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This thesis is focusing on how knowledge transfers could be enhanced within aid co-operation contributing to more sustainable results. The research will use the theory of knowledge transfers from the field of economics and development of firms, especially the work done by Dixon, Szulanski, King and McGrath. The theory highlights the need that regulatory documents and organisations address knowledge transfers and value them. Still the findings indicates that this is not the case in the Swedish context and that the documents are focused on the assumption the individual capability is automatically transferred to organizational capacity, this is not supported by the theoretical framework. The study will focus on one of many competence development programs of Sida namely the ITP-programs and particularly on the ITP-programs focus on increasing individual capability and how this should contribute to a country’s development. The findings indicate that there is coherence between the factors and hindrances of success and the theoretical framework. Furthermore there could be a relationship between gaining more sustainable results if enhancing the knowledge transfer. One interesting conclusion is that there could be a connection between the ongoing debate of western ideologies impact on aid co-operation and the opinion of the knowledge from Swedish ITP-programs.

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This thesis focuses on the usage of military drones, a type of semi-autonomous weapon, which has shifted the premises of conventional warfare, particularly relating to the ethics and legality of warfare. This paper examines the conditions that affect the civilian casualties in United States (U.S.) drone attacks. Drawing on Graham Allison’s work on the factors that influence U.S. foreign policy decision making, I theorize that civilian collateral casualties are more likely under certain conditions. These conditions changes depending on the type of administration in office, level of organization pressure, and the value and level of risk a target directs towards the U.S. In light of the discussion and the effect of drones on civilian casualties a debate upon the proportionality principle will be assessed. In the assessment a cost and benefit analysis is made between the military goal and civilian casualties (Gardam,1993). The proportionality principle refers to the balancing act of the excessive use of force on civilians in relation to the military goal. This paper is using a quantitative method. This study investigate data on US drone attacks, sourced from Bureau of Investigative Journalism, covering 733 attacks in four countries (Afghanistan, Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan) during the time period from 2002 to 2016. Based on Allison’s model three hypotheses are formulated and evaluated against the data using descriptive statistic and t-tests. The empirical result suggests that there was a statistical significance in all three hypotheses, indicating that it was possible to detect that under certain circumstances drone attacks are more likely to lead to more civilian casualties. However, when one observed the total casualties in proportion to the civilian casualties the result was not as grand as anticipated. However, the findings of this paper illustrates a pattern that during certain premises and cost and benefit analyses, the usage of drones are causing a greater risk towards civilians. Thus, these discussions further develop an already existing debate on today’s focus on military autonomous weapons and the results of using such weapons. Hence, this type of study can be applied to other military autonomous weapons as well. In light of the discussion of the proportionality principle, this paper suggest that the development of autonomous military weapons should not be taken lightly and an improvement of international regulations should perhaps be made.

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digitalisering@umu

This essay examines a long-lived issue in Sweden: the case of corporate gender quotas. Its focus is to understand why the policy failed to be adopted as legislation. Previous research has tended to focus on successful cases, while failed cases have been neglected. By paying attention to a failed case, it is possible to provide a more complete understanding of policy change. To examine this, the essay focuses on three aspects: the existence of strategic partnerships, the strength of the supporting movement, and the strength of the countermovement. The empirical material consists of interviews conducted with key actors, proponents and opponents, complemented with different documents. The results demonstrate that proponents failed to make use of an existing strategic partnership and were weak as they failed to state their arguments in universal terms: that this concerns many and have broad consequences. Ultimately, it was not seen as a public problem – and therefore opponents could argue that legislation was needless. Moreover, opponents were strong as they managed to push the issue off the agenda by demonstrating that the gender distribution on boards had improved. Thereby, they claimed that the issue no longer is an issue, and argued that government action was unnecessary.

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