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<p>The master thesis provides a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the scope of most-favoured-nation clauses, focusing on the application of such clauses to dispute resolution mechanisms in bilateral investment treaty’s (BIT).</p><p>The ICSID decision in Maffezini was the first in a series to extend the scope of an MFN clause to dispute resolution in such context. Traditionally, such a clause had been relied on regarding substantive rights. The debate evoked by this and subsequent decisions of arbitral tribunals, which often conflict with each other in their outcome and in their analytic methodology, illustrates the controversy of this issue.</p>

<p>In these days of globalization, with a higher level of openness and interaction over geographical, cultural and economical borders, the importance of the company’s intangible asset, its brand, is gaining importance as a differentiating factor. </p><p>Building a strong brand and the emphasis on strategic brand management is something that before was given less attention in firms but today we can see a general increase in awareness and relative emphasis in the strategic work of companies.</p><p>Countries as brands: Is it possible to consider a nation or a country as a brand the same way you consider a product? Well, looking in to the subject it seems to be a rather complex matter and there are many questions to be asked and answer. Nations around the globe are indeed marketing and positioning themselves for several purposes. It can be for example to attract tourists, investments and venture capital, qualified labour and business in general. So nations as brands do exist and it is of importance for the individual country to handle this valuable asset consciously. </p><p>There are many factors contributing to the image of a nation and how others consider a nation image to be. It is also different according to whom and where you ask.</p><p>The contributors to the image may be different channels of the mass media, famous persons and events, tourists visiting the country, national promotion agencies and also the main character in this study, the companies.</p><p>The nature of nation branding is inert and complex so there is of importance that the contributors mentioned above have a mutual and homogeneous vision for the nations image and are working together. </p><p>Companies tend to both contribute to and take advantage of the set of values that are more easily connected to a nation than others. Some companies do this more than others. The company should have: </p><p>The awareness of the individual company of what they want its brand to be and stand for.</p><p>The awareness of what the nation brand of Sweden stands for.</p><p>The ability to choose between weather to consciously connect their brand to Swedish values or not. </p><p>Accordingly, the main factor here is the awareness of the company in its strategic brand management. A nations image consists of a complex set of values and it is hard or maybe impossible to avoid some connection with this image but to a large extend the company can choose its positioned brand values. </p><p>And the final question to be asked here is weather there can be found factors that indicates that some business or products can have a greater use or advantage of its connections with its nations brand image than others. </p><p>The study</p><p>My first intention was to carry out this study by including large and well-known Swedish companies like IKEA and Volvo, investigating their strategical brand management concerning my core-questions. </p><p>This was not possible so the empirical part of this study was carried out by conducting interviews at two midsized companies in Arvika, Sweden. The first participating company is Klässbols Linneväveri, (Klässbols´ Linen mill), a recognized, successful textile company and the second one is Thermia AB a manufacturer of high quality, energy efficient heat pumps. I consider this inclusion of smaller companies to be even more interesting and rewarding when there is less to explore considering the big Swedish profile-companies. </p><p>The main criteria’s was that the respondent companies should belong to different fields of business and that they should have presence abroad through export. </p><p>For this particular study the most appropriate method and the one giving the richest and most valid image of the core question is the semi-structured interview. The actual interview took place at the locality of the two respondent companies. The persons chosen for the interviews at each company were picked by their position within the companies and were the ones most suitable and able to make the best possible contribution to this study.</p><p> </p><p>The main results found in this study are: </p><p>It is natural that companies connect their brand to the image of country, being the nation of origin or a nation of choice. Having a country name included in a brand name helps customers to evaluate the product and make purchase decisions.</p><p>The product or business of the company matters in the decision whether or not you should associate to the nations values or not. Sweden is associated with a set of values that you more easily can connect with certain businesses and products than others. </p><p>It is of importance that the product is designed in Sweden and that this origin is emphasized in the market communication. In comparison, the country were the product is produced is on a relatively lower level of importance, although this level depends on which business it considers. </p><p>Knowledge is power! To be able to make a conscious choice whether to connect to Swedish values or not, the individual company has to be aware of its own values and how they want to be seen as a brand.</p><p>As long as the choice to include Swedish values is strategical, and conscious and the company can live up to these values, it is right. But it is also evenly right to choose not to include the same values.</p>

En utilisant le cas d’étude d’une grande ville ukrainienne, Odessa, multiculturelle et russo- phone, nous tâcherons de mettre en évidence la discordance entre les mesures politiques de «nation building » (et leur qualité) adoptées par le Parlement, leur renégociation et ap- plication au niveau local et la manière dont cela affecte l’identité de la population et la per- ception d’une « nation ukrainienne » dans la ville, de façon à nous concentrer sur l’impor- tance de l’attitude de la population dans un projet de «nation building ». A ce propos nous allons montrer le rôle de première importance joué par les Ukrainiens dans le projet de construction nationale entamé par les élites politiques après l’indépendance ukrainienne de 1991. L’expression « nation building » est souvent utilisée dans la littérature pour se ré- férer aux mesures politiques émises par le Parlement ; Par contre l’expression « construc- tion nationale » ou « construction de la nation » semble se prêter à plusieurs interpréta- tions et n’exclut pas la participation de la population au projet. Par exemple, tandis que le « nation building » est lié à des politiques mises en œuvre dans le cadre d’un État, si l’on parle d’une « construction nationale » on ne se réfère pas forcement à un État. C’est pour- quoi, au cours de cette thèse on gardera les deux expressions pour suggérer que l’expression construction nationale montre une attitude plus ouverte à observer les différentes in- teractions entre la population et les élites politiques.

Möjligheternas nation? Ida Hansson KällAbstractTitle: A Student Nation of Possibilities? A qualitative study of the image and the positioningof Norrlands nation (Möjligheternas nation? En kvalitativ studie av Norrlands nations imageoch positionering)Number of pages: 41 (43 including enclosures)Author: Ida Hansson KällTutor: Peder Hård af SegerstadCourse: Media and Communication Studies 30hpPeriod: Fall 2008University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science,Uppsala UniversityPurpose/Aim: The purpose of this essay is to identify what students in Uppsala and themanagement of Norrlands nation think of the activities at the nation's daily schedule. Theimage of Norrlands nation will be compared to the nation's profile and identity, its currentlyprofile and position in Uppsala. Proposals of preventive measures will also be presented.Material/Method: I've done two interviews with the management of Norrlands nation andtwo focus group interviews with three students in each group. During the interviews I havefocused on the image, profile and identity of Norrlands nation and its strengths, weaknesses,threats and opportunities to compare in a SWOT-analysis. I've used a semantic differential tocompare Norrlands nation to the two second biggest nations in Uppsala.Main results: Norrlands nation is mostly aware of its strengths and weaknesses that thestudents accentuated during the interviews. The results also show that the nation should try toget stronger at making sure the information about its activities reaches out to the students.Keywords: Image, profile, identity, positioning, student, nation2

The master thesis provides a comprehensive and comparative analysis of the scope of most-favoured-nation clauses, focusing on the application of such clauses to dispute resolution mechanisms in bilateral investment treaty’s (BIT). The ICSID decision in Maffezini was the first in a series to extend the scope of an MFN clause to dispute resolution in such context. Traditionally, such a clause had been relied on regarding substantive rights. The debate evoked by this and subsequent decisions of arbitral tribunals, which often conflict with each other in their outcome and in their analytic methodology, illustrates the controversy of this issue.

In these days of globalization, with a higher level of openness and interaction over geographical, cultural and economical borders, the importance of the company’s intangible asset, its brand, is gaining importance as a differentiating factor. Building a strong brand and the emphasis on strategic brand management is something that before was given less attention in firms but today we can see a general increase in awareness and relative emphasis in the strategic work of companies. Countries as brands: Is it possible to consider a nation or a country as a brand the same way you consider a product? Well, looking in to the subject it seems to be a rather complex matter and there are many questions to be asked and answer. Nations around the globe are indeed marketing and positioning themselves for several purposes. It can be for example to attract tourists, investments and venture capital, qualified labour and business in general. So nations as brands do exist and it is of importance for the individual country to handle this valuable asset consciously. There are many factors contributing to the image of a nation and how others consider a nation image to be. It is also different according to whom and where you ask. The contributors to the image may be different channels of the mass media, famous persons and events, tourists visiting the country, national promotion agencies and also the main character in this study, the companies. The nature of nation branding is inert and complex so there is of importance that the contributors mentioned above have a mutual and homogeneous vision for the nations image and are working together. Companies tend to both contribute to and take advantage of the set of values that are more easily connected to a nation than others. Some companies do this more than others. The company should have: The awareness of the individual company of what they want its brand to be and stand for. The awareness of what the nation brand of Sweden stands for. The ability to choose between weather to consciously connect their brand to Swedish values or not. Accordingly, the main factor here is the awareness of the company in its strategic brand management. A nations image consists of a complex set of values and it is hard or maybe impossible to avoid some connection with this image but to a large extend the company can choose its positioned brand values. And the final question to be asked here is weather there can be found factors that indicates that some business or products can have a greater use or advantage of its connections with its nations brand image than others. The study My first intention was to carry out this study by including large and well-known Swedish companies like IKEA and Volvo, investigating their strategical brand management concerning my core-questions. This was not possible so the empirical part of this study was carried out by conducting interviews at two midsized companies in Arvika, Sweden. The first participating company is Klässbols Linneväveri, (Klässbols´ Linen mill), a recognized, successful textile company and the second one is Thermia AB a manufacturer of high quality, energy efficient heat pumps. I consider this inclusion of smaller companies to be even more interesting and rewarding when there is less to explore considering the big Swedish profile-companies. The main criteria’s was that the respondent companies should belong to different fields of business and that they should have presence abroad through export. For this particular study the most appropriate method and the one giving the richest and most valid image of the core question is the semi-structured interview. The actual interview took place at the locality of the two respondent companies. The persons chosen for the interviews at each company were picked by their position within the companies and were the ones most suitable and able to make the best possible contribution to this study. The main results found in this study are: It is natural that companies connect their brand to the image of country, being the nation of origin or a nation of choice. Having a country name included in a brand name helps customers to evaluate the product and make purchase decisions. The product or business of the company matters in the decision whether or not you should associate to the nations values or not. Sweden is associated with a set of values that you more easily can connect with certain businesses and products than others. It is of importance that the product is designed in Sweden and that this origin is emphasized in the market communication. In comparison, the country were the product is produced is on a relatively lower level of importance, although this level depends on which business it considers. Knowledge is power! To be able to make a conscious choice whether to connect to Swedish values or not, the individual company has to be aware of its own values and how they want to be seen as a brand. As long as the choice to include Swedish values is strategical, and conscious and the company can live up to these values, it is right. But it is also evenly right to choose not to include the same values.

Runt om i världen pågår krig, konflikter och tvister, som grundar sig i problem som har uppstått till följd av människors missnöje när det gäller dragningar av statsgränser. Det är gränser som vanligtvis inte harmoniserar med nationers etnicitet och utbredning, vilket kan leda till att en matchningsproblematik mellan stat och nation växer fram. I november år 2012 hölls ett tidigarelagt parlamentsval i regionen Katalonien i Spanien, ett parlamentsval som indirekt kom att ses som en folkomröstning där de katalanska invånarna röstade för eller emot ett självständigt Katalonien. Syftet med den här uppsatsen har varit att visa på konsekvenser som detta val fick för Spanien och dess regioner, men också att utreda Kataloniens politiskgeografiska möjligheter att bryta sig loss från sin moderstat Spanien och bilda en självständig stat. Katalonien har i uppsatsen utgjort en fallstudie vars händelseförlopp och självständighetsprocess kan appliceras på andra regioner och nationer som befinner sig i en liknande situation. Uppsatsens undersökning utgörs främst av litteraturstudier där Kataloniens och Spaniens geografiska och historiska bakgrunder har beskrivits och jämförts med andra nationer inom Europa. På så sätt har det varit möjligt att dra slutsatser om Kataloniens politiskgeografiska möjligheter att skaffa sig ett ökat självstyre, och framöver även bilda en självständig stat oberoende av Spanien. Undersökningens slutsatser handlar främst om att Katalonien har förutsättningar att i framtiden bilda en egen stat, men att vägen dit är lång och komplicerad. Parlamentsvalet som hölls i Katalonien har i skrivande stund inte påverkat Katalonien eller övriga spanska regioner i någon större utsträckning, men uppsatsen visar att valet längre fram i tiden kan komma att få betydande konsekvenser, både för Katalonien och för övriga Spanien, men också för andra europeiska stater som har präglats av separatistiska strömningar.

The Saulteaux Nation is comprised of 7 major clans the larger of which is the Bear Clan. This thesis examines the holistic philosophy of the Saulteaux world view and the oral teachings of the Bear Clan. The teachings, which emphasize the nature of healing and personal growth, were related by Elder Danny Musqua to myself from within the context of traditional Bear Clan ceremonies and practices. This thesis documents my journey to understand these teachings and in the process to arrive at a deeper understanding of self. This is done within the context of Bear Clan culture and within the context of my relationship with Elder Danny Musqua. This thesis relates my struggle to make meaning of these teachings on a personal level and how these teachings have affected my life.<p> Narrative Inquiry is the methodology employed in this study. Through a reliance on narrative as the research methodology, the oral tradition of the Bear Clan and its traditional methods of knowledge transmission are honoured. The methodology utilized in this study is relatively unstructured in that no formal questioning process is utilized. Instead, it relies upon the relationship between the Elder/teacher and the son/learner in which to transmit knowledge. This process stresses the relationship between Danny and myself and emphasizes trust and respect as important elements of learning. In this relationship, knowledge was transmitted through participation in the sweatlodge, the learning lodge and through conversations with Danny. This approach to research respected the implicit nature of the oral tradition and allowed for me to make meaning of Danny's teachings in their original context and interpret them at a level appropriate for my own personal development.<p> This thesis struggles to define traditional healing and the role that the healer, the one oppressed by illness and the spiritual realm play in the healing process. This thesis may prove valuable in educating and informing those who do not have an understanding of concepts of First Nations' healing. It may also serve as an invitation to all people, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, to expand their notions of healing or to search out a similar path in life.

This thesis critically analyzes the phenomenon of nation branding as a technique of neocolonial governmentality. The study focuses on Brand India - postcolonial India’s attempt to imagine the nation and its people through the discourse of branding. I argue that India’s nation branding exercise hollows out the postcolonial imagination so that the nation can now only be imagined through a language and within a framework ‘always-already’ constituted for the postcolony. This thesis builds on Michel Foucault’s analysis of governmentality and utilizes a postcolonial framework, to show that when the practice of nation branding is applied to a postcolonial nation, it works to reinscribe the colonial legacy and reaffirm colonial power relations