Fuzzy Modeling and Control Based Virtual Machine Resource Management

Virtual machines (VMs) are powerful platforms for building agile datacenters and emerging cloud systems. However, resource management for a VM-based system is still a challenging task. First, the complexity of application workloads as well as the interference among competing workloads makes it difficult to understand their VMs’ resource demands for meeting their Quality of Service (QoS) targets; Second, the dynamics in the applications and system makes it also difficult to maintain the desired QoS target while the environment changes; Third, the transparency of virtualization presents a hurdle for guest-layer application and host-layer VM scheduler to cooperate and improve application QoS and system efficiency. This dissertation proposes to address the above challenges through fuzzy modeling and control theory based VM resource management. First, a fuzzy-logic-based nonlinear modeling approach is proposed to accurately capture a VM’s complex demands of multiple types of resources automatically online based on the observed workload and resource usages. Second, to enable fast adaption for resource management, the fuzzy modeling approach is integrated with a predictive-control-based controller to form a new Fuzzy Modeling Predictive Control (FMPC) approach which can quickly track the applications’ QoS targets and optimize the resource allocations under dynamic changes in the system. Finally, to address the limitations of black-box-based resource management solutions, a cross-layer optimization approach is proposed to enable cooperation between a VM’s host and guest layers and further improve the application QoS and resource usage efficiency. The above proposed approaches are prototyped and evaluated on a Xen-based virtualized system and evaluated with representative benchmarks including TPC-H, RUBiS, and TerraFly. The results demonstrate that the fuzzy-modeling-based approach improves the accuracy in resource prediction by up to 31.4% compared to conventional regression approaches. The FMPC approach substantially outperforms the traditional linear-model-based predictive control approach in meeting application QoS targets for an oversubscribed system. It is able to manage dynamic VM resource allocations and migrations for over 100 concurrent VMs across multiple hosts with good efficiency. Finally, the cross-layer optimization approach further improves the performance of a virtualized application by up to 40% when the resources are contended by dynamic workloads.

Atlantic Ais in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries: Maritime Adaptation, Indigenous Wrecking, and Buccaneer Raids on Florida’s Central East Coast

The Ais were a Native American group who lived along the Atlantic shoreline of Florida south of Cape Canaveral. This coastal population’s position adjacent to a major shipping route afforded them numerous encounters with the Atlantic world that linked Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, and the Americas. Through their exploitation of the goods and peoples from the European shipwrecks thrown ashore, coupled with their careful manipulation of other Atlantic contacts, the Ais polity established an influential domain in central east Florida during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The pre-contact peoples of Florida’s east coast, including the ancestors of the Ais, practiced a maritime adaptation concentrated on the exploitation of their bountiful riverine, estuarine, and marine environments. The Ais then modified their maritime skills to cope with the opportunities and challenges that accompanied European contact. Using their existing aquatic abilities, they ably salvaged goods and castaways from the Spanish, French, English, and Dutch vessels dashed on the rocks and reefs of Florida’s coast. The Ais’ strategic redistribution of these materials and peoples to other Florida Native Americans, the Spaniards of St. Augustine, and other passing Europeans gained them greater influence. This process, which I call indigenous wrecking, enabled the Ais to expand their domain on the peninsula. Coastal Florida Native Americans’ maritime abilities also attracted the attention of Europeans. In the late seventeenth century, English buccaneers and salvagers raided Florida’s east coast to capture indigenous divers, whom they sent to work the wreck of a sunken Spanish treasure ship located in the Bahamas. The English subsequently sold the surviving Native American captives to other Caribbean slave markets. Despite population losses to such raids, the Ais and other peoples of the east coast thrived on Atlantic exchange and used their existing maritime adaptation to resist colonial intrusions until the start of the eighteenth century. This dissertation thus offers a narrative about Native Americans and the Atlantic that is unlike most Southeastern Indian stories. The Ais used their maritime adaptation and the process of indigenous wrecking to engage and exploit the arriving Atlantic world. In the contact era, the Ais truly became Atlantic Ais.

Study of Ammonia Borane and its Derivatives: Influence of Nanoconfinements and Pressures

Recently, ammonia borane has increasingly attracted researchers’ attention because of its merging applications, such as organic synthesis, boron nitride compounds synthesis, and hydrogen storage. This dissertation presents the results from several studies related to ammonia borane. The pressure-induced tetragonal to orthorhombic phase transition in ammonia borane was studied in a diamond anvil cell using in situ Raman spectroscopy. We found a positive Clapeyron-slope for this phase transformation in the experiment, which implies that the phase transition from tetragonal to orthorhombic is exothermic. The result of this study indicates that the rehydrogenation of the high pressure orthorhombic phase is expected to be easier than that of the ambient pressure tetragonal phase due to its lower enthalpy. The high pressure behavior of ammonia borane after thermal decomposition was studied by in situ Raman spectroscopy at high pressures up to 10 GPa. The sample of ammonia borane was first decomposed at ~140 degree Celcius and ~0.7 GPa and then compessed step wise in an isolated sample chamber of a diamond anvil cell for Raman spectroscopy measurement. We did not observe the characteristic shift of Raman mode under high pressure due to dihydrogen bonding, indicating that the dihydrogen bonding disappears in the decomposed ammonia borane. Although no chemical rehydrogenation was detected in this study, the decomposed ammonia borane could store extra hydrogen by physical absorption. The effect of nanoconfinement on ammonia borane at high pressures and different temperatures was studied. Ammonia borane was mixed with a type of mesoporous silica, SBA-15, and restricted within a small space of nanometer scale. The nano-scale ammonia borane was decomposed at ~125 degree Celcius in a diamond anvil cell and rehydrogenated after applying high pressures up to ~13 GPa at room temperature. The successful rehydrogenation of decomposed nano-scale ammonia borane gives guidance to further investigations on hydrogen storage. In addition, the high pressure behavior of lithium amidoborane, one derivative of ammonia borane, was studied at different temperatures. Lithium amidoborane (LAB) was decomposed and recompressed in a diamond anvil cell. After applying high pressures on the decomposed lithium amidoborane, its recovery peaks were discovered by Raman spectroscopy. This result suggests that the decomposition of LAB is reversible at high pressures.

Public Service Motivation in Public and Nonprofit Service Providers: The Cases of Belarus and Poland

The work motivation construct is central to the theory and practice of many social science disciplines. Yet, due to the novelty of validated measures appropriate for a deep cross-national comparison, studies that contrast different administrative regimes remain scarce. This study represents an initial empirical effort to validate the Public Service Motivation (PSM) instrument proposed by Kim and colleagues (2013) in a previously unstudied context. The two former communist countries analyzed in this dissertation—Belarus and Poland— followed diametrically opposite development strategies: a fully decentralized administrative regime in Poland and a highly centralized regime in Belarus. The employees (n = 677) of public and nonprofit organizations in the border regions of Podlaskie Wojewodstwo (Poland) and Hrodna Voblasc (Belarus) are the subjects of study. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed three dimensions of public service motivation in the two regions: compassion, self-sacrifice, and attraction to public service. The statistical models tested in this dissertation suggest that nonprofit sector employees exhibit higher levels of PSM than their public sector counterparts. Nonprofit sector employees also reveal a similar set of values and work attitudes across the countries. Thus, the study concludes that in terms of PSM, employees of nonprofit organizations constitute a homogenous group that exists atop the administrative regimes. However, the findings propose significant differences between public sector agencies across the two countries. Contrary to expectations, data suggest that organization centralization in Poland is equal to—or for some items even higher than—that of Belarus. We can conclude that the absence of administrative decentralization of service provision in a country does not necessarily undermine decentralized practices within organizations. Further analysis reveals strong correlations between organization centralization and PSM for the Polish sample. Meanwhile, in Belarus, correlations between organization centralization items and PSM are weak and mostly insignificant. The analysis indicates other factors beyond organization centralization that significantly impact PSM in both sectors. PSM of the employees in the studied region is highly correlated with their participation in religious practices, political parties, or labor unions as well as location of their organization in a capital and type of social service provided.

Exoneration or Observation? Examining a Novel Difference Between Liars and Truth Tellers

Individual cues to deception are subtle and often missed by lay people and law enforcement alike. Linguistic statement analysis remains a potentially useful way of overcoming individual diagnostic limitations (e.g. Criteria based Content Analysis; Steller & Köhnken, 1989; Reality monitoring; Johnson & Raye, 1981; Scientific Content Analysis; Sapir, 1996). Unfortunately many of these procedures are time-consuming, require in-depth training, as well as lack empirical support and/or external validity. The current dissertation develops a novel approach to statement veracity analysis that is simple to learn, easy to administer, theoretically sound, and empirically validated. Two strategies were proposed for detecting differences between liars' and truth-tellers' statements. Liars were hypothesized to strategically write statements with the goal of self-exoneration. Liars' statements were predicted to contain more first person pronouns and fewer third person pronouns. Truth-tellers were hypothesized to be motivated toward being informative and thus produce statements with fewer first person pronouns and more third person pronouns. Three studies were conducted to test this hypothesis. The first study explored the verbal patterns of exoneration and informativeness focused statements. The second study used a traditional theft paradigm to examine these verbal patterns in guilty liars and innocent truth tellers. In the third study to better match the context of a criminal investigation a cheating paradigm was used in which spontaneous lying was induced and written statements were taken. Support for the first person pronoun hypothesis was found. Limited support was found for the third person pronoun hypothesis. Results, implications, and future directions for the current research are discussed.

Identity, Ideology, and Cinema: Making Sense of Japan's Foreign and Security Policies in the 1950s and 2000s

Japan is an important ally of the United States–the world’s third biggest economy, and one of the regional great powers in Asia. Making sense of Japan’s foreign and security policies is crucial for the future of peace and stability in Northeast Asia, where the possible sources of conflict such as territorial disputes or the disputes over Japan’s war legacy issues are observed. This dissertation explored Japan’s foreign and security policies based on Japan’s identities and unconscious ideologies. It employed an analysis of selected Japanese films from the late 1940s to the late 1950s, as well as from the late 1990s to the mid-2000s. The analysis demonstrated that Japan’s foreign and security policies could be understood in terms of a broader social narrative that was visible in Japanese popular cultural products, including films and literatures. Narratives of Japanese families from the patriarch’s point of view, for example, had constantly shaped Japan’s foreign and security policies. As a result, the world was ordered hierarchically in the eyes of the Japan Self. In the 1950s, Japan tenaciously constructed close but asymmetrical security relations with the U.S. in which Japan willingly subjugated itself to the U.S. In the 2000s, Japan again constructed close relations with the U.S. by doing its best to support American responses to the 9/11 terrorist attacks by mobilizing Japan’s SDFs in the way Japan had never done in the past. The concepts of identity and unconscious ideology are helpful in understanding how Japan’s own understanding of self, of others, and of the world have shaped its own behaviors. These concepts also enable Japan to reevaluate its own behaviors reflexively, which departs from existing alternative approaches. This study provided a critical analytical explanation of the dynamics at work in Japan’s sense of identity, particularly with regard to its foreign and security policies.

Conjugated Polymer Nanoparticles for Biological Labeling and Delivery

Cancer remains one of the world’s most devastating diseases, with more than 10 million new cases every year. However, traditional treatments have proven insufficient for successful medical management of cancer due to the chemotherapeutics’ difficulty in achieving therapeutic concentrations at the target site, non-specific cytotoxicity to normal tissues, and limited systemic circulation lifetime. Although, a concerted effort has been placed in developing and successfully employing nanoparticle(NP)-based drug delivery vehicles successfully mitigate the physiochemical and pharmacological limitations of chemotherapeutics, work towards controlling the subcellular fate of the carrier, and ultimately its payload, has been limited. Because efficient therapeutic action requires drug delivery to specific organelles, the subcellular barrier remains critical obstacle to maximize the full potential of NP-based delivery vehicles. The aim of my dissertation work is to better understand how NP-delivery vehicles’ structural, chemical, and physical properties affect the internalization method and subcellular localization of the nanocarrier. In this work we explored how side-chain and backbone modifications affect the conjugated polymer nanoparticle (CPN) toxicity and subcellular localization. We discovered how subtle chemical modifications had profound consequences on the polymer’s accumulation inside the cell and cellular retention. We also examined how complexation of CPN with polysaccharides affects uptake efficiency and subcellular localization. This work also presents how changes to CPN backbone biodegradability can significantly affect the subcellular localization of the material. A series of triphenyl phosphonium-containing CPNs were synthesized and the effect of backbone modifications have on the cellular toxicity and intracellular fate of the material. A mitochondrial-specific polymer exhibiting time-dependent release is reported. Finally, we present a novel polymerization technique which allows for the controlled incorporation of electron-accepting benzothiadiazole units onto the polymer chain. This facilitates tuning CPN emission towards red emission. The work presented here, specifically, the effect that side-chain and structure, polysaccharide formulation and CPN degradability have on material’s uptake behavior, can help maximize the full potential of NP-based delivery vehicles for improved chemotherapeutic drug delivery.

The role of market knowledge in recognizing and exploiting entrepreneurial opportunities in technology intensive firms

Entrepreneurial opportunity recognition is an increasingly prevalent phenomenon. Of particular interest is the ability of promising technology based ventures to recognize and exploit opportunities. Recent research drawing on the Austrian economic theory emphasizes the importance of knowledge, particularly market knowledge, behind opportunity recognition. While insightful, this research has tended to overlook those interrelationships that exist between different types of knowledge (technology and market knowledge) as well as between a firm’s knowledge base and its entrepreneurial orientation. Additional shortfalls of prior research include the ambiguous definitions provided for entrepreneurial opportunities, oversight of opportunity exploitation with an extensive focus on opportunity recognition only, and the lack of quantitative, empirical evidence on entrepreneurial opportunity recognition. In this dissertation, these research gaps are addressed by integrating Schumpeterian opportunity development view with a Kirznerian opportunity discovery theory as well as insights from literature on entrepreneurial orientation. A sample of 85 new biotechnology ventures from the United States, Finland, and Sweden was analyzed. While leaders in all 85 companies were interviewed for the research in 2003-2004, 42 firms provided data in 2007. Data was analyzed using regression analysis. The results show the value and importance of early market knowledge and technology knowledge as well as an entrepreneurial company posture for subsequent opportunity recognition. The highest numbers of new opportunities are recognized in firms where high levels of market knowledge are combined with high levels of technology knowledge (measured with a number of patents). A firm’s entrepreneurial orientation also enhances its opportunity recognition. Furthermore, the results show that new ventures with more market knowledge are able to gather more equity investments, license out more technologies, and achieve higher sales than new ventures with lower levels of market knowledge. Overall, the findings of this dissertation help further our understanding of the sources of entrepreneurial opportunities, and should encourage further research in this area.

Airborne Laser Quantification of Florida Shoreline and Beach Volume Change Caused by Hurricanes

This dissertation combines three separate studies that measure coastal change using airborne laser data. The initial study develops a method for measuring subaerial and subaqueous volume change incrementally alongshore, and compares those measurements to shoreline change in order to quantify their relationship in Palm Beach County, Florida. A poor correlation (R2 = 0.39) was found between shoreline and volume change before the hurricane season in the northern section of Palm Beach County because of beach nourishment and inlet dynamics. However, a relatively high R2 value of 0.78 in the southern section of Palm Beach County was found due to little disturbance from tidal inlets and coastal engineering projects. The shoreline and volume change caused by the 2004 hurricane season was poorly correlated with R2 values of 0.02 and 0.42 for the north and south sections, respectively. The second study uses airborne laser data to investigate if there is a significant relationship between shoreline migration before and after Hurricane Ivan near Panama City, Florida. In addition, the relationship between shoreline change and subaerial volume was quantified and a new method for quantifying subaqueous sediment change was developed. No significant spatial relationship was found between shoreline migration before and after the hurricane. Utilization of a single coefficient to represent all relationships between shoreline and subaerial volume change was found to be problematic due to the spatial variability in the linear relationship. Differences in bathymetric data show only a small portion of sediment was transported beyond the active zone and most sediment remained within the active zone despite the occurrence of a hurricane. The third study uses airborne laser bathymetry to measure the offshore limit of change, and compares that location with calculated depth of closures and subaqueous geomorphology. There appears to be strong geologic control of the depth of closure in Broward and Miami-Dade Counties. North of Hillsboro Inlet, hydrodynamics control the geomorphology which in turn indicates the location of the depth of closure.

Foundational Forensic Techniques for Cellular and Ad Hoc Multi-hop Networks

The Internet has become an integral part of our nation's critical socio-economic infrastructure. With its heightened use and growing complexity however, organizations are at greater risk of cyber crimes. To aid in the investigation of crimes committed on or via the Internet, a network forensics analysis tool pulls together needed digital evidence. It provides a platform for performing deep network analysis by capturing, recording and analyzing network events to find out the source of a security attack or other information security incidents. Existing network forensics work has been mostly focused on the Internet and fixed networks. But the exponential growth and use of wireless technologies, coupled with their unprecedented characteristics, necessitates the development of new network forensic analysis tools. This dissertation fostered the emergence of a new research field in cellular and ad-hoc network forensics. It was one of the first works to identify this problem and offer fundamental techniques and tools that laid the groundwork for future research. In particular, it introduced novel methods to record network incidents and report logged incidents. For recording incidents, location is considered essential to documenting network incidents. However, in network topology spaces, location cannot be measured due to absence of a 'distance metric'. Therefore, a novel solution was proposed to label locations of nodes within network topology spaces, and then to authenticate the identity of nodes in ad hoc environments. For reporting logged incidents, a novel technique based on Distributed Hash Tables (DHT) was adopted. Although the direct use of DHTs for reporting logged incidents would result in an uncontrollably recursive traffic, a new mechanism was introduced that overcome this recursive process. These logging and reporting techniques aided forensics over cellular and ad-hoc networks, which in turn increased their ability to track and trace attacks to their source. These techniques were a starting point for further research and development that would result in equipping future ad hoc networks with forensic components to complement existing security mechanisms.

Lattice Boltzmann Modeling of Fluid Flow and Solute Transport in Karst Aquifers

A novel modeling approach is applied to karst hydrology. Long-standing problems in karst hydrology and solute transport are addressed using Lattice Boltzmann methods (LBMs). These methods contrast with other modeling approaches that have been applied to karst hydrology. The motivation of this dissertation is to develop new computational models for solving ground water hydraulics and transport problems in karst aquifers, which are widespread around the globe. This research tests the viability of the LBM as a robust alternative numerical technique for solving large-scale hydrological problems. The LB models applied in this research are briefly reviewed and there is a discussion of implementation issues. The dissertation focuses on testing the LB models. The LBM is tested for two different types of inlet boundary conditions for solute transport in finite and effectively semi-infinite domains. The LBM solutions are verified against analytical solutions. Zero-diffusion transport and Taylor dispersion in slits are also simulated and compared against analytical solutions. These results demonstrate the LBM’s flexibility as a solute transport solver. The LBM is applied to simulate solute transport and fluid flow in porous media traversed by larger conduits. A LBM-based macroscopic flow solver (Darcy’s law-based) is linked with an anisotropic dispersion solver. Spatial breakthrough curves in one and two dimensions are fitted against the available analytical solutions. This provides a steady flow model with capabilities routinely found in ground water flow and transport models (e.g., the combination of MODFLOW and MT3D). However the new LBM-based model retains the ability to solve inertial flows that are characteristic of karst aquifer conduits. Transient flows in a confined aquifer are solved using two different LBM approaches. The analogy between Fick’s second law (diffusion equation) and the transient ground water flow equation is used to solve the transient head distribution. An altered-velocity flow solver with source/sink term is applied to simulate a drawdown curve. Hydraulic parameters like transmissivity and storage coefficient are linked with LB parameters. These capabilities complete the LBM’s effective treatment of the types of processes that are simulated by standard ground water models. The LB model is verified against field data for drawdown in a confined aquifer.

Freeway Travel Time Estimation and Prediction Using Dynamic Neural Networks

Providing transportation system operators and travelers with accurate travel time information allows them to make more informed decisions, yielding benefits for individual travelers and for the entire transportation system. Most existing advanced traveler information systems (ATIS) and advanced traffic management systems (ATMS) use instantaneous travel time values estimated based on the current measurements, assuming that traffic conditions remain constant in the near future. For more effective applications, it has been proposed that ATIS and ATMS should use travel times predicted for short-term future conditions rather than instantaneous travel times measured or estimated for current conditions. This dissertation research investigates short-term freeway travel time prediction using Dynamic Neural Networks (DNN) based on traffic detector data collected by radar traffic detectors installed along a freeway corridor. DNN comprises a class of neural networks that are particularly suitable for predicting variables like travel time, but has not been adequately investigated for this purpose. Before this investigation, it was necessary to identifying methods for data imputation to account for missing data usually encountered when collecting data using traffic detectors. It was also necessary to identify a method to estimate the travel time on the freeway corridor based on data collected using point traffic detectors. A new travel time estimation method referred to as the Piecewise Constant Acceleration Based (PCAB) method was developed and compared with other methods reported in the literatures. The results show that one of the simple travel time estimation methods (the average speed method) can work as well as the PCAB method, and both of them out-perform other methods. This study also compared the travel time prediction performance of three different DNN topologies with different memory setups. The results show that one DNN topology (the time-delay neural networks) out-performs the other two DNN topologies for the investigated prediction problem. This topology also performs slightly better than the simple multilayer perceptron (MLP) neural network topology that has been used in a number of previous studies for travel time prediction.

Research on the influence of behavioral forces that motivate trader behavior and sentiment- a prospect theory exegesis

This study focuses on empirical investigations and seeks implications by utilizing three different methodologies to test various aspects of trader behavior. The first methodology utilizes Prospect Theory to determine trader behavior during periods of extreme wealth contracting periods. Secondly, a threshold model to examine the sentiment variable is formulated and thirdly a study is made of the contagion effect and trader behavior. The connection between consumers' sense of financial well-being or sentiment and stock market performance has been studied at length. However, without data on actual versus experimental performance, implications based on this relationship are meaningless. The empirical agenda included examining a proprietary file of daily trader activities over a five-year period. Overall, during periods of extreme wealth altering conditions, traders "satisfice" rather than choose the "best" alternative. A trader's degree of loss aversion depends on his/her prior investment performance. A model that explains the behavior of traders during periods of turmoil is developed. Prospect Theory and the data file influenced the design of the model. Additional research included testing a model that permitted the data to signal the crisis through a threshold model. The third empirical study sought to investigate the existence of contagion caused by declining global wealth effects using evidence from the mining industry in Canada. Contagion, where a financial crisis begins locally and subsequently spreads elsewhere, has been studied in terms of correlations among similar regions. The results provide support for Prospect Theory in two out of the three empirical studies. The dissertation emphasizes the need for specifying precise, testable models of investors' expectations by providing tools to identify paradoxical behavior patterns. True enhancements in this field must include empirical research utilizing reliable data sources to mitigate data mining problems and allow researchers to distinguish between expectations-based and risk-based explanations of behavior. Through this type of research, it may be possible to systematically exploit "irrational" market behavior.

Lions and Roses: An Interpretive History of Israeli-Iranian Relations

This multi-disciplinary research project explores the religious and cultural foundations within the “master commemorative narratives” that frame Israeli and Iranian political discourse. In articulating their grievances against one another, Israeli and Iranian leaders express the tensions between religion, nationalism, and modernity in their own societies. The theoretical and methodological approach of this dissertation is constructivist-interpretivist. The concept of “master commemorative narratives” is adapted from Yael Zerubavel’s study of ritualized remembrance in Israeli political culture, and applied to both Israeli and Iranian foreign policy. Israel’s master commemorative narrative draws heavily upon the language of the Hebrew Bible, situating foreign policy discourse within a paradigm of covenantal patrimony, exile, and return, despite the unrelenting hostility of eternal enemies and “the nations.” Iran’s master commemorative narrative expresses Iranian suspicion of foreign encroachment and interference, and of the internal corruption that they engender, sacralizing resistance to the forces of evil in the figurative language and myths of pre-Islamic tradition and of Shi‘a Islam. Using a constructivist-interpretive methodological approach, this research offers a unique interpretive analysis of the parallels between these narratives, where they intersect, and where they come into conflict. It highlights both the broad appeal and the diverse challenges to the components of these “master” narratives within Israeli and Iranian politics and society. The conclusion of this study explains the ways in which the recognition of religious and cultural conflicts through the optic of master commemorative narratives can complement the perspectives of other theoretical approaches and challenge the conventions of Security Studies. It also suggests some of the potential practical applications of this research in devising more effective international diplomacy.

Armenia's Foreign Policy, 1991-2004: Between History and Geopolitics

This dissertation is the first systematic study of Armenia’s foreign policy during the post-independence period, between 1991 and 2004. It argues that a small state’s foreign policy is best understood when looking at the regional level. Armenia’s geographic proximity to Iran, Russia and Turkey, places it in an area of heightened geopolitical interest by various great powers. This dissertation explores four sets of relationships with Armenia’s major historical ‘partners’: Russia, Iran, Turkey and the West (Europe and the United States). Each relationship reveals a complex reality of a continuous negotiation between ideas of history, collective memory, nationalism and geopolitics. A detailed study of Armenia’s relations with these powers demonstrates how actors’ relations of amity and enmity are formed to constitute a regional security complex. Turkey represents the ultimate “other”, while both Europe and Iran are seen as ideational “others”, whose role in Armenia’s foreign policy, aside from pragmatic policy considerations, reflects a normative quest. Russia and the United States, on the other hand, represent the powerful structural forces that define the regional security complex, in which Armenia operates. This dissertation argues that although Armenia has been severely constrained in certain foreign policy choices, it was adept at carving a space for action that privileged the issue of Nagorno-Karabakh over other geopolitical imperatives.