While framing its foreign and security policy, Sweden continuously uses formulations aimed at Russia. The relations between the two states have experienced various stages during the course of time, with the more companionable relations characterising the periods of 1990s and majority of 2000s, while experiencing a turmoil throughout the 2010s. These periods mirror the overall change in Sweden's foreign policy which overlaps with the shift from an increased focus on the European Union towards the Nordic region. This research is articulated as a single-N case study where role theory is applied to descriptively investigate how Sweden framed its foreign and security policy vis-à-vis Russia in the period from 2002 to 2020. In order to do so, a qualitative content analysis was conducted to explore how Sweden's Ministry for Foreign Affairs formulated the official documents in relation to Russia. From the analysis, it resulted that in the observed time period, Sweden's foreign policy revealed a blend of both change and continuity in its relations to Russia. This was a reflection of a general pattern in Sweden's foreign and security policy, but also a consequence of Russia's gradual turn towards a more authoritarian state. Therefore, this study will contribute to the broader question how Sweden has responded to the newly formed security issues in Europe and Nordic region.

This thesis explores South Korea’s role within international development cooperation through a role theoretical analysis of the country’s development cooperation policies. The purpose of this paper is to shed a light on the possibilities and benefits of applying role theory within the field of international development cooperation, while focusing on South Korea, as a case of an emerging and quickly advancing donor. In order to reveal national role conceptions, as well as the alter’s role prescriptions, the paper puts forward a qualitative content analysis, looking at documents issued by South Korea and the OECD that concern its development cooperation policies. Hereby, it becomes evident that South Korea’s role is highly influenced by its own development experience and recent transformation from recipient into donor state. The experience the country has gained builds the foundation for its own perception as a donor, as well as for the expectations of other OECD Member countries and is, thus, translated into South Korea’s development cooperation policies.

This applied dissertation was a study of the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in a federal government organization in Washington, DC. As a result of the organization’s business and leadership challenges, understanding the relationship between a leader and a follower and extra-role behaviors may help to understand how high-quality relationships are developed with staff members that are productive and motivate staff to extend their efforts beyond normal expectations. Productive high-quality relationships demonstrate loyalty, consideration, and affect towards the organization and its leaders. Understanding the relationship between LMX and OCB in a federal government organization may help to produce greater awareness of the factors that lead to high-quality leader-member relationships. Knowing the characteristics of high-quality relationships may promote extra-role behaviors enabling increased job satisfaction and greater results. Federal organizations find that many employees have low job satisfaction. In addition, only 38% of federal workers believe leaders generate high levels of commitment. The researcher employed an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design that included surveys and interviews. The sample study was composed of 50 paired dyads from 433 employees of the target federal agency selected using convenience sampling. Survey instruments were used for demographics, LMX, and OCB to gather data. The results from the LMX and OCB instruments were used to formulate interview questions for a select group from the core sample represented by the top and bottom 5% of raw survey score totals. The targeted federal organization should benefit from this study. The results showed how differences in the quality of the relationship between a leader and a follower related to OCB, or extra-role behaviors and led to recommendations on leader-subordinate relationships.

This paper investigates why patron states choose to adopt a passive strategy in relation to de facto states. Pål Kolstø from the University of Oslo has claimed that this strategy is based on the assumption that de facto states have nowhere else to turn. In this thesis, role theory is used to expand this claim. The paper argues that patron states can adopt a passive strategy in relation to their clients when they expect role coherence. This occurs when the perceptions of both actors of the patron’s role are in alignment. Role theory places emphasis on both leaders and followers in bilateral relations, which enables a deeper exploration of the perspectives of both actors. The selected case study focuses on the relationship between Russia and the de facto state Abkhazia, acknowledged by previous research as a client characterised by a high degree of defiance. Thematic analysis by Braun and Clarke was used to identify roles on which the study was based. The material encompasses 25 articles each from the Abkhaz newspaper Respublika Abkhaziya and Russian newspaper Izvestiya during the years 2019 and 2020.  The thesis concludes that role coherence was present in this relationship. Despite diverging attitudes and interests, the perception of Russia’s role was clearly reflected in Abkhaz media. The results indicate that role theory can be used to explore how patron states conduct foreign policy and enables a more comprehensive study of patron-client relationships.

The thesis aims to study Germany's foreign policy methods to answer the research question if Germany is still a civilian power. The presented work aims to establish that Germany's foreign policy methods and decision-making process are guided by civilian power theory's normative principles and values, thereby making Germany a civilian power. The author will test this through case study analysis on four diverse case study topics that explore Germany's foreign policy methods over a period of time, thus analyzing the evolution of Germany's foreign policy methods furthermore, if this evolution displays continuity or change of modification in Germany's foreign policy methods. The thesis studied Germany's role in Eastern European enlargement, non-military engagement specifically in combat operations in Iraq, military engagement and combat operations in Afghanistan, and Germany's engagement in the developmental policies for Africa. The formulated hypotheses of the four case studies stand to be correct. Germany's foreign policy methods are guided by civilian power norms and principles since its unification until now under the leadership of three different chancelleries. Because of this, Germany is still a civilian power and adapts to the challenges faced at the time and modifies its methods only after...

France is currently being faced with an increasing fury and insurrection in its former African colonies. This took many commentators by surprise. Afterall, French influence has been waning for at least two decades in the face of an increasing array of “new” players entering – what used to be considered – France’s “backyard”. Furthermore, French leaders have long expressed remorse and condemned France’s shady activities of the past. This is particularly the case for Macron who, in the name of being part of an entirely “new generation” of leaders, presents himself as an ally of African progress. How then, can we possibly understand the “anti-French sentiment” that has shaken-up the continent in recent years? This paper seeks to contribute to a better understanding of France’s contested status by providing a regional case study of francophone West-Africa. Drawing on Holsti’s role theory approach and Bull’s “Great Power” and “Recognition” concepts, this study analyzes the perception of French and West-African officials to investigate how and to what extent France is being challenged by decision-makers. It finds that albeit defiance towards France appears to be less prevalent among West-African decision-makers than the general-public, it is a phenomenon of regional scale that displays a high degree of convergence and has practical ramifications on Franco-African relations. It concludes that France’s historically based claims to a privileged relation with its former colonies is increasingly being challenged by West-African decision-makers due to its difficulty to justify itself in an increasingly multipolar world.

Managers in federal executive branch agencies administer public programs and policies in a complex legal environment. To assist managers, each agency has an organization that is responsible for providing them legal advice, typically called an "Office of the General Counsel" (OGC). Existing literature from public administration and administrative law has addressed, to varying degrees, what OGC lawyers do or ought to do, but has primarily focused on providing legal advice, not obtaining it. This discrete literature is disconnected from major streams in public administration. The purpose of this study was to update and extend the literature by exploring managers' and lawyers' perceptions of the role of managers as advisees of OGC. This study made managers the focal point of exploration and used concepts from organizational role theory to clarify the term "role" and highlight the structural and interactional elements of the manager's part in the manager-lawyer relationship. Four research questions guided this study by inquiring about the expectations managers and lawyers have regarding: (1) the organizational arrangement for obtaining legal advice; (2) decision making in the context of obtaining legal advice; (3) the closeness of their working relationship; and (4) being a "client" of OGC in the context of obtaining legal advice. Data were collected from in-depth, semi-structured interviews conducted with 20 practitioners (14 managers; six lawyers). This study found that managers and lawyers preferred to remain separate from each other in the agency because of the expectation that managers obtain and lawyers provide objective legal advice. Regarding decision making, managers and lawyers expected managers to make decisions in the sense of seeking guidance from OGC rather than permission, being comfortable questioning legal advice, and choosing among options and alternatives; although, lawyers indicated some managers prefer not making decisions. The expectation of making decisions in the sense of choosing whether to follow legal advice remains contested among managers; among lawyers, they expect managers to consider legal advice and decide whether to follow it. Managers and lawyers expected to have a close working relationship marked by assistance with formulating legal questions and full disclosure of information. As for expectations associated with being a "client" of OGC, managers' and lawyers' expectations diverged on what being a "client" of OGC entails. Managers viewed themselves as clients, but associated the term "client" with customer service; lawyers, on the other hand, viewed managers as clients provided their interests are aligned with the agency's interests. Beyond exploring the role of managers when obtaining legal advice, this study's focus on the interaction between managers and lawyers within a federal agency suggests a way connecting public law more directly to public management, as well as extending insights from governance to activities inside an agency. / Ph. D.

This thesis examines representations of masculinity in the following Egyptian movies: El Badla (2018), Welad Rizk 2 (2019) and Taymour w Shafika (2007). Each movie is from a different genre to further explore how this may influence the constructed representation of masculinity. The genres are comedy, action and romance. Additionally, both El Badla and Welad Rizk 2 are among the top ten highest grossing movies in the history of Egyptian cinema. Whilst Taymour w Shafika is considered one of the most iconic romance movies in its era. Thus, it is inevitable that all these movies have been watched (and will be watched) by a large audience, hence it is crucial to study the constructed values within them as arguably they influence the society. The thesis studies Egyptian masculinity using two different methods: film analysis and interviews with Egyptian men. The main theories this paper applies are: active audience encoding/decoding theory, social role theory and social identity and self- categorization theories. All three movies were found to represent masculinity through traditional traits e.g. emotionless, family provider. Egyptian men reflected on some of the scenes and had varied perspectives on the matter. Men who did not agree with certain values in those representations did mention that they still have to follow them as it is the way they have been brought up. The results of this study cannot be generalized but it is a step forward in the research on representation of masculinities in Egyptian cinema, which is extremely under researched in comparison to the size of the film industry in Egypt.

No description available.

No description available.