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Having notoriously escaped the operation table to be cut open for a full intestine check-up, the anatomy of the acclaimed ‘troops for influence’- assumption finally faces a full body search. Although appearing to be somewhat of a tacitly accepted ‘truth’ both in the academic and political world, there is confusion as to how we might actually understand the assumption of ‘troops for influence’ and

One of the greatest achievements of the European Union (EU) is the abolition of internal borders and the establishment of the right to free movement. Consequently, the EU has made an effort managing its common external borders by establishing several internal mechanisms, instruments and bodies as well as various forms of cooperation with the associated Schengen countries and external third actors.

Since the financial crisis in 2008-2009 China has shown a new assertiveness internationally, contradicting Deng Xiaoping’s earlier strategies of China to lay low internationally and develop economically. This new assertiveness is an often-discussed subject and is often connected to the Chinese rise and a presumed pursuit of regional hegemony in South East Asia, rejected by Chinese officials. This

The 2009 Lisbon Treaty introduced the Early Warning Mechanism into the EU decision-making process. Under this mechanism, National Parliaments monitor the compliance of EU legislative proposals with the principle of subsidiarity by issuing yellow cards in cases of violation. It is argued that in doing so, they meet a collective action problem in form of an assurance problem, hence will only ineffec

Since the end of the Cold War, several stateless diasporas residing in Western countries have been involved in separatist conflicts in their homelands. The aim of this thesis is to explore whether these diasporas tend to utilize a universalistic creed of liberalism for particularistic purposes. To fulfill this purpose, I will test the applicability of Maria Koinova’s theory on how diasporas tend t

This thesis surrounds the emerging of the neoliberal hegemony in Sweden, and how to describe that emergence with the help of an analysis of ideas along with different types of analytic tools such as ideal types and the concept of hegemony. The research question to be answered is that how one can describe the emerging of the neoliberal hegemony in Sweden, which then naturally also makes this thesis

In 2014, a man was accused of raping a woman but was acquitted despite the fact that the woman said “no” and “stop”. He claimed to have thought that it was part of dominant sex games and by that, assumed she liked it. That the man was acquitted, even though the court ruling concluded that the woman had been forced to sexual intercourse, can be a result of a process of victim blaming; a process whe

The migration policy of the EU has often been described with the metaphor fortress Europe: militarized external borders to avoid safety threats, disguising the purpose to exclude poor and uneducated migrants. But what happen if the unwanted migrants the borders are supposed to prevent from reaching European territory are already European citizens? Recent years, poor EU-migrants begging for money i

Den europeiska unionen tampas med låg folklig legitimitet, och hävdar många politiska bedömare, ett demokratiskt underskott. I det förhandenvarande arbetet, som är av normativ karaktär, tar sig författaren an detta ämne utifrån ett deltagardemokratiskt perspektiv, vilket han polemiserar mot ett elitdemokratiskt. Dessa demokratimodellers relationer till republikanismen och liberalismen redogörs där

Since 2009 the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization have conducted counter-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean to tackle Somalia based piracy. As the two organizations are arguably the most important security providers for Europe they have also moved towards managing the similar tasks in military and crisis management operations. As Brussels officials an

This thesis examines the influence of the EU exerted in the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia with focus on foreign policy instruments. Normalizations of relations between Kosovo and Serbia were considered to be hard case for any diplomacy knowing their past enmities, disputes and a tradition of not talking to each-other, yet EU was able to successfully conclude three-landmark agreement that have

The following thesis studies a debate around the economic hardships for SAAB Automobile AB in particular as well as for the entire Swedish automobile industry in general. The debate took place in the Swedish parliament, the 20th of March 2009. The purpose with this study is to investigate which ideological bases the participants of the debate were grounding their statements upon. The study also i

The objectives of the Swedish integration policy are for everyone in Sweden to enjoy equal rights, obligations, and opportunities. The main focus of the policy is on early and individual efforts in language learning so that people who come to Sweden can get a job and live independently. This thesis addresses this issue by seeking to identify and analyze the challenges of integration in Sweden and

This research study describes the consequences of the legislative changes in the Swedish Principle of Public Access. The study commences in 1994 when Sweden became a member of the EU, and extends till 2014. This study is based on a qualitative text analytical method and the analysis is formed within the three decision-making levels of multi level governance theory. The changes regarding the Princ

The question of why institutional changes would affect the vertical coherence of the European Union’s foreign policy is addressed in this thesis. In answering the research question propositions on why institutional changes would have an effect on state behaviour, thereby policy outcome, are derived from both the normative and the rational choice versions of institutionalism. The proposition: chang

The aim of this thesis is to examine how a supranational institution acts in a policy field marked by a high degree of intergovernmental decision-making (i.e. decision-making between Member State governments). It analyses the strategies the European Commission applied in one case in the area of tax policy, namely the Common Consolidated Corporate Tax Base (CCCTB) proposal; drawing on the principal

The purpose of this thesis is to question the cause of the lack of consensus surrounding Europe 2020s poverty and social exclusion target – to lift 20 million people out of poverty and social exclusion. The target was a major development for the European Union’s social dimension. Even so, it did not come easily, with divides over the existence and measurement of such a target. The Commission propo

The Lisbon Strategy formulated that the EU shall be one of the most vital economies in the world. In order to perform that role, it has been argued that the EU must be more coherent. To increase cohesion, the structural funds and cohesion policy were introduced. Included in the structural funds are also the horizontal principles of equality, integration, diversity and sustainable development inten

Sports and politics are inevitably intertwined, even if this notion seldom gets the space it deserves in academic circles. This thesis aims at lifting and theorizing around the phenomenon of boycott as a foreign policy tool in connection to the Olympic Games, focusing on the American boycott of the Moscow Olympics of 1980. I highlight and discuss some of the factors and actors behind the boycott d

Denna studies syfte är att studera vilka bilder som politiker från Storbrittaniens tre största partier skapar av de stridande parterna i Syrienkonflikten. Detta sker genom studiet att genomöra en diskursanalys. Studien belyser vidare hur dessa bilder kan bidra till att skapa möjligheter och begränsningar för den brittiska utrikespolitiken i samband med konflikten. Till sist försöker studien även b