During the spring 2007 Estonia and Russia collided in the biggest international conflict among themselves since the break up of the Soviet Union. The conflict concerned about the issue of Estonia’s removal of a soviet bronze statue from central Tallinn to a garden of honour, due to Estonia thought that the statue represented oppression. Chaos developed in Tallinn with disturbances and plunder. The relations between Estonia and Russia became very strained, as Russia considered the movement of the statue wrong. This thesis has examined how the two parties have handled this international conflict through measure how international they are from an official perspective. An examination has been made to see how well the two nations follow the official perspective in a real case. To be able to measure internationalism, a model by Kjell Goldmann has been used, where the idealistic internationalist should follow a certain pat-tern; outward-looking, universalism, coexistence-orientated, moderate. The re-sult showed that Estonia follows the idealistic international pattern owing to a well developed cooperation and membership in international organizations. While Russia ended up in the opposite side, the non internationalist pattern, due to difficulties with cooperation and too much inward looking approach towards the own country. / Våren 2007 hamnade Estland och Ryssland i den största internationella konflikten sinsemellan sedan sönderfallet av Sovjetunionen. Konflikten handlade om att Estland flyttade en sovjetisk bronsstaty från centrala Tal-linn till en krigskyrkogård, då man tyckte att den symboliserade förtryck. I Tallinn blev det ett kaos med oroligheter och plundring som följd. Relatio-nerna mellan Estland och Ryssland blev mycket ansträngda, då Ryssland an-såg att det var fel av Estland att flytta statyn. Denna uppsats har undersökt hur de båda parterna hanterade denna internationella konflikt genom att först mäta hur internationella de var utifrån ett officiellt perspektiv. För att sedan studera om de handlade i en internationell konflikt utifrån den offici-ella bilden. För att kunna mäta internationalism har en modell av Kjell Goldmann använts, där den idealistiske internationalisten skall vara enligt följande mönster; utåtsträvande, universell, samarbetsorienterad och mode-rat. Resultatet visade att Estland följer det idealistiska internationella mönst-ret tack vare ett mycket utvecklat samarbete och medlemskap i olika inter-nationella organisationer. Medan Ryssland hamnade på motsatt icke idealis-tisk internationalistisk sida på grund av svårigheter för internationella sam-arbeten och för mycket inåtsträvan till det egna landet.

Denna rapport behandlar två teoriskolor – Kosmopolitism och Kommunitarism – vilka är sammanfattande modeller som omfattar flera olika teoriinriktningar. Anledningen till dessa teoriers inkludering i rapporten var avsikten att förenkla den internationella arenan till att enbart omfatta två olika inriktningar, och på så sätt utröna om någon av dessa kunde användas till att förklara fenomenet internationell aggression.Arbetet har strukturerats så att tre konflikter har studerats för att finna bevis för närvaro av sex indikatorer som karakteriseras av de av de två teoriinriktningarna.Främst tryckta verk har nyttjats, men även några digitala tidningsartiklar samt elektroniska databaser har också använts.Slutsatsen efter studiens genomförande är att ingen av de två teoriinriktningarna enskilt kan nyttjas för att djupanalysera konflikter på den internationella arenan. Dock har resultatet visat på att en kombination av de två effektivt ger relevanta verktyg till att förklara uppkomsten av internationell aggression.

The outset of this study is to contribute to the literature concerning China’s increasing economic interest to engage in the African context, its economies and resource abundandce. The overarching research problem is that the approaches held by the respective African state entities may facilitate increasing development gains for the recipient state of this economic interest in principle. To adress this research problem the study is undertaken by conducting a comparative case study where three cases/states, with presumably diverging economic and political status, are likely to effect their overall state approaches differently. Research questions, which are addressed by the creation of an idealtype analytic matrix, concern whether the states of South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe take on a more ‘permissive’ or ‘restrictive’ approach towards China’s economic interst and whether the approaches can be looked upon on both aggratege and case/area-specific levels. The main findings are that a clear tendency of the ‘permissive approach’ may be noted on a aggregate level for all cases. Further, the cases’ economic and poltical status does not necessarily effect this aggregate tendency but but rather the dynamics in case-specific areas deemed relevant in this analysis. The desire to grasp the interest seems greater than internal dynamics.

This essay examines the international relationship of Sweden and Russia in the period after the Cold war and the dissolution of the Sovietunion. Focusing on the period before and after the annexation of Crimea. The essay examines different documents from the Swedish government and uses Realistic thery of international relations to illustrate how the relationship has changed. I conclude that the Swedish relationship to Russia has worsened and that the area in Sweden’s proximity has entered a decline of safety and security with increased chance of aggression from Russia after they have showed being willing to use military force in an offensive capacity in Crimea.

Public diplomacy is a form of diplomatic activity aimed at communicating directly with foreign publics. In light of the technological developments of recent decades, digital tools and platforms have transformed the field of public diplomacy and became a significant force in shaping the diplomatic field. Sweden is a country with a strong international presence, where public diplomacy is a prioritized field for the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. This study contributes to the limited research on Swedish public diplomacy strategy by analyzing the way in which Sweden’s four core values are communicated in the digital sphere. The analysis is conducted in two segments. First, the Swedish public diplomacy strategy is examined. Secondly, using Critical Discourse Analysis, twelve articles published on the website for Swedish Foreign Policy Stories were analyzed. The analysis shows that the core values are incorporated in the texts. The values are not stated overtly, but strong indications in the discourse can be found suggesting their relevance. The size of the sample is not large enough to allow for generalizations of the findings. The study concludes that except for discourse, other elements, such as the visual semiotic choices also contribute to the communication of Sweden’s four core values.

Disinformation is a growing problem in a fast changing world, where technology today contributes to the spread of false and sometimes directly harmful information. Within the field of international security studies there is an ongoing theoretical conflict over whether or not security ought to be expanded to include issues that otherwise do not concern the traditional state and military-centric approach. One such issue is the multifaceted phenomenon disinformation, which some claim has little or no meaning and relevancy within the international arena. This is because it mainly influences individuals. Nevertheless, the EU has still initiated security work to combat disinformation. The main purpose of this study is to describe and illustrate how disinformation is defined within the EU’s security framework. Applying David. A Baldwins conceptual dimensions and ideal types and anchoring them in the prominent theories realism, liberalism and constructivism, the study aims to describe and illustrate how EU views disinformation in its pursuit for security. The study later shows that disinformation needs to be affirmed and taken more seriously by the international community.

The purpose of this study is to, based on a comparative case study design, find out what reservations have been made against CEDAW. Furthermore, the purpose is also to compare differences and similarities between the states that have ratified the Convention and made reservations against it. In addition, the study will examine whether the purpose of the convention is sought based on the reservations made. In the study, two international relations theories have been applied, the feminist theory and the liberal internationalist theory. To respond to this purpose, two questions have been formulated. What type of reservations have been made against CEDAW and by which countries? What are the differences and similarities between the reservations and their countries that have made reservations? The results that emerged during the study show that reservations have been made against 9 articles in the convention and the reservations have been made by several different countries. Furthermore, the results also showed that there are more similarities than differences between the countries. The most prominent similarities are based on religion, governance and legislation. One differences between the countries was their completely different rankings on Freedom Houses annual world report on political freedoms and civil rights.

The refugee crisis in the world, specifically after 2015, which came as a result of the repercussions of the war in Syria and the absence of the right political vision in Iraq and Libya. This migration has led to increased pressures on many countries in the European Union, as a result of the influx of more immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa. The purpose of this research for the bachelor's degree in POLITICAL SCIENCE, is to reveal the impact of the political integration process on solving the refugee crisis that plagued Europe in 2015, with a close focus on the asylum policy adopted by the EU during the refugee crisis in 2015.   The method used in this research is a qualitative case study in order to get an in depth understanding of the selected case and with the help of the data material obtained from the sources used. Through the method, materials and theoretical and empirical analysis, the purpose and questions posed within the research were answered. In this thesis, two theories were used in the research topic, namely, the theory of integration and the constructivist theory in international relations.  The results were as follows. Europe was seeking for solidarity among their countries in solving the refugee crisis that occurred in 2015. Further that solidarity could provide solutions that contribute to the distribution of burdens among the countries of the European Union. Solidarity means establishing compatible solutions among the countries of the Union. The result also showed that the 2013 Dublin III Regulation and European Asylum Policy need to be reformed because they do not work effectively during times of crisis and exceptional events.

Based on the previous studies, the hypothesis of this research is that the higher the level of gender equality in a state, the higher level of its peacefulness. It is a quantitative study using linear regression analysis with three variables, namely Global Peace Index (GPI) as a dependent variable, Gender Inequality Index (GII) as an independent variable and Human Development Index (HDI) as a control variable. The data of 139 states from year 2013 were submitted into Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software. The result shows a significant and positive linear relationship between gender inequality and a high level of conflict, which confirms the hypothesis. However, HDI shows to be less reliable as a control variable due to issues with multicollinearity (heavily related independent variables). Further studies should replace the HDI with another control variable.

The purpose of this study is to identify similarities and differences in preparations by Sweden and Finland to ensure food supply in a crisis. Previous research consisting of separate studies have showed a decreased ability to ensure food supply in crisis in Sweden, and an increased ability in Finland. In a time of raising awareness, changing security concerns and political will, the contribution of this study is to simultaneously investigate the two countries and provide an understanding of the historical- and present approaches. By using comparative case study as method and applying International relations theory, a broader understanding of the different approaches by otherwise similar countries is achieved. The approaches of Sweden can be explained by using realist, neorealist, liberal and neoliberal theories while Finland’s approach best can be explained by realist and neorealist theories. The study is relevant for the field of humanitarian action and conflict since it provides an understanding of the countries contingency plans regarding food. Threat assessments from both countries identifies man-made conflicts such as terrorism, cyber-attacks, use of military force and war to have the possibility to create disruptions in the normal cycles of the society and those of surrounding countries. If these threats were to occur, basic needs must be met, one being food supply.