The Arab Spring catalyzed dramatic transformations in the Middle East and initiated a long process that will eventually lead to new governing structures throughout the region. The prominence and growing influence of Turkey in the international arena has spurred some Western pundits, academics, and diplomats to advocate the “Turkish model” as a template for creating stable institutions in the Middle East states of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, and Yemen. Civil-military relations factor prominently into this model. Before recommending the Turkish model to any state, it behooves the international community to thoroughly vet every component. Previous to 1997, the military occupied a central role in determining the political, economic, and social trajectory of the Republic of Turkey. This guardian role conflicted with Western notions of healthy civil-military relations emanating from Europe and the United States. Since initiating the EU accession process in 1997, however, Turkey has implemented drastic reforms bringing the Turkish model of civil-military relations into alignment with European standards. Political leadership, incarnated in the Justice and Development Party, has encountered significant resistance from civilian and military opposition in the process of bringing the military under democratic control. Nonetheless, under the political leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, this resistance has been overcome. The Turkish model, as it exists today, evolved in response to unique historical and cultural contexts, continuing through great barriers. As such, facsimile transfer of the model to other states is bound to fail. However, lessons gleaned from Turkey’s difficult transition to more democratic controls over the military might inform similar transitions in Arab states. Careful analysis of the great obstacles political leadership has overcome in bringing the military under democratic civilian control may prove more valuable to Arab states than the Turkish model itself. / text

Climate change as an impeding catastrophe has prompted heated debates on the sharing of mitigation responsibilities among nation states. How do climate protection norms come about to influence climate policy-making, especially in major greenhouse gases emitters—the European Union and China? This thesis sets out to examine from the economic, strategic and normative perspectives what considerations are underpinning climate policy-making in the world, the EU, and China. A constructivist approach was taken, with a stress on bottom-up normative influence and mutual constitution of the international and local contexts. Building on primary sources from the speech, policy directives and reports by both state and non-state actors and others, analysis was carried out with the assistance of scholarly literature from the field of political economy, international relations and global environmental politic. Energy policy is elucidated to show how climate policy is mainstreamed and how reconciliation is possible among competing considerations. Findings of this thesis indicate that economic competitiveness is the primary consideration factor. While strategic interests often go parallel with economic ones, normative considerations sometimes contradict economic competitiveness in the short-term. It is also found that openness of political system and international status and identity seem to govern the extent of normative influence on climate policy-making. Despite rhetorical commitment, China‘s growth imperative and strong belief in the “common but differentiated responsibilities” present great obstacles to adoption of climate protection norms. In Europe, recession gives rise to a two-fold challenge—to deliver promises of green growth and to prevent erosion of public support for climate actions. Finally, as the thesis strongly recognizes the agency of non-state actors and citizens, it draws a number of implications on how they can influence climate policy-making in Europe and China. / published_or_final_version / Modern Languages and Cultures / Master / Master of Philosophy

The purpose of this essay is to do a case specific examination of the EU level implementation of the integration of Romanian Roma. The essay is divided into two parts. The first part of the essay constitutes a description of relevant European Union policy instruments and the current ambition to integrate the Romanian Roma. The second part of the essay is a qualitative text analysis based on debate articles published in the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter. The articles are systematically categorized by different themes in order to try to analyze the reasoning and argumentation in this area. The aim of the qualitative analysis is to find the core of the debate and then try to compare it with the EU’s ambitions to integrate Romanian Roma.   The essay concludes that there are problematic aspects to the implementation of Romanian Roma integration. This essay shows one of these problematic aspects. It is a complicated problem without a single, given solution. Rather, there are a number of factors that contributes to the problem. The essay also offers some new facts that can constitute a basis for further research.

This study aims to examine Ukraine’s relations with the EU and Russia, and explains the different actions taken place between the years of 2004 and 2014. The study is a descriptive case study where the case Ukraine can be used to draw general conclusions for future research.To pursue the aim, the following questions were asked: How has the EU acted towards Ukraine, and why? How has Russia acted towards Ukraine, and why? In this study, the theories of international relations were applied, namely liberalism and realism. The empirical material of this study is based on books, EU webpage and news articles.The conclusion of this study shows that both the EU and Russia have taken many actions to influence Ukraine. The most important actions made by the EU have been the startup of the Eastern Partnership and the Association Agreement, which are both developing an easier transition for Ukraine into the EU. For Russia, the most important actions taken have been to make Ukraine depending on Gazprom, and the rental agreement for the military navy base kept on Crimea. All these actions are taken because of the fact that Ukraine serves as a link between the EU and Russia.

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This work is an attempt to study how the ambivalent demands of normativity in the Swedish curriculum is implemented in schoolbooks used for education in the course Samhällskunskap A. For this purpose, different normative theories are applied in conjunction with a qualitative text analysis method comprising the sections which describe the European Union in three different schoolbooks. The results indicate that not one of the selected books uphold all of the demands of normativitity as described by the Swedish curriculum.

With a base in Ian Manners’ theory about Normative Power Europe – that the European Union is to be seen as a normative power instead of a civilian or military – this paper seeks to contribute to the discussion about identity by examine the normative elements of the union’s policies towards Russia between 1997 and 2013. Which norms are most important and how does the diffusion look? The findings show that democracy, rule of law and respect of human rights are among the most diffused norms, and this is more than often done by using the Russian interest in economic progress. Over time the European Union has taken on a more critical approach against Russia, while still appreciating their prosperous relation when it comes to trade and energy. The union balances between asserting its identity by the diffusion of norms on one hand, and maintaining a pragmatic relationship on the other, which leaves the identity issue as still a very complex question.

Šio baigiamojo magistro darbo objektas yra Turkijos narystės ES perspektyvos, t.y. problemos, su kuriomis Turkija susiduria politikos, ekonomikos, kultūrinių vertybių ir žmogaus teisių apsaugos srityje, ES spaudimas valstybei spręsti šias problemas bei Turkijos veiksmai atsakant į šį spaudimą. Analizuojant iškylančias problemas, jų sprendimo efektyvumą bei kompromisų ES – Turkijos santykiuose taikymą, darbe vertinamos realios valstybės kelio ES link perspektyvos. Darbo tikslas yra išsiaiškinti kaip Turkijos politiniai, ekonominiai, kultūriniai bei žmogaus teisių ypatumai ir juos lemiantys veiksniai atsiliepia pagrindinio Turkijos siekio – pilnateisės narystės Europos Sąjungoje – įgyvendinimui. Tikslo siekiama ir tyrimo uždaviniai įgyvendinami pasitelkiant aprašomąjį analitinį tyrimo metodą, t.y. apžvelgiant Turkijos ir ES santykių raidą, išsiaiškinant kokie sunkumai kliudė ar vis dar kliudo Turkijai siekiant prisijungti prie ES; įvertinant galimas Turkijos prisijungimo prie ES perspektyvas, atliekant valstybių narių, viešosios bei oficialiosios ES nuomonės analizę; lyginant kokie yra svarbiausi politiniai ir ekonominiai abiejų pusių interesai, didžiausi skirtumai, bei aiškinantis galimą valstybių užsienio ir vidaus politikos procesų poveikį Turkijos narystei ES; analizuojant kultūrinius ir religinius ES ir Turkijos skirtumus, bei kaip šie skirtumai išryškėja valstybei ketinant įsijungti į Europos tautų šeimą ir galiausiai išskiriant svarbiausias Turkijoje kylančias žmogaus... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The object of this master thesis is the perspectives of Turkey entering the European Union, i.e. problems Turkey has to face in the fields of politics, economics, cultural values and human rights protection, EU pressure for the state to solve these problems and actions in response to this pressure. While analyzing evolving problems, the effectiveness of their salvations and compromise finding in the EU – Turkey relations, this paper estimates realistic perspective of Turkeys’ path towards the Union. The goal of the research is to ascertain how Turkeys’ political, economical, cultural and human rights peculiarities and their influences affect the reach of the main target – membership in the EU. To meet the goal and fulfill the tasks of this paper the descriptive analytical method is being used. The development of EU – Turkey relations are being reviewed, meanwhile sorting out what kind of difficulties stops the state from entering; EU member states, public and official opinions are being analyzed to evaluate possible perspectives for Turkey; main political and economical interests of both sides are being compared, the main gaps are being discovered, the possible effect of internal and external policies are being discussed; cultural and religious differences and how they come to surface in the framework of Turkey entering EU is being analyzed; finally the main problems the state has to face in the field of human rights protection are being named, the ways Turkey is solving... [to full text]