Varför har Elfenbenskusten och inte Ghana skrivit på ett interimsavtal med EU mellan 2008 och 2013? Utifrån ovanställda frågeställning utreder föreliggande uppsats paradoxen om två förhållandevis lika länder som har agerat olika i förhandlingar med EU om ekonomiska partnerskapsavtal (EPA). Frågan besvaras med hjälp av förhandlingsteoretiska förklaringar som belyser varför avtal sluts eller ej. För uppsatsen ändmål sammanfattas dessa som inrikespolitiska, miljömässiga och strukturella aspekter. Resultatet visar att inrikespolitiska förändringar i Ghana föranledde landets beslut att avstå från att underteckna interimsavtal med EU. För Elfenbenskustens del förelåg miljömässiga aspekter som kunde förklara varför landet beslöt sig för att underteckna ett interimsavtal med EU.

The threat of nuclear weapons is depicted by the EU as the potentially greatest threat to security. How then does the EU counter this threat, i.e. what kind of actor is the EU in this area? To answer that question, this paper sets out to discover if the EU is an actor in the non-proliferation area, and if that is positively confirmed, what kind of an actor the EU depicts itself to be. Using the actorship framework, developed by Hettne, Söderbaum and Stålgren, it looks into the regionness, presence and actorness of the EU on this issue, to capture both internal and external aspects. The paper concludes that the EU can be defined as an actor on non-proliferation, and that it depicts itself as having a high level of regionness and presence, and gets a mixed result in the area of actorness. The paper also contributes to the theoretical framework by pointing out three aspects that the framework fails to take into consideration.

The UN was established after the Second World War. The organization’s primary goal was to maintain peace among all nations. When the UN intervenes in other states affairs, it is violat-ing the principles it is set to defend, principles of non-intervention and respect for sover-eignty. The outcome from such interventions is very important, a result that can legitimize the action. It is important that interventions give birth to democratic processes and respect for human rights, values that constitute the organisation. Why some countries go to war and others don’t is hard to say but one thing can be said about war – democratic states don’t wage war against each other. Thus, democracy would be a guarantee for mutual peace among all nations. The purpose of this essay is to find out if the prospects for democracy, as result of UN-interventions, were fulfilled. Did the interventions created conditions for democracy in the future. • Did the interventions result in a democratic process? • Is there something special in comment for countries with a similar democratic develop-ment? • Can the current situation legitimize the actions? Cease studies, comparisons between intensions of democracy and the current situation, is one way to find an answer to the question mentioned above and will correspond to the purpose of this essay. In order to see the whole picture I will use different criteria to define democracy. Democracy and UN-interventions (Karlstad University Press 2002), a disputation by Andreas Andersson, will be my starting point. He states that democracy is an aspect of interventions that many countries consider as most relevant for commitment and legitimacy. Not one of the countries can be called a democracy today and the situation for the people has not improved much. The result of the intervention can not give legitimacy to the action. The UN-interventions has consolidated the situation more than creating the necessary conditions for democracy. I could not through my research find anything specific that does unite or separate some of the cases. The only thing the countries of my essay have in comment is the lack of success from the UN-interventions, from a democratic point of view. The countries are facing many problems that disturb the democratic transition. Discrimination is one obstacle, there can not be a democracy when half of the population is being excluded from the political arena. Illiteracy and restriction of press freedom is an other problem, the Opposition can not reach out to people by newspapers, an important channel for exchange of opinions. Democracy in all areas of the community is a way to secure peace and should be a priority even for already democratic states. The next question to be answered, an invitation to further research, is: What do democratic states do in order to deepen and consolidate democracy within their own society?

Sweden has been a member of the European Union since 1995 and the power of the organisation to make decisions has increased over the years in a rate which hasn’t been followed by an equally increase in democratization. This is partly due to the lack of participation in the decision making process and at the national level the citizens don’t possess enough channels to compensate the loss of influence. To solve this democratic dilemma, more and more countries are turning to the referendum. My purpose with the study is to analyze under what circumstances the Swedish parliament initiate referendum and how this effect the opportunities for it to work as a corrective according to the popular will. I’ve compared the decision to join EMU, when the parliament decided to initiate, with the ratification of the EU-constitution when the parliament decided not to initiate and posed following questions: How did 1) Minority Weapon, 2)Division solving 3) Important question and 4) External Pressure impact the parties decision to initiate or not? I used statistics, parliamentary debates and home-pages to answer the questions. My conclusions are that the most important factors that promote an initiative are division solving and important question. External pressure seems to have little or no impact. This means that the parliament isn’t responsive to the opinion, has a big control over the initiation and combined with a critically bad representation it doesn’t provide much of an opportunity for the referendum to work as a corrective in the Swedish democracy.

Bachelor thesis in political science by Malin Bergkvist, autumn 12. Title:Political governance for increased digital inclusion. Subtitle: Aspects of "governance" and "government". Supervisor: Joachim Åström.   While digital inclusion is a hot topic in both academia and in policy circles, little research is done when it comes to governance issues. To help filling this gap, this essay asks which mode of governance is dominant in the field of digital inclusion. What aspects of governance "governance" or "government" is the dominant in the field of digital inclusion, and is it possible to see any difference in how the state governance is described by the government and perceived by other actors? To answer this overarching question, two sub queries are formulated and analyzed. First, what aspect of "governance" or "government" dominate when state governance of the area are examined based on how the government describes it? Second, what aspect of "governance" or "government” dominate when state governance are studied based on how the perceived by other actors and stakeholders active in the field. The government’s policy document "IT i människans tjänst - en digital agenda för Sverige" as well as a series of interviews are analyzed with help of ideal typical descriptions of governance and government. The delimitation of the relevant documents would be natural since it is the latest document in the field and a comprehensive approach is presented. Equally natural is not the selection of actors, but these are either prominent in the area or outside to a large extent. The results show that governance is dominant both in the official policy documents and statements, and in stakeholders perceptions of the field. However, there are interesting differences between the government and stakeholder views. Judging by the stakeholders views, authoritative and hierarchical processes within the state are more prominent than official statements might suggest. Possibility of further research is to study the EU's policy or regional digital agendas.

I denna uppsats studeras konstruktionen av bilden som ges i svensk tidningsmedias presentation av två svenska politiker vad gäller föräldraskap, kön och manlighet i relation till det politiska ledarskapet. För att genomföra studien bygger uppsatsen på teorier och tidigare forskning inom CSM- kritiska studier på män, inklusive teorier från svenska forskare såsom Klinth och Klinth & Johansson inom forskning om föräldraförsäkringen och män. I tidigare forskning har det konstaterats att politiken bygger på en manlig norm, men att föräldraskapet bygger på en kvinnlig norm, därav är det av intresse att se hur den manliga normen förändras eller samverkar med föräldraskapet i relation till politiskt ledarskap. Analysen genomfördes därför genom att studera presentationen av Gustav Fridolin och Birgitta Ohlsson, två rikskända politiker som båda blivit föräldrar inom en ganska nära tid. I uppsatsens analys visas att det finns delade meningar i uppfattningen om hur föräldraskapet ska moderniseras eller frigöras från traditionella sociala mönster i studien om Gustav Fridolin och Birgitta Ohlsson i relation till föräldraskapet, samt att det förekommer två tydliga diskurser i ämnesområdet.

USA har nu hört och sett Rysslands tendenser till maktanspråk i Europa och vilka medel man är villig och kapabel att använda sig av. Detta föranleder NATO att rusta upp sina resurser och vidare fördjupa säkerhetsdilemmat i Europa. Att bibehålla och expandera ett starkt NATO i Europa även efter kalla krigets slut har visat på USA:s förmåga att navigera världspolitiken på ett proaktivt sätt utan att löpa några risker för den egna nationella säkerheten. USA:s engagemang på den Europeiska arenan ska primärt tolkas som en strategi för att balansera upp Ryssland och bara sekundärt som en idealistisk ambition att värna om regional fred och säkerhet. Vi kan således utläsa att ingen av aktörerna är intresserade av status quooch den process av maktmaximering som pågått i Europa sedan långt tillbaka fortsatt lika aktiv.

Studien avhandlar ett brittiskt kompani under mission i Afghanistan och hur deras operationer står sig i förhållande till David Kilcullens twenty-eight articles. Förbandet hade som uppgift att söka stridskontakt med motståndaren inom ett kompaniområde i syfte att isolera striderna och möjliggöra uppbyggnadsprojekt i Sangin provinsen i Afghanistan. Slutsatserna är att kompaniet uppträdde mer som ett reguljärt skyttekompani och hade inte någon tydlig counterinsurgency metodik i enlighet med Kilcullens teori.

This thesis examines how middle class Pakistani young people construct contemporary international conflicts. Little previous research has been conducted in this area, and none in Pakistan. This investigation is of interest because young people like the ones who participated in my research may become future leaders. Therefore, their perceptions and understanding of these issues may influence the way these are addressed in the future. This thesis draws on literature about the just war tradition – what are the just causes of war or jus ad bellum and how ethical warfare must be conducted or jus in bello. The theoretical framework used is that of social constructionism, especially drawing on the ideas of Jonathan Potter, Margaret Wetherell, Kenneth Gergen and Michel Foucault. The research involved six focus groups with Pakistani young people aged 17-18 years. The study found that the participants talked enthusiastically about issues related to international conflicts. They drew on a range of discourses and evidence to construct their arguments, some of which were grounded in not very reliable evidence. They argued that terrorism, whether perpetrated by state or non-state actors, was wrong, and they were highly critical of US policies and actions in the wider world. These findings are important because Pakistani society faces a serious challenge from militancy and terrorism. The thesis suggests that changes to the content and delivery of school curricula can help young people to develop a more informed and morally active sense of citizenship and world affairs.

The importance of policy networks and the need to treat networks seriously have long been emphasized within the field of policy science. However, not many attempts have been made to investigate the explanatory power of policy networks using the tools and theoretical concepts provided by social network analysis (SNA). This historical limitation is the central undertaking of the current thesis, which sets out to clarify the possible relationship between network structure and the organizing capacities and performance of policy networks. Not only is the aim to elucidate how different network qualities affect performance, but the thesis also has a methodological aim of indicating in what ways SNA contributes to and enhances policy network research. Based on the theoretical concepts policy, networks, institutions, and social capital, an analytical framework is formed. A set of hypotheses regarding how network structures are believed to affect the performance of policy networks is suggested. Two particular network qualities-namely, network closure and network heterogeneity-are proposed as central for the process and its outcome. The former reflects the internal structure of a network in terms of density and centralization, while the latter reflects how the network is connected to other networks and addresses its level of diversity and cross-boundary character. The empirical part of the thesis consists of three case studies, in which policy processes within different policy sectors are studied. The empirical analysis confirms the existence of a relationship between network structure and performance. As the level of network closure increases, so does the capability to prioritize, thereby enhancing efficiency. However, the level of network heterogeneity is positively related to the function of resource mobilization, which, in turn, is a central prerequisite for improved effectiveness. The thesis concludes that a significant explanatory power exists in the concept of policy networks and that SNA is a promising way to explore its possibilities, enhancing policy research and the conceptual and theoretical developments within the field. Finally, the implications of the findings for contemporary policy making and public administration are discussed. / Godkänd; 2008; 20080519 (ysko)