This study aspires to find an answer to what makes a negotiation for peace successful. In our pursue to do so we have chosen two cases to compare with each other through a set of different theories. The theories we believed could be relevant were ripeness/readiness, asymmetry, the strategies of mediation, intra-state conflicts and personal actors.The case-study consists of two negotiations that both took place in Camp David. The first one was between Egypt and Israel, 1978, and serves as the example of a successful negotiation. The second case was, again, with Israel but the counterpart was Palestine and took place in year 2000.

Social media on the internet allows both public and private actors to communicate with each other. The aim of this qualitative study is to explore the relationship between the public and the private in social media on the internet, specifically with emphasis on the identities which are shaped in this relationship. The social media explored in this study is the micro blog Twitter. Data was collected from the pages of three public and private actors on Twitter, specifically with concern to their interaction with public and/or private actors. The data was analysed with support in sociological theories on modernity, identity, self-identity, socialisation and Erving Goffman's theories on everyday expression.

The civil war in Sierra Leone was a very complicated conflict, both in its origin as well as in its realization. Many actors, along with the diamond trade, played vital parts in making the war carry on for a decade. In this paper I will try to clarify the relations between the actors and the diamonds, first and foremost the part the diamonds played in the conflicts start and continuation. I will also show what has happened in the country and in the diamond industry after the wars conclusion. What I find is that diamonds did not play the only part in the origin of the conflict but that the poor economic state the country was in had its part.

This case study explores the question of implementation and steering in a society of governance. As an empirical example, a reform concerning the reception of separated refugee children in Sweden is used. As of the 1st of July 2006 the responsibility for providing housing for separated children lies with the local governments rather than with the Swedish Board of Migration, aiming to improve the children's situation. However, implementing this amendment has turned out to be a harder task than expected. Traditionally, the relationship between state and local actors is seen in terms of state steering or local self-government.

The aim of this study is to increase the understanding of the causes of the first war between Russia and Chechnya. Empirical data consists of four half-structured interviews with former Russian and Chechen war participants that tell about their perspective of the causes of the war between Russia and Chechnya. The study used narrative method and the theoretical framework consists of International Relations theories such as Realism, Geopolitics, Liberalism and Marxism. Geopolitics sees the geostrategic interest, territory as a cause of war. According to realism warfare occurs because of the state?s endeavor after power and influence in term of territory.

In Sweden, prostitution is politically defined as a social problem, more precisely, as a form of male violence against women. The definition is distinctly manifested in the government bill Kvinnofrid, characterised by the unique Swedish law that prohibits the purchase of sexual services.This thesis examines how the Swedish solutions of prostitution are carried out. By interviewing central actors working with prostitution in different ways we aim to answer the question: What measures are taken to decrease prostitution and what implications does the Swedish solution have?The analysis is divided into two parts. First, we analyse the concrete measures taken against prostitution ? what is done, how, and why? Second, we analyse the complexity of prostitution measures by applying complementary analytical perspectives: the symbolic and the discourse perspective.The study shows that measures taken to decrease prostitution vary and depend on individual actors? understandings of the political definition.

In December 2004 an earthquake coursed waves that hit Thailand. Over 5000 people died, and Sweden was the tourist country that has been effected the worst. The catastrophe precipitated Sweden in crises and the demand became high for Swedish government to act. Swedes followed the development via media, why media became the crucial element for how the public perceived politicians? acting.

In this thesis I discuss about economical and political transition in countries that is consecutively being induced by influential external actors. Looking closer on the role of the EU as a dynamic transitional force, with the intention of examining to what extent the EU can pursuit its interest and modify the economical as well as the political structures of transition countries. With relations to four transition states on the Western Balkans, more precise Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia-Montenegro and Macedonia (FYROM), I have examined the influential position of the EU. Another feature that is discussed is the approach of the EU and the cause of it in respect to the Western Balkans. Since the end of the crises in Kosovo the EU was given the leading roll in stabilizing and reconstructing the Western Balkans.

In recent years, the right-wing extremist site Avpixlat (?Unveiled?) and the anti-racist blog Inte rasist, men... (?Not a racist, but??, IRM) have established themselves as political actors and platforms for political discussion in Sweden. However, we know very little about them and their impact on democracy.

Bioenergy from the forest has been heavily debated in Sweden for several decades due to the interest of society to decrease dependence upon fossil fuels and limit the effects of climate change. The actual use of bioenergy from the forest has shifted over the years but increased during the last decades. Private actors within forest and nature conservation sectors play an important role for the development of bioenergy from the forest as well as for the debate and the implementation of political goals. Forestry in Sweden is characterised by ?freedom under responsibility? for private actors and the perspective of governance is valuable for studying actors and discourses.

Essay in Political Science C by Peter Nilsson, spring 2008.Det offentliga samtalet ? en argumentationsanalys av artikuleringen kring Kristianstad ArenaTutor: Stig MontinThe purpose of this essay is to examine the public deliberation of Kristianstad Arena in the local newspaper and clarify who the actors are and what kind of arguments they express. Further I intend to find the differences between the actors and the kind of arguments they use. To fulfill the purpose I?ve used three minor questions which are; a) which actors participate in the public deliberation about Kristianstad Arena, b) Which are the arguments emerge, c) Which clear differences in the arguments is there between the actors? To find my answers I?ve examined the local paper during a period of four months.

Since the 1980's economic policies has become an important issue in municipalities and more resources are put into projects that are intended to have a positive influence on the local economic growth. From a theoretical perspective of regime theory and a model of local political economy, concerning the strategies chosen by the actors involved designed by Jon Pierre, the discussion points to the fact that it is possible to affect the local development. The municipalities discussed and compared in this thesis, Bromölla and Östra Göinge, have similar prerequisite for growth mainly due to their dependence to large industrial companies.In order to fulfill the aim of the thesis and examine the change in economic policies over time and between the two municipalities a comparative method is used. The creation of local governing coalitions is emphasized which makes efforts and intentions of individual actors crucial for the success of the local economic policies. Bromölla started their more active efforts in the area of economic policies earlier than Östra Göinge and has also come a bit further in the process.

This thesis examines the possibility of Bolivian indigenous women?s social movements? getting their demands of a gender equal society fulfilled in the new state which was initiated in 2005 when Evo Morales became the first president representing the indigenous people of the country. By using a qualitative method I have showed that although the Bolivian indigenous women?s social movements? historically has been significant political actors for social change in the country, with representation at both regional and national level, Bolivian women are still subordinated in the social and political sphere. By applying a feminist intersectional perspective which takes its point of departure in a understanding of power as multidimensional, where gender, ethnicity and class are constitutive principals, multiculturalism theories and a social movements theory framework, I have found that even if institutional changes, that opened the system increased the indigenous women?s social movements political participation in Bolivia, power structures based on gender limited their possibilities to influence both socially and politically.

The creation of Region Skåne, and the transfer of the development responsibility from the national administrative country board (Länsstyrelsen) has given the state new challenges. New structures have grown between Region and State, and also between different municipalities. These can be characterized as Policy-networks, and the goal of this study is to analyze the planning process of the regional infrastructure with these theories.This is a qualitative study of the infrastructure process in Skåne, and the actors that acts within this process. It has been studied with the eyes of the theories of Governance and Policy-networks. The main method to collect material has been through interviews with different actors within the process, and very little written material has been used.

In January 2007 the Öresund committy changed its statutes to become a more politically oriented lobby organization. This change can be interpreted as one part of a continuously evolving process where the Öresund region is emancipating itself from the national states in a multi-level European environment. By focusing on this latest development the thesis puts forward the importance of political institutions, as well as politicians and civil servants as actors in them, as crucial factors in the process where the region is gaining political power. The thesis shows how the political cross-border cooperation in the Öresund region is being institutionalized which affects its power relations to other levels in the multi-level system, predominantly the national states. In other words, there is a connection between power and institutionalization.The Öresund committee has by gaining better access to policymaking agendas on the national levels proven that the organizational change has already started to bear fruit.