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.

This essay will try to analyze how Syria?s official news agency, SANA, describes events taking place in Syria in the days between 1.4 and 18.4.2012. This will be contrasted with how BBC and CNN describe the events. These other two news agencies were chosen, because they represent media from democratic countries in Europe and the USA. This rebellion became a full scale civil war over time.

Aim: The aim of this study is to analyse the possible motives behind the actions of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in relation to the conflict in Syria. The background of this aim is the Arab Spring and the protests and violence that have followed the uprising. While, in Libya, the UN Security Council adopted resolutions that allowed sanctions against the Libyan government, no such resolutions have been adopted yet in Syria.Theory: The principal theory of the analysis is Stephen D. Krasner´s theory on sovereignty.Method: I have researched various resolutions and statements done in the Security Council, together with official statements from the actors, through Hadenius´ motive analysis methodology and Gilje & Grimen and Ödmans theories on hermeneutics.Conclusion: The conclusion of the analysis is that there, in the case of Syria and Libya, are two different parties in the Security Council. One that stands for sovereignty and one that stands for intervention.

Is there any truth in the saying ?no news is good news? or is there a reason to question whether media actually do reflect the world?s worst conflicts proportionally? The communication technologies have seen major developments in recent years, and more and more people choose to read their news on the Internet. With smartphones and other devices, one could imagine that there would be easier to cover more conflict areas than ever ? but is this what has happened?In this study we aimed to investigate how three chosen Swedish newspapers reflected five of the on-going conflicts of 2012 and how this can be explained with the theories; the CNN effect and Stealth Conflicts. We started out with studies of the two theories.

This essay describes the phases of funeral rituals between the Syrian/AsSyrian, and compares the homeland with Sweden. It describes the stage of rituals according to Victor Turner schema of separation, margin or limin, and aggregation. The rituals religious significance agrees with Clifford Geertz?s theory about the importance of religious beliefs for the human being.

As of 2013, around 51 million people were living on the run, classified as refugees. One of the reasons the number has increased so much during the last years can be explained by the war in Syria. The aim of following study is to evaluate the impact the Syrian refugee flow has had on the Turkish society up until today, seeing the consequences of economic, political and social impact made on the Turkish society. Due to these chosen aspects the study will be concentrated only on the changes in the Turkish society brought about accordance with economic, political and social effects. What is desirable is to achieve greater understanding of the positive and negative aspects of refugee flows on host countries.

The aim of the study is to examine how religion legitimates outrages and it what ways we can regard religion as politics. The study uses the theory that Eickelman and Piscatori present in their book Muslim politics. They use the term ?Muslim politics? to describe the relation between Islam and politics. Eickelman and Piscatori divide Muslim politics in five elements that the essay uses to structure the analysis.

The aim of the study is to examine how religion legitimates outrages and it what ways we can regard religion as politics. The study uses the theory that Eickelman and Piscatori present in their book Muslim politics. They use the term ?Muslim politics? to describe the relation between Islam and politics. Eickelman and Piscatori divide Muslim politics in five elements that the essay uses to structure the analysis.

The topic of this essay is the strategic importance of the Golan Heights during the period 1967-1973, specifically targeting the following questions;-          Why were the heights strategically important?-          What are the gains of either of the states in controlling the Golan Heights?A theoretical framework based on Jerker Widén´s and Jan Ångström´s Militärteorins grunder (The fundamentals in Military Theory) and its chapter regarding the strategic context will be used as an analytical framework.The framework has been applied on the specific conditions of the Golan Heights during a given and limited period of time; stretching from 1967 to 1973, however, the study will not deal with the war of attrition in 1970 as the impact on the Golan Heights and the surrounding geographical strategically important area was limited if at all. The two wars waged during this particular time are used in an attempt to give a somewhat objective picture of the strategic importance of the area.The conclusions are that the importance of the Golan heights during the selected period was significant as the Golan Heights provided a ?strategic lock? both ways and provides a favourable area to deploy artillery, intelligence and surveillance sensors..

This security study attempts to explain the dynamics of international conflict management of an intrastate conflict, through a combination of three theoretical frameworks. The conflict in Syria is shown to be managed mainly through strategies using coercive diplomacy, and some main contributions within the research field relating to strategies of coercion are used for guidance, to important factors which could affect coercive international conflict management, as well as to additional theories which could enhance the study?s explanatory power through a combined theoretical framework. The two added theoretical frameworks are Power Balancing and a Multidimensional concept of Power. With the aid of analytical tools derived from this combined framework the conflict management is analysed within both a multilateral and unilateral setting, offering some explanation as to why international conflict management (practiced by UNSC multilaterally and USA unilaterally) has shown so little progress in regard to the conflict, as well as why one significant, though limited, result could be achieved regarding the destruction of the Syrian regime?s chemical weapons arsenal..

Turkey has often been described as a cultural and geographical bridge between West and East. When the Islamic AKP came to power in Turkey 2002 many critics feared that the country was going to abandon its former Western allies and strengthen their relations with the Arab world instead. The criticism was intensified when the AKP increased Turkey?s bilateral relations with the Middle East and moved closer to former foe?s like Iran and Syria, at the same time as their long-time friendship with Israel experienced serious crisis. The aim and purpose of this thesis is to describe and explain the change in AKP?s foreign policy towards Israel.The research method is a combination of a qualitative text analysis of Turkey?s speeches in the UN General debate and Jakob Gustavsson?s model for explaining foreign policy change.The results show that the Turkish-Israeli relations have deteriorated after the Israeli attack on the Gaza Freedom Flotilla in 2010, particularly regarding diplomatic relations and military agreements.

The Syrian Muslim Brotherhood has since the start of the Syrian uprising in March 2011 moved from a low-key position in exile to become one of the main actors in the political opposition. There appears to be a consensus among researchers today on the democratic commitment of the Syrian Brotherhood. However, ambiguity remains regarding its commitment towards gender equality, women?s rights and participation. This essay focuses on the gender discourse of the Syrian Brotherhood?s leadership, according to its policy-documents, from 2004 ? 2013.

To end up as an immigrant in an unknown country and to try to participate in the majority society means both psychological and physical difficulties where their whole life is changing. Gemensamma Krafter is a prevention changing work in a housing area in Borlänge. It works among other things as a meeting place for people from different cultures. The aim with this study was to describe and to get increased understanding for the lives of a number of immigrant women who lives in Borlänge/Sweden and which importance ?Gemensamma Krafter? has had for them.

Under 2011 så utbröt det våldsamma oroligheter i Libyen och Syrien med många civila offer. FN:s säkerhetsråd utfärdade i mars 2011 en resolution om upprättandet av en No-Fly Zone i Libyen. Ryssland har sedan länge haft en uttalad inställning mot att stater lägger sig i andra länders inre angelägenheter. Ryssland avstod från att rösta i fallet Libyen vilket möjliggjorde en humanitär insats. Men avseende Syrien så har Ryssland använt sitt veto två gånger för att stoppa resolutioner som möjliggör en humanitär insats.Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att undersöka om Rysslands agerande kan förklaras utifrån realistisk teori inom internationella relationer.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka integrationsprocessen för de syriska immigranter, som har kommit till Sverige för minst två år sedan. Vi ville få reda på hur de hade upplevt första tiden i Sverige, hur de uppfattar att stödet från det svenska samhället har varit och vilka faktorer som har haft betydelse för deras välmående.I denna uppsats har vi använt oss av en kvalitativ metod. Data har samlats in genom intervjuer som har behandlat integrationsprocessen utifrån syriska emigranters perspektiv. Till våra intervjuer har vi använt oss av en intervjuguide och vi valde ut tre kvinnor och två män där deras ålder varierade från 20 till 45 årsåldern.De teoretiska utgångspunkterna utgick ifrån Bourdieushabitus, Olkiewiczs (2008) assimilatoriska och nostalgiska grupper samt Franzens (1997) konstruktiva och destruktiva mönster.Vårt resultat visade att första tiden i Sverige ansågs som en väldigt svår period för våra informanter. Detta berodde dels på att man var rädd att inte bli erbjuden ett svenskt uppehållstillstånd och dels att man i vissa fall upplevde osäkerhet på förläggningen.