Syrian Civil War has been occupying the international agenda since the year 2011. Despite the fact that most of the attention is paid to the conflict itself, peace processes are part of the international competition on Syrian arena, as well. For this reason, the thesis attempts to examine two major peace tracks: Astana and Geneva processes. The former is established among Russia-Turkey-Iran trio in late 2016 and functions as a regional mediation ground while the latter is led by the top world organization, the UN, as a ground for international actors with substantial interest in the Near East. Astana's relatively better performance in reaching certain outcomes is analyzed with hypotheses derived from three core International Relations theories: Realism, Liberalism and Constructivism. In this regard, those assumptions analyze actors that are involved in the conflict within the framework of their relevant peace track. According to the conducted analyses, findings indicate that realist hypothesis is better at explaining Astana's "fruitfulness" than the other assumptions- especially field-level agreements but not the broader cooperation among the Astana trio. Hence, Geneva track with higher level of international participation carries greater importance for an ultimate resolution to the conflict.

The role of civil society in conflict resolution has moved from the margins to the core of analyses of peace processes. However, existing literature has put little attention on examining the contribution of civil society in the implementation of peace agreements in the immediate time upon their conclusion. I aim to fill this gap by asking “How does the mode of civil society inclusion during the pre-agreement stage influence the degree of civil society participation in the implementation of peace agreements?”. I argue that when civil society can directly influence the peace talks by having a seat at the negotiation table this can have downstream effects on how much they will be involved in the implementation of the agreed provisions. The research question is answered in the context of a qualitative study of the cases of the peace process in Mozambique and El Salvador, through the method of structured focused comparison. The findings do not support this expectation. The analysis rather indicates that direct participation is not enough for civil society actors to ensure continuity in their participation, and more substantive engagement and ownership might be needed.

In recent times we have seen coalitions of fiscally conservative member states who have sought to block further financial integration. Despite their small size, these states have come together and taken on the rest of the European Union with much success. They have had to do this since Brexit has cost them a large and powerful ally, the United Kingdom. With growing support for more integration in Germany and France, smaller states who object to further integration have had to stop their interest from being ignored. The thesis makes use of Liberal Intergovernmentalism, Rational Choice andTwo-Level Game Theory to develop the analysis. The method used is historical, which allows the question to be answered by looking at the patterns and motivations of previous coalitions. The analysis shows how coalitions, due to the distribution of power amongst member states, are necessary for small states in having their say. The analysis also looks at how these coalitions come together, how they alter the power and approach of the small states to the negotiation table. Using the case of the Frugal Four, this thesis determines the value of coalitions and attempts to determine whether coalitions are the way forward in EU negotiations due to the large UK- shaped power vacuum left over by Brexit. This thesis sees that resulting from the power shift strongly favouring the pro-integration forces and the large states coalitions offer the only means for small states to avoid having their interest ignored. The coalition also offers long term assurance for these states in the pursuit of their national preferences.

Being the world’s largest greenhouse gas emitter and second largest economy, China’s role in international climate negotiations has been the topic of much heated debate over the past 10 years. However, few studies have sought to understand China ́s role in the Global Environmental Governance and Chinese leadership therefore remains a lacuna in need of further investigation. This generates one central question: How does leadership theory bring insight into China ́s role in the international climate change negotiations? The research is designed as a qualitative case study, applying an analytical framework by Young (1991). A content analysis in conjunction with the analytical framework is applied to policy documents, speeches and official reports produced by the Chinese Government, UNFCCC and IISD as a way to understand China ́s negotiation strategies and climate change goals. The findings suggest that China has shown weak leadership during the climate summit in 2009, since there was a huge lack of leadership capabilities applied in their negotiation strategies. However, in 2015 China met all leadership indicators to a certain degree and can therefore be seen to have exercised strong leadership capabilities. It can therefore be argued, that China has become a leading actor in the climate change regime due to their shift in negotiation approach from 2009 to 2015, through their influence and position in shaping the global climate change agenda.

The global exchange of goods has in recent years made cultural intelligence an important success factor conducting business over cross-cultural boundaries. Due to lack of cultural competence, several mistakes in international business have been made. Previously studies of cultural intelligence have been carried out in controlled settings and not in day-to-day life. Further, authors for these studies point out that more empirical studies need to be carried out in the subject and in an uncontrolled environment.The purpose of this study is to find out what criteria are important and successful for Swedish professional sellers and buyers when they are conducting international negotiations. If possible, these criteria will then relate to the relevant capabilities of CQ to add validity to the concept. Furthermore, the study also aims to answer if the criteria mentioned by the professionals are applicable with Hofstede's dimensions (Hofstede, 2011) as well as the Context Culture model by Hall (1976). The participants for the study are five individuals from different companies located in Sweden. The participants have previous experience from conducting international business ranging from six to 35 years.The result of this study shows that cultural intelligence is beneficial when it comes to conducting international negotiation. This is presented in the form of important criteria from the respondents, these criteria are explained through the respondent’s own words and then reinterpreted by the authors using theoretical concepts, an example of this is Preparation. Further, the findings present validity to some of the conceptual benefits that previously lacked empirical validity such as collaboration and decision making.

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Contemporary peace and conflict research has come to discount the potential effects of the goals rebels pursue in both conflict and negotiation. Rather than probing the issues parties fight over, research has focused on the conditions surrounding conflict settlement as an explanation for why parties decide to either defect or comply. To address this lacuna a goal approach that is rooted in both the issue tradition and psychological research is proposed. Where it is argued that the decision to defect is caused by the share of goal attainment a party is able ensure in a settlement. Such that more goals rebels are able to fulfil the less likely they are to defect. It is also argued that it interacts with the rebels’ relative capability, and consequently more capable rebels will require a larger share of goal attainment to comply than those less capable relative the government. The hypotheses are probed utilising logistic regression and multiverse analysis on a novel dataset on rebel goal attainment in dyadic settlements between 1989 and 2013 in Africa. Where the first hypothesis about a negative relationship between goal attainment and defection is supported by the data, but the interaction cannot be supported.

This thesis aims to examine how Covid-19 affected international business negotiations. This paper uses empirical data collected from four international companies from different industries. The respondents from the companies have different roles, in this case, procurement managers, sales manager, and marketing manager. The findings show that the Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalization and the adoption of digital tools in international business negotiations. Furthermore, the increased digitalization as a result of Covid-19 normalized the use of digital tools in international business negotiations. Additionally, the findings show that the international business negotiation process is less divided and has a better flow with more frequent interactions as a result of the adoption of digital tools. The findings further show when conducting international business negotiations online the cultural differences are less evident due to the difficulties of body language and cultural customs in an online environment. According to the findings, maintaining international business relationships are now easier with the use of digital tools that allow more frequent meaningful communication. Lastly, the thesis concludes with the theoretical and practical implications as well as suggestions for future research.

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This thesis seeks to examine the construction of legitimization strategies in Chinese state-run media connected to China’s role and efforts in international climate change negotiations. To understand how authoritarian environmentalism is legitimized, i.e., constructed, the thesis uses discourse analysis and three legitimization strategies to analyze the material and found that China is being legitimized through emphasizes on how China is a capable, responsible, and committed climate actor. It shows how China is perceived as a potential climate leader with the ability to lead the international climate community. The thesis also found that the Chinese state-run newspaper shifts blame surrounding historical emissions and sufficient change onto developed countries. Lastly, the thesis also shows how two of the strategies are being enhanced by a third strategy by using quotes from elites to validate the claims made in the state-run newspaper. The findings in this study are important because it can give a deeper understanding of how authoritarian environmentalism can be constructed as an effective approach for dealing with the threat of climate change and how authoritarian regimes can maintain power without using coercive measures.