This thesis examines peace negotiations as a critical discussion, analysing what strategies are used in peace talks and the strategic manoeuvring used in each stage of the argumentative activity...Show moreThis thesis examines peace negotiations as a critical discussion, analysing what strategies are used in peace talks and the strategic manoeuvring used in each stage of the argumentative activity based on the topical potential, audience demands and presentational devices. Following Van Eemeren’s (2010) extended pragma-dialectical theory, the thesis, after establishing the theoretical framework on negotiations as a communicative type, the stages and the participants of a peace negotiation and the peace processes and approaches that are adopted during a peace negotiation, analyses the strategies that are used in each stage of the peace negotiations between the United States and Vietnam, that led to the end of the war in Vietnam and to the signing of a peace agreement between the U.S and Vietnam. The thesis concludes with the identification of strategies used in the U.S and North Vietnam peace talks and a discussion about the degree of success of the strategies used in the U.S and Vietnam peace negotiations that led to the a mutually accepted peace accord.Show less
This research is about the local significance of the Pacification of Ghent in Utrecht between 1576 and 1581. It argues that the Pacification was the crucial treaty for the participation of the...Show moreThis research is about the local significance of the Pacification of Ghent in Utrecht between 1576 and 1581. It argues that the Pacification was the crucial treaty for the participation of the States and city of Utrecht in the Dutch Revolt because of its lack of coherency and clarity. This thesis explores the competing narratives about the meaning of this peace. The analysis focusses on the interests of different groups in city and the reinterpretations of the peace terms in the Pacification within the rapidly developing circumstances of the Dutch Revolt. The main argument is that the act of oblivion in the Pacification was the tacit driving force behind the competition of narratives about legitimacy. The Pacification successfully offered a tabula rasa for the previous decade and became the most important reference for peace negotiation between 1576 and 1581. The “originalist” narrative tried to stay with the Pacification terms as intended when it was signed in 1576; the “clarifying” narrative argued that the cherry-picked peace violations of the royal party – together with the changed circumstances – necessitated an elaboration of the original peace treaty; the “abnegation” narrative used these cherry-picked peace violations of the royal party to highlight the obsolesce of the treaty and framed the treaty’s failure as a reason to abjure king Philip. This last narrative flipped the Pacification on its head; the new continuity with the present was not based on the treaty’s terms but on its violation and frame of belonging to the past.Show less
