This Master Thesis investigates changes in Thailand's foreign policy towards its neighbouring country Burma. It argues that Thai foreign policy towards Burma has experienced major changes during four periods between 1945 and the present. The thesis investigates these foreign policy changes during the four periods. What changes occurred? What were the reasons for the changes? What reasons dominated during what periods? The four periods of Thai foreign policy changes towards Burma and the common history of the two countries since their respective foundations does not suggest a stable peaceful relationship or a bitter hostile relationship leading to war.

The aim of this paper is to describe and explain which policy instruments for human rights (HR) the United States and the European Union use towards Burma and to examine the priority given to HR in their respective foreign policy. From the results of an empirical analysis this paper seeks to analyze the US and the EU as powers in the international system and aims to explain their behavior from this theoretical perspective. From the theoretical approaches used I conclude that these actors act in different ways regarding the Burmese issue. This is partially due to the structure of the international system. Both actors primarily use different forms of diplomatic tools and sanctions to try to force change for HR in Burma.

In the years between 2012 and 2014, Burma has been shaken by waves of violence against Muslims which has resulted in destroyed mosques and shops, at least 140 000 displaced and 200 killed persons. The person who is said to lay behind this violence is the Burmese Theravada monk Ashin Wirathu. Being the founder and leader of the radical Buddhist movement 969, he has been accused of indirectly motivating violence against Muslims and has been portrayed with titles such as ?The face of buddhist terror?. This essay investigates the relation between Wirathu and the anti-Muslim violence by applying the method of content analysis on a speech of him.

Bygget av en industrizon utanför Dawei i sydöstra Burma riskerar att fördrivatiotusentals människor från deras hem. Det här reportaget skildrar situationen för de fiskare och småbrukare som bor i vägen för Dawei Deep Sea Port and Industrial Estate Development Project, som projektet heter. Det är en berättelse om människor som fått sin mark konfiskerad och sina odlingar skövlade, utan kompensation och utan möjligheter att hävda sin rätt. Deras öden ärtypexempel på hur lättvindigt den enskilda människans rättigheter kränks till förmån för starka stats- och affärsintressen.När Burma nu öppnar sig mot omvärlden och västvärlden släppt på sina sanktioner mot landet flockas utländska investerare och företag kring dess relativt outnyttjade marknader. Detta leder till en kraftigt ökad efterfrågan på mark.

Kinas säkerhet - En studie av hur Kina hanterar regionala utmaningarDen regionala stabiliteten i Sydostasien präglas av Kinas tydliga dominans. Kinas strävan att bibehålla regional stabilitet kännetecknar den kinesiska utrikes- och säkerhetspolitiken. För Kina är ett stabilt närområde en viktig grundpelare i sin strävan mot att fortsätta sin ekonomiska tillväxt och öka sitt regionala och på sikt även globala inflytande. Ett stabilt närområde är dessutom en förutsättning för att Kina ska kunna öka sitt engagemang i områden bortom sitt närområde.Denna uppsats analyserar Kinas syn på sin säkerhet i sitt närområde, och hur denna uppnås och bibehålls. Genom en jämförande studie där Burma och Nordkorea tjänar som tämligen olika referensstater används ett realistiskt teoretiskt perspektiv för att förklara Kinas ageranden och val av strategi.Resultatet visar ett Kina som tydligt strävar efter att påverka sin omgivning på ett sätt som säkerställer säkerhet och ekonomisk tillväxt.

The purpose of the essay is to investigate whether the principles formulated by Peter Ackerman and Christopher Kruegler, concerning strategic non-violent conflicts, can serve a purpose when analyzing improvised non-violent conflicts. The principles are derived from factors that have been prominent in earlier successful improvised non-violent conflicts.The essay is based on two research questions; if the factors included in the principles formulated by Ackerman and Kruegler, exist in the two cases that this study investigates, and if those principles offer a satisfactory explanation for the outcome of an improvised non-violent conflict.To answer the questions the study uses a comparative method, where the improvised non-violent conflict of 2004 in Ukraine is compared to the improvised non-violent conflict of 1988 in Burma.The answer to the first question shows that the factors contained in the principles previously mentioned, exists in both cases. The answer to the second question is more uncertain, as there seems to be doubts on whether the case of Ukraine really was completely improvised. Another reason for caution is that the factors contained in the principles, only consider actions made by non-violent actors, and not by opponents or third parties. Thus the risks of missing vital explanatory factors are substantial..

In the beginning of this century United Nations expressed their concern about the lack of female participation in politics through a number of resolutions and conventions. To ensure sustainable development and democracy, United Nations argued the importance of women?s participation in every level of politics within a state.Burma is a country that is in the middle of an ongoing democratization process and women are not considered to participate in this process. The purpose of this thesis is therefore to analyze the experience of politically involved Burmese women in their political participation progress.This study has been realized through semi-structured interviews with nine Burmese women, in both Thailand and Burma. The questions that have been asked are about what societal and cultural barriers women meet when they are, or want to be, political involved, both from the society and within their own political organizations.

Den här studien är utförd i Chiang Mai i Thailand och syftar till att undersöka situationen för burmesiska journalister som därifrån verkar i exil. Sedan 2011 har omvälvande politiska samhällsförändringar genomförts av regimen i Burma som internationellt omtalas som en pågående demokratiseringsprocess. Exilmedierna har i skrivande stund flyttat delar av produktionen in i landet i hopp om att i framtiden flytta hela verksamheten till Burma. Följande frågeställningar behandlas: 1) Hur upplever exiljournalisterna sin roll i den pågående demokratiseringsprocessen? 2) Hur ser förhållandet mellan exiljournalisterna och regimen ut? 3) Finns det skillnader mellan att jobba inifrån Burma eller i exil som påverkar rapporteringen? 4) Hur kan de studerade mediernas roll förstås i förhållande till McQuails (2003) teori om ?demokratiskt deltagande medier??Den teoretiska ramen baseras på teorier om demokrati, det offentliga rummet, mediers roll i underutvecklade länder, länder under samhällsförändring och alternativa medieformer.

The persecution of the Rohingya Muslim minority population in southwestern Burma has come to the fore in recent years. The aim of this study is to first analyse the degree and respects of biopolitical control in the case of political oppression. Secondly, the aim is to compare the similarities and differences when it comes to the causes, mechanisms and expressions of the two theoretical starting points in the case.Giorgio Agamben´s biopolitical theory, which tries to reconnect state control over life and death with modernity, forms the basis of the analysis. Will Kymlicka´s liberal theory on minority rights serves as a theoretical comparison tool. Methodological starting points to the specific bilateral purpose will be both of the textual and discursive analytical tradition.

Denna studie behandlar de fyra böckerna Brott och straff av Fjodor Dostojevskij, Kråkflickan, Hungerelden och Pythians anvisningar alla tre skrivna av Jerker Eriksson och Håkan Axlander- Sundquist. Jag utför en illustrativ komparativ analys av mördarnas psyke och böckernas struktur samt undersöker det didaktiska värdet av att göra denna studie.Genom att psykologiskt analysera böckernas mördare har jag kunnat göra en psykologisk profil till de fyra. Raskolnikov som är dubbelmördare i kriminalromanen Brott och straff har en narcissistisk, schizofren läggning som beror på att hans omedvetna strider med det medvetna om det moraliska i att mörda. Viggo Dürer, den onda mördaren av ett femtiotal barn, som figurerar i trilogin är klart psykopatisk med en könsidentitetskonflikt. Victoria Bergman, den trasiga föräldramördaren som är huvudperson i Kråkflickan, Hungerelden och Pythians anvisningar lider av dissociativ personlighetsstörning till följd av upprepade övergrepp i barndomen.

The aim of this study has been to, through a couple of chosen theories, examine in what way and for what purposes Japan has used its international aid system, How can the nation have been said to have implemented and acted in lines with the philosophies and principles set forth in the ODA declaration. What approaches, concerning positive and negative aid sanctions in the matters of aid to Cambodia and Burma, have been chosen and what have the motives for these choices been. What have been the determining factors of the outcome related to these sanctions - economic, political and/or matters of identity? I have found that a concern for possible decrease in economic profit and investment related areas, combined with a feared loss of political prestige and worsened diplomatic relations to the neighbouring countries in the Asian society, have come to overtrump the notion of advocating democracy, human rights, environmental and anti-militaristic issues..

The main purpose of this thesis is to discuss what exile writing is and who can be seen as an exile writer. If the word ?exile? is related to forced dislocation, like Paul Tabori and Sopia A. McClennen describes it, who can be viewed as an exile writer? Is Anders Olsson?s definition of an exile writer acceptable or not? Could the The Escape, a future story about exiled Northern Europeans in Myanmar, be classified as exile literature?Another purpose with this text is to describe how a story about exile can be made realistic and tangible to a reader who has not experienced exile.

The purpose of this study is to describe some primary school teachers understanding of language development and approach of first and second language speakers with Arne Tragetons Writing to reading, for pupils in early ages.By using a qualitative method with interviews and participant observations and informal conversations, the basis for the survey was collected. Four teachers in three schools participated. The proportion of second-language pupils at each school was 35%, 17% and 0%. My theoretical starting point in the study was the hermeneutic research tradition, which has been used to interpret and understand the collected material. Theories of behaviorism, constructivism and socio-cultural perspective has been used in the analysis part of this study.

The attacks of September 11, 2001 have done more to focus attention on the conjunction of religion and conflict than any other event in recent history. Although much international research has focused since then on the role of Islam, religiously inspired violence is also found in countries as diverse as Thailand, Burma, or Sri Lanka, where Buddhism plays a central role. This paper addresses how these realities are reflected in two Swedish high school textbooks on religion. The thesis calls into question the manner in which Buddhism is presented in schoolbooks as the most probable candidate to be a conflict-free religion.Using Fairclough?s discourse analysis theoretical framework and Hellspong?s structural analysis, the thesis critically examines the relationship between text, the discourse practice in which text is produced and the wider social practices.

Denna uppsats behandlar en grupp burmesiska flyktingar och deras olika vägar till användandet av det svenska språket för att läsa och skriva. Syftet är att få veta lite mer om hur de som vuxna lär sig ett andraspråk och vilka strategier de med fördel använder vid språkinlärningen.Undersökningen har genomförts med hjälp av intervjuer som spelats in på minidisk och sedan transkriberats. Hela materialet har sedan sammanställts schematiskt och därefter analyserats med hjälp av teorier om språkinlärningsstrategier.Utifrån sin bakgrund i Burma och i Thailand berättar informanterna om sina tidiga läs- och skriverfarenheter. Flera av dem har gått så kort tid i skolan att de med svenska mått mätt knappt har en funktionell litteracitet vare sig på modersmålet, karenska, eller på det officiella språket, burmesiska. Det är dock viktigt att ha i åtanke att kraven på läs- och skrivkunskaper inte är lika omfattande i hemlandet som här i Sverige.