In a political landscape where traditional state expansion is increasingly more challenging to achieve, great powers seek expansion at the physical and metaphysical boundaries of the world instead....Show moreIn a political landscape where traditional state expansion is increasingly more challenging to achieve, great powers seek expansion at the physical and metaphysical boundaries of the world instead. Seen from the theoretical perspective of knowledge as a power-increasing commodity, the melting Arctic becomes a site of non-violent power struggle through scientific, economic and political means. This paper observes China's increasing role in the region through these avenues as it seeks to influence Arctic governance, despite not being an Arctic state. In addition to a general overview, a case study of Chinese state and non-state actors' activities in Norway's Arctic region seeks to further illustrate the ties between science, economics, and politics in the Arctic political landscape. Through a qualitative examination of secondary and primary sources, the paper concludes that the mutually beneficial ties between knowledge production and market expansion in the Arctic have the potential to aid a non-Arctic great power such as China in achieving political influence in the region.Show less
A seat in the United Nations Security Council is more attractive and prestigious than ever among the organisation’s member states. This thesis investigates the importance of credibility connected...Show moreA seat in the United Nations Security Council is more attractive and prestigious than ever among the organisation’s member states. This thesis investigates the importance of credibility connected to a running candidate’s campaign message in a contested security council election. By adopting a qualitative comparative analysis between the three candidates from the highly competitive Western European and Others Group election of 2020 - Canada, Ireland and Norway – this thesis aims to increase our knowledge of the determinant factors for successful campaigns. The results suggests that proven consistency and positive political engagement and results related to the communicated priorities in the campaign message – at least in relation to those of its competitors – can play a decisive role in the outcome of contested elections. However, the thesis cannot exclude any other possible determinants nor point out any single factor that is more decisive than the others. Nevertheless, the results open up for further research on political commitment as a determinant factor, with special focus on campaign messages.Show less
Throughout the last sixty years, foreign aid donations have experienced various transformations. Due to significant changes with an increased involvement of the business community and strategic...Show moreThroughout the last sixty years, foreign aid donations have experienced various transformations. Due to significant changes with an increased involvement of the business community and strategic elements, such donations can be understood with a new theoretical framework from Corporate Social responsibility (CSR). The theoretical perspective contributes to a new understanding of governments’ foreign aid behavior. More specifically, this study focuses on one part of the theory, named Institutional Window Dressing, to investigate whether governments appy masked communication efforts to maintain legitimacy while changing the initial agenda or not. The investigation conducts a discourse analysis exploring Norwegian foreign policy documents. In addition, explores the opposing forces of altruism and self-interest while investigating the governments during three different periods. The results find multiple CSR stakeholder strategies in Norwegian foreign initiatives. In addition, the policies currently indicate a clear step away from initial and altruistic aid principles towards increased self-interest forces and business components in foreign aid. However, the most valuable finding is that the more self-interest and business elements indicated, the more CSR strategies detected in the policies. While considering the strong legitimacy of Norwegian foreign policies among its stakeholders, these results can signify that high levels of CSR strategies can give a legitimate view of states' foreign aid involvement. The reason is that the purpose of the strategy is to inscribe the government with legitimacy and benefits that gives considerable room for maneuvering.Show less
In the United States, Europe and across all major advanced economies, the sudden trend of state interventionism aims at tackling the global recession and restore indebted economies . In most cases,...Show moreIn the United States, Europe and across all major advanced economies, the sudden trend of state interventionism aims at tackling the global recession and restore indebted economies . In most cases, the governments of developed countries do not intend to intervene to these economies indefinitely. However, according to Professor Ian Bremmer in some other cases in the developing world “the state’s heavy hand in the economy is signalling a strategic rejection of free-market doctrine”. Modern state capitalism is reshaping the global economy by increasing the economic power and influence of the central authority, the state. As time goes on, emerging markets and modern state capitalism create a new global competition, not primarily between rival political ideologies but between competing economic models.Show less
China claims to be one of the main followers and protectors of the principles of non-interference and sovereignty. It often invokes these principles either in order to protect itself from...Show moreChina claims to be one of the main followers and protectors of the principles of non-interference and sovereignty. It often invokes these principles either in order to protect itself from interference from Western states, or to defend its alternative approach to aid engagement in African countries (Pang 244-245). However, China also violates the principle of non-interference by putting conditions on other countries’ internal affairs, such as demanding that the government does not support issues that China is against, in return for its continued bilateral cooperation. Therefore, China’s foreign policy approaches and especially its use of conditionality seem contradicting. Such contradicting foreign policy approaches can be challenging to understand and counter for other states if the motivations are not known. The academic debate on China’s use of conditionality and foreign policy in general has failed to take into account a wide enough range of foreign policy approaches, something I attempt to do in my paper.Show less
The research question this thesis poses is: By what means do small states, as opposed to great powers, contribute to international mediation? The examination of two cases has suggested that a small...Show moreThe research question this thesis poses is: By what means do small states, as opposed to great powers, contribute to international mediation? The examination of two cases has suggested that a small state can contribute to international mediation by presenting itself as a neutral third party that lacks any strategic interests in the conflict and can provide a neutral physical location for peace talks, and by using established links with the conflicting parties, to become more easily accepted as mediator by conflicting parties than a great power mediator. The case studies also suggest that small states might be able to achieve significant progress during the mediation process by using a confidence-building strategy, although this does not necessarily lead to the effective addressing of the root causes of the conflict and successful resolution of the conflict. Although the theory on small states in international mediation suggests that the combination of mediation efforts by a small state and a great power might lead to a more successful mediation outcome, the Israeli-Palestinian case did not provide any evidence for the use of a ‘division of labour’-strategy, although indirect support for Norway’s mediation efforts from the US was important.Show less
