This study examines the concept and implementation of the rentierstate theory, and it aims to conduct a historical background analysis of the political developments in Syria, with a specific focus on the authoritarian rule of the Al-Assad family and its role in the onset of the ongoing civil war. By examining the governance periods of Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar al-Assad, the political, economic, and social factors shaping Syria's transition into a predatory state are analyzed. The civil war, which erupted in 2011 in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, is scrutinized with an emphasis on its complexity and root causes. The thesis also provides an overview of prior research on Syria, with an emphasis on political, economic, and conflict studies. The research and analysis methodology employed is qualitative, relying on a thorough review of a qualitative literature review.

Christ's words "do this in remembrance of me" (Luke 22:20) point to an eschatological realism realized in the gathering. The word of Christ institutes a liturgical praxis that was received by the ancient church and has since been practiced for several generations until today. The Syriac speaking churches, which are also in continuity with the Messianic faith, followed by the apostolic tradition, do not escape the question of eschatology, which is of great importance and central to Syriac Christianity. To answer the question of why eschatology is important in the Syriac tradition? is comprehensive, large and does not accommodate the scope of work. However, this work will try to answer the question of whether Jacob of Serugh's eschatological thinking develops in relation to Ephraim in comparison to Isaac the Syrian. Therefore, this work will try to get a glimpse of the eschatological basic view within the understanding of Syriac Christianity. There will be a positioning of Jacob of Serugh in relation to Ephraim the Syrian with comparison to Isaac the Syrian to gain a better understanding of the direction that emerges during the turning point of the fourteenth century in connection with those ecclesiological battles during that time. It may not provide an answer to everything but certainly an answer to where we started this development regarding eschatology. I want to thank my supervisor, Michael Hjälm for the good advice, support and guidance through the work. I also hope that reading this essay will be useful and continued studies in the subject.

Under de senaste åren har flyktingströmmarna till Sverige nått historiska nivåer. Många av de som kommer flyr krigets Syrien. Gruppen av syrier som fått permanenta uppehållstillstånd och nu ska skapa sig ett nytt liv i Sverige är stor. Hur ska Sverige utnyttja denna grupps kompetens och hur ska flyktingarna själva ta plats i samhället på såväl arbetsmarknad men även få social tillhörighet. Detta kan antas bli en återkommande fråga i den offentliga debatten. Vi upplever att det finns kunskapsluckor om dessa människor och deras tankar om Sverige, hur de trodde att det skulle bli och hur det blev. Detta är en intervjustudie där sex syrier har tillfrågats om sina förväntningar på och upplevelser av Sverige. Resultatet visar att intervjupersonerna hört om Sverige som ett fritt, demokratiskt, jämställt land med generös flyktingpolitik och permanenta uppehållstillstånd. Ett land där man kan bli vad man vill bara man kämpar. När de summerar hur det blivit efter de första åren konstaterar de att mycket stämmer men att det är lång väntan på uppehållstillstånd och yrkesvalideringar, att det dröjer innan de får sitt första arbete och att det är svårt att hitta forum där de kan prata svenska. Studien kan i framtiden utvecklas till att undersöka hur samma grupp som varit i Sverige ytterligare en tid uppfattar sin situation. / In recent years, the flow of refugees to Sweden reached historic levels. Many of those who will flee Syria war. The group of Syrians who have permanent residence and is now going to create a new life in Sweden is great. How should Sweden take advantage of this group's expertise and how the refugees themselves will have a place in society in both the labor market but also socially. This is likely to be a recurring issue in the public debate. We feel that there are gaps in knowledge about these people and their ideas about Sweden, the way they thought it would be and how it turned out. This is an interview where six Syrians were asked about their expectations and experiences of Sweden. The results show that the respondents heard about Sweden as a free, democratic, egalitarian country with generous refugee policy and permanent residence permits. A country where you can be what you want only one struggling. When they add up how it has been for the first few years, they acknowledge that this is true but it is a long wait for a residence permit and yrkesvalideringar, it will take time before they get their first job and that it is difficult to find a forum where they can speak Swedish. The study can be developed in the future to investigate how the same group that has been in Sweden for some more time then understand their situation and if it changed.

Der Begriff Gesundheit wurde von der WHO definiert als „nicht nur die Abwesenheit von Krankheit, sondern, positiv als Naturrecht formuliert, vollständiges körperliches, seelisches und soziales Wohlbefinden“. Deswegen hat die WHO mit dem Gesundheitsministerium in Syrien das Programm „Gesunde Dörfer“ seit 1996 gestaltet. Es zielt darauf, den wirtschaftlichen, sozialen und gesundheitlichen Zustand der Landbevölkerung zu verbessern, insbesondere soll es den großen Unterschied zwischen Stadt und Land vermindern. Das Projekt stellt sich die Aufgabe, den Einfluss des Programms auf Wirtschafts- und Gesundheitsparameter im Vergleich mit anderen Kontrolledörfern zu analysieren. Hierzu werden Umfragedaten in Syrien ausgewertet. Die Auswertung der Befragung in der vorliegenden Arbeit zeigte, dass das Programm seine Ziele bezüglich der Verbesserung der Gesundheits- und Lebensqualität erreicht Erfolgreich war das Programm „Gesunde Dörfer“ auch, mit Ausnahme der nördlichen und östlichen Region, in der Verringerung der Anzahl arbeitender Kinder, in der Förderung der Frauen eine Beschäftigung aufzunehmen bzw. ein Studium zu absolvieren sowie in der Reduzierung der Analphabetenrate. / “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity" (WHO definition). Therefore WHO and the Ministry of Health in Syria implemented the "Healthy Villages" program in 1996. It aims at improving the population's economic, social and health condition in the country. It should decrease the big difference in health care between urban and rural populations. The project objective is to statistically analyze the influence of the program on economic and health parameters in comparison with other villages not related to the program. For this purpose, survey data is collected and appraised in Syria. The evaluation of the survey in the present work showed that the program achieved successfully its objectives regarding the improvement of the health and quality of life in the "Healthy villages" program. In addition to the reduction of the number of working children, encouraging women to work and continue studying, as well as to reduce the illiteracy rate. However these results are not applied to northern and Eastern region.

A debate over environmental policies and trade competitiveness, “Do environmental policies really matter to impact trade competitiveness?” still exists during the past decade. The thesis aims at investigating the impact of WTO-EU environmental policies for the international olive oil market on production and export competitiveness of developing countries. In particular, we focus our analysis on the agro-industrial sector in the Arab countries, and we take specific reference to the case of the olive oil agro-industrial sector in Syria. In the frame of a partial equilibrium trade model, we incorporate the “end-of-the-pipe” environmental policies which in turn enhance the productivity of the polluting input. Moreover, a part of the burden of environmental compliance may be shifted onto foreign consumers. The most novel part of our model consists of the augmented effect of compliance with environmental policies, which includes not only the standard impact on the effective product price, but also on the input shadow price. The empirical findings, based on Syrian data, provide strong support to the Porter Hypothesis and its application to international markets for agro-industrial products. Accordingly, the study disproves the legitimacy of concerns that stricter environmental policies in developing economies may have negative impacts on their production and export competitiveness. In contrast, our results show that compliance with environmental policies under the large country assumption has positive effects on their international competitiveness of environmentally sensitive sectors, in particular. Therefore, the policy implications suggest the implementation of strict environmental regulatory policies supporting environmentally sound technologies.

Bisherige Studien deuten an, dass Emotionale Intelligenz eine wichtige Rolle in der Lehrtätigkeit spielt. Sie hilft dem Lehrer bzw. der Lehrerin mit sich selbst, aber auch mit Schülern klarzukommen. Jedoch ist bislang noch weitgehend unklar, welche Mechanismen dem Zusammenhang zwischen Emotionaler Intelligenz und berufsnahen Kriterien zugrundeliegen. Zur Klärung dieser Frage soll die vorliegende Arbeit einen Beitrag leisten. Emotionale Intelligenz wird dabei in Anlehnung an Mayer und Salovey (1997) als Fähigkeit aufgefasst. Die vorliegende Arbeit umfasst drei Artikel. Der erste Artikel beschäftigt sich mit dem Zusammenhang zwischen wahrgenommener Emotionaler Intelligenz des Lehrers und Schülerverhalten im Klassenraum. Gefunden wurde, dass Lehrer über weniger unpassendes Verhalten ihrer Schüler berichten, wenn sie selbst über hohe emotionale Fähigkeiten verfügen. Hohe Emotionale Intelligenz scheint positiv verbunden zu sein mit der Tendenz, auf die Bedürfnisse der Schüler zu fokussieren, die wiederum weniger unpassendes Verhalten im Klassenraum zeigen. Im zweiten Artikel wird der Zusammenhang zwischen Emotionaler Intelligenz und Burnout untersucht. Proaktives Coping wurde als Mediator zwischen Emotionaler Intelligenz und Burnout angenommen. Daneben wurde geprüft, ob die wahrgenommene Unterstützung durch den Vorgesetzten den vermuteten Zusammenhang zwischen Emotionaler Intelligenz und Burnout und die Dimension moderiert. Die Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass Lehrer mit hoher Emotionaler Intelligenz deshalb weniger Burnout-Symptome zeigen, weil sie dazu tendieren, proaktives Coping als Strategie der Stressbewältigung zu nutzen. Sie können ihre Kompetenzen und Ressourcen offensichtlich situationsangemessen einsetzen, um emotional anspruchsvolle Situationen am Arbeitsplatz zu meistern. Darüber hinaus zeigt sich, dass wahrgenommene Unterstützung durch den Vorgesetzten den Zusammenhang zwischen Emotionaler Intelligenz und Burnout moderiert: Für Lehrer, die angaben, von ihrem Vorgesetzten unterstützt zu werden, zeigte sich der indirekte Effekt von Emotional Intelligenz auf wahrgenommene Leistungsfähigkeit über proaktives Coping deutlicher. Die Beziehung zwischen positivem und negativem Affekt, Arbeitszufriedenheit und Burnout ist Inhalt des dritten Artikels. Gefunden wurde, dass Lehrer mit hohem positiven Affekt zufriedener mit ihrer Arbeit sind als Lehrer, die negativen Affekt im Zusammenhang mit ihrer Arbeit berichten. Darüber hinaus war Arbeitszufriedenheit negativ mit dem Level an Burnout verbunden. Die Ergebnisse der Mediationsanalyse zeigen, dass Arbeitszufriedenheit den Zusammenhang zwischen Affekt und Burnout vermittelt. Zusammenfassend lässt sich also sagen, dass Lehrer mit hoher wahrgenommener Emotionaler Intelligenz erfolgreicher und zufriedener im Beruf sind und zudem eine höhere psychische Gesundheit aufweisen. Schüler von Lehrern mit hohen emotionalen Fähigkeiten scheinen deshalb weniger unpassendes Verhalten im Klassenraum zu zeigen, weil auf sie mehr geachtet und ihre Probleme und Bedürfnisse besser erkannt werden. Emotional intelligente Lehrer versuchen, Problemen im Klassenraum schon bei deren Entstehung zu begegnen, was wiederum dazu führen könnte, dass sie weniger Belastung erleben und langfristig weniger Burnoutsymptome zeigen. Dieser Prozess kann durch die Unterstützung des Vorgesetzten positiv beeinflusst werden. Daneben zeigt sich auch, dass Lehrer, die positiven Affekt gegenüber ihrer Arbeit erfahren, zufriedener mit ihrer Arbeitstätigkeit sind, was wiederum damit verbunden ist, dass jene Lehrer Burnout-Symptome in geringem Maße erleben. Daher scheint es gewinnbringend, in die Personalauswahl Emotionale Intelligenz als ein wichtiges Entscheidungskriterium einzubeziehen. Bestehende Qualifizierungsprogramme sollten zusätzlich auf eine Verbesserung der emotionalen Fähigkeiten abzielen. Weiteres Potential zur Intervention von Burnout besteht im Aufbau oder der Stabilisierung kooperativer Beziehungen zwischen Lehrer und Vorgesetztem. / Many teachers experience high levels of stress from their work, but not all of them suffer from burnout. Why are some teachers less likely to succumb to burnout than others? How can teachers avoid suffering from burnout and continue to have a good influence on the behavior of their students? One reason that some teachers are able to avoid burnout might be that these teachers embody personality characteristics such as emotional intelligence and proactive coping, and these characteristics may act as resources that counteract burnout. Another reason might be that they experience feelings of positive affect from their work and feel satisfied with their jobs. Perhaps this occurs because emotional intelligence helps teachers to understand the emotions of their students and to interact with them. Or perhaps these teachers are engaged in their jobs, and this might reduce the risk of burnout. Proactive coping helps teachers to use their resources to overcome their difficulties and to manage the demands they face, which aids in preventing burnout. Emotional intelligence can help teachers to control their emotions and be able to think effectively and use active strategies to find solutions to their problems. In my thesis, I expected that emotional intelligence would have a direct negative effect on burnout and an indirect effect on it through proactive coping. Furthermore, proactive coping was expected to be positively related to emotional intelligence and negatively related to burnout. Perceived supervisor support in the form of information, advice, and feedback provided by supervisors may help teachers to more actively deal with stressors. I assumed that perceived support from supervisors would moderate the influence of emotional intelligence on reduced personal accomplishment through proactive coping. However, teachers with positive affect tend to derive enjoyment from their work and to find their jobs interesting in spite of many difficulties. They are satisfied with their jobs, and this may prevent them from experiencing burnout. Positive affect is considered to be a stable personality variable, whereas job satisfaction is a temporal attitude toward one’s job; therefore, positive affect was expected to predict job satisfaction and to be positively related to it. Burnout is more of a job outcome that results from having excessive stress for a long time, whereas job satisfaction is an evaluative response to one’s job. Job satisfaction also means that a person enjoys his or her career and is engaged in it; people who are satisfied tend to feel energized and competent and are protected from being at risk of burnout. Thus, job satisfaction was expected to contribute to the prediction of burnout by being negatively linked to it. In addition, teachers who experience positive emotions while working as teachers tend to want to keep working as teachers despite any setbacks that they experience. They have positive attitudes about their jobs and are thus satisfied with them. Therefore, it was expected that positive affect would predict job satisfaction and would be positively related to it. Having positive emotions in the workplace can help teachers to like their work and to find pleasure in it. They then probably exhibit good job performance and this prevents them from suffering from burnout. Therefore, I assumed that job satisfaction would mediate the relation between positive affect and burnout. Little attention has been given to the relation between teachers’ emotional intelligence and student misconduct in the literature, but these factors may be linked. Emotionally intelligent teachers are aware of their own emotions; thus, they can regulate their own negative emotions so they can act as a role model for the students and influence the behavior of their students. Emotional intelligence also helps teachers to understand their students’ emotions, to address their students’ emotions in a positive fashion, and to establish warm relationships with their students. Emotionally intelligent teachers can understand their students and motivates these students so the teachers can focus on helping their students to accomplish their goals. These factors strengthen the relationships between the teachers and their students and have a positive impact on the behavior of the students. This thesis consists of three studies.The aim of the first study was to investigate the link between emotional intelligence and student misconduct through attention to student needs. The findings showed that attention to student needs mediates the emotional intelligence- student misconduct relation. Identifying the factors that are related to burnout is important as this can help to reduce the risk of such negative outcomes. Although many studies have been conducted on the resources that protect teachers from burnout, few studies have examined the relation between burnout and personal resources such as emotional intelligence and proactive coping. Therefore, I tested how these factors are related to burnout in direct and indirect ways. The role of perceived supervisor support has also been neglected. Thus, I tested the relation between emotional intelligence and burnout through proactive coping in the second study. In addition, I tested the moderating role of perceived supervisor support on the link between emotional intelligence and reduced personal accomplishment through proactive coping. The results showed that proactive coping mediated the impact of emotional intelligence on burnout, and perceived supervisor support moderated the influence of emotional intelligence on reduced personal accomplishment through proactive coping. Emotions in the work environment play an essential role in job satisfaction and seem to protect teachers from experiencing burnout. The purpose of the third study was to examine the relations between positive affect, job satisfaction, and burnout and to determine whether job satisfaction would mediate the association between positive affect and burnout. The results indicated that positive affect was positively related to job satisfaction and negatively related to burnout, and job satisfaction functioned as a mediator between positive affect and burnout.

Due to a high population growth (approx. 2.5 % p.a) the food-sector in Syria is facing in-creasing problems. An enormous increase in population results in increased demand for food. This has adversely affected the socio-economic and ecological development in the country. Intensive use of various natural resources has led to significant changes in land use pattern, especially due to use of inappropriate methods in the agricultural sector. The increasing anthropogenic pressure on the sensitive ecological structure of the respective area causes environmental damages, in particular degradation of soil characteristics. In the semi-arid and arid eco-climatic zones vast areas are facing desertification. Soil erosion through water represents the main form of land degradation in the north-west of Syria. Particularly vulnerable are the soils with a shallow or no vegetation cover, such as the soils found in the Mediterranean hills, where olives are cultivated. For this research the Afrin region, located in the northwest of Syria, was selected as study area, in order to analyse and assess the extent of degradation. For estimation of erosion the relevant parameters of the “Universal Soil Loss Equation USLE” were used. These para-meters were adapted and integrated through remote sensing and GIS. LANDSAT TM and ASTER satellite imagery of the investigated area were used for this purpose. Data were acquired at the end of the dry season. In order to achieve an accurate evaluation and high-quality comparison of multi-temporal satellite data, imagery was firstly geometrically and atmospherically corrected and then analysed. The vegetation coverage and its current de-gradation level were investigated by spectral mixture analysis (SMA). The digital elevation model (DEM) derived from ASTER data was utilized to generate the slope gradient (S) and the slope length (L). In addition to the laboratory analysis, grain size index (GSI) and SMA were used for the characterization and mapping of soil erodibility. Land-use/land-cover classification and change detection were determined by using pixel-based classification procedures (maximum likelihood classification) and post classification methods respectively. Required samples for land cover classification of the remotely sensed data were collected during the field work, in addition to the soil samples for soil analysis. The results of this study show that advanced methods of remote sensing and GIS provide powerful tools not only for a better understanding of the land use changes, but also for an accurate assessment of land degradation and desertification. This knowledge, in turn, con-tributes highly towards developing effective and appropriate management strategies for sustainable use and conservation of natural resources in the north-west of Syria

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Harvard University, Cambridge. / Includes bibliographica references (p. [213]-231) and indexes.

I diskussionen kring hur stater bör förhålla sig till varandra när främmande människor i andra stater utsätts för lidande av sin egen statsledning ställs ofta idéer om globala humanitära rättigheter, som utvecklats efter andra världskriget och förintelsen, emot normer om staters okränkbarhet och principen om att inte intervenera i andra staters interna verksamhet. Syftet med detta arbete är att undersöka i vilken utsträckning begreppet Responsibility to Prevent tillämpats i FN:s säkerhetsråds agerande under en samtida konfliktsituation, detta med bakgrund i utvecklingen av det nya tankesättet med global humanitär rätt som ett gemensamt internationellt ansvar. Arbetet behandlar teorierna solidarism, pluralism och realism. För att söka svaret på frågeställningarna används kvalitativ textanalys av skriftliga öppna källor. Insamlingen av empiriska data består av tryckt media, officiella dokument samt texter och artiklar tagna från internet. Resultatet från arbetet visar att Förenta Nationernas säkerhetsråd till viss del har agerat i enlighet med begreppet Responsibility to Prevent. Vidare redogör arbetet för att två inflytelserika, permanenta medlemmar i säkerhetsrådet har motiverat sitt ställningstagande utifrån olika synsätt på hur konflikten bör hanteras och att deras motiveringar påverkats av deras skilda synsätt på statssuveränitet och intervention. Undersökningen leder även fram till slutsatsen att vetorätten i säkerhetsrådet, under konflikten i Syrien 2011-2012, har begränsat utvecklingen och implementeringen av tankesättet att säkerheten för världens befolkning ska betraktas som ett gemensamt ansvar.

”Arabiska våren – framställningen av revolutionen i Mellanöstern/Nordafrika i mainstreammedia” är titeln på denna studie som har syftet att studera hur mainstreamkanalerna Al Jazeera och BBC rapporterat kring revolutionerna i Tunisien och Syrien för att på så sätt kunna uttala om den ”Arabiska vårens” framställning. Syftet har också varit att jämföra mediekanalernas konstruktion av revolutionerna med varandra för att belysa eventuella likheter och skillnader i rapporteringarna. Med utgångspunkt av tidigare forskning kring identitetsteori, diskursanalys som teori, andrafiering och postkolonialism har mediekanalernas rapporteringar analyserat med hjälp av den kritisk diskursanalytiska metoden. Resultaten och slutsatserna som kan tas i denna studie är kortfattat att Al Jazeera konstruerar diskursen om revolutionen genom att underminera postkoloniala strukturer. Al Jazeera tar en ställning mot väst och dess intressen, samt aktörer förknippade med väst där de västallierade andrafieras som ”De onda Andra”. BBC andrafierar revolutionen där konstruktionen av diskursen om revolutionerna uttrycks i postkoloniala diskurser. BBC andrafierar aktörer i revolution i dimensionerna ”De goda Andra” och ”De onda Andra”, där de förstnämnda tillämpas på västallierade och den andra förknippas med aktörer som väst inte har goda politiska relationer med.