War is gendered. The scholarship of gender and war is comprehensive and multi-layered, yet there seems to be some difficulty to keep up with the new developments in technology and its involvement in warfare. It was only until a few years ago that a new method of warfare - cyber warfare, a form of hybrid warfare, emerged and got the spotlight in the discussions on new methods of warfare. However, as the literature is growing, and international organisations are producing policy and strategy documents on cyber warfare, there seems to be a research gap on the relation between gender and cyber warfare, more specifically the gendered aspects of cyber warfare. This thesis attempts to fill that research gap and intends to answer how cyber warfare may be gendered. This is be done by generally looking at the literature of “Gender and War” and “Gender and Cyber”, and Gunneriusson and Ottis (2013) categorisation of how cyberspace is used in military operations from a hybrid warfare perspective. Gunneriusson and Otitis’s categorisation focus on inter alia cyber-attacks on non-military targets, and the use of propaganda. The overview of the research on gender and cyber focus on the workforce within cyber related sectors and gender-based violence, and the overview of research on gender and war brings up numerous examples of the nexus between gender and war.  Based on the overview of the two fields of research along with Gunneriusson and Ottis categorisation this thesis comes to the conclusion that cyber warfare can be gendered. The purpose of the examples of cyber-attacks are the same when same attacks are conducted offline and these types of attack offline have the same effect online. The difference is that an attack through the cyberspace intensifies the consequences in comparison to when these same methods were used in other domains.

The matter of a gender gap in electoral participation is a fact in many parts of the world but has mostly been investigated by, and studied within, the Global North. In spite of this, scholars have not reached an undisputed conclusion for why this is. Scholars have argued for the importance of studying the institutions and systems composing voting in order to explain electoral participation, especially since the form and degree of direct influence of voters are differing within different electoral systems. Relying on the rational voter hypothesis in combination with feminist theory this thesis suggests that women have different experiences of civic duty and influence, and therefore participate in elections to a lesser extent than men. The main results suggest that presidentialism, to an extent which is neither statistically nor practically significant, decrease women’s electoral participation while majoritarian electoral rules seem to have an even smaller, but similar, effect. Testing electoral systems’ effect on the gender gap, statistically significant results points to the fact that presidentialism increases the gender gap in electoral participation. Majoritarian electoral rules do too increase the gender gap, but to a more restricted extent. This thesis concludes that electoral systems do have a gendered effect on electoral participation and that these effects need to be further investigated by future research.

Arms export to developing countries is heavily debated. Scholars have presented arguments about both why arms export may be beneficial and why it may be detrimental to development of the receiving country, and empirical results are inconclusive. Existing literature has focused on a broad range of outcomes rather than solely on the developmental aspects of the receiving country. Therefore a remarkable dispute and gap exist in the literature regarding the relationship between arms export and the receiving country’s level of development. In this study I argue that arms export to developing countries will increase the receiving country’s level of development. Development is defined as human rights, strong institutions and economic growth. The empirical findings, based on the comparative analysis of Chile and Argentina 2002-12, indicates support for the hypothesis. The economic growth criteria received the strongest support but also, to a lesser extent, the criteria of human rights and strong institutions. However, in order to draw any greater generalizable conclusion, a greater number of cases needs to be examined as well as the testing for alternative explanations. Such as if the empirically found causality is a case of reverse causation or how the two cases' different processes in their return to democracy had an impact on their level of development.

Hybrid warfare and hybrid threats today represent a fundamental political challenge. Within the world of security politics, international cooperation has become a central tool with which western nations face this threat. In utilizing international cooperation in order to face hybrid threats, one should however ask whether nationally implemented methods and understandings of this threat correspond with those of other nations as a prerequisite to joint operations against hybrid threats.   This study ventures to determine if a common understanding and approach to the issue of hybrid warfare optimizes our nations preparedness, protection and response by exploring whether Sweden and Norway have implemented the same understanding of current hybrid warfare and threats. It does so by applying a theoretical framework based on hybrid warfare theory.      By analyzing current intelligence reports, military doctrines and defensive planning, this study has found that implementation of hybrid warfare does exist in both nations. This study finds that a fundamentally likeminded understanding of hybrid threats has been integrated in both Swedish and Norwegian intelligence reports, military doctrine as well as defensive planning. Furthermore, this study finds the relative, equivalent integration of hybrid threats based on current hybrid theory establishes a prerequisite for future cooperation as well as achieving synergy by having a common threat understanding.    The study does however find that further research in the field of synergistic effects in military cooperation and strategic alliances such as that between Sweden and Norway is recommended. Future research is also recommended in order to determine whether the hybrid threat understanding transcends the nations armed forces and has been integrated on a higher political level. Furthermore, future research should delve deeper into hybrid warfare theory and its geopolitical relevance.

This thesis aims to answer the question of what differences in risk propensity may exist between Swedish Army Officers from different branches and those with or without experience from international deployments. Since different individuals can perceive risks in different ways a discrepancy can arise between how different decision makers act in different tactical situations. This can have consequences in combat through decision makers who expose themselves and others to unnecessarily large risks, or decision makers who fail to act through an excessive risk perception. The thesis aims to discover whether such differences exist within the Swedish Army, to avoid catastrophic outcomes in combat because units or individuals are acting in a way that is not advantageous to the task, and directly or indirectly creates an even more risky situation. The survey was conducted through a questionnaire survey, where the data was analysed to test two hypotheses, one relating to the different branches and the other regarding experience from international deployments. The analysis showed that the differences between groups were not statistically significant and that the hypotheses cannot be proven.

This study aims to investigate how aid organisations with different means of financing respond to corruption allegations, and how the perceived risk of reputational loss affects that response.  The method used to answer the research question was a collective case study where three different aid organisations, Oxfam GB, UNDP and SIDA, which all have different funding mechanisms, were compared in their response to corruption allegations - before and after the public gained knowledge of those allegations. The analysis shows that there is a difference in the response to corruption allegations between the cases, namely that Oxfam GB and UNDP developed their response to a large extent when the public learnt of the allegations, SIDA on the other hand did not change their response at all. However, donor pressure seems to be more important for this induced change rather than the perceived risk of reputational loss.

Gender inequality greatly affects the vulnerability of women in many areas of societal development. Gender mainstreaming is used as a strategy to include a gender perspective in policy and practice to decrease vulnerability. In regular development there is a discrepancy between policy and practice, but especially so in contexts of disaster. This thesis aims to examine how gender mainstreaming strategies are implemented in disaster risk reduction. The main purpose is to create an understanding of how such processes translate into practice both in relief efforts and resilience-building projects. A case-study of the Swedish Red Cross is the foundation of this thesis, looking at how these processes flow from theory to policy to practice. Semi-structured interviews with professionals from the field serve as the main method. A content analysis of IFRC policies regulating gender action will supplement the interviews. The results illustrate a discrepancy between the gender-focused policy and a women-centric implementation, and further highlight the role of donors and ‘the Tyranny of Urgency’. These results, and consequently this thesis, contributes to recognizing the feminization of responsibility in the field of development in general, but especially in the context of disaster.

Throughout the years many have called for a reform of the United Nations and more specifically its most influential body the United Nations Security Council. The Security Council has the authority to pass resolutions with the sole purpose to preserve the peace around the globe, in theory at least. As there are conflicts that have been going on for a decade without any kind of solution from the Security Council and with huge humanitarian toll, just like Syria and Yemen, the need for a reform is clearly needed for the Security Council to be able to act better in conflict solving. In the Council five members have veto rights which are also permanent members and are not elected. As this has been considered unfair, both the notion of a permanent member and also the notion of a veto, some reform proposals have been brought up by organizations or countries to change the Security Council. This work is concerned with the Weak Veto reform proposal as analysing possible reforms using discourse analysis can predict possible future behaviour of states and can introduce a different view on the future of international organizations.

Gender awareness has been recognized as critical in sustainable peace efforts, and gender mainstreaming has become a natural practice in peace projects. While gender has long been equated with focus on women, the inclusion of men has increased. The concept of militarized masculinity has gained recognition, where exposure to the military institution is believed to foster certain gendered norms. The construction of these militarized masculinities has been a prominent focus in previous research, where capability of violence is apparent, and they are often found to undermine sustainable peace efforts. Less attention has been given to how these norms endure outside of the military institution. This thesis seeks to explore this question by studying five Namibian veterans who after the independence war moved on to become prominent politicians, which is argued to provide a least likely case for norm change. Through a qualitative content analysis, the veterans are studied during their entire time in the Namibian parliament. The study finds that the masculinity norms of the veterans developed and adapted to peace time, but still remained militarized. A new ideal type of militarized masculinity is formulated based on the findings, the Nation Protector, where leadership, bravery and patriotism are central, together with ideas of gender equality and peace. The study thus provide evidence that militarized masculinities may change outside of the military institution, but that this change is slow.

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