The Balkan region has been a place for conflict ant intergroup bias several times the last 100 years. After Tito’s death in 1980, Yugoslavia started to crumble from within. The economy was in ruin, the question of ethnicity, which had been hidden away during Titos rule, surfaced and wars broke out because of this. Some of the republics and autonomous states in Yugoslavia demanded to be independent. ...

The research studies changes in attitudes of Russian students who spent half a year studying at one of the universities in Northern Norway. The research attempts to answer the question “How does the international educational exchange contribute to cross-cultural understanding and peace?” Theory of intergroup contact serves as a theoretical basis of the analysis. The main hypothesis of contact theory ...

In times of war or during non-democratic regimes the press situation tends to suffer dramatically. Freedom loses ground, censorship slowly –sometimes rapidly- sets in. In Colombia the situation is very special due to the characteristics of the war, the plurality of actors, the complexities of the media market, and the intricate influence of the State. Colombian Media deals with many tests. It is ...

This thesis focuses on returnees' potential to contribute to reconstruction and development in post-conflict societies. Do returnees bring with them resources of any kind? If yes, how can these resources be utilized in order to contribute to reconstruction and development in the return areas? Through analyzing the experiences of South Sudanese returnees in Juba, these are the main questions this ...

Elimination of violence and establishment of sustainable peace have been among the longest-standing human ambitions. Violence with its paradoxical picture, however, has been an inseparable part of human history. Regarding different aspects and forms of violence, it could be defined as something to do with a change in the “normal” state of affairs. According to mentioned definition of violence, a ...

This study examines the effectiveness of 11 counter-radicalisation policies presented by the European Union, Norway, and the Autonomous Region of the Basque Country in Spain. In order to do so, two tasks are carried out, where the first is to analyse the overlapping between the measures proposed in the policy documents and the contributing factors of the radicalisation phenomenon. The second task ...

A considerable amount of cases of sexual exploitation and abuse of children and women committed by the personnel of United Nations peace support operations have been brought to the attention of the public, especially in recent years. As multiple actors are involved in United Nations peace support operations, i.a. the United Nations itself and Troop Contributing States, the question of attribution ...

This study explores the motivations and rationale of the educated Kyrgyz women who start wearing hijabs upon reaching maturity. In addition, the study examines attitudes, views, and perspectives of different groups of the Kyrgyz population in Bishkek, the capital of the country. In doing so, it presents, analyzes and explores the Islamization process in Kyrgyzstan from different angles. The theoretical ...

Many current peace researchers claim that Peace Studies has fallen ill (some even say as an academic field it is dead). This thesis goes through the development of Peace Studies as a field. Further, it considers the different views on what it is and what it should be, in relation to other forms of internationally focused studies. From this it highlights some of the conflicting views and value-bases, ...

The dissertation attempts to tap into the experiences of torture survivors of Nepal. The objective of the research is to shed light on: who were tortured, how and why; what are the consequences of torture on them, and what are their coping strategies and expectations for reconciliation. To meet these objectives, the study relied upon the interviews of ten Nepalese torture survivors; and six related ...