What is the motive of the Russian invasion of Ukraine? Is Kreml seaking security or power? The topic will be discussed from the perspective of offensive and defensive realism, which is based on John Mearsheimer, Stephen Walt and Kenneth Waltz thoughts and ideas. The thesis has also studied the war in Georgia and Syria in an attempt to find similarities with today's war in Ukraine. The thesis is structured as a comparative case study with a theory testing element with an main focus of explaining the invasion from offensive and defensive realism. The thesis can conclude that the motive behind the invasion could be explained by both theories with a clear predominance of a desire for power.

In the light of the ongoing war in Ukraine, the present study has studied the swedish upper secondary school students' perceptions of the subject of social studies. More precisely, the purpose of the study has been to investigate whether the students feel that the subject of social studies - and teaching has been of any use in terms of understanding the prevailing external situation. In the case of the study, the focus group interview has become the methodology that the undersigned found particularly relevant to the purpose of the study [...].

Libraries in Ukraine have been profoundly affected by the ongoing Russian invasion. But more than that, they are constrained by their historical colonial heritage as a Soviet institution which was used by the Moscow regime as a propaganda tool to exert control, both politically and culturally – not least in the form of Russification, which in the context of Ukrainian libraries took the form of a predominance of Russian-language books in place of Ukrainian. The present thesis aims to explore how Ukrainian libraries cope with the current war situation, how they are affected by and come to terms with their problematic past, and how these issues may relate.The study uses ethnographic methods to describe 11 libraries in Western Ukraine in 2023. The findings are discussed against a theoretical background of sociolinguistics, knowledge organization and postcolonial theory. It describes the libraries’ infrastructure problems, the continuing presence of huge Soviet-Russian collections, and the ongoing mass weeding of these collections during the war. The thesis suggests that Ukrainian libraries face five structural problems beyond the impact of the war: poor collections, lack of infrastructure and funding, administrative peculiarities, government regulations, and the catalogues and classifications. Especially, the need for more and relevant books is a pressing and fundamental concern. Two positive developments are suggested to have taken place during the war: ongoing reversal of the colonial heritage through the mass weeding efforts, and a popularization of the libraries through social initiatives relating to the war effort. / Bibliotek i Ukraina har blivit djupt påverkade av den pågående ryska invasionen. Men vad mer är har de varit kringskurna av sitt historiska koloniala arv som en sovjetisk institution som Moskva-regimen använde som ett propagandaverktyg för att utöva kontroll, både politiskt och kulturellt – inte minst i form av russifiering, vilken i de ukrainska biblioteket tog sig uttryck i en predominans av ryskspråkiga böcker på bekostnad av ukrainska. Den föreliggande uppsatsen ämnar att utforska hur ukrainska bibliotek hanterar den pågående krigssituationen, hur de påverkas av och handskas med sitt problematiska förflutna, och hur dessa frågor kan vara relaterade till varandra.Studien använder etnografiska metoder för att beskriva 11 bibliotek i västra Ukraina år 2023. Resultatendiskuteras utifrån en teoretisk bakgrund av sociolingvistik, kunskapsorganisation och postkolonial teori. Den beskriver bibliotekens infrastrukturproblem, den fortsatta närvaron av enorma sovjetryska samlingar samt den under kriget pågående massgallringen av dessa samlingar. Uppsatsen framställer att ukrainska bibliotek ställs inför fem strukturella problem utöver krigets inverkan: undermåliga samlingar, avsaknaden av infrastruktur och finansiering, administrativa egenheter, statliga regelverk samt kataloger och klassifikationer. I synnerhet är behovet av fler och relevanta böcker en tryckande och fundamental angelägenhet. Två positiva utvecklingar föreslås ha ägt rum under kriget: en pågående uppgörelse med det koloniala arvet genom ansatserna till massgallring, samt en popularisering av biblioteken genom sociala initiativ relaterade till krigsinsatsen.

Fastighetssektorn har traditionellt betraktats som en stabil och långsiktig investering. Trots detta har sektorn vid upprepande tillfällen påverkats av ekonomiska kriser, vilket har belysts under flera historiska perioder. Denna studie undersöker de finansiella strategier som sex stycken svenska börsnoterade fastighetsbolag har implementerat för att hantera ekonomiska svängningar orsakade av ränteförändringar, Covid-19-pandemin och Ukraina-kriget under perioden 2018-2023. Syftet är att ta reda på vilka finansiella strategier som tagits fram samt hur bolagens nyckeltal har påverkat deras aktiekurs. Studien använder sig av både kvantitativa och kvalitativa metoder. Resultaten visar att majoriteten av fastighetsbolagen har anpassat sina strategier beroende på rådande marknadsförhållanden. Under pandemin utnyttjade de lägre räntor för att expandera sina fastighetsportföljer genom förmånliga lånevillkor. När räntorna senare steg på grund av inflation och ökade osäkerheter från kriget i Ukraina, skiftade bolagen sitt fokus mot att säkra stabila hyresintäkter och refinansiera sina lån. Fastighetsbolagens kapitalstrukturer har ändrats under åren, från att ha finansierat sig från både banker och kapitalmarknad har man istället gått över till mer traditionell bankfinansiering. Beroende på hur hög bolagens belåningsgrad har varit har förvärv och avyttringar påverkats. Vidare framkom det att bolagens nyckeltal har haft en påverkan på deras aktiekurs. / The real estate sector has traditionally been considered a stable and long-term investment. Despite this, the sector has repeatedly been affected by economic crises, which have been highlighted during several historical periods. This study investigates the financial strategies six Swedish-listed real estate companies implemented to manage economic fluctuations caused by interest rate changes, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the war in Ukraine from 2018- 2023. The purpose is to find out which financial strategies have been developed and how the companies' key figures have affected their stock price. The study employs both quantitative and qualitative methods. The results indicate that the majority of real estate companies have adjusted their strategies based on current market conditions. During the pandemic, they took advantage of lower interest rates to expand their property portfolios through favourable loan terms. When interest rates later rose due to inflation and increased uncertainties from the war in Ukraine, the companies shifted their focus towards securing stable rental income and refinancing their loans. The capital structures of real estate companies have changed over the years; they have shifted from financing through both banks and capital markets to relying more on traditional bank financing. Depending on the companies' leverage ratios, acquisitions and divestments have been impacted. Furthermore, it was found that the companies' key figures have had an impact on their stock prices.

This study explores the development of a Western firm's subsidiary in the Ukraine and sets out to contribute to the theoretical development about the managing of subsidiaries in the Post-Soviet market. The cross-institutional approach to analyse the subsidiary has been adopted to explore influence from the institutional setting of the parent firm and from local institutions. In the theoretical framework, special attention is directed to studies analysing the challenges that Western firms encounter when operating in the Post-Soviet market. Institutional theory therefore serves as a framework for theories on market entries, networks and management transfers.The empirical study is based on a case study conducted in connection to a training project for local employees of a Western firm's subsidiary operating in the Ukraine. Besides being a source of inspiration, the training project provided good access to respondents and insights about the challenges that the subsidiary faced.The analysis shows that the introduction of the Western firm's management in the subsidiary reflects in the local employees' forming of identities. A clear pattern is that local employees' development of identities in line with the Western firm's norms is supported by socialisation in settings dominated by the Western firm. A setting dominated by conflicts between Western and local norms, in contrast, resulted in developments of conflict identities. The analysis of the subsidiary's managing of influences from the local institutional setting indicates that this concerned filtering. Striking was that the subsidiary was successful in managing influences when the filtering conditions were characterised by consonance. Looking into aspects making the filtering of external influences difficult, the analysis points out barter trade and local actors' boundary spanning towards authorities in the Ukrainian society as aspects creating dissonances and vacuum. Thus, influences characterised by dissonance and/or vacuum made it particularly difficult for the subsidiary to manage these influences.One of the major contributions of this thesis is the cross-institutional approach to analyse developments in a subsidiary in the Post-Soviet market. By applying this approach the study suggests that the managing of a cross-institutional setting concerns both internal and external boundary spanning. Of vital importance for the internal boundary spanning are issues influencing local employees' forming of a 'we' with the Western firm's representatives. The standpoint is that this concerns local employees' identity identification, which is a new perspective on management transfers towards a subsidiary in the Post-Soviet market. Concerning the managing of external boundary spanning, the study points towards the importance of observing local actors' ways of dealing with dissonances and vacuum in local networks. / digitalisering@umu

This essay seeks to evaluate whether or not  the war in Crimea, conducted by the Russian Federation, is to be considered “just”. This is done in accordance with the theory of Just war, which demands that there be two separate evaluations of the war. Firstly the reasons and actions that lead up to the war must be evaluated if they fulfill the demands set up by the theory, this is called “Jud ad bellum”. Next, the conduct once in the war must be evaluated if it fulfills the demands set up in the theory, this is called “jus in bello”. The Russian occupation of Crimea was not following a declaration of war, was against several international agreements and the war was not a last resort after attempts of diplomatic solutions  all of these actions violate key demands of jus ad bellum. Going through reports by various human rights organizations on the matter, the demands set up by “jus in bello” are determined to not be satisfied, mostly due to the Russian use of torture on prisoners to subtract incriminating information for use in court against prisoners of war.

The usage of the word oligarch has been growing rapidly in Swedish newspapers since the fall of the Soviet Union. In this study, I will examine the way Swedish newspapers have been using the word, in what I asses as a biased way.     Previous research has shown that the word is applicable in a much wider space, and that other countries or parts of the world contains cases of oligarchs. The word oligarch is actually old, it comes from ancient Greece and its renowned philosophers, originally made up to describe when the power of a democracy lies in the hands of only a few. Today, it seems that the word has been heavily associated (almost exclusively), with Russian businessmen. Many whom made their fortune during the turmoil between the collapse of the Soviet Union and the republic of Russia switching from a communist economy to a capitalistic state.    There lies certain power in actions, as so in words. To misinterpret, applicate or to use words and situations with the intention of self-advocacy could be dangerous, especially when done so by a force capable of influencing the minds of the masses. The words we use affect our way of interpreting things, in turn, how people interpret, think and conversate about topics and such are called discourse. Critical discourse analysis works as a theory, or method to critically examine the ways that we discuss about these so-called discourses, and how the debate about the topics develop in our society.    Ultimately, by looking into the way three big and influential Swedish newspapers reported on the topic of oligarchs for almost thirty years, we will see how the discourse of the oligarchs develop. This study will work as an insight into the actual discourse and shed light on how institutions such as our news reporting need to be consistently checked in order to be held accountable before their presentation. It is important as it affects the way that we think and interact with each other. Ultimately, from a historical perspective, active discourses like these are things that can put dirty stains on our history. Instead of keeping them alive, we should remind ourselves of our preconceptions, to avoid further alienation amongst people.

Kriget i Ukraina har nu pågått i mer än ett år och medfört stort lidande, framför allt för den ukrainska civilbefolkningen. Detta krig orsakar även omfattande skador på miljön och olika icke-mänskliga aktörer inom denna. Vilket övervakas och rapporteras av både ukrainska myndigheter och internationella forskare. Kriget är mycket välbevakat av internationell massmedia, vars rapporter gällande kriget och effekterna av det utgör det grundläggande materialet för denna kritiska diskursanalys. Syftet med denna analys var att identifiera vilka värden som diskuterades av media och om krigets miljöpåverkan inkluderades i denna diskussion. Vidare syftade en fördjupning inom analysen till att undersöka om det fanns kunskapsluckor i mediediskursen gällande krigets miljöpåverkans potentiella effekter på de värden som bedömdes som centrala i diskursen. Analysen genomfördes på ett material bestående av 10 texter som hämtats från Svenska Dagbladets ledarsida. Inom analysen identifierades 10 värden; Hälsa, Ekonomi, Kultur, Politik, Internationell handel, Miljö, Religion, Samhällsfunktioner, Mänskliga rättigheter och Krigsförbrytelser. Analysen gjordes utifrån ett teoretiskt ramverk baserat på politisk ekologi, posthumanism samt teorier kring diskurs respektive ecocide som begrepp. Detta pekade på att samtliga 10 värden diskuterades ur ett rent antropocentriskt och humanistiskt perspektiv. I den fördjupade analysen diskuteras det faktum att det förekommer kunskapsluckor i diskursen, och att potentiella miljörelaterade hot har identifierats som relevanta gällande diskursen för 7 av de 10 värdena. Hälsa, Mänskliga rättigheter, Ekonomi, Internationell handel, Politik, Miljö och Krigsförbrytelser. Hoten förekommer främst i form av omfattande kemiska föroreningar samt topografiska och hydrologiska störningar. Vidare diskuteras även möjligheterna för lagföring av krigsförbrytelser i form av grova miljöbrott via den juridiska definitionen av ecocide. / The war in Ukraine have now been waged for over a year and caused great suffering, especially for the civilian population. But it also causes great damage to the en-vironment and non-human actors within it. Which is being monitored and reported by both Ukrainian authorities and international researchers. The war is well covered by international media, whose reports regarding the war and its effects is the material for this Critical Discourse Analysis. The objective of this study was to identify what values were being discussed by the media, and if the environmental ef-fects were portrayed. The analysis further explored the more in-depth question regarding if the environmental effects of the war could pose a risk to the values that were deemed central within the media discourse. The analysis was conducted upon a material consisting of 10 texts, collected from the editorial pages of the newspaper Svenska Dagbladet. During the analysis 10 values were identified: Health, Econ-omy, Culture, Politics, International Trade, Environment, Religion, Community func-tions, Human rights, and War crimes. The analysis was conducted using a theoretical framework consisting of political ecology, posthumanism and theories regarding the terms discourse and ecocide. The analysis pointed to the fact that all 10 values were discussed from a purely anthropocentric and humanism-based perspective. Within the in-depth analysis the discussion states that there are knowledge gaps in the discourse, and that potential environmental threats can be identified as relevant to the discourse regarding 7 of the 10 values. Health, Human rights, Economy, International Trade, Politics, Environment, and War crimes. The threats mainly consist of extensive chemical pollution and topographic and hydrological disturbances. Furthermore, the discussion also includes the possibilities of prosecution of war crimes in the form of large scale environmental crime, through the juridic definition of ecocide.

During the war in Ukraine, technical and tactical innovation in the deployment of commercial drones for IRS and strike missions, and artillery spotting have been witnessed. This study aims to create a better understanding of evolving UAS capability and create a use-case forecasting UAS capability in five years. The research uses a combination of empirical data through two case studies in combination with interviews, collecting the perspective of four researchers and experts in the fields. The forecasted UAS capability use-case describes a multilayer use of aerial platforms of different sizes, performances, and specifications, which makes aerial IRS and strike capability available at lower tactical levels. Other aspects in the use-case are artificial intelligence that supports data processing in networking surveillance, command and control system, and autonomous navigation. Implications for UAS capability in an electronic warfare environment and implications for countermeasure deployments are discussed. The results presented in the study are generic and should be complemented with further studies, which through scenario-based research can create clear recommendations to specific actors linked to UAS capability. / Under kriget i Ukraina har tekniska och taktiska innovationer bevittnats när det gäller användande av kommersiella drönare för IRS och bekämpningsuppdraguppdrag, och eldledning av artilleri. Syftet med studien är att bidra till bättre förståelse för utvecklingen av UAS-förmåga och att skapa ett användningsfall där UAS-förmåga om fem år beskrivs. Studien tillämpar empirisk data genom två fallstudier, i kombination med intervjuer som inkluderar perspektivet från fyra forskare och experter inom området. Det prognostiserade användningsfallet för UAS-förmåga beskriver en flerskiktsanvändning av flygplattformar av olika storlek, prestanda och specifikationer, vilket gör flyg- IRS och slagförmåga tillgänglig på lägre taktisk nivå. Andra aspekter i användningsfallet är artificiell intelligens som stödjer databehandling i ett nätverksövervaknings- och kommando- och kontrollsystem, samt autonom navigering. Implikationer för UAS-kapacitet i en elektronisk krigföringsmiljö och implikationer för utplacering av motåtgärder diskuteras. Resultaten presenterade i studien är generiska och bör kompletteras med ytterligare studier, som genom scenariobaseradforskning kan skapa tydligare rekommendationer till specifika aktörer kopplade till UAS-förmåga.

The supply chain is the underlying process which enablescompanies and customers to exchange goods and services. Centralto a functional supply chain is its resilience against disruptions.Resilience in the supply chain is its capability to prevent, manageand recover from disruptions. The last couple of years has beencharacterized by events that have caused disturbances in the supplychain. This study is set to research how two Swedish companieshave managed three specific disruptions, the Covid-19 pandemic,the blocking of the Suez Canal and the ongoing war in Ukraine. Thepurpose of this paper is to contribute with knowledge and researchabout resilience in the supply chain and how companies can adaptin a volatile world with unpredictable events that may occur. Themethod used consists of semi-structured interviews with the casecompanies and collection of literature and previous research withinthe research area. The results from the study presents that thecompany operating in the retail industry main strategy is tomaintain a transparent communication to its suppliers as well ascustomers in order to maintain a high level of certainty in its supplychain. The company operating in the forest industry explained inthe interview that the company prioritizes a high level of self-sufficiency in raw materials, energy and transportation in order tomaintain a high level of certainty in the supply chain. The resultalso explains that cooperation between the three abilities, prevent,manage and recover from disruptions is the foundation tomaintaining a high level of certainty in the supply chain. The studycontributes with insights on how companies are affected by andmanage the ongoing situation in Ukraine, with the supply chain as astarting point. / Försörjningskedjan är den bakomliggande processen som möjliggörför utbyte av varor och tjänster mellan företag och kunder. Centraltför en fungerande försörjningskedja är att den är resilient motstörningar. Resiliens i försörjningskedjan handlar om förmågan attförebygga, hantera och återhämta sig från störningar. De senasteåren har präglats av händelser som har orsakat störningar iförsörjningskedjan. Denna studie undersöker hur två svenskaföretag har hanterat tre specifika störningar, Covid-19 pandemin,stoppet i Suezkanalen samt det pågående kriget i Ukraina. Syftetmed detta arbete är att bidra till kunskapen och forskningen omresiliens i försörjningskedjor och hur företag kan anpassa sig till envolatil värld med oförutsägbara händelser som uppstår. Metodenutgörs av semistrukturerade intervjuer med fallföretagen ochinsamling av litteratur samt tidigare forskning inomforskningsområdet. Studiens resultat visar att företaget som verkarinom livsmedelsindustrin främst arbetar med att bibehållatransparent kommunikation till sina leverantörer och kunder för attupprätthålla en hög nivå av tillförlitlighet i sin försörjningskedja.Företaget som verkar i skogsindustrin anger i intervjun att företagetprioriterar en hög självförsörjningsgrad på råvaror, energi ochtransport för att upprätthålla en hög nivå av tillförlitlighet iförsörjningskedjan. Studiens resultat redogör dessutom attsamverkan mellan de tre förmågorna, förebygga, hantera ochåterhämta sig från störningar är grunden till att uppnå hög nivå avtillförlitlighet i försörjningskedjan. Studien bidrar bland annat medinsikter om hur företag påverkas och bemöter den rådandesituationen i Ukraina med försörjningskedjan som utgångspunkt.