The thesis addresses the role of national oil companies and their overseas engagement in the foreign policy decision-making process of states. Over the past 40 years, national oil companies have gained importance in the international oil industry and currently control around 90 per cent of the global oil reserves. A number of political and economic factors – depleting domestic reserves, economic growth – have resulted in an increasing expansion of Asian national oil companies to Africa. Through the use of two Asian national oil companies – Malaysia's Petronas and India's Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) – and their overseas engagement in Sudan and South Sudan as case studies, the thesis assesses three aspects: factors and motives that influence the relationship between government institutions and Petronas and ONGC, the connection between this domestic relationship and the overseas engagement of both companies, and the implications of the overseas engagement of Petronas and ONGC in both Sudans for the foreign policy decision-making process of Malaysia and India. This set of questions is analysed through a comparative case study design that is supported by in-depth interviews and based on Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), proposing a four-level theoretical framework. This thesis thus seeks to demonstrate how FPA can help assess the connection between the domestic decision-making process and the international engagement of the companies. In doing so, it not only argues that process and engagement are in fact connected, but also critically addresses conventional assumptions about the overseas engagement of national oil companies. Furthermore, this thesis questions the idea that government institutions and national oil companies act in a coherent and coordinated manner when operating abroad.

In 2011, South Sudan became independent through the agreement and implementation of the comprehensive peace agreement (CPA). However, interethnic conflict also escalated. This cycle of violence impacts the psychological and physical health of local society. When violence between ethnic groups escalates, civilians may be forced to flee their homes. This study employed a phenomenological research approach that examined the views and experiences of the recruited 13 members from the state of Jonglei; 5 members of the Dinka, 3 members of the Murle, and 5 members of the Nuer ethnic groups residing in the United States. In an attempt to understand the root causes of the conflict between ethnic groups, this research used a qualitative study plan that examined interethnic politics, perceptions, and beliefs among South Sudanese ethnic groups: Dinka, Murle, and Nuer. In addition, this study examined the presence of armed ethnic groups, the use of guns, and the relationship between trauma caused by past exposure or experience of violence and subsequent interethnic groups conflict. Data were analyzed with descriptive and patterned coding. The 5 identified themes from analysis of the collected data were: roles of ethnic identity, lack of trust in the system of the distribution of resources, roles of ethnic politicians, uncontrollable use of guns and defense of ethnic territory. In addition, the past war incidents between ethnic groups have a negative impact on the present relationship. The findings of this research may create positive social change for ethnic groups and for communities who may use it as an opportunity to understand their own problems and to establish an ethnic advocacy type of conflict resolution in South Sudan.

The thesis deals with the analysis of the oil industry in Sudan and South Sudan in the 21st century. The first part follows up the role of oil in the African continent; the history of oil production, the rest is devoted to a more detailed analysis of the oil sector in Sudan or South Sudan after 2011. Then the characteristics of future scenarios are realized. The scenarios are affected by the civil war in the South Sudan and border disputes between the North and the South.

Utafiti huu unachunguza maenezi ya lugha ya Kiswahili katika taifa la Sudan Kusini kwa kuangazia njia zilizotumika kuisambaza hii lugha ya Kiswahili nchini humo. Unachunguza pia changamoto za lugha ya Kiswahili nchini Sudan Kusini na mustakabali wake. Data ya utafiti huu imekusanywa nyanjani kupitia kifaa cha mahojiano ambapo tuliwahoji wenyeji wa Sudan Kusini na wafanyakazi wa mashirika mbalimbali nchini Sudan Kusini. Utafiti huu umebaini kuwa Kiswahili kimeingia Sudan Kusini kwa msaada wa nyenzo mbalimbali kama vile vita, biashara, elimu, maingiliano ya mipakani, dini na ndoa. Utafiti huu pia unajadili baadhi ya vizuizi vinavyoweza kutatiza ukuaji na ueneaji wa Kiswahili katika taifa la Sudan Kusini kama vile tishio kubwa la ushindani na upinzani wa makundi ya lugha za Sudan Kusini na lugha ya Kiarabu ambayo ndiyo lugha ya maenezi mapana, na hali kadhalika lugha ya Kiingereza ambayo ni moja katika lugha zinazoenziwa katika taifa la Sudan Kusini hasa kwa kuwa lugha ya kimataifa. Imebainika pia kuwa sababu kubwa za kujifundisha Kiswahili kwa wenyeji wengi wa Sudan Kusini kumechangiwa na haja ya kutaka kujitambulisha na kujinasibisha na makundi mbalimbali ya Afrika Mashariki. Utafiti huu unahoji pia kuwa mustakabali wa lugha ya Kiswahili utategemea sera ya lugha nchini Sudan Kusini na utekelezaji wa matakwa ya Jumuiya ya Afrika Mashariki ya kufanya Kiswahili kuwa lugha ya maenezi mapana katika eneo la Afrika Mashariki nakopatikana nchi ya Sudan Kusini. / This paper examines the spread of Swahili to South Sudan. It explores the challenges of the language in South Sudan and its potential future status and use. Data from this study were collected through interviews with South Sudanese residents and employees of various organizations. The study reveals that Swahili has gained ground in South Sudan due to war, trade, education, cross-border interaction, religion and marriage practices. This study also discusses some of the impeding barriers to the growth and spread of the language, e.g., with reference to the status and use Arabic and English. It is also observed that among the main reasons for learning Swahili for many South Sudanese people is the need to identify with other East Africans. The study also argues that the future of the language will depend on the language policies in South Sudan and the implementation of the East African Community's aspirations to make Swahili a widespread language beyond its core regions.

Women’s rights and female security is a growing concern in several conflicts around the world. In Congo, conflict-related violence has long been used as weapon and Congo has today become known as the “rape capital” beacuse of these war rapes. Further more, reports from South Sudan states that UN troops has ignored pleas for help by women being raped. United Nation Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 was implemented by the UN Security Council to combat conflict-related violence and add a gender perspective in UN Peacekeeping operations.  The aim of this thesis is to analyze the impact of UNSCR 1325 by comparing UN Peacekeeping operations’ mandates and actions before and after the resolution was implemented. The thesis will also analyse the UN’s action to eliminate conflict-based sexual violence and war rape. The peacekeeping operations that will be discussed are MINURSO (West Sahara) MONUSCO (Congo) and UNMISS (South Sudan). In order to do so, the theory of Female Security Studies [FSS] and Militarized Masculinity will be applied. In our thesis, the UN’s actions were found to be insufficient. The main factors resulting in this insufficiency was found to be the systematic failure to take the actions needed to implement UNSCR 1325, such as the increasing the number of female involvement in peacekeeping and peacebuilding processes. In large, the impact of UNSCR 1325 could have been bigger if the resolution had been implemented more efficiently. While the written changes were significant with the implementation of the resolution, these changes were not as visible among the actual actions taken in the peacekeeping operations in West Sahara, Congo and South Sudan.

[pt] Esta dissertação procura analisar as diferentes abordagens à proteção de civis (PoC, da sigla em inglês) mobilizadas por agentes policiais/militares e humanitários em situações de conflito armado e emergências humanitárias onde há presença de operações de paz das Nações Unidas. Inspirada pelas estratégias de análise de discurso pós-estrutural, a dissertação se concentra nos PoC sites no Sudão do Sul, espaços que abrigam civis deslocados pela violência e perseguição desde a conflagração do conflito armado em curso, em dezembro de 2013. Tais espaços de proteção têm integrado as estratégias e práticas de proteção avançadas tanto por humanitários quando pela Missão das Nações Unidas no Sudão do Sul (UNMISS) e são tomados como um microcosmo privilegiado para a análise do(s) discurso(s) de proteção, dada a coexistência de diferentes racionalidades de proteção que os caracteriza. Orientada por um arcabouço teórico-conceitual foucaultiano, a dissertação mobiliza os conceitos de poder soberano, governamentalidade e biopolítica desenvolvidos por Michel Foucault e trabalhados por literaturas críticas às operações de paz e ao humanitarismo. Defende-se que as racionalidades de proteção avançadas pelos setores humanitário e de segurança seguem a racionalidade do poder policial, entendido como um conjunto de tecnologias e técnicas quem mantêm a ordem e protegem a vida no nível da população, mas também decidem sobre a suspensão da lei. Apontando para a relação entre proteção, policiamento e excepcionalidade desenvolvida nos PoC sites, tais espaços serão analisados a partir do conceito de campo de Giorgio Agamben: espaços de normalização da excepcionalidade em que a vida nua é governada. / [en] This thesis analyses different approaches to the protection of civilians (PoC) as mobilized by police/military and humanitarian actors in contexts of armed conflict and humanitarian emergencies where a United Nations peacekeeping operation is deployed. Inspired by the strategies of post-structural discourse analysis, the thesis focuses on the PoC sites in South Sudan, which have sheltered civilians fleeing from violence and persecution since armed conflict broke out in that country, in December 2013. These protected sites have been an integral part of protection strategies and practices advanced by both humanitarian actors present in the country and the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and are taken here as a privileged analytical microcosm for assessing protection discourse(s) due to the colocation of different protection rationales that characterizes those spaces. Grounded on a Foucauldian theoretical-conceptual framework, this work mobilizes the concepts of sovereign power, governmentality and biopolitics developed by Michel Foucault and employed by critical literature on peacekeeping operations and humanitarian action. It is argued in the thesis that the rationales of protection advanced by both the humanitarian and security sectors work according to the rationality of police power, understood as an ensemble of technologies and techniques that maintains order and protects life among populations but also decides on the suspension of law. Pointing to the particular relationship between protection, policing and exceptionality unraveled in the context of PoC sites, these spaces will be treated as Giorgio Agamben s camps: as spaces of normalized exceptionality where bare life is managed.

This study investigates the South Sudanese government’s policy titled South Sudan National Action Plan 2015–2020 on UNSCR 1325 to identify the discourses in the policy document and examine whether they can be linked to the concepts of power and agency. The thesis uses the feminist theory of power and agency with Carol Bacchi’s What’s the Problem Represented to be? (WPR) framework as a method to answer the research objectives. The thesis finds that the South Sudanese government justice system is represented as the dominant “problem” representation because the government is represented as lacking the political will to change its formal and customary laws that have harmful consequences for women in South Sudan. The Ministry of Gender, Child, and Social Welfare (MGCSW), via the SSNAP, is blaming the government for the overall challenges that South Sudanese women endure, which in turn works contrary to the policy objectives since the government oversees allocating financial resources and enacting legislation. Further, the empowerment and agency of women in South Sudan are also undermined since they are portrayed as powerless and dependent on the change in formal and customary laws by the government.

Afrikanische Staaten werden oft mit einem ideal-typischen westeuropäischen Nationalstaat verglichen und unweigerlich für unzureichend befunden. Diese Arbeit begegnet diesem theoretischen Missstand, indem sie eine neue Typologie des territorialen afrikanischen Nationalstaats in Abgrenzung vom europäischen Model entwickelt. Die Typologie fungiert als theoretisches Prisma für eine ausführliche Analyse des Südsudan für die Jahre 2005-2014. Gleichzeitig liefert der Vergleich mit dem Sonderfall Südsudan neue Erkenntnisse zum Wandel von Staat und Nation in Afrika. Ausgehend von einer historisch-philosophischen Querschau auf Staat und Nation in Europa, werden die grundverschiedenen Umstände von Nationalstaatsbildung im postkolonialen Afrika dargestellt. Der Autor schöpft aus einer umfangreichen Literatur, die fast sämtliche Staaten in Sub-Sahara Afrika abdeckt, um typisierte Aspekte von Staat und Nation herauszuarbeiten. Für den afrikanischen Staat sind dies der hybride Quasi-Staat, der illegitime Staat, der privatisierte neopatrimoniale Staat und der aufgedunsene Zentralstaat. Die Typologie der afrikanischen Nation besteht aus inklusivem Staatsnationalismus, dem Wiedererstarken politischer Ethnizität sowie dem ausgrenzenden neuen Nationalismus. Auf der Basis von Primär- und Sekundärquellen sowie Feldforschung, haben sich südsudanesischer Staat und Nation als überwiegend kongruent mit der Typologie erwiesen. Abweichungen bestehen jedoch im Ausmaß der Übernahme von Dienstleistungen durch ausländische NGOs, in der Struktur der neopatrimonialen Netzwerke sowie in der Rolle, die Sprache für die nationale Identität spielt. Zudem weist der Südsudan sämtliche Entwicklungstrends des postkolonialen Nationalismus parallel zueinander und nicht aufeinander folgend auf. Dies deutet darauf hin, dass sich die Bedingungen für Nationenbildung im heutigen Afrika dank Urbanisierung, moderner Kommunikationswege und dem Vorherrschen von Bürgerkriegen sehr von der Vergangenheit unterscheiden. / African states are often judged by comparison to an ideal-typical Western European nation-state, which inevitably finds the African state wanting. This thesis challenges this theoretical drawback by developing a novel typology of the African territorial nation-state in juxtaposition to the European model. The typology is then applied as a theoretical prism for an in-depth analysis of the case of South Sudan, the world’s newest state, for the period 2005-2014. At the same time, comparison to the anomalous case of South Sudan provides new insights into the changing nature of statehood and nationalism in Africa. Starting out from a historical-philosophical overview of state and nation in the European context, the very different circumstances of nation-state formation in postcolonial Africa are depicted. The author then draws on a large body of literature covering almost all of Sub-Saharan Africa to distil typified facets of state and nation. For the African state, these components are the hybrid quasi state, the illegitimate state, the privatized neopatrimonial state and the swollen centralized state. The typology of the African nation consists of inclusive state-nationalism, the resurgence of political ethnicity and exclusionary new nationalism and the politics of autochthony. Based on primary and secondary sources including fieldwork in South Sudan, the empirical reality of South Sudan’s nascent nation-state is shown to largely match the typology. Important divergences exist however in the degree of service delivery by foreign NGOs, in the dispersed nature of the neopatrimonial networks, and the role of language in nationbuilding. Crucially, South Sudan exhibits all three trends of postcolonial African nationalism at the same time rather than in successive periods. This indicates that in contemporary Africa rapid urbanization, modern communications and the prevalence of civil wars create very different conditions for nationbuilding than in decades past.

Text in English / This study analyses the application of a community based intervention, the Care Group (CG) model, in relief work in Somalia and South Sudan. On the basis of expert interviews and a variety of documents it was researched whether the CG model is applicable to the context mentioned or if adaptations would be necessary. An increase in prolonged crises challenges humanitarian action to adapt relief work to longer-term interventions. The concept of combining the strengths of development cooperation and humanitarian action - Linking Relief, Rehabilitation and Development - is looked at in this study. Furthermore, for example, the asset-based community development approach, humanitarian work and characteristics of a protracted crisis were explored as the theoretical back-ground. The findings and the conclusion of this research may provide inputs for other humanitarian NGOs that are working in chronic conflict situations and being confronted with the need to introduce a long-term method for Behaviour Change Communication. / Development Studies / M.A. (Development Studies)

Why do communal conflicts turn violent in some regions but not in others? Communal conflicts pose a severe threat to human security and kill thousands of people each year, but our understanding of this phenomenon is still limited. In particular, we lack knowledge about why some of these conflicts become violent while others are resolved peacefully. This study addresses this knowledge gap and has a novel approach by addressing subnational variations that are unexplained by previous research. The theoretical framework combines insights from three different perspectives focusing on the role of the state, elite interactions, and conditions for cooperation over common resources. Empirically, the research question is investigated by combining within- and between-region analyses of three Sudanese regions: Darfur, Eastern Sudan, and Greater Upper Nile. Despite sharing several similar characteristics, communal conflicts have killed thousands in Darfur and Greater Upper Nile but only a few dozen in Eastern Sudan. The empirical analysis builds on extensive material collected during fieldwork. This study generates several conclusions about the importance of government conduct and how state behavior contributes to the prevalence of violent communal conflicts. It finds that when governments act in a biased manner – favoring certain communities over others – interactions between central and local elites as well as among local elites are disrupted. Unconstructive elite interactions, in turn, have negative effects on three mechanisms that are crucial for communal cooperation. First, when the regime is biased, communal affiliation, rather than the severity and context of a violation, determines the sanctions that are imposed on the perpetrators. Second, government bias leads to unclear boundaries, which contribute to violent communal conflicts by creating disarray and by shifting power balances between the communities. Third, regime partiality distances rules from local conditions and restricts the influence of local actors who have an understanding of local circumstances. The study also reveals why a regime acts with partiality in some areas but not in others. The answer to this question is found in the complex interplay between the threats and opportunities that a region presents to the regime. Taken together, the findings have important implications for the prevention and management of communal conflict.