The Sub-Saharan countries have for a long time struggled with poverty and conflicts which might have proven hostile for investors. The analysis aims to see if there is a significant correlation between foreign direct investments (FDI) and economic growth and which cultural and institutional factors seem to be significant in this correlation. Considered are also other variables and their influence that might explain what motivates and gives incentives for foreign direct investments (FDI) and are used in the construction of a regression analysis. This to see whether there is an effect on the economic growth in relations to FDI. The results show that FDI is of significance to the economic growth in the region and the study shows that corruption seems to be the most significant institutional factor in the correlation with effect on economic growth and the ability to attract FDI..

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.

The purpose of this Masters-thesis is to examine the impact of identity politics on (a) Turkey's foreign policy towards Europe and the EU, and (b) Europe's/EU's political attitude towards Turkey, and what implications this may have on a possibly future Turkish membership in the EU. It is a more interpreting thesis than it is an explaining one. The examination shows that Turkey has considered Europe as a political model, while Europe has used the muslime Turkey as a threat to determine its own identity. The negotiations between EU and Turkey this autumn will have great impact on the identity of both sites. If the EU accepted Turkey as a member, the union could gain a chance to spread democracy to the islamic world and thereby earn global respect.

In classic academic social studies of East Europe, terms as Communism and Post-Communism are commonly used to describe the main characteristics of this geographically imagined area. This paper makes a not so frequently seen attempt to apply Post Colonial Theory for the same field. With start point in Post Colonial theoretical writers, the author wants to find a East European Post Colonial version for the internal Europe which will supply tools for a discourse analysis of the European mind map divided into West and East. The material consists of interviews with three Swedish and three Czech officials, all working with European politics in their country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The analysis is carried out with inspiration of Ernesto Laclaus and Chantal Mouffes Discourse theory.

Girls with foreign background is the group that is most left outside the sports movement in Sweden and the ones with the least sports habit. Sports assumed to provide an arena for integration that these girls are being left outside from. The Swedish sports movement has adapted the conditions for them as a way to encourage them to participate in sports, but there are still lots of girls with foreign background that stands outside the sports movement. One input that the Swedish National Association has done for children and young adults is to adopt the Drive-in-sport, which can work as an entrance to the sports movement. The aim of the study is therefore to investigate which barriers, motivators and requests girls in Sweden with foreign background have to participate in Drive-in-sports.

In Sweden there is an integration policy and a policy for national minorities. The integration policy aims to integrate newly arrived immigrants (nyanlända 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?.

This essay tries to explain how Swedish donor organisations are working with democracy in foreign aid. Three case studies of Sida, LO-TCO Biståndsnämnd and Rädda Barnen aims to give an overview of Swedish donor organisations, their work with democracy aid, evaluation and the problems with foreign aid. With Carothers theory of democracy aiding I analyse the success of Swedish democracy promotion, how civil society contributes to democratizaion and how democracy is measured.I find that Swedish democracy aid overall is successful due to a wider perspective of the term democracy. When democracy involves human rights it gives the donor a possibility to work with democracy promotion in a more extensive area and especially in the civil society. The essay stresses the importance of being subjective when evaluating and that one have to focus on the definition of democracy in each specific case.

This study aims at examining the prospects for a policy transfer of a Swedish municipal environmental policy (that of Växjö) to the French urban commune Blois, for which an ambition of becoming a leading eco-city in France, was declared by the mayor in 2008.In the analysis, emphasis is laid on mechanisms to institutionalize the main environmental policy principles, such as political and institutional structures and processes. Other prospects for an institutionalization of a new environmental policy that are to be investigated are economic structures as well as visions of the different decision-makers concerned. Research methods used in the study are qualitative interviews, document studies and a questionnaire.The findings of the analysis show that today?s prospects for an environmental policy in Blois close to that of Växjö, are clearly limited. The limitations can partly be found in economic structures but these seem to be rather related to a lack of priority amongst actors.

Our main objective with this essay was to study VisitSweden?s effort to sell Sweden to foreign markets.This has been studied in relation to VisitScotland work and approach. We collected empirical data consisting of document studies and interviews with representatives of VisitSweden and VisitScotland. In addition, we have supplemented with an interview with a representative of Svensk Destinationsutveckling AB. We based our analysis of our empirical data on previous research in destination marketing.

The purpose of this Masters thesis is to examine literature on current media events. We see a close relationship between this literature and the media society where we relate Manuel Castells theory of the network society. In this thesis we have chosen books which give different views on three major media events in Sweden: 1 the assassination of Anna Lindh, the former Swedish Minister for foreign Affairs; 2 the Knutby murder and; 3 the Tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia. These books combine fact and fiction in their writing which in media science is called faction. This form of writing has similarities to genres like new journalism and documentarism and can be problematic for the reader in terms of genre expectations because of the mix of fact and fiction.

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 (nyanlända 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?.

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.

According to Swedish tax legislation, investment funds are taxed differently depending on if the are Swedish or foreign. The difference between the investment funds lies within the taxation of received dividends and the opportunity to shift the liability of tax of received dividends on to the funds shareholders. This measure is only available to Swedish funds. The question in this thesis is whether this difference is discriminatory against foreign investors and therefore constitutes a forbidden restriction against the free movement of capital stated in article 63 EUF Treaty.The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has given several preliminary rulings on this type of legislation and its compatibility with the principle of free movement of capital. It is not compatible with the free movement according to the court.

Domestic violence against women is a widespread problem around the world, this study aims to investigate Swedish men?s attitudes towards this problem. To investigate this I have done a historic overview of the political attitude change and I interviewed two ethnic Swedish men and two men with a foreign background, this because to get a fair representation of our multicultural society. The results and conclusions is that the attitude haven?t changed that much over the years, it is mostly the latest decades that politicians and the medial debate have acknowledge the imbalance of power between the genders and that the patriarchy is a major factor towards this attitude.The interviewed showed that the men with foreign background had a tendency to have more traditionally attitude towards women then the Swedish men..