Participating in peace support operations has been and remains a significant part of the Swedish defense and security politics. Since the end of the Cold War, the Swedish national defence has been more and more dismantled, in favor of international peace support operations which have become an increasingly important task for the Swedish defence. Why then, is Sweden so engaged in conflicts so far from home? Using two classic theories of international politics, realism and liberalism, this study aims to shed light on arguments from the Swedish parliament on why it is important for Sweden to participate in international peace support operations. After analyzing arguments of the Social Democrat Party, the Moderate Party, the Green Party and the Liberal Party concerning three different peace support operations which Sweden has participated in, the result shows that although both realism and liberalism are influencing the parties? argumentation, liberalism is the theory which is used more often.

This thesis examines the USA?s response to the military coup in Myanmar 2021 through a comparative analysis of the two dominant international relations theories: realism and liberalism. The study uses a qualitative text analysis of the US Burma act of 2021 to test the explanatory power of the theories in the formulation of US policy. The results shows that liberal theory has the greater explanatory power, as the US response was systematically motivated by a normative desire to restore democracy in Myanmar. However, some realist tendencies could be observed, especially through exception clauses preserving US national security interest and the mention of China?s support for the military junta in Myanmar.

This master thesis examines commercial video games and their relation to the concept of immersion and realism. Games as a communicative medium is quite a new area of interest within rhetorical research in Sweden. Most of the research conducted has, however, been focused on gaming and formation on opinion ? games that explicitly tries to persuade the player, unlike commercial games that focus on entertainment, that is. But that does not mean that commercial games cannot influence us.

AbstractIn this theory-testing case study I will analyze and discuss the Gulf War which took place in the Middle East in 1990-1991 and has become an important topic for discussion among IR scholars in the post-Cold War era. The events that led up to the Gulf War, as well as the war itself, will be analyzed from two different perspectives; Realism and Liberalism. Within these differing theoretical frameworks I have chosen to use elements from, on the one hand, Classical and Structural Realism, and on the other hand, Idealism and Liberal Institutionalism. Focusing on these specific schools of thought I aim to derive essential, ?key?, concepts that will then be tested against empirical fact.The overall purpose of this study is to try to logically explain, through detailed analysis, the actions of the actors involved in the Gulf War and, in addition, why this war ever occurred.

AbstractEssay in political science, C-level, by Bo-Josef Eriksson, spring semester 2007Tutor: Susan Marton?Universal morality - does it exist? - A case study of small states foreign policy?The purpose of this essay is to examine how well does realism stand of against idealism when the focus of the study is on small states foreign policy? The essay takes it?s starting point at the debate between the two theories of international relations (IR). Realism is the theory that has had the most impact on the study of IR since the second world war. Idealism has been it?s greatest opponent and the debate is still active even up til this day.My case study of Danmarks foreign aid policy constitutes a worst critical case scenario for realism and therfore my assumptions were that idealism would be the theory that could explain the core-elements of the Danish foregin aid.

I denna uppsats studeras realismens framställning i filmskapandet, dels genom visuella tekniker men även genom handling- och ämnesmässiga val. Studien fokuserar på tre filmer som alla är regisserade och skrivna av filmskaparen Harmony Korine, dessa filmer är: Gummo (1997), Julien Donkey-Boy (1999) och Trash Humpers (2009).För att studera filmernas framställning av realism utifrån syftet med studien diskuteras och appliceras teorier angående ämnet från bland annat John Orr, Robert Stam och Geoff King. Eftersom syftet med studien är att studera realismen utifrån de specifika val som Korine har gjort i filmskapandet diskuteras även idén om en auteur. Både teorierna ifrån Orr och King är grundade i auteurteorin. King har även en utgångspunkt i den amerikanska independentfilmen som Harmony Korine är en aktiv filmskapare inom.I analysen diskuteras sedan Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy och Trash Humpers separat och med hjälp av de framlagda teorierna om realism argumenterar analyserna olika sätt som filmerna framställer realism genom de visuella samt de handling- och ämnesmässiga valen..

This essay conducts a descriptive analysis of the ideas expressed by NATO´s official security strategy "Strategic Concept" from 2010 and the European Union?s security strategy "A Secure Europe in a Better World" from 2003. The purpose of this analysis is to examine whether the ESDP and NATO are compatible with each other when it comes to the role of security policy actor. To do so, I´ve chosen to analyse the actors' security strategies based on three dimensions. These dimensions are: Their view of the international scene, their views on cooperation and their views on how to reach security.

Det verkar vara naturligt för oss människor att i metafysisk mening ha realistiska uppfattningar om världen. Våra vardagliga intuitioner säger oss att ting som exempelvis stolar och bord existerar, och att de gör det oberoende av oss och vad vi tänker, tror och tycker om det. Vi verkar också ha en intuitiv förståelse av sanning som någon form av korrespondens mellan ord och värld. Ett påstående som ?bordet är brunt? verkar till exempel vara sant om bordet faktiskt är brunt.

Uppsatsen är en komparativ studie om försvarsbeslut 1925 och försvarsbeslut 2004. Jag testar två teorier mot dessa två försvarsbeslut, det är realismen och liberalismen. Det jag vill få fram genom uppsatsen är att se likheterna och skillnaderna i de båda besluten inom ett säkerhetspolitiskt perspektiv..

Our aim with this paper is to study the debate concerning the refusal of entry of the two Egyptians and the involvement of USA, to see if the Swedish sovereignty has been compromised. We have chosen two theories, realism and radicalism, to read if opinions can be identified of supporting one of them. The empiricism we selected are from debate articles in the big news papers Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet and Expressen. We also studied the debate in the Riksdag . The method we used was qualitative and is called analysis of content.The result we could conclude was that most of the debaters are disappointed with how the government handled the whole situation, but still believes that it made the decision on itself.

Syftet med förevarande uppsats är kort och koncist att pröva huruvida vi kan hitta spår av realistiska teoribildningar i de yttranden och argumentationslinjer som förekom inom lyckta dörrar i Vita huset vid tidpunkten för Kubakrisen 1962. Mer specifikt ämnar vi att försöka hitta spår av de teoribildningar som brukar benämnas defensiv och offensiv realism..

In this essay i argue that there are three different variables that may be able to control the outcome of certain foreign policy choices. These three variables are External Threats, government division and public opinion. The Essay also tries to identify former president Bush motives behind the 2003 Iraqi War. It is partly argued that the three variables had a certain amount of influence on Bush decision making process. But the main focus lies on the motives behind the attack.

Det må inte finnas någon enhetlig definition av vad som är terrorism eller vem som är terrorist, men klart är att attacker riktade mot samhället och dess invånare (vare sig de tar livet av oskyldiga människor eller inte) genererar i trygghetshöjande åtgärder.Att studera realism i förhållandet stat mot icke stat, hör inte till vanligheterna men i den här studien påvisas att det faktiskt är möjligt och intressant att göra detta. Enligt realism svarar en stat olika mycket på ett hot eller attentat beroende på kraftfullheten eller följderna där ett attentat med stora följder som den i Norge skulle föra med sig betydligt fler förändringar i säkerhetsarbetet på Norska myndigheter än den i Stockholm skulle göra på Svenska myndigheter. Undersökningens resultat visar att Norge gjort fler och mer djupgående förändringar på deras policies och säkerhetsåtgärder än vad Sverige gjort..

The purpose of this paper is to investigate possible reasons Sweden might have had to motivate the start and end of its nuclear program during the Cold war. This investigation will be conducted using a qualitative research method and making a comparison between the theories realism and liberalism?s ability to explain the decisions. The question this paper is based upon is as follows: Can Sweden?s creating and shutting down of a nuclear weapons program during the Cold war be explained by the international events and actions that were taking place during this time period? The result consists of liberalism pointing out several failures on the international level that might explain the cynical decision from Sweden to create the nuclear weapons. Realism considers the decision to make perfect sense at this point in time, to protect Sweden on the anarchy that was going on at that time according to this theory.The ending of the nuclear weapons program is being explained largely by the rise of the MAD-concept which renders the acute need of nuclear weapons in Sweden void.  Liberalism on the other hand considers this a logic step due to the better established UN that is playing a larger role now than in the 1940s. In conclusion, realism does a better job explaining the start of the nuclear weapons program, while liberalism explains the end of it more efficiently. The contribution this thesis has to the research of political science can be seen mainly in three areas.

Enligt ägarstatistik har många svenska aktieportföljer en högre risk än vad de borde i förhållande till avkastningen de kan väntas ge. Avsaknaden av modeller för uppbyggnad av portföljer kanske är en orsak? Syfte: Att undersöka om uppbyggnaden av aktieportföljer gjorda med hjälp av en pyramidmodell är bättre än uppbyggnaden av en naiv portfölj..