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This thesis deals with Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) on global and local level. The researchquestion deals with the problems associated with IDPs - what challenges IDPs are facing and thefuture prospects for IDPs worldwide and on local level in the Samegrelo region in Georgia.The thesis is divided into two parts: In the first part I define the IDPs using the GuidingPrinciples on Internal Displacement, the critique towards the Guiding Principles and adescription of the vulnerability of IDPs worldwide. (Part 1, Chapter 1, Sections 1,2 and 3).I continue to describe the IDPs on local level, paying special attention to those in the Samegreloregion, in Georgia. In addition, I point at a delicate issue regarding ethnicity. Further, I providefigures on the IDP population, by showing the massive IDP movement in 1994 and 2008.Further, I use a description to the Indicators of Vulnerability with regards to integration of IDPs inthe region, and alongside with these indicators I contrast the content with the Government ofGeorgia Action Plan for the Implementation of the State Strategy for IDPs, and the Guiding Principleson Internal Displacement. (Chapter 2, Section 1,2 and 3).In the following chapter I define foreign aid as a tool of policy and I point out the absence ofearmarked Official Development Assistance (ODA) destined for IDPs, although there isearmarked ODA specified for Refugees according to ODA policy.ODA disbursements to Georgia indicate that a majority of the ODA is used as humanitarian aidand the traceable assistance directed to IDPs is predominantly humanitarian. (Chapter 3, Sections1 and 2).A brief overview explains the transition from early rural cooperatives in the West, to the NGOsoperating in post-Soviet states from early 1990s, within the sectors humanitarian anddevelopment assistance. Despite a long list with short-term hard and soft projects implementedby Local NGOs, the outcomes never reached sustainable levels. (Chapter 4, Section 1).Second part of the thesis encompass a case study of a development project I managed during aninternship at the Human Rights Center of Georgia. I describe the conduct of the project and howthe team, working together with young IDPs, achieved to formulate an idea for sustainableincome generation. I also present the technicalities and the process on how we negotiated toconvince the elder IDPs about cooperating with us on the idea and the project. I describe theprocess of renovating a food processing room at the collective center where the IDPs were living,and how this project was aborted due to lack of funds. (Part 2, Case study).

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss the role of women as intermediaries, mediators and arbitrators in conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the de facto region of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is highly relevant to comdev due to several reasons. First, it is an active issue. The number of deaths from border clashes has increased in 2014-2016 despite a ceasefire signed in 1994. Second, women and civil society groups are oppressed. This thesis explores the question of women’s contribution in solving conflicts considering masculinity, gender complex and war. Are women better at solving conflicts? Third, new media has become an important tool for cross border communication. Focus is given to use of social media by women in an attempt to facilitate change of discourses. Critical discourse analysis, hermeneutics and social constructivism are considered as methodologies to evaluate this. However, there is a number limitations here including use of English language, limited participant numbers and response bias.Background information on conflict is presented and includes analyzing the role of national and international organizations such as parliaments, the Minsk Group (OSCE) European Commission (EPNK) and the UN (1325). A brief literature review is then conducted focusing on conflict area, historical discourses and peace building narratives. This is followed by an examination of post-soviet literature on masculinity, nation-building, feminism and changing role of active women, centering on Caucasus and Nagorno-Karabakh. Topics explored are women’s rights, political involvement, language, religion and cultural turn. Next stage is a summary of research questions for qualitative interviews with five women participants who are or work with active women in Transcaucasia. From available data, main premise becomes new role of active women as peace builders in conflict acting individually, in NGO’s and in government and attempting to facilitate discussion with lawmakers and negotiators in conflict.After research, primary and secondary data is analyzed. Responses are evaluated over the methods mentioned and main contributions are considered to be on grassroots activism funded by international NGO’s. It is not clear whether women would be better at resolving complex but their contribution to nation building has been proven. New media becomes a tool for activist communication and propaganda. Women find themselves dealing with nationalism, marginalization and breakdown of democratic institutions. They turn to international NGO’s but this often backfires as Armenian and Azerbaijani society and government sees this as Western intrusion. Progress is slow and daily lives are ruled by uncertainty, discrimination and faint hope of resolve.

In Georgia the non-governmental organisations are active and manifold despite the Sovietheritage of a trampled civil society and lengthy violent conflicts, frozen yet not forgotten.NGOs seek to deal with the problematic issues through information, strengthening civilsociety and building bridges between antagonists. An organisation consists of individuals andthe work is done through “their” individuals towards other individuals. Martha Nussbaum'sapproach on human well-being, which does not count income or ask for a minimum set ofutensils for a universal basic standard, is being offered as a more just way of judging nationalgrowth than the GDP. Nussbaum's approach of basic human capability cherishes individualityand different cultures, recognising that not every one wishes the same things in order to feelfulfilled. The capability approach allows persons to choose a preferred way of life, yet listsdemands of equal opportunities to all for reaching personal development and accessingpossibilities. By analysing the narrations of NGO-staff members thematically according to thecapability to affiliate, a relevant feel for the possibilities of successful and satisfyinginteraction in the NGO-sector emerges and some contemporary issues in the local contexts arepresented. The interviews were conducted in Georgia during two months in 2010, and thefocus was on relationships and experiences connected to work. Exercising the capability ingood measure is presented in the narratives as gaining the individual increased emotion andfurthering personal development. Areas where living up to the capability is hampered becomealso visible: affiliating may brush against existing stereotypical norms in the society. Yet theindividuals challenge the restrictions and in doing so develop their civil society andthemselves.

U.S. strategy toward Southern Caucasus and Central Asia has not been studied sufficiently. The present study, which takes the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the subsequent independence of the states of CASC (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia) as its starting point, is probably the most detailed tracing of the evolution of U.S. strategy toward this specific region hitherto available. The study is methodologically committed to process-tracing and covers U.S. strategy toward CASC over a 15-year period covering three separate presidential administrations. A vast material has been collected and studied, and the primary contribution of the study is empirical. The study also sets out develop a neoclassical realist framework for analysing U.S. strategy, which introduces strategic culture as an intervening variable between the external actions of the U.S and the international environment.  The theory in this study is based on three pillars. The first is structural realism. With its focus on the international environment and the pressure that is exerts, the study accepts the systemic imperative described by structural realists. The second pillar is cultural/constructivist theory. The study presupposes the notion of malleable norms and identities promoted by such theories. The third and most important pillar is neoclassical realism, which aims at finding intervening variables between a state´s external actions and the international environment. The definition of U.S. strategic culture relies heavily on American political and diplomatic history, the main argument being that U.S. policymakers constantly draw on U.S. strategic culture and have strong incentives to frame their policies so as to be culturally acceptable. The strategic culture thus both constrains and enables actions. The framework contributes to the ongoing effort to bridge the gap between realist and constructivist perspectives. This study will demonstrate that U.S. strategy toward CASC was shaped by specific U.S. strategic culture to a considerable extent. Throughout the entire period studied, the declared goal of the U.S. was the integration of CASC into the community of liberal market democracies. One very important theoretical finding of this study is that U.S. strategic culture had a powerful impact on U.S. strategy, independently of international pressures. This study will also demonstrate that U.S. strategy was incoherent, inconsistent, bureaucratically uncoordinated, susceptible to domestic pressure, and frequently subordinated to more important strategic goals outside of the region.

In 2008 Russia surprised the West by going to war with Georgia. While several analyses have pointed to separate actions by NATO and the West as having influenced the 2008 war, this paper endeavors to show that the combined actions of the West and NATO since the fall of the Soviet Union created a security dilemma for Russia. Because the West refused to properly acknowledge and address Russia’s dilemma, the West inadvertently created the conditions which led to the culmination of Russia’s security dilemma in the form of an invasion of Georgia. Russia’s war with Georgia was less an attempt to protect Russian citizens and prevent atrocities as it was a rebuttal of Western actions. This thesis examines the security dilemma and cooperation theories as presented by Dr. Robert Jervis, and looks specifically at Western-Russian relations relating to three spheres: NATO expansion and Western marginalization of Russia, Western unilateral and extra-U.N. military aggression, and Western anti-ballistic missile defense initiatives and programs. Western actions relating to these three spheres created the conditions for the war, and specifics within the Caucasus region and relating to separatist conflicts drove Russia to deem a war with Georgia a politically safe rebuttal to the West. This paper also examines continued Western refusal to acknowledge Russia’s dilemma and developing conditions, as they relate to the three spheres of NATO expansion, unilateral military action and missile defenses, which could potentially lead to further conflict between Russia and the West. / text

Although Georgia has experienced dramatic increases in the number of visitors over the past decade Swedish travellers are absent in the arrival statistics. Visitors from Eastern Europeans account for the majority of the increase in arrivals. This thesis attempts to understand what is missing in order for Swedish tourists to discover Georgia as a destination. This is done by interviewing Swedish tour operators and surveying Swedish visitors to Georgia. The results are analyzed in the framework of Leiper’s theory of destination competitiveness. A SWOT analysis is also used to structure the analysis, and the thesis suggests some benchmark measures that could be used to implement a systematic effort to improve the destination. The thesis concludes that Georgia indeed has a strong attractiveness on Swedish tourists, but that the main problems are connected with low awareness and lack of convenient transportation options. It is argued that these problems can be solved through improved marketing and entrepreneurship. Furthermore, the thesis highlights the need for Georgian destination managers to make choices today in order to shape the image of the country in the future. Georgia has a challenge to strengthen the authenticity that many travellers associate with the country, but is in a position to modernize by preserving traditions. Finally, it is argued that the results from this study are generalizable to include preferences of travellers from Western Europe in general, and therefore the study points to some significant opportunities available to Georgia.

This study sought to answer why conflict in Turkey-Iran relations increased in the covered period, considering &ndash / relatively- smooth relations between Turkey and Iran in the 1980s, and thermidorizing of Iran in the 1990s. Indeed, ideology has had an important place in bilateral relations between Iran and Turkey for a long time. Ideological factors constituted the immediate reasons for conflict between Turkey and Iran in the 1990s as well. However, ideological differences between the two countries did not cause any serious conflict in the 1980s. Then, the question arises, why and how did ideological reasons led to severe frictions between Iran and Turkey in the 1990s. In this regard, this thesis paid attention to two factors that have profound effects on the foreign policies of Turkey and Iran / changing internal conditions, and the changing geopolitics of Turkey and Iran after the dissolution of the USSR and the Gulf War of 1991.

This thesis analyzes Russian foreign policy towards Azerbaijan in the post-Soviet era. The dissolution of the Soviet Union paved the way for the independence of Azerbaijan. This development necessitated the redefinition of the relationship between Russia and Azerbaijan. However, post-Soviet Russia was reluctant to treat Azerbaijan as a fully independent state that could develop its relations other states freely. In this way, Moscow sought to keep Azerbaijan under its own sphere of influence. To this purpose, Russia used its influence in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and the development of the Caspian Sea energy resources as its two main policy instruments for controlling Azerbaijan. When Vladimir Putin was elected as the President of Russia in 2000, it was not clear whether the previous Russian foreign policy towards Azerbaijan would continue as in the past or change. The developments between 2000 and 2005 show that Vladimir Putin changed the previous Russian stance on the Caspian Sea energy resources and took more collaborative posture towards Azerbaijan. However, Putin continued the earlier Russian position on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. This study argues that there has been both change and continuity in Russian foreign policy towards Azerbaijan since Vladimir Putin&rsquo / s rise to Russia&rsquo / s presidency in 2000. In this sense, Russian foreign policy under Putin could be conceptualized mainly as a pragmatic foreign policy. This conceptualization makes it possible to identify both change and continuity in Russian foreign policy towards Azerbaijan.

The thesis deals with the issue of energy security in geopolitically strategic region of South Caucasus. The focus is on analyzing the development of energy policy in the individual countries of the region since the collapse of the Soviet union. On this basis is determined the most important security challenge: Armenia. This challenge results from the need to counteract the influence of external actors in the region and to address long-standing regional conflicts that would contribute not only to the stability of the South Caucasus, but also help to fully realize the potential of the region as an important transit corridor for Caspian and Iranian energy resources.