Studiens huvudsakliga syfte var att undersöka och förklara begreppen ”jihad” och "heligt krig" och svara på ifall dessa begrepp kunde användas för att rättfärdiga terrorism, samt förklara den politiska islam, al-Qaida och det Muslimska Brödraskapets kopplingar till terrorism idag. Undersökningen gjordes med hjälp av kvantitativa metoder och framförallt genom litteraturstudier. Resultatet visade att det inte finns någon definitiv förklaring till begreppet jihad, utan det finns åtminstone två sätt att tolka det på, samt att våld genom jihad kan rättfärdigas genom att tolka och ta koranverser ur sin kontext.

"In the eye of the beholder- A didactic study of Swedish teachers and textbooks in history’s reasoning about nine eleven and its aftermath" by Emmy Johansson and Emma Svanström aims to show which picture both teachers and textbooks on elementary school and upper secondary school want to mediate on the subject. The study also strives to compare the teachers view with the textbooks. To achieve these goals the study uses materials from eight interviews and fifteen textbooks. The methods are a combination of interviews and textual analysis inspired by the scientist Elizabeth D. Herman. Comparison was also included in order to be able to compare teachers and textbooks. Content analysis and sentence centralization was used in order to analyze the materials. Finally the study used a combination of theoretical concepts which included history didactics, historically consciousness and facts about the production of textbooks. The results show that although there is a great variation in how teachers as well as textbooks reason about the subject there are also many similar thoughts and presentations. This is the case for as well teachers as textbooks and the comparison between them. The study also reveal that although teachers are skeptical about the textbooks they are both needed to form a good education. But such a combination would still leave some effects unmentioned to the students.

Terrorism. A word that makes you think about different situations throughout the last decade that has passed. However, in this particular thesis the purpose is to examine both national and international terrorism from a Clausewitzian theory. The main point is to examine whether any of these types of terrorisms can fit in to this theory and as examples in this study are the terrorist organizations ETA and al-Qaida. The questions to be answered in this paper are if their aims can be explained as political and how far are they ready to go to have their way? Furthermore, the reason for this paper is to find an understanding for why the terrorist organizations act as they do. The result of this comparative study is that both terrorist organizations fit in to the theory because their goals can be seen as political and therefore can their aims justify their actions. However, the lack of support makes you begin to doubt about whether this is the right way or even a good way to achieve political aims. Hopefully, this enlightenment can increase our understanding and give us a guideline to how to deal with this threat of the 21th century.

Abstract The purpose of this study is to investigate how USA justified the military intervention of Iraq 2003 by using an idea analytical method. The source material consists of speeches led by President George W. Bush in regard to the 9/11 terror attacks and Iraq between the years 2001 and 2003. Quotes have been categorized by using reality judgment, value judgment and regulation of action to analyze how the intervention was justified. The central question this study aim to answer is: what factors and aspects can be analyzed in Gorge W. Bush’s speeches that justified the intervention in Iraq? Results concludes factors that explain how the United States justifies the intervention of Iraq are thus, the possible security policy threats that could arise in the future as a consequence of an ignored Iraq. The decision was communicated in aspects of good values ​​and altruistic reasons. The combination of the factors and aspects above, mediated by George W. Bush to justify the final course of action: military intervention in Iraq. The conclusion is that the Bush doctrine was primarily a doctrine of security and secondly a doctrine of ideology.

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / This thesis compares the Western response to two radical challenges in eras considerably removed in time: the 1900-1901 Boxer rebellion in China and today's Islamic terror. It brings a much-needed historical perspective to bear in assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the contemporary Western conceptualization of the al-Qaeda and Taliban threat as a "clash of civilizations." It demonstrates that the current struggle against Islamic fundamentalism is not an altogether new challenge to Western interest and values. Al-Qaeda and the Taliban are in the end an expression of the same forces of resistance that also led to the origination of the Boxers in 19th century China. The cultural pressure that the West unavoidably developed by its imperialistic policy in the 19th and early 20th centuries was replaced by the penetration of the world with values, standards and symbols of the Western way of life and civilization in the course of globalization. The West ought to understand that the current terrorist threat is not "the next stage of history," as some scholars erroneously puts it, but a known historical phenomenon in a new form, for which neither the West nor other cultures bear the blame. / Major (GS), German Army

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Guantánamo ist zum Symbol des Aufeinandertreffens verschiedener Wertesysteme geworden, bei dem die Frage nach den Rechten des Menschen im Mittelpunkt steht. In der Dissertation werden die komplexen Probleme dargestellt, mit denen das Völkerrecht durch die Herausforderungen des internationalen Terrorismus und speziell des Gefangenenlagers auf Kuba konfrontiert wird. Darüber hinaus wird die Frage untersucht, welche Rechte des Menschen fern der diplomatisch verhandelten internationalen Kodifikationen tatsächlich in den verschiedenen Kulturen der Welt anerkannt und gelebt werden. Zwar legen der Wortlaut und die Verbreitung der Menschenrechtsverträge die Vermutung nahe, dass in den Kulturen der Welt ein Konsens über die Rechte des Menschen zumindest im Kern existiert. Bei näherer Betrachtung zeigt sich aber, dass es verschiedene Menschenbilder - etwa freiheitlich-individualistische, kommunalistische und theozentrische - gibt, die zum Teil diametral zueinander stehen. Ein interkultureller Vergleich offenbart, dass häufig das jeweils andere Wertesystem abgewehrt und auch „die universellen Menschenrechte“ als westlich determinierte Werte mit Distanz betrachtet werden. Welche Begründungen für Menschenrechte in den Kulturen existent sind, welche Aufschlüsse die bisherigen Begründungsmodelle geben und inwieweit daraus ein Kern an Rechten dem Menschen überkulturell als angeboren begründet werden können, sind wichtige Fragen, die in dieser Dissertation behandelt werden. Es werden neue Ansätze untersucht, welche die Begründungsdefizite bisheriger Modelle womöglich auflösen und den rechtlichen Diskurs damit aktualisieren können. Denn kontroverse Menschenrechtslagen, wie die in Guantánamo, sind in Zukunft nur vermeidbar, wenn sich auf der Basis eines fortgeführten interkulturellen Dialoges eine gemeinsame Identität entwickelt und dadurch eine Gewalt zwischen den Kulturen verringert wird, die durch die Differenzen ihrer Werte entsteht. / Guantánamo has become a symbol for the clash of differing value systems. With widespread international concern and criticism of the treatment of the detainees - Islamic terror suspects - as grave violations of universal human rights. The dissertation illustrates the complex problems confronting international law by the aspects of international terrorism and especially the prison camp on Cuba. Furthermore, it examines the question, which rights beyond the international codifications are actually accepted within the cultures. The wording of the international human rights treaties and their dissemination assume a consensus on basic human rights. However differing and sometimes opposing cultural and religious conceptions exist. Some communities attach importance to a liberal and individual understanding, whilst others on the involvement and obligation of the individual into the community. Making it difficult to define and implement core human rights treaties, which can be applied universally regardless of cultural and religious beliefs. Therefore, the examination goes further than an analysis by means of international law. It discusses the question, which justifications of human rights are existing within the cultures, what the contents of the present paradigms of justification - to which also the international human rights refer - are, and how an inherence of a core of human rights can be derived beyond cultural relativity. Rights that would consider equal conditions of human interaction, and examine the correlation of identity, structural violence and the state of need of the human being. The actualization of the justification of human rights is vital in the legal discourse to assimilate the conceptions about the rights of man. Controversial human rights situations like Guantánamo can only be resolved and avoided in the future, with continued intercultural dialogue, understanding of a common human identity, and celebration instead of condemnation of the inherent richness of differing cultural and religious values.