Studie av USA och EU:s utrikespolitiska agerande gentemot Hamas - Kan den strukturella realismen förklara aktörernas agerande?

In this comparative study I’ve chosen to look at the foreign policies underlying the statements made by the U.S. and EU directed against Hamas. The U.S. and EU cooperate on a higher level than expected in the difficulties surrounding Hamas and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in general, and their cooperation is mainly represented by the Quartet of the Middle East and its work. The Quartet is the central player in the difficulties surrounding Hamas and it’s working to mediate and promote a democratization process in Palestine. Structural realism has been applied and used for a theory-testing analysis of the U.S. and EU actions. The aim was to test whether the structural realism could explain the U.S. and EU actions against Hamas. Structural realism gave in this study a weak and unsuccessful interpretation and explanation of how and why the U.S. acted as they did. The case with EU on other hand, made structural realism a bit more relevant and gave a weak, but better explanation to why EU acted as they did

Al-Shabaab i Somalia

Efter Barré regimens fall 1991 kom de södra och centrala delarna av Somalia att regeras av lokala rövarband och klanrebeller. Parallellt bildades den islamska unionen al Ittihad al Islam (AIAI) som politisk motpol till den internationellt sammansatta övergångsregeringen bland annat FN och Afrikanska Unionen understött skapandet av under mitten av 1990talet. Delar av (AIAI) kom att transformeras till en lokalt förankrad islamistisk organisation av domstolar, ICU, vars mål var att upprätta en strikt islamistisk stat grundad i nationalism. Allt eftersom situationen i Somalia fortsatte att försämras ökade den internationella närvaron både i form av militära interventioner och fredsbevarande personal samtidigt som al-Qaida gjorde närmanden för upprättanet av ett sammarbete med ICU. Paradoxen av internationell sekulär närvaro i en stat där en islamistisk organisation (ICU) snabbt ökade sitt inflytande och sin legitimitet lade grunden för en militant islamistisk avknoppning av organisationen kallad al-Shabaab. En avknoppning som snabbt kom att bli betydande i det Somaliska samhället och dess utvekling

Water scarcity hotspots travel downstream due to human interventions in the 20th and 21st century

Water scarcity is rapidly increasing in many regions. In a novel, multi-model assessment, we examine how human interventions (HI: land use and land cover change, man-made reservoirs and human water use) affected monthly river water availability and water scarcity over the period 1971–2010. Here we show that HI drastically change the critical dimensions of water scarcity, aggravating water scarcity for 8.8% (7.4–16.5%) of the global population but alleviating it for another 8.3% (6.4–15.8%). Positive impacts of HI mostly occur upstream, whereas HI aggravate water scarcity downstream; HI cause water scarcity to travel downstream. Attribution of water scarcity changes to HI components is complex and varies among the hydrological models. Seasonal variation in impacts and dominant HI components is also substantial. A thorough consideration of the spatially and temporally varying interactions among HI components and of uncertainties is therefore crucial for the success of water scarcity adaptation by HI

Geography : key stage 3 : classbook

Proporciona una cobertura completa de la geografía en la etapa clave tres (Key Stage 3) del currículo nacional inglés. La obra dividida en doce capítulos contiene más de cien unidades que se presentan a doble página con ilustraciones, fotografías y diagramas en color. Cada unidad comienza con una lista de preguntas para investigar y termina con un resumen de los puntos clave y actividades para consolidar lo aprendido. En el texto se destaca un vocabulario especializado en la materia y en un cuadro se explican las palabras clave de cada unidad. También Se incluye un auto-chequeo de preguntas para poner a prueba la comprensión de conceptos importantes.SCBiblioteca de Educación del Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte; Calle San Agustín, 5 - 3 planta; 28014 Madrid; Tel. +34917748000; [email protected]

Implications of climate change for freshwater inflows to the Arctic Ocean

Observational evidence suggests that river inflows to the Arctic Ocean have increased over the last 30 years. Continued increases have the potential to alter the freshwater balance in the Arctic and North Atlantic Oceans and hence the thermohaline circulation. Simulations with a macroscale hydrological model and climate change scenarios derived from six climate models and two emissions scenarios suggest increases of up to 31% in river inflows to the Arctic by the 2080s under high emissions and up to 24% under lower emissions, although there are large differences between climate models. Uncertainty analysis suggests low sensitivity to model form and parameterization but higher sensitivity to the input data used to drive the model. The addition of up to 0.048 sverdrup (Sv, 106 m3 s?1) is a large proportion of the 0.06–0.15 Sv of additional freshwater that may trigger thermohaline collapse. Changes in the spatial distribution of inflows to the Arctic Ocean may influence circulation patterns within the ocean. <br/