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This master's thesis delves into Dmitry Glukhovsky's novel Metro 2033, to examine how agoraphobia, xenophobia, and isolationism manifest through spatial divisions in a post-apocalyptic setting. Utilizing a multidisciplinary approach including literature, sociology, and cultural studies, this study seeks to illuminate the intricate interplay between psychological fears and socio-political ideologies in the spatial dimension. Set within a dystopian future where survivors inhabit the Moscow Metro system following a devastating catastrophe, the narrative of Metro 2033 is analyzed to reveal the portrayal and consequences of agoraphobia among its denizens, as well as the xenophobic tendencies exhibited by its various factions. This research contextualizes these thematic elements within the broader socio-political landscape of contemporary Russia. By drawing parallels between the fictional metro and real-world developments, this study explores how the themes of agoraphobia, xenophobia, and isolationism resonate with current tendencies in relation to Russia. These reflections offer insights into societal anxieties and political ideologies. Through an analysis of Glukhovsky's novel and an examination of contemporary Russian society, this thesis shows the many ways literature mirrors and critiques the human condition and societal dynamics within the framework of spatial divisions. It contributes to the ongoing discourse on the impact of literature on our understanding of complex socio-political issues, providing a new perspective on the relevance of Metro 2033 within the context of contemporary Russia.

I virkeligheden var krigen i Ukraine en fortsættelse af den konflikt mellem Rusland og Ukraine, der startede den 22. februar 2014

En bog om de mange spørgsmål som Ukrainekrigen rejser for Danmark. Bogen henvender sig til udenrigspolitisk interesserede, herunder især krigen imellem Rusland og Ukraine

Kapitlet indeholder en overordnet analyse af de retlige og institutionelle muligheder for at retsforfølge de skyldige for overtrædelse af krigens love i Ukraine. Derudover indeholder kapitlet en kritisk diskussion af dele af den fremherskende teoretiske skepsis imod ICC med afsæt i konkrete udviklinger i krigen mellem Ukraine og Rusland, særligt vedr. den ukrainske regerings aktive inddragelse af juridiske incitamenter i sine henvendelser til de russiske officerer og soldater., This chapter contains a general analysis of the legal and institutional possibilities of holding perpetrators of war crimes accountable in Ukraine. Furthermore, the chapter contains a critical discussion of parts of the dominant theoretical skepticism regarding the ICC, taking as its point of departure specific developments in the war between Ukraine and Russia, and focusing in particular on the Ukrainian government's active use of legal incentives (threats of punishment and promises of amnesties) in its communications with the Russian soldiers and officers.

Danish abstract: Dette speciale ønsker at undersøge udvidelsen af Nato efter afslutningen af den kolde krig, og hvilken effekt denne udvidelse har haft på forholdet mellem Rusland og USA. For at kunne undersøge dette gør opgaven brug af teorier fra feltet International Relations studies. I opgaven bruges to skoler inden for IR-teori, Realisme og Liberalisme, som begge har til formål at belyse, hvordan stormagter opfører sig i det internationale system. I opgaven har jeg taget en redegørende og komparativ tilgang og valgt at fokusere på de historiske og politiske begivenheder, som har påvirket dannelsen og udvidelsen af Nato mod slutningen af den kolde krig, og i tiden umiddelbart efter, samt hvilke konsekvenser dette har haft med henblik på Krim-krisen. I opgaven er jeg kommet frem til, at udvidelsen af Nato, efter den kolde krigs afslutning, har haft store konsekvenser for forholdet mellem de to stormagter, Rus- land og USA. Udvidelsen af forsvarsalliancen har truet Ruslands sikkerhedspolitiske mål, og som konsekvens deraf, har de annekteret den ukrainske halvø Krim, i 2014. Ydermere, så har Rusland invaderet Ukraine, med det formål at stoppe udvidelsen af Nato, samt vise overfor USA, at de stadig- væk er en stormagt. USA’s pres for at udvide Nato har været begrundet, da det sikrede deres egen sikkerhedspolitiske interesser, men det har også fornyet den intensive rivalisering mellem Vesten og Rusland, der eksisterede under den kolde krig.

Oorlogsmisdaden Hoewel de wereld roept om gerechtigheid voor de burgerslachtoffers in Oekraïne is de kans klein dat Poetin, of andere verantwoordelijken, terecht zullen staan, schrijft Thijs Bouwknegt.

Hoewel de wereld roept om gerechtigheid voor de burgerslachtoffers in Oekraïne is de kans klein dat Poetin, of andere verantwoordelijken, terecht zullen staan, schrijft Thijs Bouwknegt., Oorlogsmisdaden Hoewel de wereld roept om gerechtigheid voor de burgerslachtoffers in Oekraïne is de kans klein dat Poetin, of andere verantwoordelijken, terecht zullen staan, schrijft Thijs Bouwknegt.

Ruslands svar på sanktioner pålagt af USA og EU som følge af Ukraine-krigen indeholder bl.a. ny lovgivning og dekreter med restriktioner, kontrol og potentiel beslaglæggelse og ekspropriation af udenlandsk ejendom. Artiklen analyserer de økonomiske relationer mellem Danmark og Rusland på området for investeringsbeskyttelse med særlig fokus på den bilateral investeringsbeskyttelsesaftale, som blev indgået mellem Danmark og Rusland i 1993.

Why are some sanctions-regimes more successful in procuring political objectives than others? Despite rich literature on the topic, the scholarship on sanctions is yet to provide a definitive answer. In particular, it remains unclear how civil society actors in the target-country impact political effects of sanctions. I draw on stigma-management theory and theory of communicative rationality to argue that civil society mobilisation and collective action play a very central role in determining political behaviour of sanctioned governments. To substantiate the argument, this thesis employs a qualitatively driven mixed methods research design. First, I illustrate with logistic regression models that civil mobilisation is indeed associated with the probability of sanctions yielding desired political results. In so doing, I separate civil mobilisation into pro-democracy mobilisation against incumbent governments and pro-autocracy mobilisation in support of incumbent governments. Then, I zoom in on the sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, in a qualitative analysis. This case shows how sanctions ignited pro-autocracy instead of pro-democracy mobilisation in Russian civil society which encouraged the Russian government to pursue counter stigmatisation reenforcing sanctioned policies. Insights from both the quantitative and qualitative part of the study are then used to discuss sanctions as a tool for conflict resolution arguing that sanctions-regimes that discriminate against entire populations should be avoided and that sanctions ought to be accompanied by communicative efforts to support and mobilise civil society of the targeted country. If this analysis holds, it implies that interaction with the civil society in the targeted country should play a far more important role when imposing sanctions than formerly assumed., Why are some sanctions-regimes more successful in procuring political objectives than others? Despite rich literature on the topic, the scholarship on sanctions is yet to provide a definitive answer. In particular, it remains unclear how civil society actors in the target-country impact political effects of sanctions. I draw on stigma-management theory and theory of communicative rationality to argue that civil society mobilisation and collective action play a very central role in determining political behaviour of sanctioned governments. To substantiate the argument, this thesis employs a qualitatively driven mixed methods research design. First, I illustrate with logistic regression models that civil mobilisation is indeed associated with the probability of sanctions yielding desired political results. In so doing, I separate civil mobilisation into pro-democracy mobilisation against incumbent governments and pro-autocracy mobilisation in support of incumbent governments. Then, I zoom in on the sanctions imposed on Russia after its invasion of Ukraine on February 24th, 2022, in a qualitative analysis. This case shows how sanctions ignited pro-autocracy instead of pro-democracy mobilisation in Russian civil society which encouraged the Russian government to pursue counter stigmatisation reenforcing sanctioned policies. Insights from both the quantitative and qualitative part of the study are then used to discuss sanctions as a tool for conflict resolution arguing that sanctions-regimes that discriminate against entire populations should be avoided and that sanctions ought to be accompanied by communicative efforts to support and mobilise civil society of the targeted country. If this analysis holds, it implies that interaction with the civil society in the targeted country should play a far more important role when imposing sanctions than formerly assumed.

Artiklen diskuterer, hvad Danmark og Vesten kan lære af Ruslands invasion i Ukraine i 2022.

Angrebet på Nord Stream-gasrørledningerne i Østersøen rejser spørgsmål om sårbarheden af de europæiske rørledninger, el- og internetkabler og anden maritim infrastruktur

Forfatteren beskriver den nu glemte tætte forbrødring mellem de svenske og danske mariner, der indledtes fra 1912. I løbet af 1918 udviklede forholdet sig til et de facto‐alliancesamarbejde mellem de to neutralitetsforsvarsstyrker under presset fra de krigsførendes inddragelse af Kattegat i deres operationer. De fremmede gesandtskaber erkendte udviklingen, og den britiske militærattaché i København og den britiske gesandt i Stockholm opregnede i analyser hjem de fordele, som de nordiske lande – og Storbritannien – kunne opnå ved et tættere formelt samarbejde mellem landene. Mod slutningen tog de to skandinavistisksindede ledende embedsmænd i marineministerierne, Hjalmar Rechnitzer i Danmark og Otto Lybeck i Sverige, initiativ til at udbygge det praktiske samarbejde med netværksskabende informations‐ og kammeratskabsaktiviteter, og allerede før Lybeck i 1927 blev værnschef, havde danske søofficerer adgang til den svenske flådes mest fortrolige tekniske felt, nemlig skydemetoder for det svære skibsartilleri på de nye panserskibe af Sverige‐klassen.

Forfatteren følger udviklingen i den preussisk‐tyske holdning til en krig med og i Rusland igennem århundredet før udbruddet af 1. Verdenskrig. I den første halvdel af perioden var opfattelsen præget af erindringen om, hvordan Napoleons felttog i1812‐13 var forløbet og af det forhold, at Preussen ikke havde noget modsætningsforhold til stormagten i øst. Men da forholdet i de to sidste årtier op mod århundredeskiftet forværredes, måtte man nå til en afklaring af, hvordan man måtte føre en krig mod Rusland, hvis den brød ud. Den dominerende opfattelse var, at i det tilfælde skulle krigen på østfronten enten føres defensivt, eller også skulle krigen udkæmpes med begrænset mål med operationerne koncentreret i Ruslands vestligste dele, dvs. først og fremmest i den russiske del af Polen. Der var dog også tyske officerer, der havde den opfattelse, at ny teknologi, herunder først og fremmest jernbanerne, gjorde, at erfaringerne fra Napoleons invasionsforsøg ikke  længere var gældende, og at det nu var muligt at opnå afgørende militære fordele ved operationer i selve Rusland. Fra august 1914 blev krigen en realitet, og også tyskerne fik erfaringer med, at sejre i det vestlige Rusland ikke bragte afgørelsen.

This article presents a typological study of the Twitter accounts operated by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a company specialized in online influence operations based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Drawing on concepts from 20th-century propaganda theory, we modeled the IRA operations along propaganda classes and campaign targets. The study relies on two historical databases and data from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to retrieve 826 user profiles and 6,377 tweets posted by the agency between 2012 and 2017. We manually coded the source as identifiable, obfuscated, or impersonated and classified the campaign target of IRA operations using an inductive typology based on profile descriptions, images, location, language, and tweeted content. The qualitative variables were analyzed as relative frequencies to test the extent to which the IRA’s black, gray, and white propaganda are deployed with clearly defined targets for short-, medium-, and long-term propaganda strategies. The results show that source classification from propaganda theory remains a valid framework to understand IRA’s propaganda machine and that the agency operates a composite of different user accounts tailored to perform specific tasks, including openly pro-Russian profiles, local American and German news sources, pro-Trump conservatives, and Black Lives Matter activists., This article presents a typological study of the Twitter accounts operated by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a company specialized in online influence operations based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Drawing on concepts from 20th-century propaganda theory, we modeled the IRA operations along propaganda classes and campaign targets. The study relies on two historical databases and data from the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine to retrieve 826 user profiles and 6,377 tweets posted by the agency between 2012 and 2017. We manually coded the source as identifiable, obfuscated, or impersonated and classified the campaign target of IRA operations using an inductive typology based on profile descriptions, images, location, language, and tweeted content. The qualitative variables were analyzed as relative frequencies to test the extent to which the IRA’s black, gray, and white propaganda are deployed with clearly defined targets for short-, medium-, and long-term propaganda strategies. The results show that source classification from propaganda theory remains a valid framework to understand IRA’s propaganda machine and that the agency operates a composite of different user accounts tailored to perform specific tasks, including openly pro-Russian profiles, local American and German news sources, pro-Trump conservatives, and Black Lives Matter activists.

Verdens nord er et opdigtet sted. Op igennem århundrederne har kunstnere og forfattere i den vestlige verden gjort sig forestillinger om og fremstillinger af de nordlige egne. Med tiden og den gradvise ophobning af diskursive lag har det ført til skabelsen af en forestilling om de nordlige egne - det være sig de nordiske lande inklusive Skandinavien eller Grønland, Rusland, Canadas tre nordlige territorier eller polerne. Imidlertid nåede vesterlændingene jo først til Nordpolen i starten af forrige århundrede, og dette forhold har gjort det nordlige til produktet af et dobbeltblik: et blik ude fra de mestendels vestlige forestillinger og fremstillinger og et andet inde fra de nordlige kulturer selv - heriblandt inuitterne, de nordamerikanske indianere og skandinaverne. De vestlige fremstillinger af det nordlige er ofte forsimplede og de lokale kulturers egne opfattelser gerne miskendte. For at kunne studere det nordlige ud fra en samlet betragtning bør vi derfor stille to spørgsmål: Hvordan kan det nordlige defineres gennem forestillinger? Hvilke etiske principper bør ligge til grund for vores syn på de nordlige kulturer med henblik på en samlet forståelse, der inkluderer de kulturer, som sydlige magter og egne har miskendt? Disse to spørgsmål vil jeg besvare i denne tekst. Først vil jeg definere forestillingen om det nordlige og dernæst foreslå en omfattende plan for, hvordan vi kan få øjnene op for polaregnenes kulturer i al deres faktiske kompleksitet. Flersproget udgave på dansk, men også på norsk, svensk, russisk, fransk, engelsk og nordsamisk.

This paper presents preliminary findings of a content analysis of tweets posted by false accounts operated by the Internet Research Agency (IRA) in St Petersburg. We relied on a historical database of tweets to retrieve 4,539 tweets posted by IRA-linked accounts between 2012 and 2017 and coded 2,501 tweets manually. The messages cover newsworthy events in the United States, the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attack in 2015, and the Brexit referendum in 2016. Tweets were annotated using 19 control variables to investigate whether IRA operations on social media are consistent with classic propaganda models. The results show that the IRA operates a composite of user accounts tailored to perform specific tasks, with the lion's share of their work focusing on US daily news activity and the diffusion of polarized news across different national contexts.

Både centrum-venstres Ruslands-forskrækkede og de højrenationales Ruslands-sympatisører i Vesten baserer sig på ensidige og historiefattige forestillinger.