Som följd av Rysslands invasion av Ukraina har Sveriges säkerhetspolitik varit högt upp på dagordningen. Därför undersöker uppsatsen varför Sverige skickade stöd till Ukraina efter den ryska invasionen. Frågeställningen som besvaras är "På vilka sätt kan realismen och liberalismen förklara varför den svenska regeringen valde att skicka stöd till Ukraina?" Och på vilka sätt har realismen och liberalismen påverkat det praktiska genomförandet av svenskt stöd till Ukraina?" Material som har varit grunden för undersökningen är presskonferenser och pressmeddelande från Sveriges regering. Teorin som styr analysen är två idétraditioner, realism och liberalism. Metoden som används är kvalitativ textanalys, där materialet klassificeras och sedan analyseras kritiskt utifrån idétraditionerna. Tidigare forskning visar på att realism och liberalism har haft påverkan på länders agerande i krig genom historien. Realismen har förklarat Rysslands agerande mot Ukraina vid annekteringen av Krimhalvön. Det grundade sig i den ryska statens rädsla för hotet mot statens överlevnad, och den ryska statens makt runt om i världen. USA:s ändamål med kriget mot Irak var enligt liberalismen, spridningen av den amerikanska demokratin och friheten. Uppsatsens slutsats ser likheter mellan Sveriges agerande och Rysslands agerande. Den svenska statens överlevnad är hotad, enligt realismen, på grund av Ryssland invasion av Ukraina. Liberalismens förklaring är hotet mot den europeiska säkerhetsordningen som därmed påverkar Sverige.

The study aims to analyze the two largest daily newspapers in Sweden, Dagens Nyheter and Svenska Dagbladet, and their portrayal of Ukrainian refugees. A critical discourse analysis analyzes 184 articles published between March 16 - April 24, 2022, and July 16 - September 30, 2022. A quantitative content analysis complements the analysis, where specific recurring characteristics and themes in the articles are quantified. Theories of social representation, social constructionism, Orientalism, and news value criteria form the theoretical framework of the study. The study results show that the media describes Ukrainian refugees in terms of their geographical and cultural proximity to Sweden. The media values the Ukrainian refugees as an asset, emphasizing the ideological similarities between the countries and why the refugees deserve to come to and remain in Sweden. Other common descriptions underlining the helplessness and vulnerability of the refugees often involve critiques directed toward the Swedish government and authorities. The results are interesting because they contrast with previous research and correlate strongly with the theoretical frameworks regarding media discourse on refugees. It is also interesting from a power perspective, where media representations and language use can affect the legal and moral obligations receiving states and societies feel toward refugees.

The difficulty garnering compensation for environmental destruction from climate change and armed conflicts has made states and organizations question whether international legal systems can protect the environment during peace or war. The case study compares how Ukraine, Azerbaijan, and the United Nations Environment Programme frame the environmental implications of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and Armenia's occupation of Azerbaijan. The aim is to explore how states invoke environmental war crimes or environmental concerns to gain advantages in conflict resolution and whether international organizations change or adapt to help states obtain environmental justice. The results are obtained by combining the theory of environmental conflicts described by Fisher (2022a) and the national/international climate and security discourse described by McDonald (2018). The case study uses framing analysis to identify environmental problems in speeches, statements to the media, letters, reports, and press releases. The main findings indicate that Ukraine has gained more support in its fight for environmental justice than Azerbaijan. Although both states used similar frames and tactics in their environmental drivers, Ukraine's ability to continuously prove its seriousness about environmental destruction sets it apart from Azerbaijan. As terms like ecocide and eco-terror become more internationally recognized, states can use them to push international organizations to make legal changes about environmental justice. However, there is also a risk that states use the need for environmental justice to improve their international reputation in the aftermath of an armed conflict.

The intent of this thesis is to explore why when compared to the former Soviet Republics of Ukraine and Georgia there is a measure of stability in Kazakhstan. Kazakhstan has made it a priority to slowly build a sense of its own nationalism after decades of Soviet control. In over 20 years of independence it has only known violence for an 18-month period. The Republic of Kazakhstan has gone from the leftovers from a dissolved empire to a stable regional power. Kazakhstan’s hegemony in Asia and peaceful ethnic-governmental relations has made it possible for Kazakhstan to have a multi-faceted foreign policy with Russia, China, and the United States and this paper will try to answer the question of how this has been possible.

Over the past two decades, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has enlarged several times to include a number of new countries. The first two case studies that are analyzed within this paper include key countries that were added in the 1999 and 2004 rounds of NATO enlargement: Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. The third case study takes a closer look at two countries, Ukraine and Georgia, that sought to become members of NATO but were denied Membership Action Plans (MAPs) because of Russian discontent and military intervention. It is questionable if Russia will use military force to disrupt the territorial sovereignty of future prospective NATO candidate countries. This paper aims to identify the trend between countries seeking NATO membership and Russian intervention within these countries. Poland joined NATO in 1999, and much to Moscow’s dislike, NATO’s borders expanded farther into Eastern Europe. The Baltic States, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, joined NATO in 2004, pushing the NATO border right against Russia’s northwestern front. This gave western alliances the ability to host military operations through NATO on the Russian border. It is apparent that Moscow has done everything in its power to prevent more countries that share a border with Russia from joining NATO. Only three months after the Bucharest Summit in 2008, Russia invaded two territories in Georgia. After the pro-Russian president in Ukraine was ousted in 2014, Russia invaded Eastern Ukraine and annexed the Crimean Peninsula. In order to be offered a MAP, the candidate country must have complete sovereignty over its territory. By invading key points within both Georgia and Ukraine, Russia was delaying their ability to become members of the security alliance. It is apparent that there is a connection between increased NATO collaboration with countries that border Russia, and military action taken upon those countries by Russia.

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This thesis addresses the regional perspective in the second largest city of Ukraine, Kharkiv, and investigates various self-identification strategies with a particular emphasis on the local and regional element. A specific time period was chosen, starting with the Orange Revolution in 2004 and ending with the month before the Russian invasion in 2022, with a target group consisting of Kharkiv politicians at both the state and local levels. The study was conducted by thematic analysis of interviews, speeches and other statements mainly from Ukrainian media sources in Russian during this period. As the result revealed, identification with the region was noticeable and often manifested under certain political circumstances. There was also a noticeable national-civic consciousness, especially among young politicians in the analyzed cohort. But the themes identified in this study strongly indicate attachment to both the region and the state community as the most prominent self-identification strategy. The results lead to the conclusion that it is necessary to conduct further research not only on the regional units of Ukraine, but also their content, which will contribute to a better understanding of the region within the framework of the nation-building process throughout Ukraine.

Why, despite the territorial fragmentation and unresolved conflicts in both countries, does NATO maintain a public commitment to a 2008 decision promising the future membership of Ukraine and Georgia? It can be argued that the "Bucharest decision" has prompted the very attack that NATO membership was meant to prevent. Russia has invaded both states to, among other things, prevent their likely incorporation in NATO. What causes publicly articulated military alliance policy aspirations to endure when they induce such geopolitical conflict, and geopolitical transformation, that it undermines their purpose? This dissertation takes these puzzles as its object of inquiry. The focus of the study is Ukraine and Georgia's partial integration into NATO from 2007 to 2020. This research uses the concepts of robust action and rhetorical action to examine the two countries' growing partnerships with the alliance during this period. It defines robust action as a series of ambiguous moves to achieve tactical goals while maintaining long term flexibility. Rhetorical action is defined as the strategic use of arguments to serve an agent's interests. By using a narrative analysis method, the study draws from a body of NATO official texts and speeches and a set of original interviews to illustrate the public and private narratives used by political and military officials to help them make sense of NATO's engagement with Ukraine and Georgia. Existing literature on NATO expansion has not addressed how the alliance has adapted the process of integrating aspirant countries short of membership. Moreover, the literature on robust action has not focused on how international security organizations like NATO can use ambiguous actions to tackle complex challenges and maintain flexibility. The study argues that NATO's engagement with Ukraine and Georgia since Bucharest constitutes a robust action strategy. Through a combination of rhetorical and material support, NATO has simultaneously been able to maintain the appearance of a commitment to the two countries, show Western resolve and solidarity in opposing Russia and sustaining the United States' preferred vision of Europe's security order, all while denying Ukraine and Georgia "full membership" in the alliance. Ukraine, Georgia, and their allies in NATO have used rhetorical action, arguments based on the self-defined liberal values and norms of the Euro-Atlantic community that NATO represents on the one hand, and the historical precedent of an open door policy toward membership, on the other, to rhetorically entrap NATO into staying committed. The study shows how multilateral commitments are more layered than the traditional membership/no membership choice and how NATO has been able to successfully maintain such a commitment through both rhetoric and action while avoiding a direct war with Russia. It concludes however that NATO's commitment is untenable for a military alliance based on defense and deterrence. This has implications for the future of NATO expansion and the overall trajectory of the alliance. / Doctor of Philosophy / The possibility of further expanding NATO to Ukraine and Georgia has been among the alliance's greatest challenges since the 2008 Bucharest summit decision, which promised the future membership of the two countries. Many accounts tend to focus on the original motivation behind the decision rather than NATO's practice of maintaining a commitment to such a decision in the light of the unresolved conflicts and territorial fragmentation of both states. This study, by contrast, examines the rhetoric and action in the making of the two countries' deepening partnerships with NATO since Bucharest. This research examines how through a set of ambiguous rhetoric and action NATO has been able to maintain the appearance of a commitment to Ukraine and Georgia, project Western resolve against Russian opposition, and sustain the United States' preferred vision of the European security order, all while denying the two countries membership in the alliance. Moreover, the advocates for Ukraine and Georgia use arguments based on NATO's identity, values, and the precedent of prior expansions to convince the alliance into staying committed to their eventual membership. The study shows how NATO has devised a formula for integrating aspirant members, short of "full membership." It is useful because it shows how, in practice, multilateral commitments are more layered than they are traditionally understood. While NATO has been able to successfully maintain this commitment through both rhetoric and action, such a commitment clashes with important qualities of adaptability and flexibility to changing strategic realities, crucial to the endurance of a military alliance over the long term.

No / In this article we examine how processes of globalization and the nature of emerging inter-firm relationships influence the organization of production in a post-socialist region, using the case of the clothing industry in Transcarpathia, Western Ukraine. We combine insights from two perspectives, the global commodity chain approach and the new regionalism. The focus on both institutional setting and interfirm relationships is essential in regions undergoing rapid change. In the article we also use Burt's concept of structural holes and the idea of a competence-difficulty gap to examine the nature of relationships within networks of firms, arguing that global integration can be viewed as a bridging process. The evidence comes from surveys and fieldwork conducted between 1997 and 2004, providing a longitudinal analysis of the same firms. Among other findings, we show that the difficulty of doing business locally may make relationships more stable. With respect to industrial structure, international subcontracting and joint-venture arrangements enable technological modernization in assembly and parts of preassembly, but also result in the demise of high-value added competences.