<p>The aim of this paper is to map out the purposes of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. This is done in order to see if humanitarian tendencies have been an increasingly cause for the UN to initiate an intervention with military means. This paper uses the time period from the end of the cold war until today, since that historic occurrence increased the U.N.’s involvement in peacekeeping. By using this time span it enables the survey to indicate changes in the mapping of humanitarian interventions. The results show that the number of operations increased during the period 1990-1999. The end of the cold war enabled the members of the U.N.’s Security Council to cooperate in peacekeeping operations by sending observers. Therefore the change in the number of operations was mostly due to political and not strictly humanitarian purposes. The number of operations then decreased during the period 2000-2008. The study explains this with a more humanitarian approach in the U.N.’s peacekeeping operations. This made the operations fewer, but more comprehensive and more complicated. A consequence of this is shown in an extended average of the time period for the operations. These results is being analyzed by using the theories of realism and liberalism, along with their moral perspectives; skeptics, state-moralists, and cosmopolites. These theories reveal a transformation in the function of the UN from a skeptic realist view during the cold war, to a state-moralist view during the period 1990-1999. And finally the period 2000-2008 indicate cosmopolitan influences with more humanitarian purposes parallel to the state-moralist thinking.</p>

<p>Miljöproblemen uppmärksammas idag i hela världen. Dagligen hör vi att hoten mot miljön måste åtgärdas och att alla måste hjälpas åt. Riksdag, regering, och flera stora världsorganisationer arbetar hårt med att få in ett miljöperspektiv i all undervisning. Det här gäller från förskolan ända upp till vuxenutbildning. Syftet är att undersöka vad barn vet och kan om vardagliga handlingar som påverkar miljön och en hållbar utveckling på ett positivt sätt i förhållande till vad rapporter och styrdokument föreskriver. Vi genomförde studien med hjälp av kvalitativa gruppintervjuer med 36 barn i åldrarna fem till tio år. Intervjuerna genomfördes gruppvis då vi anser att ett socialkonstruktivistiskt perspektiv kan vara gynnsamt i samtal om ett så stort och komplext ämne som miljö och hållbar utveckling är. Vi använde frågor, bilder och konkret material som underlag när vi genomförde intervjuerna. Generellt anser de flesta barn att det är viktigt med en bra miljö, även om kunskaperna om hur vi åstadkommer detta är varierande. Skillnaden på kunskapen mellan förskolan och grundskolan visade sig vara större än vad vi förväntat oss. Vi kunde inte se att miljöundervisning har gett det resultat och haft den centrala roll som riksdag, regering och världsorganisationer som bland andra FN och OECD föreskrivit.</p>

<p>Abstract</p><p>Essay in political science, C-level, by Ellen Linde, spring semester 2007. Tutor: Susan Marton.</p><p>“HIV and gender inequalities; a lethal combination? A study of the patriarchal dominance in the international discussion on HIV/AIDS”</p><p>The purpose of this essay is to study to what extent a patriarchal discourse is present in the international discussion on how to best fight the spread of HIV/AIDS. To determine if a patriarchal discourse is present or not I have used a feminist theory on patriarchal dominance. I have concentrated on the United Nations resolutions about HIV/AIDS. My focus has particularly been on the meeting about the shaping of the last resolution in 2006 where the members states made statements about their opinions on the matter. I’m asking the question; Is there a patriarchal dominans in the countries statements about UN:s resolution about HIV/AIDS? The question is asked to three different groups of countries, catholic counties in Africa, catholic counties in Europe and non-catholic countries.</p><p>My study shows that there is a strong tendency of patriarchal dominance in the statement from the catholic countries in Europe and an even stronger tendency in the statements from the catholic countries in Africa. That tendency could not be found in the statements from the non-catholic countries. The conclusion is that there are two discourses present in the international discussion on how to best fight the spread of HIV/AIDS, one patriarchal discourse and one non-patriarchal discourse. However, there can be no generalizations drawn from the results of this study because to few countries have been studied.</p>

No description available.

<p>In my paper I have examined the United Nations role in the democratization of Kosovo. In order to complete this purpose I have asked two questions</p><p>• How has the UN contributed to the democratization of Kosovo that has taken place so far?</p><p>• What advantages and/or disadvantages has the UN presence in Kosovo had from a democratic perspective?</p><p>The method I have used in my paper is a qualitative one, and more specified a qualitative text analysis. This means that I have examined a rather small number of sources, but in return I have analyzed these sources very carefully. In addition to the choice of a qualitative method I have used Robert A. Dahl’s theory about polyarcy as a definition of democracy.</p><p>The results from my analysis are that the UN has done some work in favour of the democratization of Kosovo, but the UN has also acted in a way which restrains democratization of Kosovo in many ways. The main reason why the UN hinders the democratization of Kosovo is it’s unwillingness to let go of its power over the region to the local officials.</p>

No description available.

Natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, landslides and volcanic activities has had devastating effects on human life. Risk is the probability of harmful consequences from the interaction of hazards and vulnerable conditions. With increasing numbers of people living in crowded cities and other vulnerable areas, it is more important than ever to advance our understanding of natural disasters and the ways in which humans respond to them. My interdisciplinary study reflected in my thesis includes integrated research on the risk assessment methods for natural hazards with focus on earthquake disasters. This thesis address firstly the development of a scaled risk assessment framework, comparative assessment of natural hazard losses, including respective case studies and global overview of natural hazard risk, and secondly a comparative risk assessment of geological disasters to elaborate the major disastrous hazards for global population. Furthermore, I evaluate the effect of past events in form of the number of losses with respect to the exposed population on the proneness of people to the disaster. I summarize acceptable risk criteria and the necessity of having a normalized framework for societal risk assessment. I evaluate the natural hazard risk assessment and acceptable risk criteria of 32 European countries. I also introduce the concept of resistance in both risk equation and in FN-curves. Resistance is the societal resilience of a society to the occurrence of a natural disaster. Moreover, using components of FN-curves (slopes and intercepts) for risk assessment of geological disasters based on real data, I showed that the world has been more at risk of earthquakes than tsunamis, volcanic activities and landslides since 1600. Also. based on the earthquake disasters data (1973-2010), I evaluated the temporal trend of hazard, risk, exposure and resistance of the world towards earthquake disasters. Our results does not provide any evidence of increase or decrease in the temporal trend of fatality rate and earthquake resistance while there is a significant decrease in the crude death rate. Finally, we evaluated the reliability of earthquake disaster system during 1950-2012 using probability of more than 1000 fatalities as probability of failure. Our yearly estimate of reliability at the beginning of each mission year shows that the avreage reliability of earthquake disaster system is very low (~0.3) and it is decreasing over time, too.

The purpose of this study is to see how Swedish politicians speak about the concept ecology through the period 1973-1988. I’m using the theory of concepts altering meaning through history made by Koselleck. The result of this study shows that the concept ecology is under change, but I cannot see when by using Kosellecks theory. One result is an increase of politicians using ecology in debates with 163 percent between the period of 1973-1980 and 1981-1988. Another interesting result that I found was that the Swedish left party spoke more about ecology after 1981. I could also see that the Swedish politicians have been using the concept ecology contrary to the scientific definition of ecology in most cases.

Syftet med examensarbetet är att få en ökad insikt i diskussionen som förs bland internationella författare angående krigsdrabbade barn. Litteraturen presenteras ämnesvis och läsaren får möta de ämnen som författarna för fram. De diskuterar frågor kring barnsoldater, vilka olika effekter krig har på barn och hur dessa ska avhjälpas. Författarna ger även exempel på preventiva insatser och handlingsprogram i efterkrigstid och hänvisar genomgående till internationell rätt. Arbetet genomförs som en litteraturstudie och genom en slags innehållsanalys jämförs författarnas olika åsikter. Resultatet vi har kommit fram till är att litteraturen är samstämmig i övergripande drag men att en del skillnader förekommer som i vissa fall förvånat oss. Exempelvis är inte alla författare eniga om att användandet av barnsoldater är enbart negativt för barnen. / The purpose of this essay is to get an increased insight in the discourse among international authors about children in war. The literature is presented by subject and the reader will meet the topics that are discussed by the authors. They bring up issues concerning child soldiers, the effects of war on children and how to prevent those. The authors also give examples of programs of action before, as well as after, the war. The essay is made as a study of literature and the opinions of the authors are compared in a content analysis. The result we obtained is that the literature is very alike but we also found some surprising differences. As an example not all of them agree that the use of child soldiers is solely negative for the children.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att analysera huruvida betydelsen av FN-stadgans centrala principer angående våldsanvändning, artikel 2(4), 2(7) och 51, kan förändras i och med staters agerande och isåfall på vilket sätt. Uppsatsen innehåller en teoretisk genomgång av icke-våldsprincipen och självförsvarsrätten. Vidare fokuserar uppsatsen på interventioner, med betoning på humanitära interventioner för att knyta an till Mänskliga Rättigheter som ämne. Till sist består uppsatsen av en tillämpning av den teoretiska delen genom en studie av Irakkonflikten 2003. Uppsatsen tar bland annat upp hur framtiden kan komma att se ut när det gäller användandet av preventivt självförsvar och humanitära interventioner, och hur USA:s agerande i Irakkonflikten 2003 kan påverka detta. Min slutsats är att tolkningen av folkrätten kan förändras bland annat genom staters agerande (om agerandet utvecklas till en praxis), men att tolkningen av grundläggande principer som våldsförbudet inte förändras så lätt utan istället är fortsatt omdebatterade. Den princip som kan komma att förändras i framtiden, bland annat i och med Irakkonflikten 2003, är rätten till självförsvar. / The purpose with this paper is to analyse whether the meaning of the central principles according to the use of force, article 2(4), 2(7) and 51, in the UN charter could be changed due to how states act. The paper contains of a teoretical review of the non-violence as a principle and the right to self-defence. Further, the paper focuses on interventions, with the emphasis on humanitarian interventions to put the paper in relation to the Human Right subject. Finally, the paper contains of an application of the teoretical part through a study of the Iraqi conflict 2003. The paper, among other things, brings up the issue about the use of preventive self-defence and humanitarian interventions for the future, and how the US governments acting in the Iraqi conflict 2003 effect this issue. My conclusion is that the interpretation of international law can be changed through states acting (if the acting developes into states practice), but central principles like non-force is not that easily changed, instead it contitiues to be an matter of deliberation. One principle that might be changed through, among other things, the Iraqi conflict is the right to self-defence.