Japan's foreign and security policy has seen some substantial changes as a result of events like the first Gulf war and 9/11th. This has been taken as proof, by some, that Japan is abandoning its antimilitaristic stance and pursuing a more traditional hard power role through military means. This essay aims to explore if these shifts have coincided with any substantial shifts away from antimilitarism, which has had a strong influence on the country's security policy since the end of WW2.To do this I use constructivist theory, specifically regarding the impact of norms and identities on states security policy and briefly look into the problem of actor designation. The thematic focus is on security policy, from a narrow perspective, and thus I examine areas like the input and output to the Japanese military and the actual applications of this force. State identity is used to explore the prevalence of nationalistic sentiments and support for anti militarism in the public opinion and the political elite.The result of this study points to the further relevance of constructivist theory and especially the application of norms and identity.

This Master's thesis examines segregation between Swedes and immigrants in school, and more specifically segregation between the two elementary schools Vikingaskolan and Tunaskolan in Lund. This case provides a particularly interesting puzzle, since Lund doesn?t have any pronounced immigrant districts, and was also recognized nationally as best municipality for its schools (2004). In this thesis we try to understand the segregation between the two schools in Lund as an implementation dilemma.The theoretical framework applies a model designed by Lennart Lundquist, which includes three potential causes for implementation problems: the implementer doesn?t understand the decision, the implementer can?t apply the decision, the implementer doesn?t want to carry out the decision.

The overarching aim of this essay is to analyze, from a feminist point of view, the moral responsibility for the structural oppression of women. In this discussion I focus on the issue of moral responsibility for sexual violence against women, such as rapes. I claim that a feminist theory of moral responsibility has to be based on a collectivist approach. I argue that men should be considered as collective moral responsible for the structural oppression of women. However, it is important that we analyze the interaction between actor and structure.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate and assess, with Clausewitz?s theory as thebackground, how different military theorists interpret and relate to the nature of war.This essay illustrates the state of research into Clausewitz?s philosophical influences.Clausewitz?s theory of the nature of war is subjected to a qualitative text analysis that is followedby a critique of other military theorists interpretations of his theory. Subsequently a descriptive,comparative qualitative text analysis is performed where the factors identified by Clausewitz asbeing part of the nature of war (?rational thought?, ?passion? and ?chance?) are used as a meansto interpret and assess how other military theorists relate to Clausewitz theory. This essay ismainly founded on analysis of the works of Jomini, Delbrück, Fuller, Liddell Hart, Handel,Roxborough, van Creveld and Keegan.

My main purpose with this study is to investigate how the social worker relates to knowledge, power and profession. From this purpose has also the concept ?to be a social worker? emerged.The study is based on a qualitative study and consists of semi-structured interviews with seven social workers from different fields of expertise.The result of the study shows that the knowledge is dependent of different fields of expertise. But in the contact with the client, regardless of field of expertise, the knowledge is gathered through a reflective pattern. Through theoretical attempts and earlier experience from social workers, this is brought to life in this unique meeting.

The means to political participation at the local level in Sweden are changing and this change is analyzed through a case study. The first aim is to explore the forms of public political participation in Swedish municipal Älvkarleby, namely public question time in local government, citizen motions and open meetings. A part of this is also to analyze he every day contact between citizens and representatives. The second aim concerns the reasons why politicians decide to support these means to participationThe empirical material consists mainly of semi structured interviews with local politicians, civil servants, participating citizens and local press. Official documents such as public minutes are also used in the process of creating an image of local participation.Local political participation is found to be limited but yet having the potential to strengthen democracy, provided that public decision-makers are open to a dialogue with the participants.Using Kjell Arne Røvik's theories of organisational change, the changes in local democracy can be explained as being partly rational, partly symbolic and partly identity shaping political decisions..

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 main purpose of this study is to examine celebrity candidates in the European Parliament election in Sweden and Finland. The theoretical background assumes that candidate voting is beneficial in the election to the European Parliament. Previous research also shows that there are some opponents towards candidate voting, claiming it personalizes politics and it might lead to celebrities getting elected simply because they are well known to the voters.This study is a comparative analysis and analyzes the differences between Sweden and Finland when it comes to celebrity candidates. Furthermore, Max Weber?s theory on leadership will be used to categorize the celebrity candidates further.

The paper contains comment, clarification and criticism, even constructive criticism, of some theses that have been put forward by Laurence Bonjour in his In Defense of Pure Reason.It presents a concept of experience that deals with the relation between cognizer and object of experience that has a great similarity to that of Bonjour. Through analysis it is shown that the concept of a priori entails that Bonjour has two concepts of a priori, a narrow and a broad one. The narrow one is, in my own words: According to moderate rationalism a proposition p is a priori justified if and only if you apprehend that p must be true in every possible world. This doesn?t mean that Bonjour doesn?t believe in an epistemological, metaphysical and semantic realm.

This thesis addresses the driving forces behind the Swedish state?s procurement of Helicopters 14 and 16 and the decommissioning of Helicopter 4. These actions have significantly affected the Swedish Armed Forces, especially the Helicopter Wing, in carrying out their operational tasks. On numerous occasions the Helicopter Wing has been unable to perform its tasks. For instance, the Nordic Battle Group 08 had no helicopters to exercise with and, until recently, Sweden had completely lacked the ability to hunt submarines with helicopters for almost ten years.This thesis also aims to compare the decisions in 1999-2000 regarding Helicopter 14 with the decisions in 2010-2011 regarding the acquisition of Helicopter 16, to find if there is a general trend and how much the Armed Forces were able to influence decisions.

Construction projects are organized in different shapes and disturbances in the information flow in these processes can lead to problems, such as delays and/or a lower quality. Therefore, a well-functioning interaction between actors and a well thought out-communication at an early stage is of crucial importance. The main question is "How does the communication of decision and information flow in the building process and what barriers and opportunities can be observed?". This diploma work has been written with guidance from Bjerking AB and to answer this question, a collection of empirical data conducted via semi-structured interviews.

Active work to increase the efficiency of energy use is taking place in Sweden and throughout all of Europe. Electricity is an important part in our society?s energy system which means that the electrical grid operators and associated therewith has a central role in this work. Monitoring and controlling the electrical grids are managed from the distribution system operator?s DC, dispatch center.The aim of this report is to examine how the operations in a typical DC on the Swedish electricity distribution network will look like in five to ten years.

AbstractInterest in the subject appeared from real events. We seemed to discern a trend in society. Wehave noted that the amount of social enterprises to a greater extent is formed in Sweden.Companies like GodEl, Postkodslotteriet and DEM Collective are typical illustrations ofcompanies included in the category of social enterprise. It seemed as socially profiledcompanies is the new generation companies. The purpose of this essay is to make aninventory of possible competitive advantages that arise from social branding.

The aim of this paper is to explain how the European Union?s common strategy for theCommon Foreign- and Security Policy (CFSP) will change with the implementation of the Treaty of Lisbon. A comparative case study and qualitative method is used. On the basis of Smith?s theory of institutionalization we will analyze two member states: France and Denmark.

In this thesis I will discuss how US respectively EU general international security policies are formed with the scientific theories Rational Choice and Cognitive theory in mind. I?ll discuss how come US tends to go towards a more sanction orientated strategy while European Union seems to prefer a dialog and diplomatic problem solving strategy. I?ll exemplify respective security strategy through the qualitative cases study of Iran and analyse why they have taken different cores of action while trying to solve the problem with Iran's alleged nuclear weapon.