M.Sc. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Botswana has recently garnered analytic attention as an anomaly of the “resource curse” phenomenon. Worldwide, countries whose economies are highly skewed towards a dependence on the export of non-renewable natural resources such as oil, diamonds and uranium, have been among the most troubled, authoritarian, poverty-stricken and conflict-prone; a phenomenon widely regarded as the “resource curse". The resource curse explains the varying fortunes of countries based on their resource wealth, with resource-rich countries faring much worse than their resource-poor counterparts. However, Botswana, with diamond exports accounting for 50percent of government revenues and 80percent of total exports, has achieved one of the fastest economic growth rates in the developing world in the last 50 years. Furthermore, the Freedom House ranks it as the safest, most stable, least corrupt and most democratic country on sub-Saharan Africa. In attempting to answer why Botswana apparently escaped the “resource curse”, this research assumes that both formal and informal institutions within the state acted as intermediary variables in determining its fortune. This research thus addresses the deeper question of where Botswana obtained its unique institutional quality that facilitated its apparent escape of the resource curse. It traces Botswana’s history through four lenses: legitimacy and historical continuity, political culture, ethnicity and identity management, and external relations; as having explanatory value in understanding the Botswana exception. The research finds most evidence of Botswana’s institutional quality emanating from the country’s political culture which it found more compatible with the institutions of development and democracy that facilitate both positive economic and political outcomes. It also found evidence of legitimacy and historical continuity facilitating the robustness of both formal and informal institutions in Botswana, and identity management through assimilation as having buffered against the effects of ethnically motivated resource plunder. It however, found the least support for the assertion that external relations contributed to institutional quality.

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This thesis is concerned with the chemistry and physics of C(100) surfaces of diamond. The polished and cleaned C(100) surface is examined by surface microscopy (Atomic-force Microscopy), electron diffraction (Low-energy Electron Diffraction) and photoemission (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Ultra-violet Photoelectron Spectroscopy). Results are presented on the presence of oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen/deuterium on the C(100) surface. Finally, the valence band structure of diamond is probed by angle-resolved photoemission. We have confirmed by AFM that the grooves from the soft polishing process are present on a polished C(100) surface and found sporadic traces of hard polish on a surface polished in the soft polishing direction. XPS studies have verified heating cycles by electron beam bombardment as a suitable cleaning procedure for pure reconstructed C(100) surfaces. By allowing the crystal to cool slowly, the first experimental evidence of quarter-order LEED spots have been found, which suggest that buckled dimerisation might have occurred similar to those on Si(100) and Ge(100). We present the first experimental electron spectroscopy results for a nitrogen impurity in diamond by showing the N KLL Auger spectrum. An attempt to smooth a C(100) surface of diamond by an atomic hydrogen plasma did not succeed. AFM studies showed no evidence for the surface smoothing reported in other studies, but the results enable us to explain the different plasma published in the literature. The valence band of diamond is investigated by off-normal ARUPS. The features observed are consistent with possible transitions, which are determined using bulk band structure calculations and comparison with the experimental binding energies.

Cette thèse étudie la persistance du conflit angolais entre 1991 et 2002. Elle entend revenir sur les causes de la faillite des processus de paix de Bicesse et de Lusaka. La signature des accords de Bicesse entre le MPLA et l’UNITA, le 31 mai 1991, ne permit guère à l’Angola d’accéder à une paix durable. Après les élections des 29 et 30 septembre 1992, la guerre reprit sur l’ensemble du territoire. Le gouvernement MPLA et l’UNITA signèrent un nouvel accord de paix à Lusaka le 30 novembre 1994. Mais, celui-ci n’eut guère plus de réussite que le précédent malgré l’inauguration d’un Gouvernement d’unité et de réconciliation nationale en avril 1997. Les deux camps s'affrontèrent de nouveau en décembre 1998 et fut alimentée par les entrées d’armes au profit des deux camps, qui finançaient leur effort de guerre grâce au pétrole pour le MPLA et aux diamants pour l’UNITA. L’affaiblissement politique et militaire de l’UNITA permit au MPLA de défaire ce mouvement en tuant son chef le 22 février 2002. / This PhD dissertation examines the persistence of the Angolan conflict between 1991 and 2002. It goes back over the causes of the failure of the Bicesse and Lusaka peace processes. The signing of the Bicesse accords between MPLA and UNITA, on May 31st, 1991, did not permit Angola to reach a lasting peace. After the elections, which took place on September 29 and 30, 1992, the war started again on the whole territory. The MPLA government and UNITA signed a new peace accord in Lusaka on November 30,1994. Nevertheless, it had as little success as the former peace accord, despite the inauguration of a new government of unity and national reconciliation in April 1997. A new war began in December 1998 and was fueled by weapon supplies for the two groups, which financed their war effort thanks to oil resources for MPLA and diamonds for UNITA. UNITA's political and military weakening allowed MPLA to defeat this organization by killing its leader on February 22nd, 2002.

The objective of this diploma thesis is to bring different views on the issue of resource dependence and the origins of conflicts connected to the diamonds from Sub-Saharan Africa; and to point out on the existence of conflict diamonds and the disinterest of international forum to solve this problem in the present and in the past. The diploma thesis consists of three chapters. First chapter analyses the resource dependence, conflict and the connection between them. Second chapter is focused on the definition of conflict diamonds, international initiatives and Kimberley Process. Third chapter represents the practical part of this diploma thesis, it analyses two conflicts connected to diamonds, the conflict in Angola and in Sierra Leone.

Diploma thesis Side Effects of UN Peacekeeping Missions deals with negative sid e ef f e cts of UN peacekeeping operations. The work aims at showing the relation between certain factors and the emergence of the side eff ect s. To do so, four interpretative case studies are used in this thesis. The missions analysed in the case studies share some common characteristics (type of mandate, time period etc.) but differ in the essence of the si de e ff e cts that has been detected during their deployment. For the sid e eff e ct s of human trafficking the UN mission UNMIBH in Bosnia and Hercegovina was analysed, for sexual abuse it was the MONUC in DRC, for diamonds smuggling the UNAMSIL mission in Sierra Leone and for the collaboration with warlords the UNPROFOR in Bosnia and Hercegovina. The applied factors are divided between external (presence of the s id e ef f e cts, the stage of conflict and the efficiency of the central government) and internal (national composition of the mission, level of corruption among the TCC's and the existence of SOFA) and are considered within the context of each case study. This work proofs the relevance of this factors in regard to the emergence of the s id e eff ec ts of peacekeeping.

The Covid-19 pandemic caused countries across the world to implement a wide range of restrictions and recommendations to control the spread of the virus. The current study aimed to investigate how differences in personality traits and differences in how an individual perceives the situation of Covid-19 among Swedish university students affect the overall compliance with guidelines applied by their government. A total of 106 university students completed a questionnaire measuring personality traits (Big Five) and perceptions of the situation (Situational Eight DIAMONDS) in relation to their self-estimated compliance. The data analysis showed that the students complied with the guidelines with a mean of 77%. Individuals who were less agreeable and perceived less adversity in the Covid-19 situation complied more. All predictor variables could account for approximately 28% of the explained variance in compliance. These results are of importance in a preparatory purpose for governments to efficiently cope with future threats.

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The dual influence of person characteristics and situational contexts on behaviour has long been debated on by personality and social psychologists alike. Traditionally, personality traits have been emphasised, whilst the assessment of situational influences has received limited attention. As a result, there has been little progress in understanding how situational contexts impact individuals' daily organisational behaviour – a key imperative of organisational psychology. This study leverages recent developments in situation assessment to investigate the extent to which personality traits and situational characteristics independently, and in combination, predict workrelevant behaviour. Survey response data from 256 South African participants within the International Situations Project (ISP; Baranski et al., 2017) were analysed. Sets of multiple regression analyses were conducted with each of seven work-related behaviours as criteria, using the Big Five personality traits and DIAMONDS situational characteristics as predictors. Next, barebones meta-analysis (Hunter & Schmidt, 1990) of the resulting multiple correlation coefficients was conducted to estimate the relative predictive power of traits vs. situations, averaged across target behaviours. The results revealed that the combination of personality traits and situational characteristics explained more variance in work-related behaviour than their independent effects. Although situational characteristics independently predicted all work-related behaviours, personality traits were not strong predictors of particular behaviours. These findings highlight the importance of integrating knowledge of both traits and situations to enhance our understanding of why people behave the way they do. Practically, results further suggest that organisations may increase the ability to predict employee behaviour on the job by incorporating measures of situations, in combination with traits, into human resource management applications (e.g., personnel selection and assessment).