Why does the European Union focus on controlling irregular immigration at the external border? The emphasis presents a paradox as most irregular migrants in the EU arrive through legal channels and subsequently overstay or violate the conditions of their visa. In order to explore this paradox, the thesis examines two case studies, Malta and Cyprus. As small island states on the Union’s southern periphery, the two are ostensibly unable to resist the transfer of migration controls and asylum responsibility to the EU’s external borders. Yet, employing nonmaterial power, namely by highlighting the perceived migration pressures they are under, the two states have successfully attracted significant financial and practical support from other member states. In doing so, they have influenced policymaking within EU migration governance, but have ultimately reinforced the emphasis on controlling irregular immigration at the external border by portraying the phenomenon as a crisis. This thesis not only sheds light on the interaction between the EU and the two states under investigation, but combines three levels of analysis – the regional, national, and local. The crisis narrative detrimentally affects the migrant and refugee populations as it encourages the adoption of restrictive and deterrent measures rather than ensuring access to rights and long-term integration. Nevertheless, this population is not without agency. It is their individual decisions to move across national borders without state authorisation that in the aggregate both compels states into dialogue about the issue and provides the basis for the dynamic between the EU and these two member states.

<p>During the spring 2007 Estonia and Russia collided in the biggest international conflict among themselves since the break up of the Soviet Union. The conflict concerned about the issue of Estonia’s removal of a soviet bronze statue from central Tallinn to a garden of honour, due to Estonia thought that the statue represented oppression. Chaos developed in Tallinn with disturbances and plunder. The relations between Estonia and Russia became very strained, as Russia considered the movement of the statue wrong. This thesis has examined how the two parties have handled this international conflict through measure how international they are from an official perspective. An examination has been made to see how well the two nations follow the official perspective in a real case. To be able to measure internationalism, a model by Kjell Goldmann has been used, where the idealistic internationalist should follow a certain pat-tern; outward-looking, universalism, coexistence-orientated, moderate. The re-sult showed that Estonia follows the idealistic international pattern owing to a well developed cooperation and membership in international organizations. While Russia ended up in the opposite side, the non internationalist pattern, due to difficulties with cooperation and too much inward looking approach towards the own country.</p> / <p>Våren 2007 hamnade Estland och Ryssland i den största internationella konflikten sinsemellan sedan sönderfallet av Sovjetunionen. Konflikten handlade om att Estland flyttade en sovjetisk bronsstaty från centrala Tal-linn till en krigskyrkogård, då man tyckte att den symboliserade förtryck. I Tallinn blev det ett kaos med oroligheter och plundring som följd. Relatio-nerna mellan Estland och Ryssland blev mycket ansträngda, då Ryssland an-såg att det var fel av Estland att flytta statyn. Denna uppsats har undersökt hur de båda parterna hanterade denna internationella konflikt genom att först mäta hur internationella de var utifrån ett officiellt perspektiv. För att sedan studera om de handlade i en internationell konflikt utifrån den offici-ella bilden. För att kunna mäta internationalism har en modell av Kjell Goldmann använts, där den idealistiske internationalisten skall vara enligt följande mönster; utåtsträvande, universell, samarbetsorienterad och mode-rat. Resultatet visade att Estland följer det idealistiska internationella mönst-ret tack vare ett mycket utvecklat samarbete och medlemskap i olika inter-nationella organisationer. Medan Ryssland hamnade på motsatt icke idealis-tisk internationalistisk sida på grund av svårigheter för internationella sam-arbeten och för mycket inåtsträvan till det egna landet.</p>

Abstract Essay in political science, C-level, by Bo-Josef Eriksson, spring semester 2007 Tutor: Susan Marton ”Universal morality - does it exist? - A case study of small states foreign policy” The purpose of this essay is to examine how well does realism stand of against idealism when the focus of the study is on small states foreign policy? The essay takes it’s starting point at the debate between the two theories of international relations (IR). Realism is the theory that has had the most impact on the study of IR since the second world war. Idealism has been it’s greatest opponent and the debate is still active even up til this day. My case study of Danmarks foreign aid policy constitutes a worst critical case scenario for realism and therfore my assumptions were that idealism would be the theory that could explain the core-elements of the Danish foregin aid. Core-elements is the caracteristic of the different theory’s and the core-elements of idealism is the oposite of those of realism. The actual examination-material is the policy documnts of Danida. Danida stands for; Danish International Development Assistance, and it’s an department under the Danish ministry of foreign affairs. The answer to if Danida’s foreign aid policy is based on realistic or idealisti core-elements is that it is based on idealistic core-elements. So to answer the purpose realism didn’t stand that well of when the focus were on a small states foreign policy. The limitations of my study lies in the fact that it’s an qualitative research which means that you may have som problem with generalisations so to be able to say something about all small states there will have to be more research done in this particular area.

Between 1999 and 2009 the Swedish Armed Forces underwent an immense reformation. This thesis aims to contribute to the discussion on small state foreign policy behaviour within the wider field of international relations by explaining why Sweden decided to reform their national defence from an invasion-based defence to a mission-based defence. Using a neoclassical realist approach and a process tracing methodology, two hypotheses are tested to analyze a predicted causal relationship between systemic imperatives, the search for influence, and the decision to reform the Armed Forces. The first hypothesis is that when a state’s relative power rises it will initially seek, but ultimately attempt to gain, more influence abroad. The second hypothesis is that the search for influence is the driving force behind the reformation of the Armed Forces. The analysis corroborates both hypotheses, although the former with a relative amount of uncertainty, and argues that both system and intervening unit-level variables matter. The main conclusion is that the favourable situation in the international system has permitted an increased search for influence. This search for influence has in turn been the driving force behind the reformation. Since the first hypothesis has a relative amount of uncertainty connected to it, the certainty of the conclusions in this thesis can be discussed, and must therefore be subject to further empirical research.

With the collapse of the bipolar system and increasing number and importance of small states, the emphasis is not placed only on the great powers anymore. In the globalizing world states have to face new threats and adapt its security and foreign policy tools. The aim of the thesis is to find out which steps two small countries - Czech Republic and Norway, undertake to ensure their safety and minimize their threats. The first chapter analyzes foreign policies of the selected countries, and decides whether they are really small states. After defining the major threats as terrorism and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, an analysis of counter-terrorism actions based on the official counter-terrorism strategies of the UN, the OSCE, the NATO, and the EU follows. From this analysis the thesis then concludes that Czech Republic and Norway are small, but not weak states and they may contribute to minimizing global threats.

Ma recherche porte sur l’action diplomatique et religieuse des cardinaux d’Este et sur leur rôle de médiateurs entre l’Italie et la France. L’objectif est de faire apparaître les fondements géopolitiques de leur action, en prenant soin de faire ressortir les différentes échelles de leur action. L’emprise territoriale des cardinaux d’Este se manifeste, en effet, par l’existence de relais italiens et français. La présence d’Ippolito II d’Este et de Luigi d’Este est étudiée aussi bien sous l’angle de leur présence matérielle que sous celui de leur participation aux enjeux politiques du temps. La recherche s’inscrit à la croisée de plusieurs historiographies. Tout d’abord, elle cherche à affiner la connaissance de la sociologie des cardinaux au XVIe siècle. Ensuite, elle reprend les apports de l’histoire des relations internationales pour revenir sur le rôle des deux cardinaux d’Este comme supports de la couronne française à Rome et médiateurs pontificaux à la cour de France, et étudier leurs pratiques. Enfin, l’analyse vise à reprendre la catégorie d’humanisme chrétien, conceptualisée par Erasme, pour voir si elle constitue une ligne directrice de leur conduite religieuse. En prêtant attention à leur démarche sur la scène internationale, l’étude vise également à montrer que se dessine une identité catholique qui n’est pas hétérodoxe, mais s’insère bien dans la plus stricte orthodoxie confessionnelle. En revanche, la traversée des monts entraîne des réajustements sur le plan de l’expression et de la représentation de la foi. / My research focuses on the d’Este cardinals’ diplomatic and religious actions and on their role as mediators between Italy and France. My objective is to uncover the geopolitical foundations of their actions whilst highlighting the different scales thereof. The territorial emprise of the d’Este cardinals is actually revealed by the existence of Italian and French relays. I study the presence of Ippolito II and Luigi d’Este both in terms of their material presence and their participation in the political stakes of the time. This research combines multiple forms of historiography. First, it develops the existing knowledge of the cardinals’ sociology in the sixteenth century. It then considers contributions from the history of international relations and how they pertain to the roles of the two d’Este cardinals as supporters of the French crown in Rome and pontifical mediators in the French court and studies their methods. I conclude by analysing Christian humanism as conceptualised by Erasmus to see whether it constitutes a guideline for their religious conduct. By examining their modus operandi on the international scene, this thesis argues that a Catholic identity is emerging which is not heterodox, but rather which fits into the strictest denominational orthodoxy. Nevertheless, crossing the mountains leads to readjustments in manners of expressing and representing the Catholic faith.

Multi-national military exercises have been recognised to have both military utility and political effects, however these mechanisms have been mainly studied from of major states. The purpose of the study is to determine what motivations Small states have to participate in multi-national military exercises and how they are used as a political tool, in order to further develop a analytical framework for analysing Small states behaviour in military exercise. The study was conducted via a single case study on Sweden through a deductive thematic analysis with themes developed on the basis of existing theory on a military exercise and Small state theory. Press releases and annual reports were scrutinised and relevant codes were identified. Results show that all themes outlined were represented in the material. What can be gathered from the investigation is how Small states highly value factors such as increasing military capacity and interoperability. The major find of the investigation was how Small states use multi-national military exercises is order to enhance deterrence, strengthen relationships, and to increase prestige and relevance, all in the pursuit of security. The investigation showed that Small states are indeed different from that of Great states in how they use multi-national military exercises. Recommendation were then made on further studies, such as quantitative or comparative efforts.

Why do small states contribute to great power led wars even though they lack the capabilities to determine the success of the war and there are no clear interests to gain? The peaceable states of the Nordic countries could have opted for a free-riding strategy instead of being active participants. Still, the Nordic countries were in relation to their size, some of the top military contributors in Afghanistan. In recent small state literature, it has been suggested that small states use military contributions as means to increase their international status position. There are however two competing and sometimes overlapping arguments of whether status is a means for increasing political influence or securing protection. This thesis contributes to this literature by differentiating the concept of status in two categories - influence and security. This distinction enabled a cross case comparative congruence test which reveals that the Nordic states had different status motivations in their decision to contribute to the Afghanistan war. Denmark and Sweden had a clear preference of seeking status seeking as means for influence while Norway used status mainly as means for enhancing security. This thesis shows that small states are not only dependent security consumers. It suggests that the decision-making processes in the small states were guided by independent preferences of enhancing status, which ultimately transformed into military contributions. However, rather than considering status as the main objective, the potential gains of enhancing the status position were the central ambition. The Nordic states’ preferences of status gains differed more than what previous research has suggested.

Sweden is the only state in the Baltic Sea region currently not under NATO protection, which puts the state in a particularly vulnerable position. On 18 May 2022, Sweden officially deemed NATO alignment a more effective option of security strategy in projecting deterrence and dealing with the security challenges the state is facing, compared to a strategy of non-alignment which has been Sweden’s security posture for over 200 years. The aim of the thesis is to explain this shift in Sweden’s security policy.  The thesis will explain small states’ security policy beyond the traditional explanations found in realist theory of state-centric threat balancing and sovereignty. Shelter theory claims that small states’ options for security is either to find a protecting power or join an alliance in order to be politically and militarily sustainable. The thesis will analyse Sweden’s shift in security policy by examining shelter theory’s claim that in order for small states to survive and prosper, buffering up domestic capabilities does not suffice, they need to seek political and military shelter from external security providers by implementing bi- or multilateral agreements with neighbouring states, great powers and by joining alliances.  Analysing a long-time deviant case of a non-aligned small state, this thesis argues that Sweden’s drawn-out road-map to NATO membership is problematic to explain from the perspective of shelter theory. Consequently, the thesis makes the additional claim that factors related to Sweden’s domestic policy, such as public opinion and the nearly institutionalised practice of broad political consensus in issues relating to security policy, also play an important role for the design of Sweden’s security policy. Shelter theory in combination with domestic factors’ influence on security policy change offer a more fully fledged explanation of Sweden's shift in security policy to NATO alignment. This thesis argues that its findings complement and enhance shelter theory by shedding light on the importance of domestic factors in the study of small states’ security policy.

This study is about the economic diplomacy of Namibia, as a small state, for the period 1990 – 2015. Liberalism, as a theory of International Relations (IR) studies, is the adopted analytical framework. Namibia’s economic diplomacy is anchored in the foreign policy principles enshrined in article 96 of her constitution, which advocate, inter alia, the maintenance of mutual beneficial relations. Namibia, further enacted laws and adopted policies that serve as domestic instruments of economic diplomacy. The stakeholders in Namibia’s economic diplomacy include both state and non-state actors. The study adopts a population of 8 million as the benchmark for small states, plus one of the following characteristics of small states: small size of the territory; low economy and the perception by the government leaders and nationals. Namibia’s bilateral economic diplomacy covers over one hundred countries. Her major trade partners, in terms of export trade and inward investments are Angola, Canada, China, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, South Africa, Switzerland, The United Kingdom and the United States. Bilateral economic diplomacy is further pursued through the Export Processing Zone (EPZ) exports. The Namibian Government pursues multilateral economic diplomacy with the European Union, as part of the Africa Caribbean Pacific states and with regional and international economic and trade organisations such as the Southern Africa Customs Union, the Southern Africa Development Community, the United Nations Conference in Trade and Development and the World Trade Organisation. Namibia also adopts conference diplomacy as a form of multilateral economic diplomacy. The study makes an epistemological contribution to the study of IR, that the world is constructed under the hierarchical order that constrains power-based relations and minimises conflicts in international trade. A minimal trend of pursuing interests is, however, observed. The study further makes an ontological contribution to the study of IR, that the behaviour of state and non-state actors are inclined to cooperation on the continuum of conflict and cooperation. The study concludes that, contrary to the assumptions in small states literature, that small states have limitations of capacity and play an insignificant role in multilateralism, Namibia has skilled negotiators who have led negotiations in regional and international organisations. / Political Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil. (International Politics)