This theory consuming thesis is concerned with why Iran's uranium enrichment has become a security issue, and will focus on the five most important and involved actors: China, Russia, Iran, the US and the UN. I will do this by using instruments of analysis such as securitization and strategic analysis. With these instruments I will examine different factors, such as deterrence, the action-reaction model and armament. Since, according to my opinion, security matters include more sectors than military I will also examine the political, societal and economic sectors. China and Russia have acted differently compared to the US in this matter and this thesis will highlight the factors that can explain the different actions made by these countries.

Humanitarian intervention is a concept that generates several problems in our time. The idea of humanitarian intervention concerns the modern norms of sovereignty and noninterventional principals. It also concerns the conventional norm, which declares that states are not allowed to interfere in other states? internal affairs. The use of military force to implement humanitarian intervention is restricted according to international law.

The main aim of this study is to investigate which structural ideas that lies behind the European Union?s marine operation Atalanta that has been put into motion to counteract piracy and robbery outside the coast of Somalia. In order to do this, we have with the use of the theory of weak states, intervention as well as sovereignty, investigated EU?s document in the question with the use of the idea centered analytical method. The questions that has guided this study, lies both on an empirical and theoretical level.

Tax revenue is crucial in order for states to survive. States vary a lot in terms of tax revenue however, and different explanations are frequently debated among political scientists. Recently, scholars have argued that the variations in tax revenue among European states today can largely be explained by their ability to collect information about the citizens and their belongings during the early modern period (1450-1800). States that were early in acquiring this information in so called cadasters, could use it in order to collect tax. This fiscal capacity thereafter sustained in a path dependent manner.

This thesis studies private equity firms' implementation of management control systems in their portfolio companies and whether the systems are affected by cross-national differences. A comparative case study examines five different private equity firms to derive if there are any differences between the private equity firms' management control systems in the United States, Europe and China. The empirical observations are categorized according to the framework developed by Merchant (1985) and further developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003). Theory on the effect of multinationality on management control systems, also developed by Merchant and Van der Stede (2003), are used to explain possible findings. The applied theory includes the cultural dimensions developed by Hofstede (1984) and Hofstede and Bond (1988).

This thesis aim to advance the Liberal Integrovernmentalism (LIG) developed byAndrew Moravcsik in order to order to explain how the European Court of Justice (ECJ) can make de facto EU policies diverge from what was originally intended by the Member States. More specifically it describes how the Posting of Workers Directive, Directive 96/71/EC, originally was created to shield certain Member States and their respective systems of regulating the labour market from pressure arising from the posting of workers form low-wage countries inside the EU. However, through a series of cases in the ECJ the de facto policy of the directive has changed and it is now in itself a potential threat against these systems. The Member States now find themselves caught in a ?Joint-Decision Trap?, unable to rectify the situation even though their original agreement has been turned on its head.

AbstractLarge states are not as interdependent as small countries are. Due to the extent of the home market, producers in large countries can sell the greater part of their products at home. Accordingly large countries become less dependent of other states. Large states are consequently in a better position to promote their self- interests internationally than smaller states are. Applying this reasoning on a large state such as France I come to conclude that she probably exerts this policy of self- interest in an area like free trade.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the 9/11 attacks, the landscape of the freedom of religion has changed. The issues now facing freedom of religion varies greatly from the issues that the drafters of the universal declaration of human rights faced after World War II.In the light of the new issues that States face in the intersection of religion and societal interest, scholars have criticized the European Court of Human Rights to give too much leeway to the States in determining how the human rights should be implemented, by using the doctrine of margin of appreciation. Critics of the margin of appreciation claim that it is based on culture relativism and that the doctrine undermines the universality of the human rights. In order to decide if the margin of appreciation has indeed led to a relativization of the human rights I compared it to the jurisprudence of the UN Human Rights Committee and its use of the Syracusa principles. My conclusion is that the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights cannot be considered to be based on culture relativism.

People in refuge face states with a dilemma. This dilemma consists of a wish (or obligation) to help those who need a refuge, and at the same time consider domestic issues such as financial costs and security problems. Thus, there are two perspectives which are important to consider when refugee policies are made. The aim of this paper is to see which perspective the EU had when making their migration policies. The question asked is: which perspective is behind the making of European refugee policy?The theories realism and idealism are used to describe the conflicts in the making of European refugee policies.

When studying the voting behaviour of the Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) concerning the Services Directive within the EU, what patterns can be observed? With a starting point in previous findings about voting behaviour, this study analyses the results of the given Roll-call votes in the European Parliament in regards to the Services Directive. Here I focus on the division of votes within and between the member states and the parliamentary political groups; with the aim to identify patterns that might show clash of opinion concerning this issue. I found that ideology seems to play a role in the MEPs voting behaviour. Parties on the far left reach the highest level of cohesion and together with the party on the far right, they voted against the Directive, but due to different reasons.

Since the abrupt ending of the Cold Wars the international system of politics has been dominated by the unipolar United States. Leading scholars within structural realism sees this stage as just a temporary condition for various reasons. They also target China as aspirant to embody the role of a balancer against USA and pole in a bi- or multipolar system. Some even argue they are destined for superpower.With the help of realisms definition of power I estimate U.S., China's and India's capabilities and judge their potential superpower. I then go on to connect structural realism and role theory to estimate their different statuses in the system.

The aim of this study was to visualize in a pluralistic perspective how mothers of breastfed preschool children experience being treated by preschool teachers. Method: Qualitative interviews with 10 mothers and qualitative content analysis. The mothers experienced breastfeeding was surrounded by slience at preschool. The mothers were met with silence, felt vulnerable and did not want to be subject to criticizm. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first investigation on this subject. .

AbstractOil rich states all over the world share a common feature. They are less likely than other states, depending on other resources, to be ruled democratically. In this essay Saudi Arabia has been studied with the purpose of trying to find which mechanisms that lie behind why oil rich states do not have institutions or institutional change that promotes democracy.Saudi Arabia has the world's largest known reservoir of oil. The oil brings huge revenue each year to the Saudi Arabian government. Why have Saudi Arabia not developed democratically when their economic growth suggests that to be a natural step? Under the framework of historical institutionalism and path dependency theory, I have used process tracing trying to track the mechanisms behind Saudi Arabia's authoritarian rule down.

The xenophobic attitudes in Europe are stronger than even. Never before have the member states had as many right-wing parties in action. The aim with this report is therefore to consider whether the Schengen cooperation has had an influence on the development of xenophobia in the member states of EU. The Schengen cooperation became a part of the European Union in 1997, with the aim to abolish the internal border controls for citizens and strengthen the external boarders towards non-members. The intention is furthermore to investigate whether the distance to Schengen ?s external boarder has an impact on the xenophobic attitudes.Three countries are compared: Italy, Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

This study examines the possibilities of interpreting the moral values and ethics presented in the current curriculums in a way that makes them inclusive and constructive. The study also reveals how the liberal democratic ideal, presented in the curriculums as a hyper-ideology, is not at all easy to define or live up to in the pluralistic school of today.By close-reading and criticizing the curriculum for the Swedish senior high school (Gy11)and by looking at it from two different points of views, as rules or norms and as a process, Ishow how the curriculum can be interpreted as a basis or starting point for a communicationabout values. I also discuss wether the aim of this communication should be consensus or anongoing process..