The goal of this master thesis is a complex description of blood diamonds issues and assessment of existing efforts, specific steps and presented ideas, conceptions and strategies on the ground of Kimberley Process, as well as suggestions of possible solutions and future steps of organizations like Global Witness, Partnership Africa Canada, Human Rights Watch and other interested groups fighting against occurence of illicit diamonds. The thesis is divided into 4 chapters. The first chapter describes characteristics and significance of diamonds. The second chapter focuses on organizations agitating against blood diamonds in the world. The third chapter is subsequently designated for definition and features of the term of failed state, which is often highly connected with the blood diamonds issue. The fourth chapter analyses concrete conflicts or illegal activities in Angola, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe.

The thesis deals with the Conflict in Somalia and the influence of international participants, especially European Union. Theoretical part focuses on main indicators that bring Somalia on the top of "Failed States Index", piracy and terrorism. Practical part focuses on analyzing European Union's missions in Somalia and evaluating indicators such as GDP or "Failed States Index". The aim of this thesis is to evaluate the impact of European states on solving the instability of Somalia based on the current situation there.

This master thesis deals with the approaches of international actors, especially UN, EU and USA, to the concept of failed states, which are demonstrated on the illustrative example of a state of this category, i.e. Somalia. We think of failed states as a security threat, with which the international community provisionally cannot deal. The master thesis discusses how the international actors deal with this issue in terms of its solution and how they think of the failed states in terms of sovereignty. On the selected case of Somalia it is subsequently illustrated that approaches of selected international actors are not very heterogeneous. The international community agrees to support the central government, although it is not recognized in the whole territory of the state, and endeavors to rebuild a functional state. Although the state is internally totally dysfunctional, its external sovereignty is still recognized.

The lower Mount Rogers Formation (LMRF) is described by Rankin (1993) as a sequence of intercalated metabasalts and volcanogenic sediments with minor metarhyolite. We have chosen to examine the sequence of the LMRF units exposed along Elk Garden Ridge, a high shoulder between the summits of Whitetop Mountain and Mount Rogers in the Mount Rogers National Recreation Area in SW Virginia. This sequence represents an uplifted block of LMRF units enclosed by exposures of Whitetop and Wilburn metarhyolites. In the field, progressive lithologic changes can be observed walking up-section along Elk Garden ridge that are indicative of changes in lava compositions and eruptive environments. From the bottom of the section, massive basalts with distinctive 1-2 cm long swallowtail plagioclase phenocrysts grade into vesicular basalts, then into sheet flow basalts, followed by a thick sequence of aphyric and amygdaloidal pillow basalts. Further up section, eruptive products transition into rhyolitic ignimbrites and ash and lapilli tuffs. Boulders of cobble conglomerates near the middle of the sequence and sedimentary layers in between individual sheet flows suggest short periods of relative eruptive quiescence. The only unit broken out in the LMRF by Rankin (1993), Fees Rhyolite, is not observed in the field area, suggesting local differences in topography, eruptive products and eruptive styles across the outcrop area during the deposition of these eruptive products. Petrographically, the rocks reflect the regional greenschist facies metamorphic conditions with chlorite and epidote as primary metamorphic minerals, and unakite-like zones of mineralization. Relict plagioclase and pyroxene phenocrysts persist, as do primary igneous textures and structures. Compositionally, all of the rocks in the Elk Garden Ridge sequence are strongly enriched in alkali metals, with elevated Na2O and K2O contents, and high TiO2 in the basalts. Major and trace element systematics suggest that the chemical signatures of the metabasalts are primary controlled by shallow-level crystallization processes. The LMRF metabasalts share many compositional affinities with later (~570 Ma) rift-related basalts preserved in the Appalachians, suggesting that all of these lavas were formed by melting of a compositionally uniform mantle source, followed by shallow crystallization, despite being separated from one another by large stretches of time and space.

Ewing-like sarcomas (ELS) are a heterogenous group of neoplasms that typically occur in the bone and soft tissue of pediatric and young adult patients. ELS share various degrees of morphological, immunohistochemical, molecular, and clinical similarity with Ewing sarcomas. However, these tumors lack the pathognomonic molecular hallmark of Ewing sarcoma, which is defined as translocation between a gene of the RNA-binding TET family (EWSR1 or FUS) with a gene of the ETS-transcription family (FLI1, ERG, ETV1, ETV4, or FEV). Accurate classification and distinction from classical Ewing sarcomas is important for patient management. A subset of ELS harboring the BCOR-CCNB3 fusion has been described recently – the majority of which that have been reported to date are bone-based tumors, though there have been cases of discrete soft tissue-based tumors. We herein present a case of ELS harboring the BCOR-CCNB3 translocation occurring in a pediatric patient presenting with a large abdominal mass discovered on chest CT after failed outpatient treatment for pneumonia with effusion. This patient was a 14-year-old Caucasian boy with a past medical history significant for obesity and three episodes of pneumonia since 6-years-old. Imaging showed a large heterogeneous mass at the posterior left upper quadrant of the abdomen protruding through the posterior aspect of the left hemidiaphragm causing atelectasis. The mass abuts the inferior leftward aspect of the descending thoracic aorta and also protrudes between the 11th and 12th posterior lateral left rib. Pathology revealed this mass to be an Ewing-like sarcoma with a BCOR-CCNB3 fusion. Patient was treated with chemotherapy and radiation. This case demonstrates the importance of determining an accurate diagnosis to provide specific management.

Diploma thesis called "Typology of weak, fragile, failing, failed, collapsed states" lays the objective to look into all kinds of collapsed states, and then it wants to compare to what measurement answers the specified typological conception to the reality. In the introduction the study attends to definitions of the terms state,sovereignty and nation which are nearly connected with the issue. As well the reasons for geographical enlistment will be given at the same time. The first chapter is focused on the characteristic features of the different types of watched states. That is why the comparison of the terms is included, its objective is specification and coherence of the terminology. The next part will be engaged in the application of chosen marks to the concrete African countries. There is simultaneously offered the answer to question, in what way and to what measurement the theoretical conception differ from the real functioning. And then it is seen if the enlistment of countries agrees with their general situation, and there are eventually watched some reasons if it does not agree. The last but one chapter is focused on the critical review of the whole typology of collapsed states and it mediates a wide range of aspects and findings which are brought by the typology. The end provides some...

Studien undersöker hur olika politiska aktörer uttrycker sig om den svenska statens förmåga att upprätthålla ett våldsmonopol och vad detta kan få för implikationer för Sverige. Studien vilar på Max Webers definition av staten som ett mänskligt samhälle som framgångsrikt hävdar monopolet på det legitima användandet av fysiskt våld inom ett givet territorium. Med denna definition som grund genomförs en diskursanalys av den svenska statens brister i debatten kring ”no-go zoner” i svenska utanförskapsområden. Mer specifikt analyserar uppsatsen ett nationellt och internationellt urval politiska aktörer som i den politiska debatten antingen legitimerar eller de-legitimerar den svenska staten i Webers mening. Utifrån konstruktivistiska antaganden om att statens existens är socialt konstruerad och diskursivt formerad visar resultaten att aktörernas sätt att uttrycka sig i debatten kring svenska utanförskapsområden ger grogrund för ett ifrågasättande av statens existens

This dissertation examines the relationship of political instability and economic failure to predatory organized crime in multiple nations. This is an important issue since each year the increase in predatory crime networks contributes to international economic failure, security risks, and the spread of organized crime. In an effort to understand the relationship between state failure and economic failure on the one hand, and organized crime on the other, this study will seek to address three goals. First, the study tests the degree to which variables that imply economic failure and state failure correlate with predatory organized crime. Second, the study determines the extent of the relationship between the social and economic indicators and predatory organized crime in multiple nations. Third, the study examines the future implications of predatory organized crime predictor variables in the context of national strategies to eradicate or reduce organized crime. This study investigates the relationship in failed states between predatory crime groups and various economic and state stability indicators. In particular, this study examines the impact of seven predictor variables on the variation in Predatory Organized Crime in 122 countries. The findings suggest that the state failure hypothesis correctly articulates the failure of the state to offer key social goods such as security, stability, and justice, thereby producing an environment where crime groups assume state responsibilities. The findings also support the economic failure hypothesis that poor economic outcomes such as high unemployment, low SES, and a dependency on an underground economy encourage the development of criminal groups. The ultimate goal of this study is to assist policy makers, policy analysts, scholars, and officials at donor agencies and international financial institutions in establishing effective tools for identifying and removing predatory organized crime units. Analytical results provide general support to all hypotheses. Moreover, policy implications for predatory organized crime control in developing countries are discussed. The author's objective is to increase understanding of this issue and show the need for further research.

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