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
This thesis explores the conceptualization of selfhood, self-interest, and self-sacrifice in ancient Chinese thought by performing an intra-textual analysis of several anecdotes in the Han Feizi, a...Show moreThis thesis explores the conceptualization of selfhood, self-interest, and self-sacrifice in ancient Chinese thought by performing an intra-textual analysis of several anecdotes in the Han Feizi, a canonical text on ancient Chinese political philosophy dating back to the 3rd century BCE. More specifically, this thesis describes a paradox in early Chinese thought, particularly in the Han Feizi, about conceptions of self-hood as articulated in anecdotes involving self-interest and self-sacrifice. A close reading of relevant passages demonstrates that, according to the Han Feizi, the contradictory tension between self-interest and self-sacrifice that instigated the premise for this study is in fact not so paradoxical after all. According to the Han Feizi, individuals are motivated by their self-interested nature, even when they sacrifice their limbs, their children, or their lives in the pursuit of personal aggrandizement.Show less
This paper intends to explain the discrepancy in Western response to cases of conflict which appear to be comparable, and it aims to do so through a realist study of the West’s self-interest...Show moreThis paper intends to explain the discrepancy in Western response to cases of conflict which appear to be comparable, and it aims to do so through a realist study of the West’s self-interest involved. By differentiating these comparable cases between ‘Western’ and ‘non-Western’, this paper intends to put forward the theory that the West is biased towards non-Western conflict management activities in general. Thereby contradicting the commonplace Western-based literature, this paper aims to voice an alternative interpretation of the reasoning behind Western responses to non-Western efforts of managing conflict. Through studying four cases of interstate conflict management activities which did not enjoy implicit Security Council approval, and two further comparable and illustrative cases of domestic conflict, this paper aims to present empirical evidence for the theory as proposed. This analysis will adhere to a qualitative research design, and it will combine elements of a content- and discourse-analysis, thereby relying on scholarly written work as well as on political and media discourse related to the selected cases. As this analysis will subsequently conclude, the selected cases indeed illustrate an inconsistency in Western response to either Western or non-Western conflict management activities, thereby ruling in favour of the here argued theory that the West is biased towards non-Western efforts of managing conflict. Due to the argued Western ‘moral high ground’ in international affairs, this bias is consequently portrayed as a standard by Western governmental leaders and by Western media, thereby leading to a one-sided discussion in which non-Western countries have an inherent disadvantage; something this paper intends to contradict.Show less
