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This thesis analyzes speeches given by US state legislators when debating paid parental leave legislation. In the 2019 legislative session Colorado and Nebraska both proposed paid parental leave legislation, although only Colorado was able to pass the legislation. Using Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis and three-dimensional analysis alongside framing theory, this research identifies the fr
This thesis examines the Netherlands as a deviant case in the cooperation networks of the Council of the European Union. Drawing on seven waves of the Negotiations in the Council of the European Union dataset (2003-2021), it documents a trajectory more complex than the existing literature recognizes: a positive size-adjusted residual (overperformance) in every wave combined with a sustained declin
On the EU’s path towards climate neutrality in 2050, green hydrogen has emerged as a crucial energy carrier to support decarbonization. Despite growing academic attention, there is a lack of literature critically engaging with green hydrogen projects from a postcolonial perspective. Focusing on renewable energy as an external dimension of the Green Deal, this thesis asks: How does the EU-Morocco ‘
Although Cyprus and Spain initially emerged as the strongest opponents of engaging with Kosovo, driven by fears over the implications for their independence movements, their practices have since unexpectedly diverged. Therefore, the following research question is posed: What factors explain the differences in Cyprus's and Spain's engagement with Kosovo since its declaration of independence
This thesis provides an in-depth exploration of how the EU’s resilience-building initiatives for the Eastern Neighbourhood have evolved against Russian hybrid threats since 2022. Russian invasion of Ukraine significantly altered the security order on the continent, reshaping the EU’s perception of its own security. In response to increased hybrid threats, the EU has employed extraordinary regulato
This thesis investigates the extent to which the European Commission has emerged as a meaningful actor in the European security landscape by examining its response to Russian hybrid threats in the Baltic Sea Region in an increasingly uncertain geopolitical landscape marked by the 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Has the role of the Commission fundamentally changed? Does the Commission continue to operate
From the mid-2000s onwards, deep and comprehensive bilateral ‘new generation’ free trade agreements (NGFTAs) became the central instrument of the European Union’s (EU) Common Commercial Policy (CCP). The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between the EU and Canada was initially praised for its innovative scope and design and intended to serve as an archetype for future EU trade agre
The Ruhr Area is the most densely populated region in Europe and is founded on the mining of coal and production of steel. However, throughout the last decades it has endured many hardships, as the coal industry shut down and thus leaving the region as one of the poorest in Germany, while grappling with the loss of an element that once gave the region its identity. During recent years there has be
This thesis examines how asymmetrical interdependence constrained the European Union’s bargaining maneuverability during the 2025 EU–US trade negotiations. Although the EU is frequently described as a major structural trade power due to its market size, regulatory influence and collective trade competence, the negotiations demonstrated that structural power does not automatically translate into ef
The usage of AI in organisations is increasing at a fast pace and is creating a growing de-mand for AI governance and AI-policies. Despite this, the knowledge of how policies are formulated and translated into practise is at large limited. This study aims to qualitatively explore how Nordic organisations navigate both the process of formulating and translating their AI-policies into practise. This
The relationship between the United Kingdom and Kenya is longstanding, evolving from a colonizer-colony relationship to a contemporary ‘partnership’ centered on aid processes and effectiveness. Since Kenyan independence, the UK has maintained close ties through various development initiatives. For this thesis, we have analyzed 12 development cooperation policy papers. To analyze these documents, w
This thesis examines women's mobilisation in civil defence in Finland and Bangladesh through the lens of feminist security studies. Civil defence has gained renewed relevance following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and broader security challenges, yet women's roles within the sector remain underexplored. Drawing on three analytical concepts, security as gendered, gender as a str
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 prompted an immediate sanctions response from the European Union (EU). However, this response revealed diverging interests within the EU, since energy sanctions affected member states unevenly. This was particularly visible in the cases of Hungary and Poland, where energy dependence and security concerns differ. Therefore, this research analyses what factors ex
This thesis examines how the Safety of Rwanda Act, and the justifications in the House of Commons debates preceding its enactment, securitizes migration. This is done by examining how migration is framed in the discourse. By applying a WPR discourse analysis, this study identifies problem representations within the material and analyses them through securitization theory (Buzan et al., 1998) and M
The thesis examines how the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) was legitimised during the 111th U.S. Congress. Although ARRA was introduced as a response to the f inancial crisis with the aim of supporting those most affected, scholarship has shown that its benefits were distributed unevenly. Using critical discourse analysis the thesis analyses congressional hearings and house floor de
The 2020 presidential election in the United States received extensive attention worldwide. In particular, Republican presidential candidate and incumbent president Donald Trump was in the spotlight. His campaign was characterized by populist rhetoric, attacks on political opponents, and repeated claims of election fraud. On January 6, 2021, Trump supporters, many of them affiliated with the Chris
This study examines how migration is framed and understood in South Africa’s migration policy, in the White Paper on Citizenship, Immigration, and Refugee Protection: Towards a Complete Overhaul of the Migration System in South Africa (2024). The White Paper has drawn heavy criticism from civil society organizations and legal experts. The criticism centers on the policy being seen as badly conceiv
In recent years, affective polarization has become an increasingly prominent topic in political science research due to growing interest in the emotional dimensions of political division and their implications for democracies. Affective polarization refers to a form of political polarization, where individuals feel positively toward their own political group and negatively toward the opposing poli
This thesis investigation examines how understandings of risk are constructed in decisions of foreign investments in infrastructure projects in low and middle income countries, using the sustainability Impact Accelerator at the International Council of Swedish industry as a case study. Drawing on constructivist theory and risk management frameworks, it combines a qualitative document analysis of I
The European Union has long been regarded as a global transformative power, capable of promoting democratic reforms in candidate countries through its merit-based enlargement process. However, democratic backsliding in the Western Balkans has raised concerns about the credibility and effectiveness of EU conditionality. This thesis examines the extent to which the EU enlargement process has enabled
