For ten years he spent as the Prime Minister, Tony Blair led Great Britain in no less five then military operations, more than any other Prime Minister in the modern history. Neither of these operations was strictly speaking in British national interest and thus Tony Blair had to use other than the usual arguments to legitimize Britain's participation. He therefore started using moral arguments. Usage of these became much more acceptable during the nineties due to the changes in the international arena, this thesis looks at which moral arguments Tony Blair used during his tenure as the Prime Minister and how he used them. It analyses his arguments used to legitimize operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kosovo.

In the spring of 1999 NATO started the air campaign Operation Allied Force against the Serb president Slobodan Milošević’s dictatorship. Operation Allied Force unfolded during a 78-day long campaign in former Yugoslavia. The aim of the operation was to stop the ethnic cleansing of Kosovar Albanians in the Serb province Kosovo. The operation, that initially was supposed to be over in a week, continued for almost three months. Why did the campaign take such a long time compared to what was predicted? The aim of this study was to analyze Operation Allied Force from a time perspective to be able to tell why the operation became so protracted. The analyze was made by consuming two of the best well-known air power theories written by Robert A. Pape and John A. Warden. The result showed that there were several different factors that contributed to the protracted process. Too strict rules of engagement, few targets, lack of resources and the lack of a unified strategy inside NATO are believed to be the main factors that caused the lengthy process.

Despite the statements of the institutions of Kosovo in media that will uncompromisingly fight corruption, in everyday life it is not noticed by citizens. Kosovo’s institutional framework against corruption, to say the least, suffers many shortcomings in its implementation. This research, aimed the identification of the corruption practices in higher education institutions of Kosovo and depiction of possible counter-responses through the use of ICT, and it is useful for different national or foreign organizations that are determined to combat corruption, for implementation of their projects. University of Northern Kosovo is not included in this research. The qualitative approach of this study uses surveys, case studies, and interviews as methods for data collection. These data were analysed by mapping the identified corrupt practices, together with appropriate anti-corruption actions types and ICTs used. Results have shown that respondents perceive the level of corruption in these institutions, from medium to high, manifested mostly in examinations, access to universities and colleges, and professor behaviour. Also, the most common type of corruption came out to be nepotism. Results have shown that regarding ICTs, a whole range of them can be used for anti-corruption, including: web pages, social media networks, ID cards, cell-phone/Wi-Fi/Bluetooth signal jammers or detectors, procurement systems, etc. Exploitation of these technologies would significantly reduce corruption in higher education institutions.

The EU has taken a major role in The Republic of Kosovo, creating a new future for the country via the EU office in Kosovo with its role in implementing EU norms in Kosovo. Kosovo is a potential candidate state for the EU and has declared its interest in becoming an EU member state.  Kosovo has implemented crucial reforms and shows commitment to advancing on its European path. Kosovo does not fulfil the general requirements for the accession based on the Copenhagen criteria yet, and there remain major internal and external hindrances to its membership. The rule of law, despite the progress made in adapting the legal framework, Kosovo needs to step up its efforts to strengthen the independence of the judiciary. Additionally, Kosovo must fight corrupted structures and organised crime by building strong and independent institutions. Furthermore, reforms in the economic area are needed to tackle Kosovo's informal economy and unemployment. Despite, the Copenhagen Criteria, the main hindrances are the five non-recognizers in the EU and the required normalization process with Serbia. Kosovo must get its independence recognized by the five non-recognizers in the EU and stabilize its relations with Serbia before focusing on the accession to the EU.

Diploma thesis deals with the connection between the nature of implemented peacekeeping operation and possible positive output of this activity and thus with successful peacebuilding in the specific context of etnopolitical conflicts. Etnopolitical disputes constitute a vivid challenge aimed towards United Nations organisation. Mainly, because this organisation is one of the main actors of international system in finding solutions of etnopolitical conflicts and because United Nations also proposes concrete tools for their resolving - peacekeeping missions. We work with assumption that the nature of etnopolitical conflict and the nature of conflicting parties involved influence, to an important extent, involvement and impact of peacekeeping operations in resolving these conflicts. Diploma thesis, through the use of theories of origin and solvability of ethnic conflicts, creates the framework within which their more complicated solvability can be explained as well as inhibitors of theoretically successful models. Likewise, the typology of peacekeeping operations is defined and also narrower understanding of peacebuilding, as a set of political and security aspects, is described. Datas from four case studies then offer an opportunity to formulate partial endings and findings of examined causal relation. C lick...

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This thesis aims to investigate if state oppression towards independence movements affects their chosen strategies for achieving autonomy, as well as examine whether the state oppression results in political jiu-jitsu and/or backfire for the state. In recent years there have been more studies regarding state oppression towards non-violent movements examining in what ways this affects the non-violent movements, as this has been seen as unjust methods. Furthermore, it has been examined in relation to political jiu-jitsu and backfire, however not specifically regarding independence movements in a qualitative study. The study is based on the theoretical framework political jiu-jitsu by Gene Sharp and the backfire framework by Brian Martin. This has been done with a qualitative comparative case study through a process tracing method with the independence movements UCK and ETA as analytical units. The result from the study firstly indicates that there is a connection between the experience of state oppression and the prominence of political jiu-jitsu and backfire for states - that states experience political jiu-jitsu and backfire when choosing oppressive methods towards non-violence movements. Second, the independence movements are likely to choose violence as methods to achieve their political goals. These results are of importance to understand how violence can affect non-violent movements and how states using oppression can end up suffering from it - acknowledging it may not be the way to go.

Ever since Kosovo’s declared Independence in 2008, the nation has opted for a multi-ethnic approach by adopting a legal framework that contains several laws promoting and protecting minority rights, although these have remained rather stagnant in implementation. The minorities in Kosovo have furthermore been affected by the Serb-Albanian relations and inter-ethnic tensions by creating divisions and societal challenges. The purpose of this study is to examine the current situation for minorities in Kosovo, along with studying the limitations and possibilities of the implementation of minority rights and societal opportunities. Additionally, this is a case study based on the experiences and views of Torbeshis being a minority in Kosovo which exemplifies the situation of how minority rights are expressed in a social and political context. The  methodological approach of semi-structured interviews was applied which provided the primary data consisting of empirical findings and results from interviews. The data was then analyzed with the assistance of the theoretical framework of social constructivism, along with the intersectionality concept as a complementary tool with an applied narrative analysis. The results indicated that the inadequate implementation of rights is the common denominator concerning minorities' situation, possibilities, limitations and experiences. The focus of the international community on Serb-Albanian relations has further shifted the attention from minority issues. Although the legislative framework is advanced, minorities generally seem to face more limitations than possibilities, with potential for a positive turn. Minorities face limitations such as security concerns, freedom of movement caused by linguistic obstacles, together with restricted participation and access in political life. The Torbeshis face similar issues as mentioned, together with forms of discrimination, ethnic redefinition, assimilation and interrelationship between to major ethnic groups. / Sedan Kosovos förklarade självständighet 2008 antog konstitutionen en lagstiftningsram innehållande flera lagar som främjar och skyddar minoritetsrättigheter, men trots implementeringen har dessa lagar förblivit relativt stillastående i praktiken. Kosovo definierar därmed sig själva som ett multietniskt samhälle i samband med fastställandet av dessa lagar. Minoriteterna i Kosovo har dessutom påverkats av Kosovos efterkrigstid och den Serbisk-Albanska dynamiken där spänningar mellan etniska grupper förekommer i landet och skapar diverse splittringar och samhällsutmaningar för minoriteterna. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka den aktuella situationen för minoriteter i Kosovo, tillsammans med de existerande begränsningar och möjligheter som finns för implementeringen av minoritetsrättigheter och samhällsmöjligheter. Studien tillämpar en fallstudie som utvärderar Torbesjers erfarenheter av att vara en minoritet, vilket illustrerar hur den nuvarande situationen av minoritetsrättigheter uttrycks i en viss social och politisk kontext. Det metodologiska tillvägagångssättet som tillämpas är semistrukturerade intervjuer och utgör det primära materialet bestående av resultat från intervjuer samt empirisk data. Datan analyserades sedan med hjälp av det teoretiska ramverket social konstruktivism med intersektionalitetskonceptet som ett kompletterande verktyg, och slutligen applicerades en narrativ analys för att behandla datan. Resultatet av studien visar på att den otillräckliga implementeringen av rättigheterna är den gemensamma nämnaren när det kommer till minoriteters situation, möjligheter, begränsningar och erfarenheter. Det omfattande fokus som läggs på relationen mellan serber och albaner av det internationella samfundet skiftar ytterligare uppmärksamhet från minoritetsfrågorna. Trots den avancerade lagstiftningsramen verkar minoriteter i Kosovo möta fler begränsningar än möjligheter, med potential för en positiv förändring. De begränsningar som minoriteter bemöter i Kosovo är säkerhetsproblem, rörelsefrihet, språkliga hinder, samt ett begränsat deltagande och tillgång i det politiska klimatet. Torbesjer står inför liknande problem, tillsammans med former av diskriminering, etnisk omdefiniering, assimilering och ett mellanförskap i förhållande till de etniska majoriteterna i landet.