This thesis is based on the theoretical knowledge derived from the European integration experience to conduct a comparative study between the EU and ASEAN. This thesis investigates how endogenous factors affect how exogenous factors influence the EU and ASEAN institution building process within the European Single Market and ASEAN Free Trade Area. It argues that ASEAN members' domestic political interest and national preference formed within their cultural context as a result of their informal institutional economic cooperation. The thesis reviews literature and finds that the European model cannot be simply applied to ASEAN, thus a combination of new regionalism and liberal intergovernmentalism seeks to contribute alternatives to different aspects in the analysis of ASEAN regional integration.

This bachelor thesis highlights how queer women of color perceive their racial, gender and sexual identity in targeted areas in Sweden. This is achieved from a constructivist lens using a case studies design in qualitative research. By using Intersectional theory, exploring the connection between race, gender, queerness and class and the unique experience this creates. Six different queer women of color from targeted areas were interviewed and the results showcased exclusion in both targeted areas as well as general Swedish society because of their collective, unique experiences of inhabiting marginalized intersectional identities. Furthermore, the results are discussed as a consequence of oversexualizing black women’s bodies, a systemic creation of an excluding divide in Swedish society and the lack of belongingness for queer people of color.

The Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962) has generally not been talked about in France despite having around 2 million Algerians living in France. The memory of the war has been a contested issue in France between the French state's official memory and the Algerian memory. As the topic has been mainly discussed by historians and state officials, this study looks at how the young Algerians living in France obtain and deal with the memory of the Algerian War, by exploring the reinforcement of memories from the past to the present. Issues of remembering, commemorating, and reconciling are examined among the young Algerians in France who did not experience the war directly but feel strongly connected to it in the present day. ​​Placed at the intersection of Peace and Conflict Studies and Memory Studies fields, this qualitative study is based on six interviews and employs thematic analysis of the interview material. The analysis reveals the intergenerational shaping of collective memories and highlights the importance of considering both state-level policies and individual perceptions for achieving reconciliation. The study shows that research on collective memory can contribute to a deeper understanding of the ongoing struggles for recognition and acknowledgement. 

The contemporary topic and fear of information attacks making their way and altering the course of democratic elections is a common one for many nations at current times. New technologies, cyberspace, and the increasing risk of hybrid warfare, as well as the little and vague regulation present to manage these, pose an intimidating threat to nations trying to uphold their liberal democratic values; and the nations taking advantage of this new-found form of influence are well aware of this.

This thesis centres on the topic of disinformation campaigns by the Russian state in foreign elections, namely those of Spain, Brazil, and Mexico. Particularly, it analyses the response policies from these nations, along with coordinated institutions, as a means of addressing these threats. Taking inspiration from Constructivist theory, and making use of the tools of comparative research, this paper conducts a thorough but straightforward analysis, searching for answers to its research question, and ultimately arriving at logic-founded conclusions regarding the importance of context in policy analysis, and the study of global security, and more importantly how its role is explained on the cases at hand.

This thesis illustrates the moral responsibility which men’s professional football clubs should take on when their male players commit gender-based violence against women. Through an argumentative analysis this thesis presents arguments for and against a moral responsibility of the clubs when their male players commit such crimes. The analysis is based upon the notion of CSR while it applies Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach to the responsibilities within men’s football clubs’ CSR. The analysis introduces arguments for and against moral responsibility of CSR as well as the violent and masochistic culture amongst players and fans.

Sovereignty and self-determination are two principles accepted by UN in the UN Charter and resolutions. The aim of this thesis is to analyze the tensions between sovereignty and self-determination principles in the UN and to increase understanding of how these tensions might have led to ambiguity in UN policy toward the West Papua case. The thesis identifies that there are tensions between those two principles in the UN resolutions. The tensions cause ambiguity in the UN when they are involving in self-determination cases outside the classical colonial context. The argument will be strengthened by conducting a single case study analysis on West Papua self-determination claim. As one of the self-determination claims outside the classical colonial context, the UN role when being involved in the case is argued to be lack of response and ambiguous. It concludes that the ambiguity of the UN when involved in the West Papua self-determination claim is resulted from the tensions between sovereignty and self-determination principles in the UN resolutions.

This thesis paper sets out to explore nationalism and national identity in East Asia, with a specific lens on China, Hong Kong and Taiwan as the comparative case-study. By examining the theoretical arguments and concepts of nationalism and national identity, the research questions to analyze in this paper are: (1) If individual actors and societies can define and construct their own national identity, simultaneously combat and resist the imposition of a nationalism ideology? and (2) If the rise of nationalism must result in a corresponding rise in the perception of one’s national identity in society? Despite the rising Chinese nationalism, both cases demonstrate a high peripheral and civic identity as Hongkongers and Taiwanese. Using both quantitative and qualitative content analysis, three hypotheses are process-traced and assessed to elucidate the phenomenon. The findings suggest that there exists a discrepancy of people’s perception of their national identity; individual actors can react differently and combat the imposition of a nationalism ideology, and the expansion of nationalism would not necessarily cause a parallel correlation in people’s national identity. 

This thesis study political participation in Sweden. More specifically political participationthrough three indicators on political participation. These three indicators are “voter turnout”,“accountability” and “community engagement”. This studies purpose is to analyze if Swedenhas high or low political participation. The inspiration to make this study comes from a desireto validate or question the assumptions made by The Economist Intelligence Unit in theirdemocracy index from 2020 about Swedens political participation. In their democracy indexthey ranked Sweden low in the democracy category “Political participation” compared toother high ranked democracies. Results from this study shows that Sweden doesn’t have lowpolitical participation, at least according to the indicators that’s been used in this study. Thisalso indicates that the assumptions made by the EIU about Sweden’s low politicalparticipation can be highly questioned. To come to these results this study uses Dahls fivecriteria’s for evaluating a democratic process, and then operationalizing the theory to threedifferent indicators on political participation. The method is then by a case study aboutSweden’s political participation. The material used is from different government fundedorganizations that conducts statistical surveys on voter turnout, accountability, andcommunity engagement.

Over the last few decades, there have been growing demands from clients and other stakeholders for businesses to respect human rights. Managers and company executives have been tasked with the responsibility of identifying and managing human rights issues across the operations, supply chains, and product portfolios. In Kenya, the financial sector is investing in agriculture, manufacturing, housing energy and extractive industries. Their investments have significant social, economic, and environmental impacts which in turn impact the human rights of thousands of stakeholders. This study sought to determine if the financial sector in Kenya ensures that human rights are respected during its operations, the operations of its suppliers and activities of its clients.

The study used content analysis of sustainability reports of Kenya Commercial Bank and Cooperative Banks of Kenya. The findings showed that over the years, the banks had been increasingly adhering to the human rights set out under the United Nations Human Rights standards. 

Main Findings:

AI systems are increasingly being used to shift decisions made by humans over to automated systems, potentially limiting the space for democratic participation. The risk that AI erodes democracy is exacerbated where most people are excluded from the ownership and production of AI technologies that will impact them.

AI learns through datasets but, very often, that data excludes key parts of the population. Where marginalized groups are considered, datasets often contain derogatory terms, or exclude explanatory contextual information, that is hard to accurately categorise in a format that AI can process. Resulting biases within AI design raise concerns as to the quality and representativeness of AI-based decisions and their impact on society.

There is very little two-way communication between the developers and users of AI-technologies such that the latter function only as personal data providers. Being largely excluded from the development of AI’s role in human decision-making, everyday individuals may feel more marginalized and disinterested in building a healthy and sustainable society.

Yet, AI’s capacity for seeing patterns in big data provides new ways to reach parts of the population excluded from traditional policymaking. It can serve to identify structural discrimination and include information from those otherwise ignored in important decisions. AI could enhance public participation by both providing decision-makers with better data and helping to communicate complex decisions – and their consequences – to wider parts of the population.

Citizenship laws in Denmark have become more restrictive since the early 2000s. The jus sanguini elements of citizenship hinder descendants of migrants from obtaining citizenship. Despite being born or growing up in the country, they must meet strict requirements to be granted a chance to stay. Additionally, an understanding of a national identity being tied to ethnicity and descent creates barriers for ethnic minorities in Denmark to assert their Danish identity. By conducting in-depth interviews with individuals excluded from citizenship and using the theoretical framework of ethnic identity development, this thesis seeks to explore the connection between citizenship and identity among non-Danish citizens who grew up in the country. The research found that due to the strict requirements and the common understanding of Danish national identity, the research participants were unable to fully explore their national identity, leading to lack of identity achievement. 

Although the reality of Swedish race relations is very complex, Sweden presents itself to the world as a colorblind utopia where race does not exist. Since the mid-1900s, Sweden has embraced an anti-racist rhetoric that developed into post-racism and colorblindness, where race is not seen, and racial discrimination is not acknowledged as a societal problem. This study seeks to problematize the complexities of Swedish post-racism and colorblindness. By drawing on previous research, it is clear that the Swedish hegemony has not been thoroughly deconstructed, which necessitates further studies in this area. By drawing on the WPR approach to poststructural policy analysis, this study looks at how Swedish law is influenced by the narratives of colorblindness and details the shortcomings of excluding the term ‘race’ from legislation. Furthermore, this study employs expert interviews to access the knowledge of experts on how colorblindness and post-racism came to be. It is concluded in this thesis that the post-racist and colorblind perception of Sweden influences Swedish law in negative ways and that the removal of the term race is a denial of the existence of a racial hierarchy in Sweden.

Quran burning is a new phenomenon in Sweden first executed by Rasmus Paludan, the leader of a far-right, anti-immigrant political party - Stram Kurs. These burnings are still a subject of debates and cause a lot of controversy due to the vandalism caused by the local muslim protesters and because many muslims and non-muslims believe that it should be categorized as incitement of hatred against muslims. The purpose of this study is to illuminate how young muslims in Skania, Sweden, perceive the Quran burnings that are protected by the Swedish Fundamental Law on Freedom of Expression. The purpose of this study is also to get a picture of how the burnings affect them and to show how this demonstration of freedom of speech affects their freedom of religion. Five semi structured interviews were done to conduct this study. The chosen relevant theories that were used were stigma, islamophobia, the argument from truth and the argument from autonomy. The most important findings of this study are that the interviewed young Swedish muslims believe that there is an error in the Swedish system where laws against incitement of hatred are only applied in some cases, but not other. And that the interviewees feel angry about the police protecting a man who is trying to provoke them by mocking them and their religion. They also question whether they belong in Sweden and are convinced that the Quran burnings will only cause further division in the society of which muslims are a large part of. Another problem that they pointed out is that the media uses the pictures of the vandalizing protesters to spread a negative image of muslims and Islam. Another finding is that the interviewed young Swedish muslims feel that the Quran burnings are a new and legitimate way for islamophobes to attack and offend them. They also feel, however, that their freedom of religion remains unaffected. The last finding is that based on the argument from truth and the argument from autonomy, the Quran burnings do not justify limiting the freedom of expression. The conclusion is that these islamophobic attacks in the form of Quran burnings are a consequence of a tribal stigma that, according to the interviewed young Swedish muslims, muslims in Sweden have to live with. This stigma can even be found in how the interviewed muslims feel the government and the media are treating them. Even if the Quran burnings don’t justify limiting freedom of expression, the problem remains that the interviewees feel that freedom of expression is being used against them.

The government in Poland led by the Law and Justice party (PiS) and characterized by its anti-genderism and right-wing populist politics, is framing its opposition to the Istanbul Convention in human rights language. This leads to a puzzling occurrence of the women’s rights Convention being opposed with rights rhetoric. This puzzle was addressed in the thesis by investigating how the PiS-led government is mimicking human rights rhetoric in their opposition to the Convention. That was done in accordance with the ‘Rights as Weapons’ theory, developed by Bob Clifford. Findings revealed that the PiS-led government in their right rhetoric denies the necessity, effectiveness, and apoliticality of the Convention, invokes fears, presents Polish society as victims of 'gender ideology,' and puts forward opposing rights to those enshrined in the Convention. Moreover, their rights rhetoric heavily relies on fear, misinformation, and misinterpretation of the Convention.

This thesis examines the issue of femicides in Germany and Spain, contextualized within the broader European Union (EU) framework. It employs feminist and postcolonial theoretical frameworks to analyze policy mobilization and the framing of gender-based violence in these two countries. Feminist theory challenges patriarchal structures and advocates for gender equality, focusing on the centrality of women's experiences and voices in research. Postcolonial theory explores the legacies of colonialism and imperialism, shedding light on historical power imbalances and their contemporary implications. Intersectionality, a core aspect of both theories, provides a nuanced understanding of how overlapping forms of oppression affect women, particularly in the context of gender-based violence. The study uses Critical Frame Analysis (CFA) to dissect how femicides are perceived and addressed in public discourse and policies in Germany and Spain. Despite similar femicide rates, these countries have distinct legal frameworks and cultural attitudes towards gender violence. The research highlights the EU's Eurocentric tendencies and the marginalization of intersectional perspectives on inequality policies. By integrating feminist and postcolonial theories, this thesis aims to uncover the complex dynamics of femicides, offering insights into the structural changes necessary to promote gender equality in the EU. The Analysis revealed that while Spain has a more gendered approach to legislation and a more intersectional approach to policies as a whole than Germany does, both countries struggle with explicitly addressing femicides and implementing effective interventions.

This bachelor's thesis is a qualitative exploratory study. The goal of this research is to learn more about the social integration of Nigerian immigrants in Malmo, Sweden. The study focuses on language because many prior studies have found it to be an important factor in social integration. Although there is a considerable body of studies on how language influences immigrant integration, most studies focus on the host society's perspective. There is less research on how immigrants themselves evaluate the function of language in their social integration. The four dimensions of the social integration theoretical framework proposed by Bosswick and Heckmann (2006) were used to explore how Nigerian immigrants in Malmo, Sweden, perceive language as shaping their social integration in their host country. Their perceptions of these social integration dimensions will aid in understanding how language affects their integration into Swedish society in Malmo. The information was gathered from fifteen Nigerian immigrants in semi-structured interviews. The findings reveal that participants value language in varying ways across the many theoretical dimensions of social integration.

As the systemic nature of the multiple crises humanity is currently facing grows ever clearer, an increasing number of scholars have developed alternative socioeconomic visions to address and redress the shortcomings of capitalism. One such vision is “Human Rights Economics” (HRE), an emerging alternative branch of economics which seeks to harness the normative and legal power of human rights as a means of rendering the economic system human rights consistent in both its processes and outcomes. This thesis subjects HRE to a close and critical examination from the perspective of Marxist Theory with the objective of identifying potential limitations in achieving its declared goal. A detailed analysis guided by Bacchi’s WPR methodological framework allows for an in-depth engagement with HRE from the chosen theoretical vantage point and leads to the conclusion that, from a Marxist perspective, many of HRE’s underlying assumptions such as, for instance, its belief in the potential of human rights to transform capitalism from within, result in problem representations and proposed solutions which do not pose an effective challenge to the dominant economic paradigm.

In this thesis, I investigate how three European citizen aid groups (Collective Aid, Refugee Women’s Centre, and No Name Kitchen) handle the asymmetrical power relationships between Western volunteers and non-Western people on the move. Inspired by postcolonial international relations literature and previous research on power asymmetries in humanitarian aid, I conduct a discourse analysis guided by the four categories “assuming equality through horizontal discourses”, “reconstituting social subjects”, “putting minds into motion”, and “civil disobedience”. I analyze the citizen aid groups’ online content, mostly social media posts, along with semi-structured interviews which I conducted with representatives from all three citizen aid groups. I conclude that two out of three Western citizen aid groups try to mitigate the interactional power inequalities between themselves and non-Western people on the move through their practices of humanitarian aid. Yet, all three groups show awareness of power hierarchies and attempt to mitigate them on a structural level by being openly political and denouncing the injustices facing people on the move in Europe.

Rechargeable batteries are set to power sustainable development by 2030. In this context, the increasingly important role of certain ‘strategic minerals’ used in emerging renewable technologies has become highly topical. As the geopolitical landscape is changing as the world moves away from fossil fuels, a surge in demand for these minerals will entail an increase of production at unprecedented levels. A case in point and a focus of analysis in this thesis is the extractive sector sourcing one of the most important of transition minerals ‘cobalt’ that is predominantly mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Against the challenge of a secret and non-transparent mining industry, this thesis has identified and listed all operational and openly communicative Multinational Corporations (MNC’s) extracting cobalt in the DRC. By conducting a critical discourse analysis on seven different cobalt extracting MNC’s, the analysis unveils different ways in which the companies ‘frame’ cobalt as strategic. Thus, a new and relevant ‘material-discursive framework’ has been utilised to bridge the underlying discourses of these companies with their material practices relating to cobalt. By employing this theoretical framework, the findings point at three main logics of corporate narrative the MNC’s in the sample use to form and maintain their operational activities: securitisation, environmentalism and developmentalism. Central discourses within these themes point at the way in which companies seek to maintain their economic security and legitimacy in an increasingly contested industry by continuously representing themselves as central actors with the responsibility and knowledge to deliver sustainable development for local communities affected by the industry in the DRC and for the sustainability transition. 

This article investigates labour market segmentation of EU-13 workers in Sweden. Labour market segmentation is a driver of income differences between natives, EU-15 migrants and EU-13 migrants in many EU member states. There are, however, indications that labour market inequalities as a result of segmentation among EU-13 migrants is less pronounced in Sweden. Previous research, both quantitative and qualitative, has shown surprisingly low levels of labour market segmentation among the employed. The structural differences on the labour market has, instead, been between the employed and unemployed, with a large employment gap between natives and all migrant groups including EU-13 migrants. We address the functional integration in the labour market from a longitudinal perspective, using several quantitative indicators to measure the degree of labour market segmentation. Natives and other migrant groups (EU-15 and refugees) are used as reference groups. Our results shows a low but increasing labour market segmentation among the employed born in EU-13 countries. The dissimilarity between employed natives and EU-13 workers is increasing, especially among men. Men from EU-13 countries is the only category where the occupational position has deteriorated. From having a similar occupational position as EU-15 migrants in 2007, their position in the labour market in 2015 is more similar to the refugee group. This development is driven by a large increase of Polish construction workers on the Swedishlabour market.

Migration management policies in many states have marginalized significant numbers of individuals on the basis of their precarious residency status, negatively impacting their health. This article looks at how three European states with high levels of contagion - France, Sweden, and the United Kingdom - adapted their migration management policies to the changed circumstances during the Covid 19 pandemic in which there was new pressure for prioritizing population health over other concerns. The analysis compares globally-recognized 'best practices' for migrant health during the pandemic with policies adopted by France, Sweden, and the UK - selected as prominent migrant-hosting states and that experienced high rates of Covid-19. The article draws on supplementary evidence through interviews with civil society organizations working directly with migrants living on the margins of society - what are termed here 'marginalized migrants' (MMs). As the article concludes, the national policies often fell below international 'best practices' such that migration management was often prioritized over population health despite the crisis. The perspective developed in this paper is important for understanding where migration control policies have been prioritized over public health.

International guidance set forth recommendations to protect marginalized migrant populations during Covid-19 given the significant inequalities in terms of social and economic well-being reported in the literature. However, a cross-country study of three European countries with high rates of Covid-19 infections and deaths has shown that migrant well-being has significantly decreased since the outbreak of Covid-19 in Europe from March 2020 and that policy measures to help those marginalized populations have been insufficient. The conclusions on migrant well-being during Covid-19 draw on interviews with prominent civil society organizations in all three countries that work specifically on migrant health and welfare. All interviews were semi-structured and conducted between October and November 2020. The analysis mainly focuses on objective/material measures of well-being related to access to health care, information on prevention of infection, housing and exclusion by host population.

Stater som har förmågan att använda en kombination av sensorer och långdistansrobotar för att hindra antagonister från att operera inom en exkluderingszon, eller "bubbla", i anslutning till sitt territorium sägs besitta avreglingsförmåga (eng. antiaccess/area denial, A2/AD). Denna studie analyserar Rysslands avreglingsförmåga och dess implikationer för Östersjöregionen. Rysslands förbättrade förmågor, samt dess påverkan på Natos möjligheter att förstärka och försvara de sårbara baltiska staterna i händelse av kris eller krig, har väckt mycket uppmärksamhet på senare år. Denna studie visar dock att denna förmåga inte är tillnärmelsevis lika oöverstiglig som den ibland framställs, i synnerhet när möjliga motåtgärder inkluderas i analysen. Särskilt markbaserade luftvärnssystem skapar i nuläget en mer begränsad exkluderingszon än vad som ofta antas och flera motåtgärder är möjliga. Erfarenheter från Syrien väcker också frågor om systemens faktiska förmåga i fält, jämfört med dess nominella förmågor. Sjömåls- och markmålsrobotar utgör ett större hot, men även här finns flera möjliga motåtgärder. Dynamiken i detta säkerhetskomplex påverkar även Sverige direkt och indirekt och är en av de huvudsakliga orsakerna till varför Sveriges säkerhet i ökande grad är sammanvävd med våra grannländers, och med den transatlantiska alliansen Nato.

Moscow’s missile capabilities in the Baltic Sea region are not nearly as dangerous as they seem.

This thesis investigates how US state-sanctioned targeted killings, as part of a wider policy of countering insurgents, are being politically justified by the US. The study departs with the aim of understanding the discursive structures where extraordinary measures may be accepted as legitimate. This is exemplified through the design of a case study that undertakes the cases of targeted killings againts two designated jihadi leaders in 2022 and 2023. The inquiry departs from the observation that the US, a key player to the international system, continue to conduct and defend a policy and a measure that is not in direct compliance with international law and regulations. The problem presented is not unusual as the international system is seeing itself depart into new dynamics, where traditional understandings of conlfict, violence, and peace, are being challenged, as well as what is considered optimal conditions for international relations. At the intersection between International Relations and Peace and Conlfict Studies new dynamics sparks questions towards a reinterpretation of customs and conventions of the system. While this is pertinent, this study aims to point towards the parrallel need to investigate the meanings attributed to core concepts of the field of International Relations and Peace and Conflict theory, specifically considering current dynamics. To this end, this study will focus on security as an argument for the use of extraordinary measures.  

In this paper the Maritime Silk Road (MSR) member countries in Asia are investigated. The paperis investigating Pakistan and Sri Lanka in terms of debts and how China and the MSR i s the reasonfor the debts in the country. The MSR is investigated in a geopolitical and Neo colonial perspective.Ican see a clear pattern that China is not giving any stable and sustainable financial safeguard sys-tem for developing countries in Asia and the risk of falling into a debt trap is giving because of that.The paper shows as well a pattern of Chinas infrastructure is expanding through the MSR becauseof the unstable financial situation and high debts of developing countries in Asia. This indica tes theHambantota port in Sri Lanka and the Gwadar port in Pakistan. This paper is using quantitive datawith a comparative study and two case studies.TheMSR is a geopolitical project for China and is a debt risk for developing countries which arefinancial weak and loaning unsustainable loans.

This thesis explores how the Hungarian service delivery practitioners construct the vulnerability narratives of their asylum seeker and refugee clients and how they reflect on the implications of their intervention. For the method of inquiry, the study employs qualitative thematic analysis in order to identify reoccurring themes and patterns within the material written by professionals, paraprofessionals, and volunteers. When applying the concept of vulnerability and reflexivity in service delivery practice, the analysis suggests that the consequences of war, conflict, fear of persecution, and the hostile environment in Hungary further perpetuate clients' vulnerability. Furthermore, mental health issues, the lack of access to education, the unemployment problems resulting in financial hardship, and housing difficulties are all impacting the vulnerability experiences and coping mechanisms. Also, the material suggests that besides the objective categorizations of vulnerability, there are also its subjective perceptions that emerge in the narratives through the reflections of service delivery practitioners, expanding the concept of vulnerability. 

This thesis attempts to illustrate how texts engage in a struggle to define social reality. The academic and political debate on the drone provides a case study illustrating pro-drone, anti-drone and drone-deconstructivist text´s attempt to define social reality around the drone. Through this exploration the thesis contests the positivist notion that reality is fixed and can be discovered. The thesis utilizes IR poststructuralism as a theoretical guideline and engages with a range of poststructuralist concepts and sub-theories identified in previous research. Methodologically, the thesis conducts a qualitative content analysis on three journal articles, two speeches and two chapters of a report. Moreover, the thesis conducts a discourse analysis to contextualize findings and provide in-depth analysis of examples. The thesis presents and analyzes findings in accordance with the categories identified in coding, highlights an example through discourse analysis and links findings to the research question concerned with texts struggle to define social reality. The thesis concludes by arguing that the drone-debate is a “battlespace” for defining social reality, thus contesting the positivist notion that social reality is fixed.

This thesis aims to understand the challenges that are encountered in the prosecution of police officers, and how they influence socio-legal issues. The paper will focus on German law enforcement and cases involving human rights violations. 

Using a qualitative legal research approach and legal sources, it will aim uncover the systematic and legal issues that stand in the way of police prosecution.

The research concludes that the systemic issues cause for unjust trials and the disregard of human rights in the justice system. 

While sustainability and climate-resilient development become more prominent topics in international debates, the question of how Indigenous Peoples are included in environmental policies and decision-making arises. Postcolonial theory has argued for the need to decolonize the discipline of International Relations and other scientific assessments rooted in Eurocentric standards that have been homogenized and imposed onto different cultures through colonization. This thesis employs a postcolonial lens to investigate the representation of Indigenous Peoples in reports issued by the United Nations and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by conducting a content analysis of the Global Sustainable Development Report (GSDR) 2023 and the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). It finds that although the documents intend to engage with Indigenous Knowledge and recognize its importance, they still lack cultural aspects of Indigenous perspectives on development that differ from established views of the Global North. The right to self-determination and rupture from colonial structures are essential for Indigenous ideas of development, and their epistemologies must be considered equally valid rather than superficially integrated into non-Indigenous science to advance plans toward an ‘ideal society’ that perpetuates their marginalization.

The imposition of European borders in North America has given rise to a need to inquire into the impact of the overlay of colonial borders upon earlier ideas of geographical boundaries, and upon indigenous border nations and their connections to places and ways of being. Here, we look to delineate a tentative approach to further such inquiries into indigenous border nations who have found themselves on or near an international border by examining the relationship with ancestral lands. A thematic analysis will be conducted in the framework of a case study research design. Two cases are discussed, which suggest the relationship with ancestral lands is often discussed in transboundary terms. The discussion further illustrates cross-border mobility enacts indigenous understandings of borders, governance, land, and selfhood, and has led to negotiations over the rights which flow from these. For the future, this suggests attention to transboundary indigenous nations is necessary.

This study is an offensive realist comparative analysis of the drone policies used by the Bush administration and Obama administration during the Global War on Terror. The emergence of violent non-state actors have led to states having to develop new strategies for countering them. Drones were used by the United States in order to combat al-Qaeda, using new technologies in warfare to achieve this goal. This research addresses a gap by focusing on drone policies rather than the legality and morality of drone attacks or the effectiveness of drone strikes. This paper uses three offensive realist concepts; power maximisation, security maximisation and preventive warfare. The method used is a comparative analysis of the Bush administration, with the operationalisation of each concept. The findings of this research show that the drone policies used by each administration can be explained by the three offensive realist concepts. The Obama and Bush administrations prioritised power and security maximisation, while the Obama administration employed preventive drone strikes to a higher degree than the Bush administration. These findings are significant as offensive realism was able to explain the drone policies made by the United States during an asymmetric conflict.   

This thesis investigates the environmental impact of the EU’s free trade agreements, to answer the research question of “How does Free Trade affect the Environmental Footprint of Sweden, as a Part of the EU, in the Agricultural Sector?”. A critical green theory framework was applied to conceptualize the international system and understand the hierarchical nature of global trade relationships. To answer the research question, data from the Swedish statistical administration (SCB), government reports by Swedish environmental and agricultural agencies, and reports by independent research organizations were analysed. It was found that Sweden’s imported agricultural goods have a significantly higher environmental footprint, and that the share of emissions in the Swedish agricultural sector that are from imports is increasing, as free trade makes environmentally harmful production abroad more profitable than sustainable production at home. This is in spite of an increasing share of food that is consumed in Sweden being domestically produced. It was found that, while the agricultural sector within Sweden and the EU is becoming more sustainable, the import of agricultural products from underdeveloped countries leads to an increase in overall emissions.

This study concerns the problem representation behind the goal of building more resilient states and societies in EU-Africa policies. As resilience is a recent feature of the European Union’s policy discourse, the study aims at uncovering the problematisation behind its use towards Africa and, consequently, what interests lie behind this change of language. The study is conducted on documents pertaining the Joint Africa-EU Strategy and through the employment of the “What’s the problem represented to be?” (WPR) approach. Moreover, the research engages with a postcolonial standpoint through which the findings are discussed, highlighting concepts such as ‘othering’ and ‘eurocentrism’. The findings of this study indicate that the problematisation behind the goal of enhancing resilience in the African context is represented as a lack of African capacities to deal with different issues, and that the EU’s ‘need’ of a more resilient Africa relates to the increase of ownership in the African territory. The problem representation is argued to contribute to the colonial narrative that characterizes EU-Africa relations and therefore clashes with the emancipatory features that concrete ownership should entail.  

The first reception system for irregular migrants taking the Mediterranean route into the European Union (EU) is dictated almost solely by border control and security concerns. There is no recognition of the role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) as human rights monitors in first reception, and access is limited, controlled, and dependent on local authorities. Newly arriving migrants are at their most vulnerable during first reception. Traumatization and retraumatization brought by violations of human rights, or alternatively, care and welcome within the first reception system will pave the way for subsequent integration processes, by ensuring migrants’ well-being, decreasing hostility, diffidence and subjugation, and peaceful relations with European host communities. By critically assessing the current system, backed by the author’s long-term ethnographic fieldwork, this article explores the links between policy, practice, and mental health consequences for migrants. It shows that there are multiple risks of human rights violations of a vulnerable group of people. The article is critical of the absence of an official role for NGOs as human rights monitors arguing that NGOs have a unique role to play. The article suggests that the dignified conduction of first reception could have a positive influence on integration processes, and concludes that first reception should not be designed within a security framework but within a reception one.

The European Union’s external border regime in the Mediterranean is the classic ‘humanitarian border’. It is presented and performed as a humanitarian and caring enterprise, but conceals strong elements of exclusionary border control. Important actors in its daily social construction are territorial borderworkers who are tasked with the implementation of the laws and policies underpinning the humanitarian border. Their narratives are passionate and articulated using emotive language and expressions denoting an intensity of personal feelings, while the moral framing of the issues indicates a moral discomfort. Drawing on multi-sited and long-term ethnographic fieldwork in Lampedusa and Sicily, situated on the external Mediterranean border of the European Union, this article explores the key themes and form of the personal narratives of territorial borderworkers who discuss border processes and deliberate their own roles within it. Their narratives reveal insights about their worldview, and add empirical depth to our understanding of the humanitarian border and the enterprise of constructing it.

Hospitality and hospitality-laden language feature highly among people working in or around structures of first reception in Italy and Malta, two countries at the European Union’s (EU) external border. This is peculiar because hospitality rarely features at first reception, which forms part of the state’s border system. Characteristically, security issues are prioritized, and the first reception system is managed by the member state’s security agents, in collaboration with EU and international security agents. In practice, first reception refers to the processes of identification, registration, and classification that irregular migrants go through after having crossed the border without authorization and, often, without identification. Drawing on long-term and multi-sited ethnographic fieldwork in Italy and Malta, this article examines some of the uses of hospitality language by a spectrum of territorial borderworkers operating with state, non-state, security, humanitarian, and activist entities in the two countries that are the object of this study. Discourse analysis yields interesting insights into how the use of the hospitality paradigm and hospitality terminology in first reception is less about hospitality practices and more about power. It proposes that the hospitality paradigm be conceptualized as a Laclauian empty signifier, and therefore, as a locus of power.

This thesis investigates the quality of the current asylum services in the UK through exposingthe experiences of asylum seekers and the perspectives of those advocating for them.Neoliberalisation, in the form of welfare restrictionism and privatization, has led to asylumseekers being dependent on a solitary system exclusively outsourced to private contractors.Adopting postpositivist lenses, this research from below highlights lived experiences andperspectives through the application of agency, standpoint theory and phenomenology. Thisresearch utilises primary data attained through semi-structured interviews with third sectororganisation informants, and secondary sources of asylum seekers experiences. Thematicanalysis of these data sets exposes the quality of asylum services provided by theaccommodation and support services contracts through the themes of ghettoisation,imperceptivity and responsivity. The quality of asylum services provided by the currentaccommodation and support services contracts are perceived and experienced by the sampleas dislocated, negligent, apathetic and unaccountable.

In 2017, Australia officially recognized orphanage trafficking as a form of modern slavery, creating a precedent in legislation regarding children rights. This process intended to inspire global norms has been the result of a collaboration with NGOs, advocating against harmful practices in Cambodia. While research has been previously conducted on the impact of Western tourists and lack of thinking upon humanitarian intervention in Cambodia, there has been no study so far on the consequently Australian legislative process. This research intends to analyze the Australian attempt in becoming a norm entrepreneur, through the analysis of the writing of the 2017 Parliament report ''Hidden in Plain Sight''. The content analysis of the report will be put into perspective with previous global agreements on children rights and the Australian Code of Conduct for NGOs, using the framework of moral norms. The argument defended in the research is that NGO action in Cambodia has been monitored by the Australian government for decades, while leaving them relatively free in their action. But 2017 marked a historic turn in regulations, as Australia placed itself as regional policy leader by incorporating orphanage trafficking within the definition of modern slavery, under the pressure of NGO advocacy. 

Climate change not only corresponds to scientifically proven future implications, but also poses a politically relevant study of climate security analysis, affecting the study and practice of (international) politics in different ways. In the same vein, the EU as an international organization have been getting more involved in discussions of climate-related security risks, in which the European Commission (which represents the Union’s common interests) have been publishing a set of consecutive policy documents addressing the climate change since the early 2000’s. Accordingly, this thesis studies five big policy documents produced by the Commission addressing the climate change between 2007 and 2021 by conducting a Qualitative Content Analysis upon the discourses and conceptualizations used to inform how the issue is to be understood, while basing on the theoretical model developed by von Lucke  et al.’s (2014) that distinguishes levels of referent objects and risk-security approaches. In doing so, it finds that the Commission often draws indirect connections between the climate change and its social, political and economic implications to the EU at the territorial (and individual) level, while heavily employing risk-based approaches and promoting rather business-as-usual solutions.

This thesis studies the relationship between Israel as a Zionist state and democracy and investigates the question: Is the relationship between identity politics and democracy a positive one? examining this question entails the study of how a state is built upon the ideological views of its founders and how that identity influences the state´s democratic statutes. The State of Israel was chosen as a case study to be analyzed for this purpose. This paper aims to investigate state-building based on racial or ethnic identity and its ties to democracy. This research uses historical and textual analysis as the methods and constructivism as the theoretical framework. The data utilized is collected from numerous speeches and written documents by prominent Zionist leaders alongside academic papers. The result provides an answer to how Israel's Zionist identity affects its democracy. This outcome reflects Israel's policies toward its Jewish citizens in contrast to its non-Jewish citizens. Further, it can be used to determine the future of identity politics and its role in state-building and democratic practices.  

There is a puzzling occurrence in Western Europe: Some far-right populist parties, traditionally seen as antithetical to liberalism, are appropriating liberal rights for their own illiberal ends. On the premise that the parties instrumentalise liberal elements to achieve more legitimacy in a climate of tolerance and respect for human rights in Western Europe, this thesis examines how far-right populist parties use human rights for mobilising purposes. Using Clifford Bob’s four conceptual elements of mobilising human rights rhetoric, in a qualitative content analysis the language of three Western European far-right populist parties is analysed. It is argued that, by drawing from a liberalism of fear, far-right populists frame human rights as a Western achievement, under threat by immigration from Islamic countries and the “corrupt elite” that allows for immigration to continue. By doing so, populists manage to incorporate human rights rhetoric in their mobilisation efforts, without challenging human rights per se.

This applied social sciences case study examines the efficiency of the ‘Yumbe Local Action Plan on Women, Peace, and Security’ in addressing the perceived and experienced adversities of women refugees in the Bidibidi refugee settlement, Uganda. This is done by collecting data from the Bidibidi settlement through interviews and discussions with the refugee and host population, as well as with relevant organizations and governmental actors. The findings have been contrasted with a document analysis of the Yumbe Local Action Plan and identifies significant deviances between the challenges faced by women refugees and the objectives outlined in the action plan. These deviances include particular exposure to direct, sexual, and structural violence as a result of limited access to resources in the settlement, such as food and water, coupled with interventions resembling the criticized ‘Women in Development’-paradigm, and a constrained political will for action. This study recommends policymakers of the action plan to enhance collaboration among stakeholders, address the structural factors contributing to women’s inequality, and strengthen evaluation and legal mechanisms in place to bridge the identified gap between policy and practice.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has evolved into a prominent player in various academic disciplines, transforming research approaches and knowledge generation. This paper explores the growing influence of AI across diverse fields and advocates for meaningful interdisciplinary AI research. It introduces the concept of "agonistic-antagonistic" interdisciplinary research, emphasizing a departure from conventional bridge-building approaches. Motivated by the need to address complex societal challenges, the paper calls for novel evaluation mechanisms that prioritize societal impact over traditional academic metrics. It stresses the importance of collaboration, challenging current systems that prioritize competition and individual excellence. The paper offers guiding principles for creating collaborative and co-productive interdisciplinary AI research environments, welcoming researchers to engage in discussions and contribute to the future of interdisciplinary AI research.