This thesis deals with differences in the level of satisfaction with democracy between populists and non-populists in eleven Western European countries the past twenty years, with the common denominator that they all have experienced the electoral success of a populist radical-right party and a population increasingly expressing distrust and dissatisfaction with democracy. The thesis is based on a definition of populism in which it is regarded as a threat to democracy, and moreover, the thesis explores whether there are any significant differences in the level of satisfaction with democracy and whether these differences changes as time passes between these two voter groups.  The results of the analysis, which is carried out quantitively, strengthens the theoretical expectations, proving that there is a significant negative correlation between being populist and level of satisfaction with democracy, and that the effect becomes stronger as time passes. The results also align with the perception that societal changes such as modernization and globalization has contributed to the growth of new voter groups who express their dissatisfaction with democracy by opposing the establishment, thus turning to the political alternatives.

Ce travail de recherche se propose d’aborder la question des pointes au Paléolithique moyen en Europe occidentale par l’étude de ces objets en se servant de trois outils de recherche mis en confrontation : la tracéologie lithique, la technologie lithique et l’étude morphologique. Le problème de l’utilisation de ces outils comme armes de chasse est au coeur du questionnement. Nous tentons d’y répondre par la constitution d’un corpus expérimental spécifique, la mise en place d’une méthodologie adaptée et l’étude complète des pointes de 3 séries archéologiques représentatives : le site de plein air de Therdonne (Oise), celui de Beauvais (Oise) et le site de la grotte de Spy (Belgique). / This research aims to address the question of lithics points in the Middle Paleolithic in Western Europe through the study of these objects using three research tools in confrontation : traceology, lithic technology and morphological study . The question of using these tools as hunting weapons is central to the inquiry. We try to respond by the formation of a specific experimental corpus, the establishment of an appropriate methodology and full study of points of three representative archaeological series : the open-air site of Therdonne (Oise), the Beauvais one (Oise) and the site of the cave of Spy (Belgium).

Le Bergsee offre une séquence sédimentaire terrestre et continue sur l’histoire environnementale de l’Europe de l’Ouest entre 50 ka BP et aujourd’hui.Un enregistrement pollinique continu et séculaire permet la construction de l’évolution de la végétation et du climat sur la dernière période glaciaire.Outre l’opposition entre le Stade Isotopique Marin 3 et 2 (le second étant plus steppique), la succession de stades et d’interstades courts nord-atlantiques est reflétée par l’alternance de steppes (i.e. climat froid/sec) et de courts épisodes forestiers (i.e. réchauffements). Des phases glaciaires plus prononcées attestent de Stades de Heinrich en Europe de l’Ouest.Ces résultats sont validés par : 1) la confrontation avec des études européennes et 2) l’approche multi-proxy (chironomes, alkanes, géochimie) appliquée à des épisodes clés.Une comparaison avec les données archéologiques montre finalement le potentiel de contribution du contexte climato-environnemental du Bergsee à la compréhension des changements sociétaux du Paléolithique Supérieur. / Bergsee Lake provides a terrestrial and continuous sediment record of environmental changes in Western Europe for the last 50 ka.A continuous pollen record established at secular resolution allow to reconstruct the vegetation and climate variability of the Last Glacial period.Contrasted climate/vegetation is recorded between Marine Isotope Stages 3 and 2 (more steppic for the second one), and the north-Atlantic stadial/interstadial succession is also reflected by alternating steppe (i.e. cold/dry climate) and short forested episodes (i.e. warming). Moreover, Heinrich Stadials are evidenced as pronounced glacial phases by the Bergsee record.These results are supported by 1) comparison with other European records and 2) the multi-proxy approach (chironomids, alkanes, sedimentary data) applied on key climatic periods.Finally, comparison with archaeological data highlights the great potential contribution of the Bergsee record to the understanding of society changes of the Late Palaeolithic.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a topic that has been widely researched and is still a progressing and important subject to study. Many researchers have focused on the importance and risks of CSR but have been unsuccessful in conducting research that brings forth managerial implications regarding the challenges and complexity that comes from contextual differences. Furthermore, little attention has been assigned to consumer awareness, perception of CSR as well as analysing differences in related markets such as developed Western European countries (WECs) and emerging Post-Communist countries (PCCs) of Eastern Europe. This research is essential as theoretical ground and for managers to be able to successfully adapt and implement their CSR strategies to various markets, something that is beneficial for gaining a long-term competitive advantage. This study wishes to fill the existing research gap by gaining an insight into the differences in perceptions of CSR between consumers from WECs and PCCs. The outcomeof this study contributes to the existing frame of research regarding consumers’ perceptionson CSR and the importance of adapting a firm's CSR strategies to differentiating perceptions when operating in various international markets. The research was executed by using a qualitative method, carrying out three focus groups with participants originating from the two different regions respectively, and later mixed in a third group. The outcome from these focus groups was analysed using relatedtheoretical frameworks such as Carroll’s pyramid for corporate social responsibility (1991)and Dhanapal, Vashu, and Subramaniam (2015), who explores influencers affecting consumer perception. The findings conclude that CSR is gaining awareness among consumers across both regions, who agree that companies should be engaged in CSR, whereas members from PCCs desires a higher commitment than is currently done. Consumers are willing to pay a higher price when they know that the companies implement philanthropic projects. However, for WECs, this depends on the price of the product, and for PCCs, on whether the activities are locally implemented or not. Finally, this study concluded that companies can gain a competitive advantage by concentrating on social CSR in the PCC region and environmental CSR in the WEC region since the findings indicate that these are the most prioritised issues in each region. Furthermore, managers should adapt their CSR strategies based on these findings in order to relate to the consumer, create legitimacy, and gain trust.

Over the last two years the number of refugees and asylum seekers in European countries dramatically increased, with asylum claims mostly originating from countries affected by war and poverty, especially in the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans. The rapid increase of the mobility of migrants raises contradictory reactions in society and individual countries can not agree on an acceptable solution. Against the background, Western European countries usually approach the immigrants more openly than Eastern European countries. A big role in the question of acceptance of migrants in different countries is played by the media. In contemporary society, the media constitute the main source of information about what is happening in the world and intermediate events in which the public cannot participate directly. Therefore it is important to examine how mass media in Eastern and Western European countries present the issues of solidarity, human rights, and the right to asylum. The aim of this master thesis is to find out what the main differences are in the case of printed mass media and whether the western newspapers create a better image of refugees than eastern media. As a representation of an Eastern European medium one Czech daily newspaper was chosen and from Western newspapers one German medium...

To explore documenting practices in detail that use the time-based medium of film to engage with performance art’s negotiation of duration and disappearance, this article addresses Stuart Brisley’s and Ken McMullen’s 16 mm film “Being and Doing”. “Being and Doing” is an experimental, highly subjective documentation of live art practices of the late 1970s and early 1980s in Eastern and Western Europe. The film’s highly concentrated and rhythmically elaborate montage assembles photographs, sound recordings, footage of communal rituals, and artists’ performances with a voice-over narration by Brisley. Starting from a detailed analysis of particular montage sequences the article elaborates on the inventive aesthetics of “Being and Doing” as a conjunction of body art practices and a process-oriented mode of documentation, which is concerned with the frame as the essential constituent of film form.

This paper surveys U.S. foreign policy in the late 1970s and early 1980s as the American administration reacted to the Soviet Union's interventions in Afghanistan and Poland and to its planned gas pipeline to Western Europe. Chapter I outlines the origins of the pipeline project; Chapters II and III describe U.S. foreign policy toward the Soviets during the Carter and Reagan administrations. Chapter IV focuses on the economic sanctions imposed against the Soviet Union by the United States and their failure to block or delay the pipeline, and Chapter V stresses the inability of economic sanctions-- in this and other instances--to achieve political ends.

Approved for public release; distribution in unlimited. / Relationships between the United States and its worldwide network of allies has, since the inception of NATO, greatly revolved around the United States' ability and desire to permanently station troops oversees. Since 1941, the United States has entered into these basing agreements for a variety of strategic and sometimes political reasons. From NATO's inception, and as the cornerstone of its defensive structure, the United States has combined the idea of sending troops to different regions of the world with a global basing strategy founded on the concepts of overlapping protection and deployability. At times, to gain access to areas of strategic interest, the United States has offered aid and economic assistance along with a military presence. In other cases, positively affecting the political climate of the country was the stated goal of troop presence. This thesis will examine the effects of basing in Greece and Spain in order to uncover lessons learned which might be applied to the new US global basing plan and current troop positioning activities in Kyrgyzstan. In both cases the United States worked with openly dictatorial governments for the purposes of basing and did not foster the long term political situation initially desired. / Captain, United States Army

This thesis aims to investigate the benefits of international diversification from a Swedish perspective. It presents a comparative study of the performance of different portfolios based on their degree of international diversification with a focus on Swedish investors frame of reference. Such a study is motivated by the contradictory literature about portfolio diversification and information portfolio theory that advocate for a more concentrated portfolio. It focuses solely on comparing portfolios constituted with major indices of a representative sample including countries from different parts of the world. The different scales of those portfolios start from a divided part of the Swedish economy to end with a global portfolio. We observed that international diversification can outperform the domestic portfolios when considering risk and return. In addition, we observed that the best performing portfolios over the periods are systematically concentrated on emerging countries and that the high return of those emerging countries is often not associated with a correspondingly high standard deviation as it should be expected. The best levers of performance that we identified as a result of this comparative study are, first, the strategy consisting in focusing on the most concentrated portfolios in order to maximize the return and then trying to time the market, thanks to a specialized information collection strategy, but this bear a high undiversifiable risk. Or second, adopting an intentionally diversified portfolio and collecting information about the most promising emerging markets that will be then over weighted in the portfolio to lower the risk and higher the return. Lastly, the study recommend that home-biased investors should change their behavior and consider international investments when building a portfolio.

This is the story of how four people invented a whole new world and way of life - and how they attempted to establish it across the globe. Copass, a Parisian startup consisting of four cofounders, aimed to connect hundreds of the world's shared workspaces under their new global federation. But the main objective of this startup, in contrast to most, was not to build capital. It was to build a universe: a future where white-collar workers would be liberated from the shackles of office life to work anywhere in the world, to meet exciting people and to have amazing experiences. Here, workdays were permanently mixed with holidays. Work was fun, workplaces were play-places and workers were adventurers. The ambition of these four cofounders was to turn the way they wanted things to be for them into the way things ought to be for everyone else. To turn their desired lifestyle into a global social movement that enrolled, as they saw it, hundreds of cities and thousands, tens of thousands, even millions of people. In short, they created a company to fulfil a dream. This is an ethnography of that one startup's dream, analysed at length to demonstrate innovative ways of worldmaking employed by an ambitious tech company seeking success. A company dissatisfied with the world that, instead of changing it, decided to create a new one.