Abstract This essay discusses the negotiation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the process that led up to a signed agreement. The CTBT forbids all nuclear weapon test explosions and all other types of nuclear explosions. The purpose of the study was to distinguish the critical steps of the negotiations that resulted in the success of the CTBT. Based on these insights, my intention was to identify relevant events and actors in the process around the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), which has been on the nuclear disarmament agenda for over a decade. Furthermore, my ambition was that the examination of the CTBT negotiation would give me some clarity in what the next step would be to get the FMCT back on track. By using the method of process tracing I intended to achieve the purpose of the essay. I found that the examination of the CTBT process was very helpful in understanding the complexity of multilateral negotiations and that it is not always possible to reach an agreement through completely fair deals. I think that the negotiation of an FMCT will be equally difficult provided the Conference on Disarmament does not decide to transform its structure and procedures.

This thesis examines hindrances for women’s representation in Georgian politics at national level. The purpose is to understand what causal mechanisms that impact female representation in the National Parliament of Georgia. More precisely, the main purpose is to examine the hindrances for women to participate in politics in order to facilitate a deeper understanding of the known phenomenon of under-representation of women in politics. The thesis seeks to understand the contemporary situation in Georgia. The thesis is carried out with the case-study design and material consists mainly of interviews with female members of Parliament, representatives from political parties, and gender-issue experts from NGOs. The analysis of this thesis is also based on the results of previous research. The questions asked in the study are: What are hindering factors for women’s political participation in contemporary Georgia? and What are women’s organisations’, political parties’ and policy entrepreneurs’ role in increasing women’s political participation in Georgia? The overarching theoretical framework used in the thesis consists of structures, institutions and actors as well as feminist theory. The thesis argues that major obstacles for women to participate in politics are public opinion, the electoral system and the nomination process in political parties in Georgia. Further, influential individuals, so called policy entrepreneurs are seen as having an important role for the increase of women’s political participation and gender-equality issues in general. The most likely action to be seen is continued training and education for society as a whole, mainly targeting women. Affirmative actions such as party quotas seem far away.

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En militärt starkare makt har ofta överraskande svårt att ”besegra” eller ”hantera” en betyd-ligt svagare part i en konflikt, inbördes såväl som internationella. Övermakten uppvisar inte sällan en oförmåga att anpassa sig till nya omständigheter, medan den svagare aktören tvingas förändra sig. Vad beror detta på? Jag ska i denna uppsats undersöka en starkare aktörs förmåga, eller oförmåga, att hantera en militärt underlägsen moståndare. För att tydliggöra frågeställningen har jag valt att göra en fallstudie med fokus på den brittiska arméns förändringsbenägenhet under konflikten i Nordirland.

We are soldiers, not policemen. Denna uppsats rör det vakuum som ofta uppstår när en regim faller samman på grund av krig, och dess ordningsmakt upplöses, eller av annat skäl inte förmår upprätta ordningen. Ofta inträffar plundring och upplopp i det ”polisiära” tomrum som inträffar från det att den tidigare regimens ordningsmakt drar sig undan, till dess att en ny poliskår träder in och bör-jar återupprätta lag och ordning. Av olika skäl frånsäger sig den intervenerande makten inte sällan arbetsuppgifter av mer ”polisiär” natur, alltifrån att bevaka samhällsviktiga byggnader till att dirigera trafik. I stor utsträckning följde kriget i Irak våren 2003 detta mönster från tidigare konflikter; ordningsmakten drog sig undan, plundring utbröt och koalitionen, bestående främst av USA och Storbritannien, nekade inledningsvis till att det var deras uppgift att ingripa mot laglösheten. Denna uppsats försöker beskriva och förklara varför militären inte vill vara polis, i ett läge när ingen annan kan utföra denna uppgift.

In Jan Jagers and Stefaan Walgrave theory about populism as a political communication-style they claim that one can find this in the rhetoric of political parties. In their study of Belgian politics they found that the extreme-right party Vlaams Block has embraced this populism to a larger extent than other parties. Based on this theory this thesis aims at finding populism as a communication-style in three different Swedish political parties with the purpose to see if the extreme-right party “The Sweden Democrats” will show populism to a larger extent than other parties, as was the case in the Belgian study. Based on Jagers and Walgraves operational definition of populism as a political communication-style this thesis applies it to the rhetoric of three different parties being “The Social Democratic Party”, “The Moderate Party” and “The Sweden Democrats”. This is done in order to be able to clarify on the one hand if their theory is applicable to the Swedish case and on the other hand to what extent populism as a communication-style exists in Swedish political rhetoric. The method for this thesis has been a qualitative text analysis since and leads to the result that Jagers and Walgraves theory of populism as a communication-style is applicable to the Swedish case and that “The Sweden Democrats” to a larger extent uses this political communication style, than the two other parties.

The focus on this essay is derived from an international and national dialogue for sustainable development. The recommendation from international level has been to find solutions for governments to implement strategies for sustainable development between local and regional level. This initiative is to improve and stimulate the dialogue between the local inhabitants, officials, entrepreneurs and stakeholders in the communities together with the authorities on the regional level. The purpose is to share knowledge and find ways to learn about the natural systems and how to co-operate in the work of preserving the natural resources and developing different processes for a sustainable development. Many scientists’ today stress the importance that ecosystem resilience is promoted by biodiversity conservation and that we need to find solutions for local ecosystem management practices. This essay aims to find theoretical approaches and perspectives that can be used in a wider framework to study co-operative processes between the local (agent) and regional (structure) level. The methodological approach to this question is to outline Anthony Giddens structuration theory and to understand the relationship between structure – agency. Further it will look into the work of Bob Jessop and Colin Hay in the strategic – relational approach, Mette Kjear and Rod Rhodes concept of Governance and also Elinor Ostrom with her perspective of governing the Commons that also includes the theories of Collective action and Common-pool resources. This is to find a direction on how to study local and regional co-operative processes and local ecosystem management practices. The result is to be used in a more comprehensive study and with a comparative analysis of land-use models in Sweden such as national parks, biosphere reserves and world heritage sites.

The purpose of this essay is to examine if there is any difference in the style of conversation between a municipal politician and a politician in parliament? In order to answer this question I have created two sub-questions that are more precise. The first question is: Are the municipal politicians more open to cooperate with politicians from other parties than the politicians from parliament? And the second question is: Is the rhetoric between the politicians in parliament different than the rhetoric between the municipal politicians? My study is a comparative case study with two different groups of politicians. With the help of a survey I have tried to examine if there are differences in the use of language in the daily work for the politicians. The two groups that have been answering this survey is the municipal executive board in Karlstad and the parliamentary committee of Environment and Agriculture. My thesis is that the municipals have to be more open to collaborate with other politicians’ indifference of political belongings because they are working close to the citizens and for what is best for their city. The answer to my first question is that municipal politicians are more open to collaborate with politicians from other political parties. The difference between answers from my two groups shows this fact. The answers from question four from my survey gives me this result. Also the answer from the third question in the survey gives me a hint of this fact. The answer to my second question is that there exist some differences in the use of rhetoric between the two groups. Three out of eight municipal politicians meant that they often where exposed to persuasions attempt and only one out of eleven politicians from parliament answered that this was a common element in the parliamentary committee.

AbstractGleichstellung der Geschlechter ist ein bekanntes Thema: Wie wird dieses aber in der Politik behandelt? Dieser Aufsatz zielt darauf ab, zu untersuchen, welche Ziele für die Gleichstellungsarbeit aufgegriffen werden. Eine Hypothese wurde gestellt:  Gleichstellungsfragen werden von der EU geregelt und die Ziele der Parteien und Regierungen ähneln den Zielen, die von der EU gesetzt werden. Es dürfte also auf dem Gebiet keine deutlichen Unterschiede zwischen den Ländern, die EU-Mitglieder sind, geben. Um die Hypothese zu beantworten, wurden Parteiprogramme von jeweils einer konservativen Regierungspartei aus Schweden, Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz verglichen. Auch die Regierungsprogramme wurden untersucht, und schließlich wurden diese Dokumente mit den Zielen der EU verglichen. Die Hypothese hat sich als wahr herausgestellt und die Antwort auf die Frage, ob die Schweiz von den anderen Ländern wesentlich abweicht, kann auch bejaht werden nämlich durch die Distanz der SVP gegenüber Gleichstellungsfragen und dem geringen Stellenwert des Themas in der Legislaturplanung der Schweiz.