The EU has over the years tried to implement a common European identity to legitimize its increased sovereignty in Europe. In present time, nationalist movements have been assembling in European countries which seem to contradict the aimed effect of the European identity. This thesis examines the outspoken nationalist group Identity and Democracy in the European Parliament and how they portray the

The study aims to understand and map the influential factors affecting the degree of implementation of the EU Renewable Energy Directive, RED, in Poland, which sets individual national goals for all member states of the total share of renewable energy sources, RES, by the year 2020, a goal Poland is anticipated to fail to reach. The study is a within-case study conducted through a process-tracing

The world collectively stands before an environmental crisis that will further challenge overcoming inequalities and poverty. The purpose of this study is to trace and explain the relationship between climate change and increased violence against women. By studying the case of the South African drought crisis in relation to the increased violence against women, the study sets out to explain the re

This Masters’ thesis attempts to identify why European countries choose Chinese investment instruments despite their participation in the European single market and access to European Union (EU) resources and technical assistance. Since their inception in 2013, EU members as well as EU partner states in Europe have been divided on their approach towards joining the Chinese investment instruments-

Iran and Saudi Arabia have major impact in the Middle East and their bitter rivalry has led to multiple proxy wars in the area. The Middle East has experienced multiple conflicts throughout the years, especially Yemen. Iran and Saudi Arabia’ involvement intensified with the “Arab Spring” and have made the situation more complex. The overarching purpose of this study is to understand the rivalry be

The European Union faces new challenges, as the labour market we know today, is being disrupted in terms of technological development. The future job market brings new challenges, which must be addressed by the EU. This thesis seeks to explore how a small state can gain influence by acting as a smart state, in context of a future labour market. The study will be based on a case study, which invest

Human trafficking is considered one of the gravest violations of human rights. It dramatically deprives people of their humanity, dignity and freedom but is also considered a serious threat against national security and international peace. From traditionally being the crime of choice for criminal networks, human trafficking has been increasingly incorporated as a strategy by terrorist organisatio

Recent public opinion research and elite deliberation has established a particular interest in galvanizing an EU army to better enforce a sense of integration, stability and strengthin the Union. This article proposes an alternative mechanism, privileging Richard Rosecrance’s concept of the ‘virtual state’ as anequally important and worthyfactor contributing to all those aspects. The fourdefining

In light of the ongoing pandemic, Covid-19, questions are raised about how well prepared countries have been. There are discussions that many countries have been poorly prepared, for example with regard to emergency storage of medical equipment and hospital care facilities. This may be due to various factors. An interesting aspect to investigate is whether the structure of a country’s political sy

Europe’s transition towards a net-zero emission economy and society, needs to be designed in a fair and equitable manner. Despite the urgency for action, the term Just Transition has increasingly been turned into a catchphrase that is diffi-cult to grasp. In the EU’s multilevel governance structure, municipalities as im-plementers of EU policies play a crucial role in the transformation process. T

The five Nordic countries have been comparable for a longer period of time. One aspect that isgoing to be studied in this research is if the different pension reform processes lead to the similaroutcome, which explains the success of approving a policy proposal. 20 pension reform cases inthe Nordics have been selected, which is based on the fact that they are different from oneanother.By using the

This essay concerns the view upon the role of leaders within the Swedish public administration. More specifically, it examines to which extent the views of traditional public administration (TPA), new public management (NPM) and public value management (PVM) is present throughout the recruitment of local government heads in Swedish municipalities. The research is designed with a use of mixed metho

In early 2015, one of the largest organizational reforms within public administration in Sweden was implemented - the reorganization of the Swedish Police Authority. The new organizational structure was intended to minimize the significant differences between the various regions’ results, by establishing one unified organization. The Swedish Agency for Public Management has since then evaluated th

Healthcare might seem like it is a purely medical issue. Nothing could be further from the truth. Both politics, law and the economy are all closely tied to healthcare. In this thesis I analyze the sensitive topic of healthcare through a critical understanding of the European and Swedish political economies from the 1970s until today. Europe serves as the broad picture, while Swedish healthcare po

Surrogate motherhood is a relatively controversial method of assisted reproduction, as it raises ethical questions about the potential risk of exploitation versus the right to self-determination, if it is done with the child’s best in mind and whether or not it is problematic for the family constellation. The purpose of this paper is to examine the approach to altruistic surrogate motherhood in Sw

In modern times, digital and technological developments have created the conditions for modernizing and changing the traditional way states, companies and large sections of the world population communicate with each other. During the digital and technological development, diplomacy has led to changes in what is usually considered to be traditional diplomatic communication. This study aims to repor

Utifrån teorier om att det finns en koppling mellan deskriptiv representation och substantiell representation, behövs kvinnor i politiken för att kvinnors intressen ska representeras. Ett sådant kvinnligt intresse kan antas vara att kommunernas kvinnofridsarbete ska vara välfungerande och prioriterat. Samtidigt visar statistik att kvinnor endast sitter på 36% av alla ordförandeposter (i kommunstyr

This study analyses the constitutive power of narratives in relation to a retroliberal paradigm shift in EU development policy by focusing on blended finance targeting sub-Saharan Africa. This study builds on the claims of Mawdsley (2015) that a reconfiguration of global development policy has challenged the North ontologically, which have been accompanied with the emergence of retroliberalism. Th

The Swedish government has presented its feminist foreign policy of focusing on women’s rights, representation, and resources as a step towards peace and security in the international community. This paper conducts an empirical study of Sweden’s actions in Colombia to understand how this policy works in practice. The peace agreement between the Colombian state and the leftist FARC-guerrilla was re

The European Union (EU) can no longer portray itself as a community of democracies since Hungary was recently classified as an electoral authoritarian regime. This was the culmination of a trend of democratic decline, which stands in contrast to the fundamental values the EU proudly denotes are its foundation. The thesis departs from this contradiction and finds theoretical relevance in R. Daniel