Ansvar och kemiska vapen - En argumentationsanalys om kemiska vapen bör tolkas in i Responsibility to Protect

De kemiska vapenattackerna i Syrien har lett oss till att undra om det internationella samfundets ansvar att ingripa. Vi har därför undersökt om kemiska vapen bör tolkas in i de situationer där Responsibility to Protect kan tillämpas. Med hjälp av en argumentationsanalys har vi jämfört argumentationen om kemiska vapen med fyra brott som har antagits av FN att falla under kriterierna av situationer som kan sätta R2P i verkan. Det visades att kemiska vapen kunde tolkas in i två av dessa fyra brott: krigsbrott och brott mot mänskligheten. Vi har diskuterat utifrån teorin om rättfärdigt krig, med fokus på jus in bello, om just kemiska vapen borde tolkas in. Vi har dragit slutsatsen att kemiska vapen har hamnat i en subkategori till andra brott och måste lyftas upp till en principiell övergripande nivå för att specifikt tolkas in som ett eget brott på grund av dess obestridliga kränkning mot krigets lagar

An inevitable self-destruction? : A qualitative study on how liberal thinkers explain the crisis of the liberal international order

With the aim of contributing to the recent debate on the fate of the liberal international order, this thesis has examined how prominent advocates of the liberal international order explain its contemporary state of crisis. Taking a point of departure in John Mearsheimer’s critical argument of three essential flaws in the liberal order, I have expanded these flaws into three theoretical areas. These theoretical areas highlight fundamental components in the liberal international order that, according to Mearsheimer, endogenously undermine the liberal international order which will eventually lead to its demise. These theoretical areas are the expansion of the liberal order, resistance in liberal democracies and the threat of China. Analyzing the ideas of liberal advocates within these theoretical areas, I have found that they have offered strong arguments on why the liberal international order will not perish. Although the liberal advocates see a crisis of governance and legitimacy in the liberal order, they believe that the order’s beneficial and robustious architecture constrain states from abandoning the international institutions of the liberal international order. However, drawing on previous research, I have discussed the plausible possibility and consequences of an increasingly powerful China rising within the order. I have concluded that the liberal advocates have not satisfactorily explained this threat of China to the contemporary U.S-led liberal order

En moralisk erkännandepolitik? - En idéanalys om svensk moralsyn i erkännandet av Angola, Kosovo och Palestina

The significance of morality as an important variable for the analysis of international relations has been emphasized only in recent times. Therefore, this approach has not yet in Swedish scientific studies been used to cover the many branches in the field of Sweden’s foreign policy. As such, moral beliefs in Swedish recognition politics of states, as one of these branches, remains a gap in the political research field. This thesis fills that gap by characterising Sweden’s moral beliefs in three different state recognitions scattered over time that have not unambiguously been regarded to fulfill the legal criterias of a statehood: Angola 1975, Kosovo 2008 and Palestine 2014. The aim is to analyze if there has been a change of Sweden’s moral beliefs in the recognition of the three states, in order to clarify if the contentious recognition of Palestine is a new phenomena or an extension of previous moral beliefs in similar recognition situations such as Angola and Kosovo. By converting the ideas and principles of Kant and Grotius to ideal-types, I have measured to what extent the moral beliefs in each of the recognition reflect these ideal-types. I have come to the conclusion that there have in fact been a change of moral beliefs in these three recognitions. Angola was characterized by the ideas of Kant regarding the rights and freedoms of the individual. Kosovo was also Kantian, but due to a European solidarity. Palestine, however, was Grotian with emphasis on the two-state solution with Israel