This study has aimed to examine the rapid change in the issue of the Swedish conscription. In the year 2009 the government decided to abandon the national conscription and replace it with a professional army. However, in 2014 the minister of defence announced that the government would investigate the possibilities of bringing the national conscription back. John Kingdons Multiple Stream Theory aims to reveal the process of “knowing when an idea ́s time has come”, and has been applied to several policyprocesses spanning over a longer time-period. This study has a twofold purpose: to examine whether the theory can be applied to a case of rapid policy change and whether it can help explain a case of rapid change in existing policy. The method chosen in this study is processtracing through a qualitative method. The study concludes that the theory is indeed applicable to a case of rapid policy change and that the content and nature of the problemstream (what appears to be the problem) can be one explanation to rapid change in existing policy.

Doctoral thesis Regional Transition - From Conflict to Cooperation examines the transformation of world regions from non-cooperative to. It brings reconceptualization of the peaceful change, which it understands as a continuum - negative peace, positive peace, and security community. This understanding builds on the existing literature on peaceful change, yet the conceptualization of the stages is innovated. The main goal of this dissertation is to capture the dynamic process of transition from negative to positive peace, and from positive peace to the security community. It uses findings from the literature on peaceful changes and trust-building to build two comprehensive mechanisms of transition that are subsequently traced with the method of process-tracing in two cases of the region for each type of transition. The focus is on the entities and activities producing the qualitative change in the regional relations. For the transition from negative to positive peace, Western Balkans in the period from 1999 to 2011, and Southeast Asia from 1966 to 2003 are chosen. For the transition from positive peace to the security community, Western Europe (1957-2004) and North America (1940s- 2011) are chosen.