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Shelters and Nuclear weaponsA discourse analysis of the Swedish defense and civil defense debate during the Cold war Sweden during the Cold War set into motion one of the world’slargest civil defense policies at the time, second only to neutral Switzerland. The governments expenditure was far greater per capita than both that of USA and Soviet Union and included massive evacuation plans for Stockholm and other large cities in Sweden, with the hopeful expectation to bring down the amount of people in each of them to 15000 in case of a foreign hostile nuclear attack. The policies included construction of shelters with room for 2,5 million of about 7 million citizens in total at the time along with gasmasks for the whole population. Not only this, Sweden was considered one of the biggest military powers of that time in relation to its size and population. This brings the question what kind of discourse allowed such an expansion in military as well as civil defense?    The aim of this study is to examine what conception of a coming war was discussed in Swedish press and how it was interconnected with the defense and civil defense debate during 1954, 1960 and 1966. Using the theoretical framework of discourse analysis - including the two branches Nukespeak and Conceptual history - the study wants to bring forth firstly how the threat of nuclear war was discussed in Swedish press. Secondly if the conceptions of this future war was presented and used by a dominant group for political gains. And third, if so, what strategies was used to keep this dominance and how did this situation change as we move towards the mid 1960´s? The result is then compared with the work of other Swedish historians in the field of Cold War culture as Marie Cronqvist, Jonas Anshelm, Henrik Sjövall, Jerry Määttä and Michael Godhe to give a plausible explanation of the development.    The results show that the dominant perspective of a coming nuclear attack was built upon an authoritarian ideology with the following attributes: 1) The coming nuclear war was a terrible plague that would destroy the whole world’s civilization, even humanity as a race was threatened by it. 2) The threat of war was considered realistic and plausible. The local conflict in Scandinavia and the global conflict is also considered being one and the same which grants the Swedish military a key position in preventing the east and west superpowers from unleashing a total annihilation. 3) A requirement to be able to keep peace between the superpowers and survive the war as it is presented is that technical innovation is maintained at all costs. This is presented as a necessity given by the atomic age as a deterministic historical epoch. 4) It is possible to survive this apocalyptic war with good planning, well built shelters, a strong will of resistance to foreign power and a well equipped military.    This hegemonic perspective is maintained by methods described by Edward Schiappa and other linguistic scientists as domestication and bureaucratization, and also with a plea of a 'male' rationality, thus expelling female criticism. 1966 this hegemonic perspective is challenged and the reason of this change could be that of saturation of the concept of the atomic age and what it could bring to human civilization. Also a merging of military expertise and foreign politics could have played a part in this and a general relaxation of the superpowers foreign politics which meant that the war that was expected and planned for by the military advisers was more and more unlikely to occur.

Sedan slutet av andra världskriget har förhandlingar förts om massförstörelsevapen och deras fara för vår värld. Trots förhandlingar som har genomförts är det endast biologiska och kemiska vapen det finns totalförbud mot. Kärnvapen härjar fortfarande fritt bland världens fem officiella kärnvapenstater: USA, Ryssland, Kina, Storbritannien och Frankrike. Uppsatsen är en kvalitativ textanalys med information framförallt från förhandlingar om nedrustning.  Syfte med uppsatsen är att jämföra kärnvapenstaternas uttalande gentemot biologiska vapen, kemiska vapen och kärnvapen. Resultatet visade sig att samtliga stater varit för totalförbud av kemiska och biologiska vapen men när det gäller kärnvapen är det endast Kina som har varit tydlig i sin åsikt. Med maktbalansteori som utgångspunkt i analysen visade det sig, att kärnvapen som är det sista massförstörelsevapen länderna har kvar, är svårare att för staterna att förbjuda en de två tidigare vapentyperna.

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Abstract This essay discusses the negotiation of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) and the process that led up to a signed agreement. The CTBT forbids all nuclear weapon test explosions and all other types of nuclear explosions. The purpose of the study was to distinguish the critical steps of the negotiations that resulted in the success of the CTBT. Based on these insights, my intention was to identify relevant events and actors in the process around the Fissile Material Cut-off Treaty (FMCT), which has been on the nuclear disarmament agenda for over a decade. Furthermore, my ambition was that the examination of the CTBT negotiation would give me some clarity in what the next step would be to get the FMCT back on track. By using the method of process tracing I intended to achieve the purpose of the essay. I found that the examination of the CTBT process was very helpful in understanding the complexity of multilateral negotiations and that it is not always possible to reach an agreement through completely fair deals. I think that the negotiation of an FMCT will be equally difficult provided the Conference on Disarmament does not decide to transform its structure and procedures.

This bachelor thesis takes off in Sweden's declared feminist foreign policy and how these ideas are found in relation to nuclear weapons. Traditional security policy today is characterized by a realistic perspective where states' power and security are placed at the top of the agenda. In contrast, the research field Feminist Security Studies often criticizes this view of security by pointing out that it is national security that is being discussed, not human security. The aim of the study is to discern what kind of security policy is portrayed in the inquiry and intends to answer the question,how is the inquiry presented in relation to feminist and traditional security policy? By using idea analysis as method and ideal types as a tool of analysis, the aim is to be able to understand what ideas regarding security that can be distinguished in the material, which is Utredning av konsekvenserna av ett Svenskt tillträde till konventionen om förbud mot kärnvapen (Inquiry of the consequences of a Swedish entry into the Convention on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons). The data is collected through qualitative and quantitative content analysis and is presented in tables and charts. The study shows that Sweden has a realistic view of the international system in which the state is portrayed as the central actor which should be protected from possible threats. The threats that are portrayed in the inquiry are mainly those that threaten to harm the state's sovereignty. Despite Sweden's pronounced feminist foreign policy, nor women or the people of the state are hardly mentioned. However, we can discern feminist ideas when it comes to what measures to take to maintain security, where cooperation and disarmament are highlighted as two central parts. The study contributes to increased insight into Sweden's view of security and the declared feminist foreign policy and how it works in practice. The result of the study shows the importance of trying to integrate the feminist foreign policy in more parts of the Foreign Ministry's work.

On September 3rd 2017, North Korea conducted its sixth nuclear test that spread fear around the world. North Korea has used its nuclear capabilities in an aggressive manner for thirty years and researchers disagree on what purposes are behind the state’s nuclear policy. This debate must be discussed more thoroughly to be able to handle North Korea and other small nuclear states in the future.  This paper aims to further contribute to the understanding of North Korea’s nuclear policy by studying the North Korean actions from 1992 when nuclear suspicions rose to the Korean crisis 2017. By using a process tracing method with three theories about nuclear usage the study will give an increased insight regarding the debate. To get a wider perspective an interview was conducted with Hans Blix, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who has visited North Korea.  The main analytical result was that North Korea’s nuclear policy showed a high level of congruence with all three of the theories but the intensity differed on different periods in time. This conclusion can contribute to further research on North Korea and other small nuclear states.

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