Japan's foreign and security policy has seen some substantial changes as a result of events like the first Gulf war and 9/11th. This has been taken as proof, by some, that Japan is abandoning its antimilitaristic stance and pursuing a more traditional hard power role through military means. This essay aims to explore if these shifts have coincided with any substantial shifts away from antimilitarism, which has had a strong influence on the country's security policy since the end of WW2.To do this I use constructivist theory, specifically regarding the impact of norms and identities on states security policy and briefly look into the problem of actor designation. The thematic focus is on security policy, from a narrow perspective, and thus I examine areas like the input and output to the Japanese military and the actual applications of this force. State identity is used to explore the prevalence of nationalistic sentiments and support for anti militarism in the public opinion and the political elite.The result of this study points to the further relevance of constructivist theory and especially the application of norms and identity.

Problem discussion: Syncron experience a challenge in realizing the full market potential of its newly developed IT-based price management system, Global Price Management (GPM). The system has already been implemented and is currently running with success within the IT-structures of the first customer. The fact that the development of the system has been initiated by a customer, and thereby has left Syncron oblivious of the real underlying drivers and incentives for the development, is part of the problem. Understanding the customers? incentives for developing their pricing process thus reducing the application uncertainty is a good starting point.

Studien syftar till att; genom en fallstudie på ett utvalt företag, analysera och skapa förståelse kring prissättningsförmåga och prissättningsarbete som konkurrensfördel i tjänsteföretag. Trots studiens fokus på ett enskilt fall och en specifik situation är förhoppningen att studiens slutsatser i någon utsträckning även ska vara av generellt intresse för andra tjänsteföretag. Ramen för studien utgörs av en abduktiv och explorativ ansats, inom vilken undersökningsdesign och metoder för datainsamling och tolkning har bestämts. Företaget SJ har studerats genom en fallstudie. Som metoder för insamling av data har främst kvalitativa, semistrukturerade intervjuer använts.

En sammanfattning av uppsatsen på maximalt 8000 tecken..

Real options analysis is a method for assigning value to flexibility in decisions, coming from uncertainty in future outcomes. This thesis ascertains to what degree this method is superior to traditional net present value analysis, with regards to ease of implementation in relation to the benefits from being able to measure the total value. Real options analysis is evaluated with a case study of the Swedish online gambling market, and conducted with the binomial framework of Copeland and Antikarov (2003). The authors find the sensible use of real options dependant on the specific situation to which it is applied, i.e. a certain degree of future uncertainty and managerial flexibility is necessary for justification of the increased workload.

Denna uppsats avhandlar möjligheter och begränsningar vid användande avhögenergilaser för nedskjutning av luftmål. Uppsatsen har inte ambitionen attvara heltäckande över området utan presenterar några av de fördelar ochnackdelar som finns..

Title: Strategies for competition ? a study of the Swedish contact lenses market.Authors: Pernilla AArskog and Annika Lange.Background: As a market gets more mature and the competition increases, it is more important for a company to apply the right strategic perspective. There are four fundamental strategic perspectives for a service-oriented business: a core product-, a price-, an image- and a service perspective. This study is a about service management and take its point from the theories from the Nordic School about strategies for competition, customer value, perceived customer quality and customer loyalty.Purpose: The main purpose with this study is to analyze and evaluate how the actors at the Swedish market of contact lenses should compete to gain further competitive advantages.Method: The study includes four qualitative interviews with two traditional opticians and two Internet based businesses, but also a survey with 106 contact lens users is included.Analysis: In the analyse part of this thesis it was concluded that the traditional opticians conception about their customer not agrees with what the customer evaluate as important. Many of the customers have thought about changing their optician, and besides that do not recommend their optician, and can there for not be categorize as loyal customers.

AbstractTitle: Brand communication ? An analyze of Borka and BayIcons communicative labor in relations with WJOS. (Varumärkeskommunikation ? En analys av Borka och BayIcons kommunikativa arbete i relation till WJOS)Number of pages: 53 (55 including enclosures)Author: Johan LarssonTutor: Göran SvenssonCourse: Media and Communications Studies CPeriod: Second term / autumn 2007University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala UniversityPurpose/aim: The purpose of this essay is to study how two small Swedish clothing companies, Borka and BayIcon, manage their brand communication. Brand communication includes work with target groups, brands, media and finally communication in a bigger perspective.

This comparative case study, which is based on a most similar system design,investigates why the Chávez government has attained a lower degree of democracy than the Kirchner and the Lula governments. In order to develop asupplementary theory about why governments in general achieve various degrees of democracy I compare these governments and examine what policies that differ them and why. My results show that these governments? policies differ concerning the rule of law, militarization, and negotiations with economic groups and anti-regime parts of civil society. I have found numerous answers to why some of these governments (and governments in general) have democratic policies within these four areas and why some do not.

This paper examines the existence of two different discourses on the causes of the wars in former Yugoslavia 1991-1995 in the editorial pages in Swedish newspapers. One discourse is titled "ancient hatreds" and explains the wars as a result of old historical ethnic conflicts typical of the "Balkans" and the second discourse, "poor political leadership," explains the wars as a result of deliberately conducted nationalistic policies by political leaders.Parallel to this discourse analysis is a media theory perspective of how news is selected and processed in the newspaper's editorial texts.The paper also examines the link between each discourse and a specific view on the necessity of foreign military intervention in former Yugoslavia.The starting point of the investigation are two high-profile events in 1995 and the impact they made in the 29 editorial texts in the metropolitan newspapers that were studied.The paper shows that none of the discourses clearly dominated in these editorial texts and that a clear link between a certain discourse and the advocated measure in the form of foreign intervention couldn´t be established in the material as a whole. However, the four texts that clearly belonged to the "ancient hatreds" discourse were all in favour of foreign military intervention.The essay concludes that there is evidence of a medial feedback which means that the news to a high degree influences what is discussed in the editorials and that the evaluation and selection of news, is similar in all the studied newspapers..

This report covers a description of the military support attainable to society and made available by the Swedish Armed Forces, in the event of a crisis. The main focal point is the needs of the rescue services..

AbstractTitle: Manipulation or relation ? the language as an instrument for influence (relation eller manipulation ? om språket som medel för påverkan)Number of pages: 42Author: Matilde JohanssonTutor: Peder Hård af SegerstadCourse: Media and Communication Studies CPeriod: Autumn term 2007University: Division of Media and communication, Department of information science, Uppsala universityPurpose/Aim: The aim of this essay is to gain a deeper understanding of how communication consultants work with communication. The purpose is to sort out whether or not the consultants have the same view in their strategic work with influence as they have when they build relations to customers. In the end the essay will answer if the perspective is the same between their strategic work, their relations and the research definition of how to obtain a genuine dialogue and a good relationship.Material/Method: This is a qualitative research. I have interviewed five communication consultants from three different corporations.

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..

This text concerns itself with war, the just war theory, and the application of that doctrine on the ?war on terrorism?. I present different views on the theory's place in the discourse, its relevance for unconventional wars followed by the analyses of above mentioned empirical situation.Particular interest is given the criteria concerning proportionality, both ad bellum and in bello, due to in part its difficult nature, and the attention it has received from others. This paper asks the question: Is the just war theory adequate for analysis of modern war?There are few alternatives.

The purpose of this essay is to examine the Swedish relations to Nato and by doing so see on what terms the cooperation is executed and why. However, Sweden is not a member of Nato and is thereby not seen as an ally of the organization but even so Sweden has a close cooperation with Nato. The theories used in this essay is The Rational Actor Model and The Organizational Behaviour Model by Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow. To this a number of additional theorises are used as to complement these two main theories. The aim with these theories is to see which one gives the most satisfying explanation of the Swedish strategy to cooperate with Nato and still not be a member of the alliance or if all theorises are needed.