In the past decade, scholars have discovered how European populist radical right parties have increasingly resorted to instrumentalizing issues of gender equality within broader anti-immigration and anti-Islam campaigns. This phenomenon has been coined as femonationalism by sociologist Sara R. Farris; building on her theorization, this thesis aims to investigate thisfurther in a Nordic context by examining whether and how femonationalism can be traced within the politics of the Finns Party (FP) and the Sweden Democrats (SD). This has been achieved by conducting an ideational analysis of the parties’ official election material and policy documents provided on their respective party websites. The analytical framework applied is political scientist Mats Lindberg’s VDP-triad, in which the central task is to capture the proposed value, descriptive, and prescriptive statements in a text. The thesis’ main findings indicate that for the FP, femonationalism could most closely be linked to their policy implications. Here, the FP advocates for extensive anti-immigration and anti-Islam policies, while also promoting policies that uphold a traditional gender order amongst Finns. For the SD, femonationalism was mostly found in their expressed value statements concerning the supremacy of western values in relation to gender equality, which migrants are supposed to internalize and respect. Implications for future research are to examine the phenomenon of femonationalism further in different country settings in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of how it presents itself.

The bilateral relations between Sweden and China have been characterized by strong trade relations over the years. Nonetheless, several events between 2015 and 2020 have led the diplomatic relations between Sweden and China to take a different turn. Among them, the arrest of the Chinese-born Swedish writer and book publisher Gui Minhai and the alleged abuse of human rights by the Chinese government towards its population. These issues raise questions on how the Swedish government approaches the opportunities and challenges of China’s growing role internationally. This thesis has the purpose to analyse the Swedish government’s reports, statements and other documents regarding China in the period 2015 to 2020, with the intention of unveiling the Swedish foreign policy ideational foundation. Moreover, this thesis has the aim to examine whether it is possible to see a variation of the ideational foundation during these years. The analysis included the use of social constructivism as a theory and the VDP-triad methodology. From the analysis, it resulted that in the observed time period, Sweden’s foreign policy ideational foundation was characterized by the value of cooperation, especially regarding trade. Moreover, during the period observed Sweden characterized for being more active on criticizing China in regard to human rights, democracy and the rule of law. With China, Sweden is thus forced to balance two competing agendas: to pursue its interests and to promote its values.

Previous research indicates that gender mainstreaming is difficult to apply. Obstacles such as lack of political will, cultural and institutional resistance, lack of understanding, clashing perspectives and priorities, as well as insufficient resources, are most often cited as the cause. This study, against the background that these obstacles are founded in institutional contexts, intends to use feminist institutionalism to analyze state authorities' ideas about gender mainstreaming through the analysis of values, descriptions, and prescriptions. The results show that analyzed authorities are consistent in their basic ideas and values, where the strategy is taken seriously and seen as important. The annual reports are prepared in an operational manner, which shows action and progress. The result indicates that there is a general lack of prescriptions.

The past decades have seen a growing critique of international relations theory (IRT) as being Eurocentric, inspiring the development of alternative interpretations of international politics. One such development is the emergence of Buddhist IRT, which, with only a handful of texts written on the subject, is still very much in its cradle. This analysis attempts to systematically analyse this new contribution through the use of Lindberg’s VDP-triad of ideational analysis as well as thematic analysis. This is important given the power of ideas to shape people’s conceptions of the world and provide road maps for policy makers, as well as the role theory may have in the serving of certain interests. The analysis finds a theory rich in both value judgments, descriptions, and prescriptions, where the most important descriptions regard a unique ontology of radical interdependence, an ontology which deeply affects all other stand-points within the theory. Further, the analysis identifies several areas which need to be clarified and/or confronted in the future development of the theory, including a number of in-consistencies as well as a possible framework for the justification of violence and authoritarian policy.

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