Denna uppsats fokuserar FNs generalsekreterare Javier Perez de Cuellar, Boutros Boutros Ghali och Kofi Annans tal i generalförsamlingen. Detta i en studie som diskuterar vilken bild av världspolitiken eller världsordningen som presenteras i deras tal. Två tidsperioder fokuseras, tiden efter Kalla krigets slut och tiden efter den 11 september med syftet att diskutera dessa i en analys där modeller och begrepp rörande makt och internationella relationer lyfter talens innebörd till det större sammanhanget. Metod för detta är en textanalys med kritisk diskursanalys som vägledande verktyg. En viktig tyngdpunkt hamnar med denna metod på vem det är som talar/hörs i texten.Utifrån generalsekreterarnas tal diskuteras alltså vems bild/bilder av världen det är som kommer fram i de anförande som hålls inför generalsförsamlingen och därmed i viss mån riktar sig till världens hela befolkning. Västvärldens dominans, FN-systemets svagheter och USAs konstanta närvarande i form av maktbalanserande är några av de ämnen studien koncentrerar.

The cultural event Eurovision Song Contest has shown signs to contain international conflicts where countries have not been able to keep them out of the competition, which has created a “spill over effect” on the event. This thesis has aimed to investigate why culture, in this case the Eurovision Song Contest, has become an arena for international identity politics, as the contest should be a depoliticised arena. The thesis has been studied as a case study and international conflicts have been investigated as the cases. The selected conflicts that are investigated in this thesis are the one´s between Russia and Ukraine, Armenia and Azerbaijan, as well as Israel, Lebanon and Palestine. The conservative LGBTQ-discussion has also been analysed as a fourth conflict. The study has been analysed from a discourse analysis and with the theoretical perspective of constructivism, which has been used as an explanatory theory. The selected empirical material mainly involve media reports related to the Eurovision Song Contest.  The analysis shows that the countries demonstrated a lack of mutual understanding of each other's interests, which the theory constructivism claims are a requirement for cooperation. The conflicts have arisen and appeared in different ways, but all of them have also been about fragmented identity perceptions. This has partly been an explanation of why conflicts have arisen in a cultural context such as the Eurovision Song Contest. The explanation on the LGBTQ-discussion has also been about different perceptions of identity and interests but it has mainly been about a new norm, where love can exist between the same sexes and where identities do not need to be defined based on just men and women. According to constructivism, this new norm will need time to be accepted and until it will belong to social constructs. Eastern Europe and Western Europe differ in this fact where Eastern Europe has not come as far in the development with the LGBTQ-discussion.

The Swedish arms export has been criticized and heavily covered by the media for many years. The criticism that has often been highlighted concerns an outrage that Sweden exports weapons to autocratic countries. The Swedish arms export has been developing through the years which has led to Sweden being one of the largest arms exports in the world. This has contributed to Sweden gaining a very special position in the world of arms export, where Sweden is a sought-after actor. This study examines why Sweden chooses to export weapons to Saudi Arabia, which is an autocratically ranked country. The investigation is conducted from the perspective of realism. The study aims to provide detailed explanations based on different perspectives within the theoretical framework of realism such as international anarchism, national interest, self interest and balance of power about why Sweden has extensive arms exports to Saudi Arabia. The study shows that even though the Swedish arms export to Saudi Arabia is a paradox with the Swedish ideal, it is inevitable and must be carried out primarily because Sweden, like every nation in the world, must fight for its security and survival.

Det teoretiska fältet inom internationella relationer som benämns realismen betraktar världsordningen som en anarkistisk plats där en kontinuerlig maktkamp pågår mellan rivaliserande stater. Dock har systemet en viss struktur där stater kan rangordnas i systemet utifrån traditionella realpolitiska maktmedel så som internationellt erkännande, ekonomi och tillgången till konventionella och nukleära militära medel. Operationsmiljön har dock utvecklats sedan de tidiga teorierna om internationella relationer. Cyberrymden har blivit en domän som erbjuder såväl statliga som ickestatliga aktörer att påverka varandra. Den nya operationsmiljön är att betrakta som global och utan fysiska gränser under förutsättning att ett fritt, öppet och tillgängligt internet ska finnas. I denna studie prövas tidigare realismens teorier i form av att Posens normativa teori om hur stater utformar doktriner utifrån maktbalansering. Teorin förutspår hur stater, i synnerhet stormakter utformar sina doktriner utifrån upplevda hot mot statens säkerhet. Tillgängliga former av doktriner definieras som offensiva, defensiva eller avskräckande. Studien är en totalundersökning av de fem stormakterna och deras cyberstrategier. Resultatet av studien ger vid handen att teorin till del kan bekräftas då det går att finna spår av maktbalansering i de studerade stormakternas cyberstrategier. Däremot är de normativa delarna av teorin som beskriver att doktriner ska vara offensiva, defensiva eller avskräckande inte fullt giltiga när stater utformar cyberstrategier.

<p>Adopting a socio-cultural approach to the study of cold war historiography, this master’s degree essay is a comparative study of the two main disciplinary fields of cold war scholarship, diplomatic history and international relations theory (IR). The study applies the theory of scientific development formulated by Thomas Kuhn and the concept of paradigm on the field of cold war research.</p><p>Diplomatic history and IR shows many similarities in their development, and in the importance different schools has had in scholarly debate. These different schools are analysed as paradigms, a concept that has been more willingly adopted within IR than in diplomatic history. The transition from what historian John Lewis Gaddis has termed Old Cold War History to New Cold War History is discussed in terms of paradigms and paradigm shift. What this shift has meant for historical cold war research is also addressed. With the starting point in conclusions by historian Anders Stephanson, the study also suggests that the predominating view of the cold war during the cold war can be analysed as a paradigm, effecting interpretations and theories about the conflict. As IR scholar Ted Hopf has suggested, the normal science during the cold war prevented IR research from correctly predicting the end of the cold war.</p><p>From a Kuhnian perspective, an interpretation of the difficulties in communication and scholarly interchange between diplomatic history and IR is offered. The study emphasizes the importance of political and social factors in the development of the different paradigms within the field, and concludes that the goal to become a paradigmatic science might not be attainable, or even desirable, for disciplines such as diplomatic history and IR.</p>

Adopting a socio-cultural approach to the study of cold war historiography, this master’s degree essay is a comparative study of the two main disciplinary fields of cold war scholarship, diplomatic history and international relations theory (IR). The study applies the theory of scientific development formulated by Thomas Kuhn and the concept of paradigm on the field of cold war research. Diplomatic history and IR shows many similarities in their development, and in the importance different schools has had in scholarly debate. These different schools are analysed as paradigms, a concept that has been more willingly adopted within IR than in diplomatic history. The transition from what historian John Lewis Gaddis has termed Old Cold War History to New Cold War History is discussed in terms of paradigms and paradigm shift. What this shift has meant for historical cold war research is also addressed. With the starting point in conclusions by historian Anders Stephanson, the study also suggests that the predominating view of the cold war during the cold war can be analysed as a paradigm, effecting interpretations and theories about the conflict. As IR scholar Ted Hopf has suggested, the normal science during the cold war prevented IR research from correctly predicting the end of the cold war. From a Kuhnian perspective, an interpretation of the difficulties in communication and scholarly interchange between diplomatic history and IR is offered. The study emphasizes the importance of political and social factors in the development of the different paradigms within the field, and concludes that the goal to become a paradigmatic science might not be attainable, or even desirable, for disciplines such as diplomatic history and IR.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om det går att rättfärdiga militära interventioner med stöd i klassisk liberal politisk teori. För ändamålet har de klassiskt liberala filosoferna John Locke och John Stuart Mill analyserats. Undersökningen är utförd medelst en text- och idéanalys av några av filosofernas portalverk. Resultatet av studien visar ett tydligt stöd för vissa sorters militära interventioner och att det faktumet är djupt rotat i flera etiska och moraliska överväganden som Locke respektive Mill gör. Slutsatsen i uppsatsen är därav att det finns klassiskt liberala argument för att genomföra militära interventioner.

In late 2014, Sweden became the first country in the world to adopt what it described as ”feminist foreign policy”. This was immediately met by both praise and criticism. While those who praised pointed to its relevance given the current state of global affairs; those who criticized it, did so because of its near utopian fantasies of global politics. While it has, since then, received mixed reviews in both media reporting and in academic reviews, it has never been investigated and compared to what should be perceived as the control — the feminist theory in international relations. This study aims to do so. It will, therefore, investigate the Swedish foreign policy and compare it to the feminist theory in international relations. In order to keep the study manageable, four separate branches of the Swedish foreign policy will be investigated. These are; migration, arms export, aid and diplomacy. While migration and aid are more generalized, arms exports and diplomacy are specifically investigating the United arab emirates, and Palestine, respectively. The outcome of the study was that all areas, except arms exports and aid, are both in keeping with, and against, the feminist theory in international relations. Arms exports, on the other hand, is not in keeping with the feminist theory at all. Aid is, in contrast to this, fully in keeping with the feminist theory. This creates a difficult situation when deciding wether or not the feminist foreign policy really is feminist. Sweden’s position as a weapons exporter causes severe friction with the feminist theory because of its recognition of female suffering during war. The way in which Sweden’s foreign policy aim to help women while also, in some way, perpetrating the suffering of women, creates a double standard. This double standard is what finally decides that the Swedish feminist foreign policy, even though it has many feminist leanings, is not feminist according to the feminist theory of international relations.

Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons was adopted in 2017. A variety of countrieschose to join, take a position as observers or reject the treaty completely. In this study anexamination of two cases where the country chose to take a position as observers, which isSchweiz and Sweden. The empirical material is two consequence analysis documentspresented by each country. A purpose with this study is to analyze arguments for and againstthe treaty, which is found in the empirical material, to explain why Schweiz and Swedenchose not to join the treaty. This is done in relation to the aspects; humanitarian dimension,security, cooperation and the substantial content of the treaty. Further analysis is based on theinternational relations theories liberalism and realism, which are used as approaches topresent explanations as to why these countries chose to be observers instead of joining thetreaty. The study has shown that a majority of the argument against the treaty is found to bestronger than the argument for joining the treaty, with an exception for arguments about thehumanitarian dimension where the argument for the treaty is stronger. Explanations presentedwith the theoretical approaches result in security playing a big role in the decision, as well asfuture cooperation with other countries based on security and a better possibility to continuedisarmament of nuclear weapons.

The concept of strategy has been the subject of much theorising and much has been written about what strategy is and what reasons might underlie the choice of different strategies. Considerably less has been written, however, about how strategy is actually done - what actions follow from the choice of strategy - and about those who actually do the action - the practitioners of strategy. In this paper, cooperation between France and Sweden is studied through the eyes of these practitioners with the ambition of increasing our understanding of defence strategic cooperation. The results of the study are threefold. Initially, French and Swedish strategy and the cooperation that takes place between the countries within the framework of their respective military cooperation strategies are described. Next, the practice of cooperation is described based on the activities described by the informants during the interviews. Finally, the practitioners' actions and the skills needed to operate in a political-diplomatic environment are described. Finally, a summary model of defence strategy cooperation from a practitioner's perspective is presented. The paper contributes both to the understanding of what cooperation actually consists of and to the understanding of how strategy becomes practical action. The inductive study is conducted as a qualitative interview study and does not claim to provide causal facts - the main contribution is about empirically grounded knowledge. / Strategibegreppet har varit föremål för omfattande teoretiserande och mycket har skrivits om vad strategi är och vilka skäl som eventuellt ligger bakom val av olika strategier. Betydligt mindre är dock skrivet om hur man egentligen gör strategi – vilket handlande som följer av valet av strategi – och om de som faktiskt utför handlandet – strategins praktiker. I denna uppsats studeras samarbetet mellan Frankrike och Sverige genom dessa praktikers ögon med ambitionen att öka vår förståelse för försvarsvarsstrategiskt samarbete. Resultatet av undersökningen är tredelat. Inledningsvis beskrivs fransk och svensk strategi och det samarbete som sker mellan länderna inom ramen för respektive militära samverkansstrategi. Därefter redogörs för samarbetes praktik utifrån de aktiviteter som informanterna beskrivit under intervjuerna. Slutligen beskrivs praktikernas handlande och de färdigheter som behövs för att kunna verka i en politisk-diplomatisk miljö. Avslutningsvis presenteras en sammanfattande modell för försvarsstrategiskt samarbete ur ett praktikerperspektiv. Uppsatsen bidrar dels till förståelsen av vad samarbete egentligen består av, dels till förståelsen av hur strategi blir praktisk handlande. Den induktiva undersökningen genomförs som en kvalitativ intervjuundersökningen och gör inte anspråk på att ge kausala fakta - det främsta bidraget handlar om empiriskt välgrundad kunskap. / Le concept de stratégie a fait l'objet de nombreuses théories et on a beaucoup écrit sur ce qu'est la stratégie et sur les raisons possibles du choix de différentes stratégies. Cependant, on a beaucoup moins écrit sur la manière dont la stratégie est réellement mise en œuvre - les actions qui découlent du choix de la stratégie - et sur ceux qui agissent réellement - les praticiens de la stratégie. Dans cet memoir, les résultats de l'étude sont triples. Dans un premier temps, il décrit la stratégie française et suédoise et la coopération qui a lieu entre les pays dans le cadre de leurs stratégies respectives de coopération militaire. Ensuite, la pratique de la coopération est décrite sur la base des activités décrites par les informateurs au cours des entretiens. Enfin, les actions des praticiens et les compétences nécessaires pour opérer dans un environnement politico-diplomatique sont décrites. Enfin, un modèle sommaire de coopération en matière de stratégie de défense du point de vue d'un praticien est présenté. Ce document contribue à la compréhension de ce qu'est réellement la coopération, et à la compréhension de la manière dont la stratégie devient une action pratique. L'étude inductive est menée sous la forme d'une étude qualitative par entretiens et ne prétend pas fournir des faits causaux - la principale contribution concerne les connaissances empiriques fondées.