This thesis aims to contribute to the existing gap in the research of religion in international relations by applying the theory of elite instrumentalism to the proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The analysis was able to demonstrate that the elites of both states have instrumentalized religion by utilizing concepts of Islamic rulership to legitimize their rule and justify their political actions. Iran has utilized the Shia Twelver concept of “Guardianship of the Jurist”, advocated by Ayatollah Khomeini during the Iranian revolution, to give Islamic jurists the same function as holy figures in Shia Islam. Saudi elites have legitimized their rule with the Wahhabi interpretation of Sunni Islam and the concept of “Head of the community”, which deems it sinful for subjects to oppose their Muslim ruler. By analysing fatwas, speeches, narratives and ideas being pushed by the elites of the countries, this study confirms that state elites have used religion to mobilize groups in the civil wars occurring in Yemen and Syria. Elites of both states have attempted to discredit each other to be able to expand their influence in the region and to assert their dominance by presenting themselves as rulers with the God-given right to rule.

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Since the inception of the modern state, civil-military relationships have been an important and critical factor of stability for the state. The nature and quality of the relationship between the civilian and military leaders can assist a state with bringing forth a peaceful environment or plaguing the citizens of that state with endless suffering which is synonymous with armed conflicts. As we can witness in our world, in Africa, Europe, Latin America or the Middle East armed conflicts have been an integral part of politics and international relations between states    In this thesis, I shall examine the civil-military relationship within the Eritrean armed forces. I will use the state of Eritrea as my case study. The fundamental rationale for me selecting Eritrea as my case for this study is based upon the miniscule amount of academic research regarding the civil-military relationship within the Eritrean armed forces. This thesis will strive to generate a broader understanding of the relationship between the civilian leaders and military leaders of the state of Eritrea and how that relationship affects the Eritrean armed forces on the battlefield. The theoretical framework I shall apply to inquire into the civil-military relationship within the Eritrean armed forces, will be the theories of Objective civilian control and Subjective civilian control. While applying a qualitative case study method for this thesis. The thesis finds that the civil-military relationship structure within the Eritrean armed forces have been revolving around the president, Isaias Afwerki. Afwerki routinely micromanages the affairs of the military.

The success of software development projects heavily depends on effectively capturing and meeting stakeholders' requirements. However, involving multiple stakeholders with diverse backgrounds and objectives often leads to conflicts among these requirements. These conflicts represent inconsistencies in the system design, resulting in various challenges, including project delays, increased costs, and potential system failures. Previous research has primarily focused on identifying conflicts with algorithms or negotiation, while conversational AI's potential to detect conflicts in real-time has been neglected. This thesis study addresses the challenge of requirement conflicts by proposing a novel approach that leverages conversational AI in the form of a chatbot. The chatbot, developed using the Rasa platform, enables real-time detection of conflicts, focusing on three general types: duplicated (similar), incompatible, and contradictory requirements. During the study, the design science research method is employed to guide the chatbot's development. Further, an experiment is applied to evaluate the chatbot's performance compared with domain experts using four different datasets. The experiment results are presented using F1 scores, which calculate precision and recall for both the chatbot and the experts on each dataset. Overall, the chatbot scored 0.8, while the experts achieved a slightly higher score of 0.86. To determine if there was a statistically significant difference between the two performances, a Wilcoxon signed-rank test was conducted on the results. The analysis showed no significant difference in the F1 score between the chatbot and the experts, indicating the chatbot's feasibility and effectiveness in detecting conflicts. The contribution of this thesis study can advance requirements engineering by providing a user-friendly and efficient method for real-time conflict detection, enhancing the quality and overall success of software development projects.

In this study, the purpose is to make visible how the principal works with conflicts that arise within the work teams at the preschool, what strategies/ methods the principal uses in conflict management and what the principal´s leadership contributes to the work with conflict managment. Five principals from three diffrent municipalities in Sweden were interviewed in the work. The study is a qualitative study based on semi-structured interviews where the results are then analyzed through thematic analysis. The theoretical starting point in the study is based on Kurt Lewin´s leadership theories. Results showed how the principals use methods/ strategies such as team contracts, tripartite discussions and mapping in conflict management, although also that these methods/ strategies are both conscious and unconscious. It is also clarified in the results how central key roles in conflict management and in the principal´s leadership turn out to be communication and relationships. How these two are highly relevant for the operations, the work teams and the principal´s leadership to function well. Finally, a disussion is conducted regarding the results of the study and based on previous research. Discussions regarding the study´s starting point Lewin´s leadership theory and method analysis are also conducted. Finally, the study is summarized in a conclusion where examples of further research are also taken up. / I denna studie är syftet att synliggöra hur rektorn arbetar med konflikter som uppstår inom arbetslagen på förskolan, vilka strategier/metoder använder sig rektron av vid konflikthantering och vad bidrar rektrons ledarskap till arbetet med konflikthantering. Fem rektorer ifrån tre olika kommuner i Sverige intervjuades i arbetet. Studien är en kvalitativ studie som bygger på semistrukturerade intervjuer där sedan resultatet analyseras genom tematisk analys. Den teoretiska utgångspunkten i studien utgår ifrån Kurt Ledwins ledarskapsteorier. Resultatet visade på hur rektorerna använder sig utav metoder/strategier som arbetslagskontrakt, trepartssamtal och kartläggning vid konflikthantering, dock även att dessa metoder/ strategier är både medvetna och omedvetna. Det tydliggörs även i resultatet hur centrala nyckelroller inom konflikthnatering och i rektorns ledarskap visar sig vara kommunikation och relationer. Hur dessa två är högst relevatna för att verksamheten, arbetslagen och rektorns ledarskap ska vara välfungerande. Slutligen så förs en dikussion gällande studiens resultat och utifrån tidigare forskning. Dikussioner gällande studiens utgångspunkt Lewins ledarskapsteori och metodanalys genomförs även. Slutligen sammanfattas studien i en slutsats där även exempel på vidare forskning tas upp.

Even though the topic of gender is ever more present, as confirmed by the large amount of popular scientific literature on the topic, well-informed scientific papers on the topic of relationship between gender and conflicts within the environment of teaching staff are lacking both in domestic and foreign literature. The impetus for the creation of this thesis was the contemplation of the idea of how a larger proportion of males within teaching staff would influence the feminized Czech education system. The thesis investigates whether the gender makeup of teaching staff of selected kindergartens influences the types of conflicts that arise and how their characteristics depend on the gender makeup. The first chapter defines the notion of conflict from a theoretical point of view based on published literature and enquires into their causes and sources, as well as approaches to solutions. The second chapter deals with the notion of gender and presents current approaches and attitudes to this issue. In the second part of this chapter, we present several views on the difference between the male and female brain, perception, ways of thinking and assessment of sensory input, male and female communication and differing approaches to conflicts. The third chapter elucidates the function, core business and...

1 When sexual violence is weaponised: CRSV as a violation of international criminal law Abstract The aim of this thesis is to describe the legal regime of sexual violence in armed conflicts, with a special focus on international criminal law provisions. This work is divided into six parts that focus especially on legal provisions of the statutes of the International Criminal Tribunals for Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda as well as on the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and decisions of those international judicial bodies in cases involving sexual violence. The first part introduces to the reader basic terms and concepts that will follow them throughout this work. Additionally, a small subpart is dedicated to the Women, Peace and Security agenda introduced by the UN Security Council Resolution 1325 that, among other themes, highlights the necessity of strengthened international focus and cooperation in fighting sexual violence in armed conflicts. The second part deals mainly with the historical context of the adoption of the prohibition of sexual violence in armed conflicts and describe the development in approach of international law towards this crime, from general prohibitions of rape to specific enumeration of norms prohibiting sexual violence in...

The thesis aims at developing new, alternative approaches and methods based on suggestions and ideas originating from moral philosophy and philosophical decision theory. More precisely, the thesis aims at investigating the rationality of transport policy decisions, including goal-setting and performance evaluation. Paper I discusses rationality in road safety policy. Problematic features are identified and discussed. The paper argues that the Swedish road safety goal is rational, since it is action-guiding and achievement-inducing. This follows by observing that the goal satisfies the criteria of precision, evaluability, approachability, and motivity. The paper states that previous accusations of irrationality have been unnecessarily imprecise, since no reference is made to independently developed criteria of rational goal-setting. Paper II discusses the Swedish transport policy goals, and the role of social welfare in rational policy decisions. Goals often come into conflict and trade-offs must be rationally and consistently managed. Policy decisions are outcomes of political processes. In the case of policy goals and decisions, the agent is society. This introduces the problematic concept of social welfare, which itself is an ambiguous goal with many meanings. Whether a decision is rational or not depends on whose perspective one takes on – that of society as a whole or that of the actual decision makers. Paper III aims at investigating six different procedures for resolving goal conflicts: weighted average, lexicographic preference, conditional lexicographic preference, absolute restriction, generalised prioritarianism, and partial comparability. Criteria for selection, according to the respective procedures, are formulated and summarised in a table. The six procedures are contrasted with respect to their tendency to rule out possible sets of alternatives as being not choiceworthy. / QC 20101123

This study focuses on the role of structured derivative securities to meet diverse corporate financing objectives in the light of agency theory and asymmetric information. The focus is on the nonconvertible callable-puttable fixed-coupon bonds. The primary objective is to discern the marginal role of the put and put-deferred features in addressing the agency issues and asymmetric information. A sample of (159) securities issued over the period (1977-2005) are examined using Merton's (1974) structural contingent claims valuation model. The put option as well as the deferred put option incorporated in these securities is found to mitigate the asset substitution issue. It is also found that these contract features provide considerable insurance against the asymmetric information about the firm's downside risk. Specifically, the effects of asset substitution are mitigated because the put option reduces sensitivity of the security's value to the changes in the firm's volatility. Prior to this study, this effect was believed to be driven primarily by the conversion feature in the convertible bonds and the preferred stocks. In addition, the long-term performance of the underlying common stock indicates systematic negative performance for the protracted periods both prior and subsequent to the issuance, yet it is found that this decline in the equity value has only a limited negative impact on the security.

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