Declaration

I declare that this contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or institution and to the best of the author’s knowledge and belief, contains no material previously written or published by another person, except where due reference is made in the text. The content of the thesis is the result of work which has been carried out since the official commencement date of the program in February 2002, and any editorial work, paid or unpaid, carried out by a third party is acknowledged. The length of this thesis is less than 90,000 words; exclusive of maps tables, references and appendices