terms of representation: the felicitous representation of (formerly) colonised peoples in the pages of newspapers and the representation of people of colour on the staff of journalistic outlets. In addressing the colonisation of journalism, we also need to consider how the international journalistic field is characterised by professional ideologies, norms and practices particular to Western historical, political and social contexts, yet widely assumed to be universally applicable. We need to consider the particular (racialised, classed and gendered) cultures, hierarchies and political economies of journalism, all of which significantly influence the nature of journalistic ‘knowledge’ production. In addition, then, to textual analysis of Gemini’s popular journalistic material, the thesis investigates the extent to which ostensibly ‘alternative’, Global South-oriented journalistic institutions engaged in alternative journalistic practices and adopted alternative ways of ‘knowing’ and representing global space and global politics. This helps us to understand not only how – by various discursive and rhetorical means – these outlets constructed geopolitical space, but also why they produced geopolitics as they did; in Gemini’s case, constructing a sparsely-populated, masculinist vision of global politics, in which all but the state and the state’s political elite were rendered invisible and denied any meaningful agency. It is hoped that this focus on how the decolonisation of journalism has been constrained by widespread notions of Western epistemological supremacy in the journalistic field, common journalistic conventions, and the culture of professional journalism will prove useful for ongoing, and much needed, attempts to decolonise the news media. This thesis also demonstrates the fruitfulness for critical geopolitics of considering carefully the (material, cultural, practical and ideological) historical geographies of popular media production. It makes the case for the importance of engaging, in tandem, with journalistic geopolitics – the discursive construction of global political space by the professional news media – and with the geopolitics of journalism – the spatio-political factors that shape journalistic production and consumption – and proposes that a distinct, and methodologically and conceptually pluralistic, stream of scholarship within critical geopolitics, formed to further such research, could bear fruit.

Biofuels are a major element of Brazilian geopolitics and diplomacy. They replace fossil fuels, thereby underpinning national energy security and contribute to Brazilian exports and influence in the world. Biofuels are also one of the GHG mitigation options in the Brazilian climate change regime. However, once land-use related emissions from biofuel crop production are considered, the environmental payoff is measurably diluted, illustrating one area where two mitigation instruments - biofuel production and deforestation control – can clash. Decisions on how land should be used, whether for food, biofuel production or environmental preservation are therefore crucial, intertwined as they are with land tenure systems and geopolitical discourses and practices. The thesis investigates the connections between biofuel and deforestation control policies in the Brazilian Amazon with two case studies in the state of Mato Grosso. With a qualitative methodology, the case studies analyse the political ecology of biofuel land-use in the production pathways of biodiesel from soybeans and ethanol from sugar cane. The study identifies weaknesses in the inclusion of deforestation concerns in biofuel policies and further contradictions on the ground, thus casting doubts about the real GHG emission reduction potential of biofuels. Furthermore, there are also clear efforts at legitimising biofuel crop expansion in the Amazon as a result of discourses and practices operating within Mato Grosso and at the federal level, in contrast to the international commitments on deforestation control made by the Brazilian government. Biofuel and deforestation control policies have been important elements of Brazil’s international ‘green soft power’ strategy, but their domestic contradictions, as the case studies show, are significant. This thesis examines these pressing issues in a novel way by combining a political ecology approach with critical geopolitics. It also provides the first in-depth analysis of this kind in the Brazilian context - a world biofuel leader - and highlights the need for further scholarship in this pivotal subject.

The thesis critically re-examines classical historical conceptions of Central Europe. Its chief concern is to critique the discourses that, in the main, equated geographical imaginaries of Central Europe with a German dominated territorial entity in the crucial, formative 1880 - 1918 period. It is asked whether these could have played a vital role in the great powers’ endorsement of the break-up of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The research hypothesis suggests that ‘conceptualisations of regional identity are exercises in geopolitics, which through the definitive discourse of Self and Other exercise influence over behaviour of political actors, thereby indirectly impacting upon international structure’. The research explores a broad range of Central European conceptions originating mainly in the former Austria-Hungary and the German Empire. Their respective influence on the discourse over Central Europe and their impact on how the notion itself was interpreted are analyzed partly through the use of contemporaneous and sometimes obscure secondary resources (newspaper and journal articles, printed volumes) that were written in a range of languages. A substantial body of archival evidence was also collected in various archives in the UK, USA, Germany, Austria, Czech Republic and Slovakia. The latter category of materials, some of which are little-known in the English-speaking academic world, was used in an attempt to evaluate how concepts of Central Europe influenced the behaviour of political actors in the key countries for this research (Austria-Hungary, Germany, Britain and the USA). The author employed a constructivist viewpoint. The constructivist perception of actors as dynamic units, the identification of a system as a changing social concept, and the attention paid to the use of notions and their influence upon socially constructed international structures, presents a valuable platform for re-examination of classical geopolitical concepts. Constructivism has already found its application in critical geopolitics. In terms of construction of non-nation state identities, the recent works of Veit Bachmann and James Sidaway (2009), Mindaugas Jurkynas (2007) or Michelle Pace (2007) provide interesting examples and applications. It is concluded that conceptualising Central Europe did possess a definite geopolitical purpose, though this varied over time and concept to concept. In many cases this also informed the attitudes of policy-makers to a significant degree, mainly in constructing a negative definition of the Other. However, the final decision to dismember the Dual (Austro-Hungarian) Monarchy was based on more pragmatic military considerations and the perceived near-collapse of the country in late stages of war, rather than any particular concept of Central Europe itself.

Canada is a country often painted as a unifying power and an honest broker in world affairs. She has a respected history within the United Nations and a tradition of championing international norms, especially to curtail dangerous actions amongst the community of nations. From NAFTA to peacekeeping missions, she has carved a respected niche in global politics, perhaps fairer than her domestic situation warrants. Recent economic and environmental problems challenge this legacy of international cooperation and the rule of law with poor implementation of key international treaties. Environmental problems, in particular, have not translated into robust environmental policies even though Canadian identity is intrinsically woven with the concepts of nature and stewardship. The issue of climate change is a case in point: Canada was one of the earliest and most vocal supporters of the international climate change regime, and simultaneously, one of the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitters per capita. The government signed the Kyoto Protocol to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) with a commitment to lower emissions by 6% of 1990 levels; yet emissions rose by 19% by the end of the commitment period. The country appears to suffer from a Jekyll and Hyde syndrome: defending international norms and the rule of law whilst at the same time ignoring the very treaties she fought to create. This thesis explores how the federal Canadian government shifted from being an international leader to a laggard in the Kyoto Protocol; and in doing so it will explain the socio-economic and political forces that shaped Canada’s Kyoto strategy. A grounded theory research design was used, combining key informant interviews, policy document analysis, and participant observation. The case study raises important questions for a country such as Canada with lessons for climate politics both within the country and other federalist countries.