Todos los días escuchamos algún tipo de noticia relacionada a la violencia que se ejerce sobre las mujeres, desde el feminicidio, como forma más extrema de violencia, hasta el acoso que se da en las calles. Sin duda, la violencia hacia la mujer se ha convertido en tema de discusión, que genera indignación y rechazo en la opinión pública cuando se trata de manifestaciones explícitas, como la violencia física y sexual. Sin embargo, existe aún “razones” compartidas en la sociedad que justificarían la violencia ejercida sobre las mujeres o que influiría en que no sea tan condenable. / Tesis

Todos los días escuchamos algún tipo de noticia relacionada a la violencia que se ejerce sobre las mujeres, desde el feminicidio, como forma más extrema de violencia, hasta el acoso que se da en las calles. Sin duda, la violencia hacia la mujer se ha convertido en tema de discusión, que genera indignación y rechazo en la opinión pública cuando se trata de manifestaciones explícitas, como la violencia física y sexual. Sin embargo, existe aún “razones” compartidas en la sociedad que justificarían la violencia ejercida sobre las mujeres o que influiría en que no sea tan condenable.

Neoclassical realism has the ability to advance our understanding of foreign policy responses through the recently designed neoclassical realist model. However as international relations have proven, a theory is not a concrete motionless design. Improvements can be made and the fluidity of theory allows social sciences to adapt and advance. This thesis introduces developments to neoclassical realism by stating that the individual factors and intervening variables hold varying degrees of importance that alter between each foreign policy decision. There is no overarching set of instructions for 'foreign policy', rather an adaptable model that takes into consideration the geopolitical arena, the state and the statesman. The case study chosen for this thesis is the Russian foreign policy response to annex Crimea from Ukraine in 2014. Analysis and comparisons of the variables resulted in three factors standing out as most significant. The most important influence within the systemic stimuli was the nature of the strategic environment and the window of opportunity that arose in Crimea due to Ukrainian political and military instability. The intervening variable leader images proved to be the decisive factor, as the consolidation of power by Vladimir Putin allowed the annexation to be completed...

The thesis identifies and further examines the role of propaganda in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, more specifically in the period around the annexation of the Crimean peninsula by the Russian Federation in March 2014. Critical discourse analysis is employed in order to analyse selected speeches of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, relevant to the topic and in the period under investigation. The first chapter introduces a theoretical framework on propaganda in international relations, its definition, history and research. The methodology is described in detail in the second chapter. The historical context of the conflict is provided at the beginning of the empirical part of the thesis closely followed by a detailed analysis of the selected speeches. The findings support the prediction that there is a presence of propaganda identified within the speeches of both political leaders, thus in the conflict itself, and offer valuable insights into the hidden meanings and possible motives behind its use. The study advances our understanding of the phenomenon and helps us to expose and confront propaganda further.