Using a mail survey, I questioned 490 representatives of local government (i.e., elected officials, administrative officials, animal control officers, and county Cooperative Extension agents) about their understanding of human-wildlife conflicts in their communities, and their receptivity to participating in co-management partnerships with regulatory agencies. Response rates for the mail survey of these four populations ranged from 25.2% to 75.9%. Knowledge of and perceptions about human-wildlife conflicts varied among leader subpopulations, as did their assessment of risks associated with and prioritization of human-wildlife conflicts. Animal control and Extension personnel displayed greater knowledge about wildlife, expressed greater concern about potential risks, and assigned higher priority to human-wildlife conflicts in their community. Respondents indicated that wildlife complaints are being received from constituents in their community, but questions exist over who is responsible for managing these conflicts. Most respondents indicated a willingness to become involved in conflict resolution, but indicated less willingness for local government to take on a leadership role. Respondents could identify potential partners valuable to resolving human-wildlife conflicts, but they demonstrated uncertainty about the specific roles and responsibilities of these outside agencies (e.g., Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries). Respondents identified important potential impediments (i.e., financial and personnel resources, the need to provide additional training or equipment) that could preclude or reduce their ability to become involved in conflict resolution. Most respondents viewed community-based co-management approaches as realistic (74%) and attractive (63%) options for local governments to exercise in managing human-wildlife conflicts. Most respondents (74%) believed that co-management offered local governments a direct way to be involved in managing their own conflicts. Respondents believed that staffing and budget shortages would be significant impediments that would limit local government's participation in co-management agreements. This study clearly illustrates that human-wildlife conflicts are occurring in Virginia, but overall local governments are not at a point when they are willing or able to consider a proactive approach to managing these conflicts. Until some threshold is met or exceeded, leaders in these communities may not be willing to devote the time or resources necessary to enact proactive approaches. Before that threshold is met, the development and utilization of informational and educational resources can increase local government's capacity to develop and implement a comprehensive wildlife management plan for Virginia communities in the future. / Master of Science

Urbanization offers unique challenges for wildlife. The urban landscape is fragmented and changes available resources for wildlife. Human-dominated landscapes can provide food, shelter, or cover through human-subsidized resources. However, to thrive in human-dominated landscapes, wildlife must adapt or disperse, otherwise they will die. In this study, I investigated how the urban landscape and human behavior influence urban wildlife occurrence. I established 35 camera sites during April 2020. I surveyed residential property dwellers around each camera site to determine what behavior they performed that could increase species occurrence. Gray fox and coyote site use decreased with increased isolation while no species responded to patch area. Almost all species investigated responded to attractants but not all showed a positive response. Although number of survey participants was small, site use by wildlife tended to increase with owning a bird feeder and putting out trash the day before pickup.

This study presents a detailed examination of the Arab League¿s history, development, structure and roles in an effort to understand the cause of its failure as a regional security organisation. The research¿s point of departure is a questioning of the nature and scope of this failure in terms of the interplay between the conditions under which it was formed and the many actors and dynamics that had a long term-impact on the prospects for the League. To this end, the study looks at the League¿s conditions of emergence and Arab-Arab relations with the focus on Arab national security as the main concept determining its security role. The research synthesises methods of analysis from the existing literature and schools of thought so as to identify where and why failure and success occurred in relation to international relations theories, the security and international organisations literature, and comparable international models. The development and conditions affecting the League as discussed in the research demonstrate that none of the existing broad theories or approaches can fully explain the League¿s failure; however, the constructivist approach, although never before applied in this context, is shown to offer the most relevant approach for explaining this organisation and its unique parameters. The research also examines the role played by the Arab League in regional peacekeeping and conflict prevention in the context of Arab national security, with Palestine as a case study.

This study of Hornsbergs strand, Stockholm, aimed to explore the dynamics of social conflicts in public spaces following three research questions: (1) what are the driving factors in the spatial conflicts between inhabitants and visitors of Hornsbergs strand, (2) how do spatial conflicts in Hornsbergs strand reflect broader societal issues of polarization and segregation in Stockholm, and (3) what can be done on behalf of urban planners to avoid and manage similar conflicts in the future? Departing from literature related to spatial conflicts, tourism conflicts, and exclusionary practices in public spaces, I conducted observational studies, indepth interviews, and a document analysis of planning material. The study shows that differences between users and uses of public spaces in Hornsbergs strand are central in constructing spatial territories and was where most spatial conflicts originated. Further, results suggest that the development of Hornsbergs strand was made through an exclusive planning process, and that spatial conflicts reflect broader issues of polarization and segregation in Stockholm. / Denna studie av Hornsbergs strand, Stockholm, syftade till att undersöka sociala konflikter i offentliga rum med hjälp av tre forskningsfrågor: (1) vilka är de drivande faktorerna i de rumsliga konflikterna mellan invånare och besökare av Hornsbergs strand, (2) hur avspeglar de rumsliga konflikterna vid Hornsbergs strand bredare samhällsproblem i form av polarisering och segregation i Stockholm, och (3) vad kan stadsplanerare i Stockholm göra för att undvika och hantera liknande konflikter i framtiden? Med utgångspunkt i forskning kring rumsliga konflikter, konflikter inom turism samt exkluderande praktiker i offentliga utrymmen genomfördes observationsstudier, intervjuer och en dokumentanalys av relevant planeringsmaterial. Studien visar att skillnader mellan användare och olika användningar av de offentliga utrymmena vid Hornsbergs strand var centrala i skapandet av rumsliga territoriumoch, till följd, rumsliga konflikter. Vidare tyder resultaten på att planeringsprocessen förHornsbergs strand var exkluderande och att de rumsliga konflikterna karaktäriserar polarisering och segregation i Stockholm.

The involvement of multinational corporations, international traders, transporters, processors, and retailers has a crucial significance in high-risk contexts there is a wide range of commercial activities that can make economic actors criminally responsible for gross violations of international humanitarian law and human rights: this includes the sale of weaponry, pillaging or commercial transactions unrelated to war. Allowing companies and their managers to shield themselves is harmful to the development of international law. Despite the fact that international criminal law does not foresee the criminal responsibility of legal entities, international criminal law does envisage the criminal responsibility of individuals, including those in charge of large-scale commercial activities. This thesis examines the manner in which international law regulates the complicity of business executives (in their capacity as company directors/officials) managing firms within the context of an armed conflict. Complicity is a subset of culpability that connects an accomplice to a primary actor's crime. This thesis examines the framework for evaluating complicity standards and suggests alternatives to normative prosecution of company leaders. I demonstrate that international criminal law regulates individual involvement in a comprehensive manner, employing the theories of incitement and aiding and abetting to inculpate complicit actors in international crimes, and these theories are differentiated by the extent of involvement in an unlawful complicitous activity, a threshold of knowledge of the fault needed of the accomplice, and a connection requirement between the accomplice's activities and the principal’s wrong. Similarly, it investigates the evolution of the concept of complicity in customary criminal law via tribunals and hybrid courts. It examines the evolution of complicity in light of social media, war sponsorship, and profit-motivated support provided to governments

Since the 1980s, approaches to managing forest resources in the US and around the world have been shifting from the conventional sustained yield approach towards ecosystem management. Ecosystem management is a resource management paradigm that seeks to employ a collaborative and multidisciplinary approach to landscape scale conservation, as well as the integration of socio-economic and biophysical considerations with the overall goal of enhancing the health and resilience of coupled social-ecological systems. While the role of natural resource conflicts as drivers of the transition towards ecosystem management has received some research attention, the potential roles of ecosystem management in emerging natural resource conflicts have not been adequately explored. The effective implementation of ecosystem management requires adaptive governance mechanisms capable of integrating diverse stakeholder values and knowledge systems across scales. The absence of such institutional mechanisms could contribute to the emergence of wicked problems – a class of problems that defy clear definitions and definitive solutions. Using the Shawnee National Forest as a case study, the purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the role of natural resource conflicts in the transition towards ecosystem management, as well as the consequences of ecosystem management on emerging resource conflicts. The study also aimed to assess the extent to which the approaches and strategies used in managing natural resource conflicts meet the institutional requirements for managing wicked problems. In this regard, semi-structured interviews were conducted in 2021 among 24 key informants representing the US Forest Service and relevant stakeholder groups, such as environmental groups, recreationists, and local businesses. The interviews were preceded by a review of documents to understand the context of changing forest policies and evolving conflicts in the Shawnee National Forest since the 1980s. The data were analyzed with the NVivo software using a deductive coding approach. The results showed that the transition towards ecosystem-based forest management in the Shawnee National Forest was primarily triggered by conflicts between environmental groups and the US Forest Service over timber harvesting. Although the institutional framework for alternative dispute resolution existed at the time, these conflicts were largely managed through the national legal system. Since the transition to ecosystem management with the adoption of the 2006 Forest Plan, new conflicts have emerged, this time, mostly among various recreational groups. The lifting of the injunction on timber harvesting and the increased focus of the US Forest Service on active forest management as part of forest restoration efforts appear to have set the stage for the potential re-emergence of conflicts over timber harvesting. Regarding conflict management, the use of alternative conflict management techniques, such as negotiation and mediation have received increased attention since the adoption of the 2006 Forest Plan, although the effectiveness of these processes has been hampered by various institutional and attitudinal constraints, including conflicting procedural requirements, limited capacity, and lack of agency commitment towards meaningful stakeholder engagement. Meanwhile, the fear of lawsuits continues to shape forest management decisions on the Shawnee National Forest. These findings highlight the inadequacy of the national legal system in managing wicked problems and they highlight the need for investments in effective institutional mechanisms for conflict management, such as adaptive governance.

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De pågående klimatförändringarna medför en ökad risk för en mängd skador i skogen. Samtidigt har trycket på skogen ökat och med det även risken för konflikter mellan olika intressegrupper. I studien intervjuades representanter från tre skogliga aktörer med ett eget skogsinnehav om minst 25 000 ha.  De skogliga aktörerna såg flera olika typer av risker för skador i skogen kopplat till förändringar i klimatet och de försökte hantera de upplevda riskerna på olika sätt. Respondenterna hade upplevt varierande konflikter och att det kunde vara svårt att navigera i vad som är rätt och fel. Framtiden sågs som oviss och det upplevdes därför som svårt att veta vilka anpassningar som behöver genomföras. Sammantaget indikerar resultatet att de skogliga aktörerna har en hög medvetenhet om klimatrelaterade risker i relation till deras skogsbruk, men att det på grund av ovissheten är svårt att veta vilka åtgärder som bör vidtas nu och i framtiden.