Since the drafting of Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality bill in 2009, the condition for LGBT individuals has deteriorated. In response, Obama administration unveiled several punitive measures to pressure Ugandan government to drop the legislation, including the withdrawal of development aid. This article will essentially consider and assess the effect of US policy to link aid conditionality to a country’s record on LGBT rights. Is aid conditionality an effective instrument in yielding meaningful political and social changes? Under what conditions can transnational advocacy help transform international LGBT norms into domestic practices? What is the role of state in discourses about sexualities? The diffusion of LGBT rights requires not only external pressure from international actors to ensure compliance but also an understanding of domestic moral and political discourses that might challenge the validity of the norm itself.

"The original meaning of imperialism was a simple one: 'imperial government,' that is, empire in the classical sense (such as existed in ancient Rome, China, and Greece). In more recent times, imperialism has become synonymous with western hegemony in Africa and Asia from the 18th through the 20th centuries and with the spreading cultural influence of the United States" (Webster 2021). The aim of this thesis is to explore whether imperialism can be applied to China's foreign policy agenda through the apparatus of infrastructure. Using Kenya as a case study, it will assess how development, aid conditionality and employment play key roles in China's foreign policy model in Africa. The thesis will assess the role that China has in Kenya's development and adds to a growing field of literature that analyses the role of the Belt and Road Initiative in tackling the infrastructure deficit prevalent in Africa. It will conclude by identifying that gap that exists in China's infrastructure model and that imperialism is not an accurate definition of China's foreign policy agenda. / Master of Arts / China is rising as one of the leading powers in the international system and therefore it is important to contextualise its role in the world. China is often viewed by western powers as an adversary and a state that should be recognised as a threat. Infrastructure is an important part of any states' economy and has a significant impact on economic development. This thesis intends to assess China's role in funding infrastructure and development projects in developing nations particularly across Africa, and specifically focus on Kenya as a case study to look at China's role and assess what kind of foreign policy is being pursued. By using the theory of imperialism, this thesis will analyse initiatives being pursued by China and why labelling it with the term imperial is not an accurate representation of its foreign policy agenda.

Purpose of this diploma thesis is to analyze foreign aid as a stabile part of nations expenditures of all developed countries since 60's. But at the same time foreign aid not being important enough for developed countries to manage it more effectively. This diploma thesis analyses among others development of different economic approaches on this topic, financial flows of this sort since the beginning and also an analysis of foreign aid as whole as well as some of its parts. I`m also trying to find reasons why developed nations provide foreign aid and also motives for accepting it by developing nations. Also trade liberalisation is described as the only way of solving foreign aid poor effeciency.

For the past two decades, statebuilding has been the object of a growing attention from practitioners and scholars alike. ‘International statebuilding’, as its dominant approach or model guiding the practices of national and international actors, has sparked numerous discussions and debates, mostly around its effectiveness (i.e. if it works) and deficiencies (i.e. why it often fails). Surprisingly, little efforts have been made to investigate what international statebuilding, in the multiple ways it is mobilized by various actors, actually produces on the political dynamics of the ‘fragile’ contexts it is supposed to support and reinforce. Using an instrumentation perspective, this dissertation addresses this gap by exploring the relationship between the micro-dynamics of the uses of international statebuilding instruments and the fragility of contexts. This exploration is articulated around five essays and as many angles to this relationship. Using the case of Hamas, Essay I explores the European Union’s (EU) terrorist labelling policy by questioning the nature and modalities of the enlisting process, its use as foreign policy tool and its consequences on its other agendas, especially its international statebuilding efforts in Palestine. Essay II examines a Belgian good governance incentive mechanism and sheds the light on the tension between the claimed apolitical and objective nature of the instrument and the politicization potential embedded in its design and modalities, naturally leading to a convoluted implementation. Essay III analyses the localization dynamics of transitional justice in Burundi and unveils the nature, diversity and rationale behind transitional justice subversion techniques mobilized by national and international actors, which have produced a triple form of injustice. Essay IV widens this scope in Burundi, developing the argument that the authoritarian trend observed in the 2010-2015 period did not only occur against international statebuilding but also through self-reinforcing subversion tactics of its appropriation. Finally, essay V deepens the reflection on appropriation by attempting to build a theory of regime consolidation through international statebuilding subversion tactics. Overall, the incremental theory building reflection of the essays converges towards the assembling of a comprehensive framework of the in-betweens of the normative diffusion of liberal democracy, the inner-workings of its operationalization through the resort to the international statebuilding instrument and the intermediary constraints or objectives of actors not only interfering with its genuine realization but also contributing to its antipode of regime consolidation, conflict dynamics and authoritarianism. / Doctorat en Sciences politiques et sociales / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished