The Arctic region has not been a topic of discussion or a reason for a conflict in the past, but with the development of environmental issues which has resulted in melting of the ice, so has the interest for the region developed. This has resulted in a conflict over the area, with five countries as main actors. This paper investigates the five main actors? goals with increased influence in the area, using the thoughts of Rational Actor Model, with states as utility-maximizing actors and foreign policy as the expression of national interest. Furthermore the paper investigates the means of getting to the goal, what kind of tools they use.The paper shows that all of the countries are interested in the economically benefits that are buried under the melting ice and the short cuts in sea routes that will be a possibility to use ones the ice melt more.

The Security Council?s resolution 1325 addressed the major negative impact that armed conflict has on women and children. This in turn complicates the Council?s work on maintaining international peace and security. The resolution therefore highlights women?s rights as participants in peace- and conflict processes.

This essay focuses on how trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation is defined and dealt with in the Nordic countries. Agreements on how trafficking for sexual exploitations should be dealt with is presented in reports and Action plans from the European Union and United nations amongst others. In this essay we will compare four national Action plans made by governments by Denmark, Finland, Sweden and Norway between 2005- 2011 to each other. Mainly we have been looking at similarities and differences in the different Action plans. The essay is based on Discourse theory and discursive struggle and we have been looking at similarities and differences in how trafficking is dealt with through language.

The Catholic Church launched several crusades during the medieval ages in order to regainthe holy lands and spread the word of God. Their main enemy, the Muslims had grownstronger and needed to be suppressed. This common enemy united Europe under the banner ofthe Catholic Church. In order to fund these crusades the church turned to the wealthyEuropean kings and lords and asked for funding. In return the kings received an indulgenceletter, and also greater respect from their subjects because of their new appreciation from thepope.

The object of this essay was, first, to study what advantages parliamentary members in the participating countries argue that their country gains when university students study abroad via ERASMUS, and, second, to study two factors that might affect what advantages that are emphasised by the parliamentary members in the participating countries. To achieve this object, two research questions were posed regarding what advantages of the ERASMUS Programme are mentioned in the parliamentary debate in three countries, United Kingdom, Sweden and Germany, and regarding whether the parliamentary debate is different between the countries as concerns what advantages are emphasised. Subsequently another two research questions were studied, regarding whether the countries? different positions in Europe and the existence of euroscepticism in these countries affect what advantages of the ERASMUS Programme are emphasised in the parliamentary debate. The study was carried out using argumentation analysis, in which the arguments for participation in the ERASMUS Programme presented in the parliamentary debates were compiled and grouped together according to whether they refer to economic and professional advantages or to cultural and social advantages.

The following thesis will examine how a smaller library manages the prioritization of media between Swedish and 'minority language'. We are also interested in the challenges and problems that can occur in such work, as well as how the librarians think about their role in the integration process. We have studied this through several qualitative interviews with librarians as well as earlier related research. The results show that librarians display a high propensity of appreciation related to working with minority languages and consider this an important aspect of their profession ? they fully ingratiate and accept the importance of helping the immigrant population in learning Swedish.

The European Union is struggling to maintain democracy and tries to increase the participation among the citizens in Europe. The European Citizens? Initiative, ECI, is a platform established by the European Commission to allow citizens to propose new legislation. ?Water and sanitation are a human right! Water is a public good, not a commodity!? is the first ECI that has met the requirements.

Political realism is a general theory within political science focusing on the principle interest defined as power. The theory?s mutual standpoint is that states are inspired by power politics meaning that military and economic power or security stands in the centre while moral and ethics are placed in the periphery. This essay?s purpose is to analyze realism which helps to understand the development and change of the perspective.

This study aims to show how teachers talk about their teaching with regards to gender in relation to literature.We have interviewed four teachers of Swedish for upper secondary school to discover how they feel about, and understand, the fact that gender is a factor in the teaching of literature and that they should present to the students literature written by both male and female authors. To analyze the interviews we use Sannersted's (1991) theory about teachers as street-level-bureaucrats ("närbyråkrater"). He states that teachers are persons who have to follow what politicians have decided but they are fairly free to choose how they do it, but to be able to follow a decision as closely as possible three qualifications have to be met. The teachers have to understand the decision, be able to follow it and want to follow it. We find that the teachers that we have interviewed are aware that they discuss gender issues with their students and they all claim that they present a variation of authors to their students.

Syftet med uppsatsen har varit att genom en fallstudie av kriget i Sierra Leone (1991-2002) sökaefter konventionella inslag i aktören Revolutionary United Fronts (RUF) våldsbeteende ochdärigenom undersöka huruvida krigets natur kan beskrivas utifrån ett rationellt eller irrationelltperspektiv. För att uppfylla syftet med uppsatsen har två frågeställningar använts; ?Finns detkonventionella inslag i aktören RUF:s våldsbeteende?? och ?Kan krigets natur i Sierra Leonebeskrivas utifrån ett rationellt eller irrationellt perspektiv??. Teorianknytningen utgörs av Carl vonClausewitz teorier om krigets natur.Resultatet av undersökningen visar att konventionella inslag i form av åtskillnad mellankombattanter och icke-kombattanter, konventionella medel och metoder samt politiskt syfte går attfinna i RUF:s våldsbeteende.Sammantaget visar fallstudien på att RUF:s våldsbeteende inte kännetecknades av ett enda kaos,ett allas krig mot alla på etniska, religiösa eller ideologiska grunder och därför inte kan beskrivassom ett irrationellt fenomen. I stället menar jag att krigets natur som det gestaltade sig under krigeti Sierra Leone går att beskriva utifrån ett rationellt perspektiv, typiskt för konventionella krig, medgrund i Clausewitz teorier om krigets natur..

This essay is a comparison according to the ideological thoughts about womens position in the society of Mao Zedong och Josef Stalin. The material I have analysed is writings by Mao and Stalin, in a wide range from leaflets to orders to the armies of the states of China and the Soviet Union. The method I have used is an ideological analysis where the attitude towards women is the target for my survey. The attitude towards women generally was not unified in the world during the time for Mao and Stalin. In many countries the women was intended to take care of the children and the home, not be active in working and fighting.

The aim of this paper is to map out the purposes of the United Nations Peacekeeping Operations. This is done in order to see if humanitarian tendencies have been an increasingly cause for the UN to initiate an intervention with military means. This paper uses the time period from the end of the cold war until today, since that historic occurrence increased the U.N.?s involvement in peacekeeping. By using this time span it enables the survey to indicate changes in the mapping of humanitarian interventions.

Abstract  This paper examines the Copenhagen Climate Conference held in the Bella Center in Copenhagen, December 2009. The aim of this paper was to analyse the highly anticipated conference, and why it did not result in a binding protocol between the world?s states. The focus of this paper was to examine two key actors in the Copenhagen negotiations: the people?s republic of China and the European Union.

The aim of this study is to investigate the situation in Romania concerning trafficking for sexual purposes. We look at what affect the European Union has had relating to this matter, in order to conclude what a membership implies on the fight against trafficking. A gender perspective is apparent throughout the essay and new institutionalism leads us to focus on the affect of the EU, both formally and informally. Questions to be answered revolves around the EU:s strategy against trafficking, recent trends and the implementation of the strategy in Romania, formally and informally. The study has the form of a case study and is conducted through a field study in Romania.

How should a fair income tax system be designed? Since Estonia became the first country to introduce a flat tax on incomes in 1994, this question has been in focus of public debate. The aim of is this thesis is to show that a flat income tax system, combining a proportional tax rate on all incomes with an allowance exempt from tax, is consistent with the demands of justice. In order to achieve this I construct a two level argument using normative method. The first part consists in the justification of a specific ethical theory which is derived from to notion of human dignity.