The question of whether there is soft law in international law has been as much the subject of contemporary debate as whether or not there is private legal authority in the international society. The legal boundaries seem to be blurred by the process of globalisation and the recent shift in international law. The traditional definition of international law has been outdated as new forms of treaties has introduced new subject of law to the judicial arena. At the same time a supplementary map of law has been added to the cartography of international law, soft law. These correlating processes have comprehensive political and legal consequences at both the international and national levels.

This thesis takes as its starting-point the different stands on the ever ongoing growth of multinational corporations (MNCs) and its consequences. Two opposing branches of theories, arguing that the establishment of MNCs in developing countries is good respectively bad for these countries, are tested for the aspect of state capacity. A quantitative method is then used to test if there exists such a relationship at all and if so, which of the two notions that are right.The presence of MNCs is measured as FDI of GDP while state capacity is defined as a combined index for three of ICRG's Political risk indicators. The two variables are analysed, mainly by cross tabulation, using an extensive dataset of 130 developing countries measured for a period of 20 years.The outcome is though ambiguous: No solid correlation can be found, but countries with a higher rate of FDI of GDP tend to have a slight worse rate of state capacity throughout the analysis. Thus the result points in favour of the notion that MNCs are bad for developing countries? state capacity.

Background: It has been a common perception in the media in recent years that external shopping malls extinguish the trade in Swedish downtown areas. Factors that promote external shopping malls are that customers become more and more indolent and more people buy cars. Despite this fact, downtown areas have a great deal to offer when it comes to creating a pleasant atmosphere. Furthermore, customers are becoming more demanding and want something extra while doing their shopping. More and more shopkeepers therefore realize the importance of events as an instrument to offer experiences to the customers.Purpose: To investigate whether shopkeepers in downtown Linköping consider the external shopping mall in Tornby a competitor or not and, if so, in what ways the trade in the downtown area has been affected by Tornby.

This exploratory thesis uses qualitative research to investigate how digital music is beeing packaged. The main study consists of 11 deep interviews with key representatives of the digital music industry in Sweden. These are (record companies) EMI, SonyBMG, Universal, Warner, (DSP) InProdicon, (mobile operators) 3, TeliaSonera and (cell phone producer) SonyEricsson. Packaging is a concept of marketing that has specific implications depending on which good or service that is being packaged. Packaging occurs at different levels in the production chain.

Purpose: The purpose of this essay is to describe the social media usage of five European official national tourism organizations (NTO). The essay proceeds to discuss and evaluate the findings, whilst reflecting on the advantages of social media usage from the point of view of an official national tourism organization.Method: The authors used three different methods of research: one structured observation to study the national tourism organizations? everyday work in social media, one field stimulation to study if and how different NTO respond if a prospective visitor makes them a direct question via social media and finally an email interview to gain insight into NTO?s underlying strategies and policies about social media usage.Theoretical framework: The theories that have been used in this paper include the Uses and gratifications model, theories of one-way and multi-way communication, theories of social media and relationship marketing.Conclusion: By making use of social media the company releases some of its control to the customers as the latter can express their opinions freely in this type of media. One of the advantages of social media is that the platform favors dialogue and feedback. Social media can be used for traditional one-way communication, but works best as a supplement to the regular marketing activities, allowing the activities on social media platforms to focus on branding and building long-term customer relationships.

In 2002 George W. Bush held a speech where he classified six nations as being the main threats to American security, one of them being Syria, a state with a secular constitution, no resent offence towards the US, and with an improved diplomatic relationship to the US during the Clinton years.Being an ally to the Soviet Union during the Cold War Syria was forced to redefine its role in the region. Using neorealistc theory one part conlusion is the fact that the new Syrian leader, Bashar al-Hasad, in the early 21th century determined to set higher goals for the Syrian power ambition in the Middle East, threatened to destabilize the region and leave the US and its allies in a caotic situation.In the US, however, the new administration after 11/9 sharpened its tone towards states that did not cooperate in the new ?war on terrorism? or/and were likely to harbour terrorists. Syria was accused of doing both.

Background: Increasing globalization has changed the business environment and also resulted in increased awareness of the consumers and demand for higher standards of social responsibility. The companies brand strategies has gain in importance in order to strengthen their brands. A part of a company's CSR, CRM, cause-related marketing, which is a relatively new marketing strategy and created when companies choose to partner with charities and market it. Garment/clothing industry has as many others come to be shaped by the effects of globalization, but has also endured heavy criticism over the years. This criticism is largely because of the outside world's reaction to the exploitation of developing countries.

This paper aims to present a theoretical understanding of the emergence of extreme right- wing populist parties (ERP), and more specifically the electoral breakthrough of the ERP party, Sverigedemokraterna in the municipality of Karlskrona. By doing so the study is constructed as a theoretical framework, where the empirical material and the theoretical aspects are interwoven. This means that the theoretical framework also functions as an analytical part. The paper shows how Sverigedemokraterna could be understood as an ERP party, based on e.g its populist anti-establishment critique, and its critique towards the ?immigrant issue?.

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.

In this essay we map and evaluate obstacles and problems that can occur during the establishment of international companies in Russia. This is done by investigating Swedish companies, which are established in Moscow and Saint Petersburg. We used secondary and primary data from books, previous surveys, reports, articles and the Internet. We also interviewed the following companies: Alfa Laval, Kockum Sonics AB, Höganäs Keramik, Skanska, Assa Abloy, Advakom, AnoxKaldnes, Lindab, Delovoj Peterburg, HL-Display and also a journalist from the Swedish Radio.Most of the problems named by the interviewees were similar, but some differences were also found. The differences were primarily found in the ranking of importance between the different problems.

In Peter Weiss debut Fra?n o? till o? (1947) the ?I? travels from island to island as a castaway. The island here can signify, or work as a synecdoche for exile and the feeling of isolation that exile often induces. But the movement from island to island also implies a restless state: Peter Weiss shifting from painting to writing to filmmaking and theatre, from German to Swedish and then back to German. The years during exile and the years that followed the exile until his breakthrough in Germany with Schatten des ko?rpers des Ku?tchens (1960), Abschied von den Eltern (1961) and Fluchtpunkt (1962), were the formative years of Peter Weiss authorship.

This thesis takes as its point of departure the Swedish governmental family policy and the debate on the proposed reform ?vårdnadsbidraget?. The supporters of the reform present it as something that will increase the freedom of choice for families and benefit the children, whereas the opponents warn for decreased equality and a return to the male breadwinner-model.From a constructivist perspective, language is closely related to power through defining and ascribing meaning to reality. By applying a feminist political theory on the debate within the Swedish national parliament 2007/2008 and conducting a discourse analysis, the aim of this paper is to analyse which concepts are used and how they construct to what makes a family within the political debate ? is there any difference or similarity between the view of the opponents and the supporters of ?vårdnadsbidraget??The main conclusion of this paper is that even though the political ideal and rhetorical concepts differ between the supporters and the opponents, they still constitute the heterosexual nuclear family as an obvious norm in family politics.

In this essay, we attempt to study and analyze the work towards equality between men and women at the university of Örebro, Sweden. By using discourse analysis we have the ambition to test organizational theory with a gender perspective as the explanatory model for the schools successful work. We also have the ambition to develop our theory and ad an organizational theme focusing on actors..

The purpose of this essay is to explore how social media affect the political orientation and commitment of youths. Three scientific questions highlight the purpose from different angles. The didactic perspective is discussed in the initial and closing discussion, and is analyzed in the corresponding chapter. Two methods are involved in the study; one survey and one interview with a focus group. The survey had a total of 98 respondents from four different classes, all in the first grade of upper secondary school.

Officially, the EU gender policy since 2000 has been guided by the strategy of Gender Mainstreaming. This strategy aims to promote gender equality and is informed by a feminist ontology which stipulates that women are structurally subordinated.In this essay, I examine whether the European Commission has adequately adhered to this gender policy in its free trade negotiations with the ACP (African, Caribbean, and Pacific) countries as part of the Cotonou Agreement. As a result of my text analysis of documents related to the negotiations, opinion pieces by interested actors and policy papers of the EU, I find that the Commission does not act in accordance to its stated gender policy.To explain this discrepancy between policy intent and actions, I employ postliberal feminist theory and Robert Putnam's Two-Level Game Theory Model. By analyzing statistics and published research, I explore how gender issues are being represented politically on a domestic and international level.My findings show that a key cause of this discrepancy lies in the low levels of female participation in the political institutions of the EU and ACP; a lack of participation that is especially pronounced in the area of international economics. In explaining the constraints on female participation and the prospects of full implementation of the EU's gender policy in the international political economy, I emphasize the role of culturally and historically gendered institutions..