The Swedish Armed Forces have gone through a remarkable change. From beingan organisation built on the notion of countering a Soviet invasion it has evolvedto focusing on small, multilateral rapid reaction capabilities to be used within theframework of the European security and defence policy, ESDP.This thesis regards the change as a process of Europeanisation. Drawing fromsociological and historical institutionalism, it is shown that the Swedish ArmedForces in the post-cold war context was path dependent and unwilling to redefineits historical raison d?être. The origin of the ESDP Europeanised the nationaldefence policy, whereas the bureaucracy was still unwilling to translate the newstructural norms.

1979 till 1989 pågick en sovjetisk militär insats i Afghanistan vars syfte var att bedriva upprorsbekämpning för att stödja den afghanska marionettregeringen. Efter 9/11 2001 blev Afghanistan återigen ett insatsområde för en amerikanskledd koalition vars syfte var att störta talibanerna och sätta en ny regering till makten. Som en följd av detta genomfördes flera markoperationer för att rensa upp de sista talibanska fästena. En av dessa operationer var Operation Anaconda. Men fanns och finns det fortfarande erfarenheter som från Sovjets insatser som kunde haft en effekt på denna operation samt liknande operationer? Syftet med denna uppsats är att utgå från de sovjetiska operationer Afghanistan 1979-1989 och påvisa framgångsfaktorer som kan användas på markoperationer inom ramen för upprorsbekämpning.

Filmmediet idag är den mest populära formen av masskultur. Med sin världstäckande genomslagskraft och sitt stereotypa porträtterande av verklighet, påverkar filmen världsåskådningen för människor runtom i världen. Ett brinnande ämne i amerikansk film har alltid varit Ryssland, på grund av de politiska motsättningarna och den historiska rivaliteten med USA. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur Ryssland porträtteras i amerikanska filmer från perioden för presidenterna Dmitrij Medvedevs respektive Barack Obamas första mandatperiod. Frågeställningen för uppsatsen är: hur ser stereotypa föreställningar om Ryssland ut i amerikansk film 2008-2011? Trettiotal filmer med ryska motiv valdes ut för undersökningen och analyserades utifrån de visuella och sociala aspekterna.

The aim of this study is to get a better understanding of the Iranian regime. My theory is that the Iranian regime is a semi-dictatorship, based on the soul fact that semi-competetive elections take place. The main question this thesis tries to answer is what characterizes the political construction of the Iranian regime and by what means does it implement its political goals. In trying to answer this question the case of Iran is applied to four specific typologies being, semi-dictatorship, military rule, single party rule and personal rule. The aim has not been to categorically analyze if the Iranian regime matches one typology or the other perfectly, as this is seldom the case when it comes to typologies.After analysis of the four typologies, the conclusion is that the Iranian regime utilizes semi-competitive elections to give a guise of democracy, as is in line with a semi-dictatorship.

Since the breakdown of the Soviet Union, more than fifteen revolutionary yearshave passed. Estonia and Latvia have undergone a change from communist statesto members of the European Union. As in so many other post-communist statescorruption has been a problem. However, Estonia has since the independence hada lower degree of corruption than the neighbour country Latvia. The main purposeof this thesis is to explain why so.

I och med det svenska bidraget till NATO missionen i Afghanistan samt den nyupprättade bergsplutonen på Arméns JägarBataljon i Arvidsjaur så har frågor kring taktik i bergsterräng även blivit aktuellt för Sverige. Då svenska utbildningarna och doktriner i huvudsak saknar problematiseringen kring att strida eller verka i bergsterräng så kan man där av ställa sig frågan hur ska vi få kunskap om detta? Detta arbete syftar därför till att jämföra den av USA använda taktiken i Afghanistans bergsterräng och den Sovjet har använt sig av. Frågan som arbetet försöker besvara är dels vad skillnaden har varit mellan taktiken hos stormakterna samt vad som varit den största framgångsfaktorn och begränsningen i respektive lands konflikt. Arbetet bygger på ett underlag främst från litteratur samt artiklar om operationer genomförda i Afghanistan.Arbetets resultat kan sammanfattas med att de faktorer som mest har påverkat dessa länders lösande av uppgift har varit hur ledarskapet har varit inom deras förband, och då främst hur i vilken utsträckning dessa har använt sig av uppdragstaktik.

The aim of this study is to investigate differences that exist in Estonia and Russia with regard to civil society, democracy and corruption and try to find out what can be possible causes to the vast differences in these two countries. Many political scientists claim that civil society plays a key role in democratic transitions. This paper takes its point of departure in 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed and Estonia and Russia became independent. Since then Estonia has had a flourishing economy which attract many foreign investments, with Sweden as the greatest investor. The country has also managed well to adjust quickly from totalitarianism to democracy.

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.

Slovenia and Latvia are two examples of countries which have gone through a successful democratic transition. They were both under authoritarian rule and command economy up until their declarations of independence in the early 90s. Today they have a functional market economy and political pluralism. I have examined transition theories highlighted by Jonas Linde and Joakim Ekman and from these theories sought the explanations to what lies behind the successful transitions of these two countries. The transition in Slovenia was affected by liberalization from within the ruling communist party which then controlled much of the transition process. A relatively large civil society and the fact that Slovenia was not involved in the Balkan War also contributed to the short process.

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.

Following the accident at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in 1986, great volumes of137Cs were distributed over large parts of the former Soviet Union and Europe. Over Scotland,radiocaesium was deposited as wet deposition. Due to the relatively long physical half-life of30 years, there are still measurable activity concentrations in the natural environment. Thisstudy was made on two organic soils, Knockandy Hill and Rora Moss, situated in the easternpart of the central highlands of Scotland. At these two sites, studies on migration and transferbetween soil and plants were conducted.

Monuments are raised all over the world of several different reasons. A monument dosen´t only refer just to itself, it also tells something about the historical context they are risen into. The overall purpose of this study is to try to reveal how history is used through the process, and rising of the monument "Vindarnas Boning" in Karlstad, Sweden 16/6, 1967. The historical narrative around this monument is about to show the importance of the esthetics, the main forces around the monument and last, how the monument legitimacy is maintained. Throughout those analytic tools, according to this study, I will try to examine possible other reasons behind this monument than the official one, who is to act as a remembrance of the finnish immigrants who settled in the unpopulated deep forests of Sweden and enabled to maintain a minor community separated from other influences, during the 16 th century and onward.

In this two years masters thesis in Library and Information Studies, the Russian Library-Bibliographical Classification (LBC/BBK) and the Chinese Library Classification (CLC) are analyzed with regard to their historical and ideological backgrounds and their respective evolutions. The structure of these classifications is compared with the Dewey Decimal Classification (DDC), as well as three chosen subjects (History, Politics and Religion). A qualitative comparative textual method is used.The study shows that these classification schemes, created at different times, different parts of the world, and different political systems, have different biases but give priority to the European before other foreign views. Otherwise, they often use a proximity principle. The CLC and the LBC were originally based on Marxist materialist principles but built in totally different ways.

Following the accident at the nuclear power plant in Chernobyl in 1986, great volumes of137Cs were distributed over large parts of the former Soviet Union and Europe. Over Scotland,radiocaesium was deposited as wet deposition. Due to the relatively long physical half-life of30 years, there are still measurable activity concentrations in the natural environment. Thisstudy was made on two organic soils, Knockandy Hill and Rora Moss, situated in the easternpart of the central highlands of Scotland. At these two sites, studies on migration and transferbetween soil and plants were conducted.

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.