The aim of this paper is to try to explain how specific, foreign policy decisions are made, and why one state decides to use violence against another state. A qualitative method is used, and text and documents are analysed. The two theoretical points of departure are central within foreign policy analysis: realismÂŽs theories on external threats and constructivismÂŽs theories on ideasÂŽ policy influence. The empirical case chosen is the US decision to use military violence against Iraq. The paper investigates whether the real threat from Saddam HusseinÂŽs Iraq was the cause of the American military attacks, or whether the ideas of leading politicians in the USA were decisive for the decision to invade the country.

Sweden introduced a development assistance policy in 1952 and thirteen years later Sida, Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency started, in 1965. But in 1995, five separate development assistance authorities came together and established the new Sida as it is today. Sida is Sweden?s representative in the development assistance policy field and they work through projects that have to be presented through a Country Strategy Process (CSP). The aim of this paper is to point out Sida?s perspective on the conducted development assistance policy and what guide lines that are followed.

In Sweden there is an integration policy and a policy for national minorities. The integration policy aims to integrate newly arrived immigrants (nyanlÀnda invandrare), whereas the minority policy aims to maintain and strengthen the rights of the national minorities. The national minorities are though, at times, included into the integration policy, even though they hold a minority status in Sweden. This paper aims to, through discourse analysis, investigate the research question: ?how is the content of integration referred to, when it is related to immigrants, contra when it is related to national minorities?.

Essay in Political Science, Advanced Course, by Christoffer Hagström?The Bush AdministrationŽs view on international cooperation and internationallaw and political-theoretical traditions influence on the administrationŽs foreignpolicy?Supervisor: Jan OlssonThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the American foreign policy, particularly with regard tointernational cooperation and international law. The two following research-questions are used inorder to fulfil the purpose: (1) what is the Bush-administrationsŽs view of of the place forinternational cooperation and international law in American foreign policy?, and (2) how does theadministrationŽs foreign policy correspond to dominant political-theoretical thought-traditions? Thetraditions used are: liberalism, realism and neoconservatism. The sources of the study mostlyinclude literature and policy-documents.

The purpose of this thesis is to study to what extent the UN millennium development goals have influenced Sweden?s development policy. The research method that I have used is a qualitative text analysis and I have studied the ideas in governmental texts and millennium development goals reports from 1995-2008.My hypothesis is that the basic ideas that has symbolized Sweden?s development policy has not changed much since the adoption of the millennium development goals in year 2000. This hypothesis is based on different ideas that the basic perspectives in international development policy are rather constant.My conclusion is that many of the areas that are affected by the millennium development goals already are prioritized areas within Swedish development policy, for example poverty reduction and gender equality.

Vi lever idag i ett samha?lle fullt av obalanser. Det ga?r att se hur ett konsumtionssamha?lle va?xt fram, grundat i en o?kad tillfredsta?llelse o?ver materiella ting. Ett samha?lle som besitter oha?llbara verktyg och ideal fo?r att skapa va?lsta?nd, och i sin tur har negativ pa?verkan pa? miljo?n.

The purpose of this study is to analyse how the local governments have implanted the new public health policy, which Sweden adopted in April 2003. The new health policy stakes out a new direction for national public health policy. Instead of focusing on diseases the new public health policy focus in factors that determine health.Important factors to study are the role of central steering from the central government. The method used is a case study of three Swedish local governments. The main material used is interviews and different policy documents within the area of public health.The conclusion of the study shows that the local governments are fairly satisfied with the steering of public health policy by the central government.

This thesis is seeking to explain why policy change come about. This is done by applying a part of Karin Lindgrens dissertation Vad styr ledaren?. The research evolves around the term pressure and the hypothesis are that policy change come about when there is middle range pressure on the decision-maker. Low and high pressure results in no or small policy change.The thesis is done as a case study where the economic crisis in Thailand 1996-1999 makes my case.

This study was commissioned by the VĂ€sterbotten sports federation, whocalled for an overview of the policies that the municipalities inVĂ€sterbotten work after in the field of sport. The study aimed to identifysports policy programs or documents that have been produced by themunicipalities, and how they work with them. Furthermore, the studyhighlights the municipality?s politicians reasoning aboutsport andrecreation-sector,and how their sport policy-work was practiced. The datacollection was based on seven interviews and document-collections fromthe 15 municipalities.

In Sweden there is an integration policy and a policy for national minorities. The integration policy aims to integrate newly arrived immigrants (nyanlÀnda invandrare), whereas the minority policy aims to maintain and strengthen the rights of the national minorities. The national minorities are though, at times, included into the integration policy, even though they hold a minority status in Sweden. This paper aims to, through discourse analysis, investigate the research question: ?how is the content of integration referred to, when it is related to immigrants, contra when it is related to national minorities?.

Uppsatsen behandlar kvarstad pÄ fartyg ur ett svenskt perspektiv. En genomgÄng görs dÀrför av det regelverk som styr det svenska kvarstadsinstitutet, nÀmligen rÀttegÄngsbalken, samt det internationella regelverk som styr kvarstad pÄ fartyg, nÀmligen arrestkonventionen frÄn Är 1952. Kvarstad pÄ fartyg handlar i de flesta fall om kvarstad till skyddande av ett fordringsansprÄk varför det endast Àr dessa typer av kvarstad som behandlas. Enligt arrestkonventionen har konventionslÀnderna möjlighet att tillÀmpa sina nationella regelverk i tillÀgg till arrestkonventionens regler, varför uppsatsen Àven belyser de skillnader som finns mellan svensk rÀtt och andra lÀnders tillÀmpning av konventionsreglerna. Kvarstad som avser ett fordringsansprÄk syftar till att sÀkerstÀlla en fordran för senare utmÀtning, uppsatsen behandlar dÀrför Àven slutligen verkstÀllighet av kvarstad.

The cultural policy area has a tendency to be seen as a consensus area, where there are no big conflicts between the parties. The aim of this master?s thesis is to study the moderate party?s cultural motion 2005/06Kr:233 with the party leader Fredrik Reinfeldt as first author. If consensus rules, the party?s ideology should not be visible in the motion, but the assumption in the thesis is that it is visible.

With background in the acknowledgement of the current period of major change in the characteristics of traditional Swedish foreign policy, considering the membership in the European Union, as well as the new contextual scenarios that Sweden has been situated in after the end of the cold war, this thesis aims at scrutinizing the Swedish Foreign Policy from 1991 to 2010. The purpose of the thesis is further to localize continuity and change in the ideas which Sweden has explicitly stated in its foreign policy. Based on the theory of institutionalism, the thesis also aims to bring forward plausible explanations built on the main empirical findings. This has been done by identifying different types of goals and means within realism and liberalism as well as categorizing each theory within three ideal types.The chosen research method has been a qualitative text analysis with focus on an ideational analysis. The material on which the descriptive analysis is based upon is constituted by the annual statements of government policy in parliamentary debates on foreign affairs.The results of the thesis show that the ideas that are related to solidarity, consensus and active foreign policy are constant through the period of examination.

This thesis discusses the Swedish drug policy and its principle of prohibition. In the world of today there is an ongoing discussion about prohibition and the concept of harm reduction. This thesis is an analysis of Swedish drug policy and an investigation as to whether the prohibition concept is in a state of decline. It tries to answer the question; is the Swedish drug policy moving away from its prohibition principle towards a harm reduction principle? The recent debate, articles, documents and earlier research has been analyzed in order to find answers to my questions.

This essay takes its starting point in the making of a new national general school curriculum for the Swedish elementary school. The purpose of this essay is to estimate what the policy makers intended with the new policy documents and relate that to how a few teachers perceive these changes. In order to get an understanding of how the teachers view these changes I have done qualitative interviews with four teachers which all work in the Swedish elementary school.Theories on "implementation" and "street-level bureaucracy" are used to analyse my empirical material. My results tell that there is a difference how teachers relate to the new curruculum and the policy makers' intentions with it. That can be explained by the fact that teachers' work is complex and as to they work in a complex organization..