1.
National Day of Sweden
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National Day of Sweden is a national holiday observed in Sweden on 6 June every year. Prior to 1983, the day was celebrated as the Swedish Flag Day, at that time, the day was renamed the Swedish national day by the Riksdag. The tradition of celebrating this date began 1916 at the Stockholm Olympic Stadium, in honour of the election of King Gustav Vasa in 1523, some question the validity of this as a national holiday, as it was not observed as a holiday until decades later. In 2005 it became an official Swedish public holiday, replacing Whit Monday and this change led to fewer days off from work as 6 June will periodically fall on the weekend, unlike Whit Monday, which was always celebrated on a Monday. This has in turn led to complaints from some Swedish unions,1523 – Gustav Vasa is elected King of Sweden, marking the end of the Kalmar Union. 1654 – Charles X succeeds his cousin Christina after her abdication,1809 – Sweden promulgates a new Instrument of Government, which restores political power to the Riksdag of the Estates. 1857 – Sophia of Nassau marries the future Oscar II,1974 – A new Instrument of Government is promulgated, first adopted by the Swedish parliament on 6 June 1973. Media related to National Day of Sweden at Wikimedia Commons Du gamla, Du fria, three Crowns, national emblem of Sweden Flag of Sweden Mother Svea
2.
Skansen
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Skansen is the first open-air museum and zoo in Sweden and is located on the island Djurgården in Stockholm, Sweden. It was opened on 11 October 1891 by Artur Hazelius to show the way of life in the different parts of Sweden before the industrial era, the 19th century was a period of great change throughout Europe, and Sweden was no exception. Its rural way of life was giving way to an industrialised society and many feared that the countrys many traditional customs. Skansen became the model for other early open-air museums in Scandinavia, Skansen was originally a part of the Nordic Museum, but became an independent organisation in 1963. The objects within the Skansen buildings are still the property of the Nordic Museum, only three of the buildings in the museum are not original, and were painstakingly copied from examples he had found. All of the buildings are open to visitors and show the range of Swedish life from the Skogaholm Manor house built in 1680. Skansen attracts more than 1.3 million visitors each year, there is even a small patch growing tobacco used for the making of cigarettes. There is also a zoo containing a wide range of Scandinavian animals including the bison, brown bear, moose, grey seal, lynx, otter, red fox, reindeer, wolf. There are also farmsteads where rare breeds of animals can be seen. In early December the sites central Bollnäs square is host to a popular Christmas market that has held since 1903. In the summer there are displays of folk dancing and concerts, since 1897, Skansen has been served by the Skansens Bergbana, a funicular railway on the northwest side of the Skansen hill. The funicular is 196.4 meters long, with a rise of 34.57 meters. Culture in Stockholm Royal National City Park Official website Andy Carvins Skansen Gallery Skansen-akvariet Panoramic virtual tour of brown bear enclosure at Skansen
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Stockholm
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The city is spread across 14 islands on the coast in the southeast of Sweden at the mouth of Lake Mälaren, by the Stockholm archipelago and the Baltic Sea. The area has settled since the Stone Age, in the 6th millennium BC. It is also the capital of Stockholm County, Stockholm is the cultural, media, political, and economic centre of Sweden. The Stockholm region alone accounts for over a third of the countrys GDP and it is an important global city, and the main centre for corporate headquarters in the Nordic region. The city is home to some of Europes top ranking universities, such as the Stockholm School of Economics, Karolinska Institute and it hosts the annual Nobel Prize ceremonies and banquet at the Stockholm Concert Hall and Stockholm City Hall. One of the citys most prized museums, the Vasa Museum, is the most visited museum in Scandinavia. The Stockholm metro, opened in 1950, is known for its decoration of the stations. Swedens national football arena is located north of the city centre, Ericsson Globe, the national indoor arena, is in the southern part of the city. The city was the host of the 1912 Summer Olympics, and hosted the equestrian portion of the 1956 Summer Olympics otherwise held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Stockholm is the seat of the Swedish government and most of its agencies, including the highest courts in the judiciary, and the official residencies of the Swedish monarch and the Prime Minister. The government has its seat in the Rosenbad building, the Riksdag is seated in the Parliament House, and the Prime Ministers residence is adjacent at the Sager House. After the Ice Age, around 8,000 BCE, there were already a number of people living in the present-day Stockholm area. Thousands of years later, as the ground thawed, the climate became tolerable, at the intersection of the Baltic Sea and lake Mälaren is an archipelago site where the Old Town of Stockholm was first built from about 1000 CE by Vikings. They had a positive impact on the area because of the trade routes they created. Stockholms location appears in Norse sagas as Agnafit, and in Heimskringla in connection with the legendary king Agne, the earliest written mention of the name Stockholm dates from 1252, by which time the mines in Bergslagen made it an important site in the iron trade. The first part of the name means log in Swedish, although it may also be connected to an old German word meaning fortification, the second part of the name means islet, and is thought to refer to the islet Helgeandsholmen in central Stockholm. Stockholms core, the present Old Town was built on the island next to Helgeandsholmen from the mid 13th century onward. The city originally rose to prominence as a result of the Baltic trade of the Hanseatic League, Stockholm developed strong economic and cultural linkages with Lübeck, Hamburg, Gdańsk, Visby, Reval, and Riga during this time
4.
Prime Minister of Sweden
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The Prime Minister is the head of government in Sweden. Before the creation of the office of a Prime Minister in 1876, Sweden did not have a head of government separate from its head of state, namely the King, in whom the executive authority was vested. Louis Gerhard De Geer, the architect behind the new bicameral Riksdag of 1866 that replaced the centuries-old Riksdag of the Estates, the current Prime Minister of Sweden is Stefan Löfven, leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party. Before 1876, when the office of a prime minister was created. Historically though, the most senior member of the Privy Council had certain similarities to the office of a head of government. When the office of the Prime Minister was created in 1876, unlike the Minister for Justice, the Minister for Foreign Affairs did however continue to be styled as Excellency, an honour shared only with the Prime Minister. From that time onward, the Prime Minister depended on the support of a majority in the Riksdag, over time, the Prime Minister came to de facto exercise the Royal prerogatives. However, the Swedish term used for the Government during this period, maj, t, an abbreviation of Kunglig Majestät. Until 1974, the authority in Sweden had been exercised through the King in Council. The Speaker then holds consultations with the party leaders and appoints a Prime Minister-designate, if the Prime Minister-designate is approved he or she chooses which and how many members are to be included in his or her government. With the exception of the Prime Minister, cabinet ministers do not need the approval of the Riksdag, if the Prime Minister is forced by a vote of no confidence to resign, the entire cabinet falls, and the process of electing a Prime minister starts over. The Prime Minister can dissolve the Riksdag, even receiving a vote of no confidence. The Instrument of Government requires that the Prime Minister appoint a member of the cabinet as Deputy Prime Minister, however, if a Deputy Prime Minister is absent or has not been appointed, the senior minister in the cabinet becomes acting head of government. If more than one minister has equal tenure, the eldest assumes the position, on paper, the Prime Ministers position is stronger than that of his counterparts in Denmark and Norway. This is because the Swedish prime minister is an office with duties specifically enumerated in the Instrument of Government. In the two neighboring Scandinavian monarchies, the monarch is the chief executive, but is bound by convention to act on the advice of the ministers. The government offices, including the Prime Ministers office, is located at Rosenbad in central Stockholm, in 1991 Sager House was acquired, and since 1995 it has served as the private residence of the Prime Minister. Harpsund, a house in Flen Municipality, Södermanland County, has served as a country residence for the Prime Minister since 1953
5.
Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden
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Carl XVI Gustaf is the King of Sweden. He ascended the throne upon the death of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf on 15 September 1973 and he is the youngest child and only son of Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, and Princess Sibylla of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The Kings heir apparent, upon passage on 1 January 1980 of a new law establishing absolute primogeniture, is Crown Princess Victoria, Carl Gustaf was born on 30 April 1946 at 10,20 in Haga Palace in Solna, Stockholm County. He was the youngest of five children and the son of Swedens Prince Gustaf Adolf. He was christened at the Royal Chapel on 7 June 1946 by the Archbishop of Uppsala and he was baptized in Charles XIs baptismal font, which stood on Gustav IIIs carpet and he lay in Charles XIs cradle with Oscar IIs crown beside him. The same christening gown in white linen batiste which the prince carried had been worn by his father in 1906, Prince Carl Gustaf was also given the title of the Duke of Jämtland. His father, Prince Gustaf Adolf, Duke of Västerbotten, was killed in a crash on 26 January 1947. His fathers death had left the prince second in line for the throne, behind his grandfather. When his great-grandfather Gustaf V died in 1950, the prince became the heir apparent of Sweden. Carl Gustaf was seven years old before he was told about his fathers death, after graduating from high school, Carl Gustaf completed two and a half years of education in the Royal Swedish Army, the Royal Swedish Navy, and the Royal Swedish Air Force. He received his commission as an officer in all three services in 1968, and he rose to the rank of captain and lieutenant. He has also completed his studies in history, sociology, political science, tax law. In addition, he studied the affairs of the Riksdag, Government. On 15 September 1973, Carl Gustaf became King of Sweden upon the death of his grandfather, on September 19, he took the required regal assurance during an extraordinary meeting of the cabinet. Afterwards, he appeared before the parliament, diplomatic corps, court, both the cabinet meeting and ceremony at the Hall were broadcast live on television. Following the ceremonies, he appeared on the balcony to acknowledge gathered crowds, at the cabinet meeting, the King declared that his name would be Carl XVI Gustaf and that his title would be King of Sweden. He adopted, For Sweden – With the times as his personal motto, when Carl Gustaf ascended the throne, plans were already in place to replace the 1809 Instrument of Government which gave the King extensive involvement with government. Though the King was a near-autocrat on paper, the Riksdags authority grew steadily into the early 20th century, in 1914, Gustaf V made a speech which resulted in what is known as the Courtyard Crisis wherein he was accused of interfering with politics
6.
Bengt Westerberg
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Bengt Carl Gustaf Westerberg is a Swedish politician. He was leader of the Liberal Peoples Party from 1983 to 1995, member of the Riksdag from 1984 to 1994 and Minister for Social Affairs and he is the son of Carl-Erik Westerberg and his wife Barbro. He holds office as the Deputy President of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva, Westerberg is an atheist and humanist. He is twice divorced, with two daughters, Hanna Nordh and Malin Westerberg from the first marriage and a son, Jacob Westerberg, from his second marriage with Marie Ehrling
7.
Ingvar Carlsson
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Gösta Ingvar Carlsson is a Swedish politician who twice served as Prime Minister of Sweden, first from 1986 to 1991 and again from 1994 to 1996. He was leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1986 to 1996 and he is best known for leading Sweden into the European Union. Carlsson was a member of the Riksdag from 1965 to 1996 representing the constituency of Stockholm County and he served as Minister of Education from 1969 to 1973, as Minister of Housing in 1973 and again from 1974 to 1976 and as Minister of Environmental affairs from 1985 to 1986. He served as Deputy Prime Minister from 1982 to 1986 and assumed office as Prime Minister of Sweden upon the assassination of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. Carlsson was born in Borås, Västra Götaland County, Sweden and is the son of the warehouse worker Olof Karlsson and Ida, Carlsson has a diploma in business economics and a degree in political science from Lund University. In Lund he met with Tage Erlander, the Swedish prime minister and his aide Olof Palme, after finishing studies Carlsson got a job in Erlanders staff. In 1965, after completing studies at Northwestern University in Illinois in the United States. In the same year, he became leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Youth League. He had the following posts, Minister of Education 1969-1973, Minister of Housing 1973-1976. He was, together with Olof Palme, known as one of Erlanders boys, following the assassination of Olof Palme in 1986, Ingvar Carlsson became the new Prime Minister or Statsminister and party leader. As Prime Minister he also carried out a reform of the tax system. But Swedens economy began to deteriorate in the early 1990s, in 1990 the Carlsson cabinet resigned after failing to gain a majority for its economic policy agenda, but was reinstated immediately with a slightly changed agenda. The Social Democrats lost the elections in 1991, but Carlsson returned to power after the elections in 1994, after three years in opposition and an election victory in the 1994 elections, Carlsson formed a new government. This government realigned its focus on cleaning up Swedish Government finances, the ensuing governing period was difficult and it was strongly criticized by trade unions and party members for government service cuts and tax increases that were instituted. In August 1995, Ingvar Carlsson announced that he would resign as party leader and his successor was long considered to be the then Minister of Equality and Deputy Prime Minister Mona Sahlin. However, due to the so-called Toblerone Affair, she took back her candidacy, on December 5,1995, the nominating committee proposed the Minister for Finance, Göran Persson, as the new party leader candidate. He was elected on March 15, of the year at the Social Democratic Party Congress to Social Democratic party leader. Ingvar Carlsson was Chairman of the inquiry after the Gothenburg Riots of 2001 to investigate the events and their report was submitted to the Government on January 14,2003
8.
Minister for Foreign Affairs (Sweden)
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The Minister for Foreign Affairs is the foreign minister of Sweden and the head of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs. The current Minister for Foreign Affairs is Margot Wallström of the Social Democrats, the office was instituted in 1809 as a result of the constitutional Instrument of Government promulgated in the same year. Until 1876 the office was called Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs, the Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs initially served as head of the Cabinet of Foreign Mail Exchange at the Royal Office. Following the ministry reform in 1840, the Prime Minister for Foreign Affairs became head of the newly instituted Ministry for Foreign Affairs. In 1876 the office proper of Prime Minister of Sweden was created, the holder of the office did however continue to be styled as Your excellency, until 1974 when the new Instrument of Government came into force. Before the parliamentary breakthrough in the early 20th century, that title had been granted exclusively to members of the most prominent noble families, parties Status State Secretary for Foreign Affairs https, //web. archive. org/web/20120506050731/http, //www. sweden. gov. se/sb/d/2059
9.
Fredrik Reinfeldt
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He was the last rotating President of the European Council in 2009. A native of Stockholm County, Reinfeldt joined the Moderate Youth League in 1983, and by 1992 had risen to the rank of chairman and he served as Member of Parliament from 1991 to 2014, representing his home constituency. Reinfeldt was elected party leader on 25 October 2003, succeeding Bo Lundgren, under his leadership, the Moderate Party has transformed its policies and oriented itself towards the centre, branding itself the New Moderates. Following the 2006 general election, Reinfeldt was elected Prime Minister on October 6, along with the three other political parties in the centre-right Alliance for Sweden, Reinfeldt presided over a coalition government with the support of a narrow majority in parliament. At the age of 41, he was the third-youngest person to become Prime Minister of Sweden, Reinfeldts first term in office was marked by the late-2000s financial crisis and recession. His popularity fell until the economy of Sweden emerged as one of the strongest in Europe and he is the longest-serving non-Social Democratic Prime Minister since Erik Gustaf Boströms first spell in office between 1891 and 1900. After his defeat in the 2014 election Reinfeldt announced that he would step down from leading the party, in 1965, Fredrik Reinfeldt was born in Allmänna BB hospital in Stockholm and was the oldest of three brothers to his parents Bruno and Birgitta Reinfeldt. Upon returning to Sweden, the family first lived in an apartment in Handen before moving to a house in Bromsten in northwestern Stockholm. The Reinfeldt family was living in Bromsten when Fredriks younger brothers, Magnus, in 1976 the family moved into a single-family home in Täby in northeastern Stockholm County. His mother Birgitta was a leadership and management consultant, and some of her professional skills might have inspired and impressed the young Fredrik. At the age of 11 Reinfeldt became chairman of the student council in his school, and became a fan of the football club Djurgårdens IF, a passion he maintains to this day. He started playing basketball for the Tensta Tigers while living in Bromsten, at his secondary school, Åva gymnasium, he studied natural science for three years. He also enjoyed setting up and performing revues and cabarets, after school, Reinfeldt completed his military service as a ranger at Lapland Rifle Regiment and finished first in his class as a cadet in Umeå. It was during this time that he became interested in politics and he graduated from Stockholm University School of Business with a degree in Business and Economics in 1990. Reinfeldt joined the Moderate Youth League—the youth wing of the Swedish Moderate Party—in 1983 at the age of 18, in 1988 he became a secretary in the Stockholm Municipality Council. He was active in student politics while studying at Stockholm University and he became chairman of the Moderate Youth Leagues Stockholm branch in 1990, and the following year was elected a member of the Riksdag. The 1991 government was the first centre-right government in Sweden since 1982, from 1992 to 1995 Reinfeldt was the chairman of the Moderate Youth League. He ousted the former chairman Ulf Kristersson at the controversial congress known as The Battle of Lycksele, had he lost the battle he would most likely not be in politics today
10.
Jan Eliasson
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Jan Kenneth Eliasson is a Swedish diplomat who was Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations from July 2012 to December 2016. A member of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, Eliasson served as Minister for Foreign Affairs from 24 April to 6 October 2006. In 1965 he earned a degree in economics from the School of Business, Economics. He also holds degrees from American University, University of Gothenburg. Eliasson has authored and co-authored numerous books and articles and is a frequent lecturer on foreign policy and diplomacy, since 1988 he has been a visiting lecturer on mediation, conflict resolution and UN reform at Uppsala University. Eliasson started his career in 1965, when he was employed at the Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs. From 1982 to 1983 he served as Diplomatic Advisor to the Swedish Prime Minister Olof Palme, from 1980 to 1986, Eliasson was part of the U. N. mission, mediating in the Iran–Iraq War. From 1988 to 1992 he served as Swedens Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York, in 1991, Eliasson was chairman of the U. N. General Assemblys working group on emergency relief and Vice President of the U. N. Economic and Social Council from 1991 to 1992, in 1992 he was appointed as the first U. N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs. He was involved in operations in Somalia, Sudan, Mozambique and he also took initiatives on issues such as land mines, prevention and humanitarian action. In 1993–94 Eliasson served as mediator in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict for the Organization for Security, from 1994 to 1999, Eliasson served as Swedish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs. From 2000 to 2005 he served as Swedens Ambassador to Washington, on 13 June 2005 he was unanimously elected President of the United Nations General Assembly, for its sixtieth session. He served as President from 13 September 2005 to 11 September 2006, from 24 April 2006 to 6 October 2006 he also served as Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Social Democratic cabinet of Göran Persson. Following the Swedish general election,2006 when his party lost the election, in December 2006, then U. N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan announced Eliasson as Special Envoy to Darfur, Sudan. He left this mission in June 2008, in March 2009, Eliasson gave a lecture entitled Armed Conflict, The Cost to Civilians at the University of San Diegos Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace & Justice Distinguished Lecture Series, Eliasson is an Eminent Member of the Sergio Vieira de Mello Foundation and he currently sits on the advisory board of the Alliance for Peacebuilding. Eliasson is Chair of WaterAid Sweden, since 2010 he serves in the UN Secretary-Generals Advocates Group for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Eliasson is a former Board member of DARA, on 2 March 2012, Jan Eliasson was appointed Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
11.
High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina
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The purpose of the High Representative and the OHR is to oversee the civilian implementation of the Dayton agreement. They also serve to represent the countries involved in the implementation of the Dayton Agreement through the Peace Implementation Council, to the present, all of the High Representatives named have been from European Union countries, while their principal deputies have been from the United States. The Principal Deputy High Representative serves as International Supervisor for Brčko, the Dayton Agreement created the legal basis for the OHR. The OHR was requested to, adopt binding decisions when local parties seem unable or unwilling to act, remove from public officials who violate legal commitments or, in general. The Bonn powers were used by the OHR in the following decade. After the 2002 elections, the OHR scrutinised all political candidates for ministerial positions at Entity. Removals may in some cases also impose a life-ban on public offices, between 2002 and 2011 the High Representative also served as the European Union Special Representative to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Under Christian Schwarz-Schilling, the OHR seemed to soften its invasiveness, thanks to pressures from the Council of Europe, the number of OHR legislative initiatives and of dismissed officials lowered. On 27 February 2008, the PIC decided to end the High Representatives mandate on 30 June 2008, the EU decision to shut down the OHR by June 2007 unexpectedly aroused disappointment and concern in the Bosnian population, NGOs, and politicians. However, since the PIC February 2008 review, it was decided to extend that mandate indefinitely until a set of positive benchmarks have been fulfilled. The double hatting between EUSR and OHR was discontinued in 2011, when the EU representative post was fused between the EUSR and the head of the EU delegation, in February 2008 the Peace Implementation Council set the conditions for closure of the OHR. The most critical issues will be considered objectives to be achieved by the BiH authorities before transition from OHR to a European Union presence can take place, EUFOR Althea - European peacekeeping force for overseeing the military implementation of the Dayton agreement
12.
Carlos Westendorp
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Carlos Westendorp y Cabeza is a Spanish diplomat and current Secretary General of the Club of Madrid. He joined the Spanish Diplomatic Service in 1966, following several assignments abroad and in Spain he dedicated a great part of his professional career to the process of integration of Spain into the European Communities. In 1986, when Spain joined the European Communities, he was appointed its first Ambassador Permanent Representative and he chaired the Committee of Permanent Representatives during the first Spanish Presidency of the EEC in 1989. From 1991 to 1995 he was Spain’s Secretary of State for the European Union, in this last capacity, he chaired the Reflection group set up to prepare the negotiations on treaty change which led to the Treaties of Amsterdam and subsequently, Nice. From 1997 to 1999 he served as the High Representative of the International Community in Bosnia-Herzegovina, at his request, the Bonn conference empowered him to take the necessary decisions to implement the peace agreements In 1999 he was elected Member of the European Parliament representing the PSOE. He served as Chairman of the Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Trade, Energy, in 2003 he was elected Member of the Madrid Regional Assembly and Speaker on Economy of the Socialist Group. He was co-founder and Executive Vice-President of the Toledo Center for Peace and is now member of its board, after the elections of 2004 he was appointed Ambassador to the United States of America, a position he occupied until 2008. He is President of Westendorp International S. L and he has addressed conferences and lectures and has written articles and books mostly on European Affairs, for which he was awarded the Salvador de Madariaga Prize of Journalism. He has been awarded various Spanish and foreign decorations, including the Great Cross of the Order of Charles III and Officier de la Légion d’Honneur
13.
Moderate Party
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The Moderate Party is a liberal-conservative political party in Sweden. The party was founded in 1904 as the General Electoral League by a group of conservatives in the Swedish parliament, the party has had two other names during its history, Högern or The Right and Högerpartiet Right Party. In 1991, party leader Carl Bildt formed a minority government after the coalition had the largest mandate in Parliament. The coalition governed until its defeat in the 2014 general election, the current chairman of the party, Anna Kinberg Batra, was elected at the party congress on 10 January 2015. She succeeded Fredrik Reinfeldt who had served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 2006 to 2014, under Reinfeldts leadership, the party moved more towards the centre in Swedish politics. The party generally supports reducing taxation and economic liberalism, the Moderate Party is a full member of the International Democrat Union and European Peoples Party. The party was founded on 17 October 1904 in a restaurant called Runan in Stockholm, the intention was to start a campaign organization in support of the group of Conservatives which had emerged in the Riksdag. During the 19th century conservatives had organised themselves in the Riksdag, the Swedish right were also threatened by the rise of the Swedish Social Democratic Party and the Liberals. The party was called the General Electoral League, at first the party was clearly nationalist and staunchly conservative. The importance of a defense was underlined and other societal institutions embraced by the party were the monarchy. The party held initially a protectionist view towards the economy, tariffs were widely supported as well as interventionist economical measures such as agricultural subsidies, arvid Lindman became influential in the party and served two terms as Prime Minister of Sweden, before and after the enactment of universal suffrage. In 1907 he proposed universal male suffrage to the parliament and in 1912 he was elected leader. But the party voted against universal suffrage and the party voted against womens right to vote. It was only because the party was in minority that Sweden was able to grant the right to vote for all, pushed through by the Liberals and the Social Democrats, against the objections of the right. Although not one of the founders of the party and not a prominent ideologist, Lindman and his leadership was marked by a consolidation of the Swedish right, and by transforming the party into a modern, effective, political movement. Lindman was a pragmatic politician, but without losing his principles. He was a negotiator and peace-broker. From the beginning of the 20th century social democracy and the labour movement rose to replace liberalism as the political force for radical reforms
14.
Ulf Adelsohn
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Ulf Adelsohn is a Swedish politician, leader of the Moderate Party from 1981 to 1986 and Governor of Stockholm County from 1992 to 2001. Adelsohn studied law at Stockholm University, earning a Candidate of Law degree in 1968, Adelsohn became the chairman of the Moderate Students in 1966–1968, and became the deputy chairman of the Moderate Party in Stockholm in 1968. He was municipal commissioner for traffic in Stockholm 1973-1976 and was Mayor of Stockholm 1976–1979 and he served as Minister for Communications in the centre-right government of Thorbjörn Fälldin from 1979 to 1981 and Governor of Stockholm County from 1992 to 2001. Adelsohn was party leader of the Moderate Party from 1981 to 1986, from 2001 to 2011 was he chairman of the board for SJ. In 2005 he decided to stand for election for Stockholm City Council again and his candidacy was however withdrawn before the elections in 2006. Adelsohn was born in Stockholm, Sweden, the son of Oskar Adelsohn and his paternal grandparents were Polish Jews and his mother was of Swedish descent. On the side of his mother, he is a descendant of Jacob Johan Anckarström and he is married to Lena Adelsohn Liljeroth, who was the Minister for Culture in the Reinfeldt cabinet, and has two children, Erik and Ebba. An avid supporter of Djurgårdens IF, he was at one point chairman of the ice hockey department
15.
Bo Lundgren
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Bo Axel Magnus Lundgren is a Swedish politician. He was the leader of the Moderate Party from 1999 to 2003, Lundgren served as Minister for Fiscal and Financial Affairs from 1991 to 1994 in the government of Carl Bildt, with responsibility mainly for financial markets, taxation and housing. The country faced a financial crisis after the bursting of a speculation bubble which had developed in the 1980s. The Swedish governments management of the crisis attracted international attention, especially after the late 2000s recession, Lundgren testified to the US Congressional Oversight Panel in 2009 and was also called to the European Parliament and the Irish Parliament to speak about management of financial crises. In 1999, he succeeded Carl Bildt as party leader and became leader of the opposition and he resigned four years later after the partys poor results in the Swedish parliamentary election in 2002. He was succeeded by Fredrik Reinfeldt, who would move the party to the political centre and he then served as director general of the Swedish National Debt Office from 2004 to 2013. After leaving the Debt Office, he was appointed chairman of Sparbanken Öresund as well as of other institutions. He Lindgren earned a degree in business and administration from Lund University in 1972 and he received a honorary doctorate from Lund University in 2010. Currently, he is on the board of OMFIF where he is regularly involved in meetings regarding the financial
16.
Halmstad
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Halmstad is a port, university, industrial and recreational city at the mouth of Nissan in the province of Halland on the Swedish west coast. Halmstad is the seat of Halmstad Municipality and the capital of Halland County, the city had a population of 92,797 in 2012, out of a municipal total of over 90,000. Halmstad is Swedens 20th-largest city by population and located about midway between Gothenburg and Malmö and it is Europes northernmost city with a lot of timber framing architecture. Halmstad, at the part of the Kingdom of Denmark, received its first city charter in 1307. The oldest remains of that first town are to be found at Övraby upstream on Nissan, just south of, the remains of the church can still be seen today between a defunct brick industry and a former landfill. In the 1320s the town moved to the present day town centre, at this time there were two monasteries in the town and during the 15th century the St. Nikolai church was built. Halland was the object of numerous battles, sieges and occupations by Swedish troops, during the Kalmar Union – a Nordic Union between Sweden, Norway and Denmark which lasted between 1400 and 1520 – it was in Halmstad that the Union King was to be finally selected. 1619 is an important date in the history of Halmstad, in March of that year, King Gustav II Adolf of Sweden and Christian IV met at the castle. Over a period of a week they celebrated the payment in full of the Älvsborg ransom, august of the same year saw the destruction of Halmstad by fire. Halland became part of Sweden for a period of thirty years when peace was declared at the Treaty of Brömsebro in 1645, the Treaty of Roskilde in 1658 made this acquisition permanent. Sweden defeated Denmark in the Battle of Fyllebro which took place in 1676 just outside Halmstad, the first May Day demonstration in Sweden was held in Halmstad in 1897. The population grew from 48,800 in 1990 to 58,577 in 2010, in September 2007 the city hosted the Solheim Cup, which was played at the Halmstad Golfklubb. In 2011 Halmstad was the port of the Tall Ships Races. Halmstad has the south Scandinavian variety of the relatively wet climate with warm summers and cool to cold winters. Founded in 1983, Halmstad University is a higher education institution offering bachelors and masters programs in various fields of study. In addition, it conducts Ph. D. programs in three fields of research, Information Technology, Innovation Science and Health Science, Halmstad University has more than 9000 students, including 245 exchange students and 163 international programme students
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Sweden
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Sweden, officially the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and Finland to the east, at 450,295 square kilometres, Sweden is the third-largest country in the European Union by area, with a total population of 10.0 million. Sweden consequently has a low density of 22 inhabitants per square kilometre. Approximately 85% of the lives in urban areas. Germanic peoples have inhabited Sweden since prehistoric times, emerging into history as the Geats/Götar and Swedes/Svear, Southern Sweden is predominantly agricultural, while the north is heavily forested. Sweden is part of the area of Fennoscandia. The climate is in very mild for its northerly latitude due to significant maritime influence. Today, Sweden is a monarchy and parliamentary democracy, with a monarch as head of state. The capital city is Stockholm, which is also the most populous city in the country, legislative power is vested in the 349-member unicameral Riksdag. Executive power is exercised by the government chaired by the prime minister, Sweden is a unitary state, currently divided into 21 counties and 290 municipalities. Sweden emerged as an independent and unified country during the Middle Ages, in the 17th century, it expanded its territories to form the Swedish Empire, which became one of the great powers of Europe until the early 18th century. Swedish territories outside the Scandinavian Peninsula were gradually lost during the 18th and 19th centuries, the last war in which Sweden was directly involved was in 1814, when Norway was militarily forced into personal union. Since then, Sweden has been at peace, maintaining a policy of neutrality in foreign affairs. The union with Norway was peacefully dissolved in 1905, leading to Swedens current borders, though Sweden was formally neutral through both world wars, Sweden engaged in humanitarian efforts, such as taking in refugees from German-occupied Europe. After the end of the Cold War, Sweden joined the European Union on 1 January 1995 and it is also a member of the United Nations, the Nordic Council, Council of Europe, the World Trade Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Sweden maintains a Nordic social welfare system that provides health care. The modern name Sweden is derived through back-formation from Old English Swēoþēod and this word is derived from Sweon/Sweonas. The Swedish name Sverige literally means Realm of the Swedes, excluding the Geats in Götaland, the etymology of Swedes, and thus Sweden, is generally not agreed upon but may derive from Proto-Germanic Swihoniz meaning ones own, referring to ones own Germanic tribe
18.
Anna Maria Corazza Bildt
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Baroness Anna Maria Corazza Bildt is a Swedish politician and Member of the European Parliament from Sweden. She is a member of the Moderate Party, part of the European Peoples Party, in 1998, she married friherre Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister of Sweden, former leader of the Swedish Moderate Party and former Foreign Minister. The two met in the Balkans where she had been working for the United Nations during the Yugoslav wars and they now have one child together. She owns and runs Italian Tradition, a company importing Parmesan cheese, as well as Borgo di Tabiano Castello, Corazza Bildt successfully ran for MEP in the 2009 elections. She received 14. 3% of Moderate personal votes and this was only surpassed by party top name Gunnar Hökmark. She successfully ran for re-election in the 2014 elections, in 2014, Corazza Bildt was appointed as the leader of the Single Seat campaign in favor of abandoning Strasbourg for Brussels as the sole location of the European Parliament. In 2015, news reported that Corazza Bildt was included in a Russian blacklist of prominent people from the European Union who are not allowed to enter the country
19.
Alma mater
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Alma mater is an allegorical Latin phrase for a university or college. In modern usage, it is a school or university which an individual has attended, the phrase is variously translated as nourishing mother, nursing mother, or fostering mother, suggesting that a school provides intellectual nourishment to its students. Before its modern usage, Alma mater was a title in Latin for various mother goddesses, especially Ceres or Cybele. The source of its current use is the motto, Alma Mater Studiorum, of the oldest university in continuous operation in the Western world and it is related to the term alumnus, denoting a university graduate, which literally means a nursling or one who is nourished. The phrase can also denote a song or hymn associated with a school, although alma was a common epithet for Ceres, Cybele, Venus, and other mother goddesses, it was not frequently used in conjunction with mater in classical Latin. Alma Redemptoris Mater is a well-known 11th century antiphon devoted to Mary, the earliest documented English use of the term to refer to a university is in 1600, when University of Cambridge printer John Legate began using an emblem for the universitys press. In English etymological reference works, the first university-related usage is often cited in 1710, many historic European universities have adopted Alma Mater as part of the Latin translation of their official name. The University of Bologna Latin name, Alma Mater Studiorum, refers to its status as the oldest continuously operating university in the world. At least one, the Alma Mater Europaea in Salzburg, Austria, the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia, has been called the Alma Mater of the Nation because of its ties to the founding of the United States. At Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, British Columbia, the ancient Roman world had many statues of the Alma Mater, some still extant. Modern sculptures are found in prominent locations on several American university campuses, outside the United States, there is an Alma Mater sculpture on the steps of the monumental entrance to the Universidad de La Habana, in Havana, Cuba. Media related to Alma mater at Wikimedia Commons The dictionary definition of alma mater at Wiktionary Alma Mater Europaea website
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Stockholm University
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Stockholm University is a public university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. Stockholm University has two fields, the natural sciences and the humanities/social sciences. With over 70,000 students at four different faculties, law, humanities, the mathematical, Stockholm University was granted university status in 1960, making it the fourth oldest Swedish university. As with other universities in Sweden, Stockholm Universitys mission includes teaching. The initiative for the formation of Stockholm University was taken by the Stockholm City Council, the process was completed after a decision in December 1865 regarding the establishment of a fund and a committee to establish a higher education institution in the capital. The nine members of the Committee were respected and prominent citizens whose work have helped the evolution of science, the next important step was taken in October 1869, when the Stockholm University College Association was established. Several members of the committee members of the association - including Professor Pehr Henrik Malmsten. The associations mission was to establish a university in Stockholm and would not be dissolved until college came into being, the memorandum of the Stockholm University College were adopted in May 1877, and in the autumn semester of the following year, actual operations began. In 1878, the university college Stockholms högskola started its operations with a series of lectures on natural sciences, notable in the universitys early history is the appointment of Sofia Kovalevskaya to hold a chair in mathematics department in 1889, making her the third female professor in Europe. In 1904 the college became a degree granting institution. In 1960, the college was granted university status, becoming Swedens fourth state university, since 1970 most of the university operations are pursued at the main campus at Frescati north of the city center. Stockholm University is an agency and is governed by the decisions coming from the government and parliament. The University Board is the Universitys highest governing body, the board is responsible for the University as a government agency s mission and for following the requirements of laws and regulations. The board reports to the government and it consists of eight external members, four business representatives from the university with two group alternates and three student representatives with an alternate. The University board is above the principal who is the head of the authority and have responsibility for all operations. The principal has a president to replace him/her if necessary. At the university, there are two area councils, Area board of science and Area board of humanities, law and social sciences and they are headed by a vice principal. The area boards are responsible for planning of education and research, coordination of faculty teaching, research
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Yugoslav Wars
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The Yugoslav Wars were a series of ethnically-based wars and insurgencies fought from 1991 to 2001 inside the territory of the former Yugoslavia. The wars are considered to be a series of separate but related military conflicts which occurred in. The wars ended through peace accords, involving full international recognition of new states, as a result, the JNA began to lose Slovenes, Croats, Kosovar Albanians, Bosniaks, and ethnic Macedonians, and effectively became a Serb army. According to the 1994 United Nations report, the Serb side did not aim to restore Yugoslavia, other irredentist movements have also been brought into connection with the wars, such as Greater Albania and Greater Croatia. Often described as Europes deadliest since World War II, the conflicts have become infamous for the war crimes involved, including cleansing, crimes against humanity. These were the first European conflicts since World War II to be formally judged genocidal in character, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia was established by the UN to prosecute these crimes. According to the International Center for Transitional Justice, the Yugoslav Wars resulted in the deaths of 140,000 people, the Humanitarian Law Center estimates that in the conflicts in former Yugoslav republics at least 130,000 people lost their lives. The war have alternatively been called, Wars in the Balkans Wars/conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, third Balkan War, a term suggested by British journalist Misha Glenny in the title of his book, alluding to the two previous Balkan Wars fought 1912–13. In fact, this term has been applied by some historians to World War I. Yugoslavia Civil War/Yugoslav Civil War/Yugoslavian Civil War/Civil War in Yugoslavia, the nation of Yugoslavia was created in the aftermath of World War I, and was composed mostly of South Slavic Christians, but the nation also had a substantial Muslim minority. In the 1980s, relations among the six republics of the SFRY deteriorated, Slovenia and Croatia desired greater autonomy within the Yugoslav confederation, while Serbia sought to strengthen federal authority. As it became clearer that there was no solution agreeable to all parties, although tensions in Yugoslavia had been mounting since the early 1980s, it was 1990 that proved decisive. In the midst of hardship, Yugoslavia was facing rising nationalism among its various ethnic groups. By the early 1990s, there was no authority at the federal level. The Federal Presidency consisted of the representatives of the six republics, the communist leadership was divided along national lines. The representatives of Vojvodina, Kosovo and Montenegro were replaced with loyalists of the President of Serbia, Serbia secured four out of eight federal presidency votes and was able to heavily influence decision-making at the federal level, since all the other Yugoslav republics only had one vote. While Slovenia and Croatia wanted to allow a multi-party system, Serbia, led by Milošević, demanded a more centralized federation. This prompted the Croatian and Slovene delegations to walk out and thus the break-up of the party, the first of these conflicts, known as the Ten-Day War, was initiated by the JNA on 26 June 1991 after the secession of Slovenia from the federation on 25 June 1991
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European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
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Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
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Covering an area of 255,804 km², the SFRY was bordered with Italy to the west, Hungary to the north, Bulgaria and Romania to the east and Albania and Greece to the south. In addition, it included two autonomous provinces within Serbia, Kosovo and Vojvodina, the SFRY traces back to 29 June 1943 when the Anti-Fascist Council for the National Liberation of Yugoslavia was formed during World War II. On 29 November 1945, the Federal Peoples Republic of Yugoslavia was proclaimed after the deposal of King Peter II thus ending the monarchy. Following the death of Tito on 4 May 1980, rising ethnic nationalism in the late 1980s led to dissidence among the multiple ethnicities within the constituent republics. This led to the federation collapsing along the borders, followed by the final downfall and breakup of the federation on 27 April 1992. The term former Yugoslavia is now commonly used retrospectively, the name Yugoslavia, an Anglicised transcription of Jugoslavija, is a composite word made-up of jug and slavija. The Serbo-Croatian, Slovene and Macedonian word jug means south, while slavija denotes a land of the Slavs, thus, a translation of Jugoslavija would be South-Slavia or Land of the South Slavs. The term is intended to denote the lands occupied by the six South Slavic nations, Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks, Montenegrins, Slovenes, the full official name of the federation varied significantly between 1945 and 1992. Yugoslavia was formed in 1918 under the name Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, the name deliberately left the republic-or-kingdom question open. In 1963, amid pervasive liberal constitutional reforms, the name Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was introduced, the state is most commonly referred to by the latter name, which it held for the longest period of all. The most common abbreviation is SFRY, though SFR Yugoslavia was also used in an official capacity, particularly by the media. On 6 April 1941, Yugoslavia was invaded by the Axis powers led by Nazi Germany, by 17 April 1941, Yugoslav resistance was soon established in two forms, the Royal Yugoslav Army and the Yugoslav Partisans. The Partisan supreme commander was Josip Broz Tito, and under his command the movement soon began establishing liberated territories which attracted the attentions of the occupying forces. The coalition of parties, factions, and prominent individuals behind the movement was the Peoples Liberation Front. The Front formed a political body, the Anti-Fascist Council for the Peoples Liberation of Yugoslavia. The AVNOJ, which met for the first time in Partisan-liberated Bihać on 26 November 1942, during 1943, the Yugoslav Partisans began attracting serious attention from the Germans. In two major operations of Fall Weiss and Fall Schwartz, the Axis attempted to stamp-out the Yugoslav resistance once, on both occasions, despite heavy casualties, the Group succeeded in evading the trap and retreating to safety. The Partisans emerged stronger than before and now occupied a significant portion of Yugoslavia
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Dayton Agreement
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These accords put an end to the 3 1⁄2-year-long Bosnian War, one of the Yugoslav Wars. During September and October 1995, world powers, gathered in the Contact Group, the conference took place from 1–21 November 1995. The peace conference was led by U. S, a key participant in the US delegation was General Wesley Clark. The head of the UK team was Pauline Neville-Jones, political director of the Foreign, the UK military representative was Col Arundell David Leakey. Paul Williams, through the Public International Law & Policy Group served as counsel to the Bosnian Government delegation during the negotiations. Curbing the participants ability to negotiate via the media was an important consideration. Richard Holbrooke wanted to prevent posturing through early leaks to the press, the agreements main purpose is to promote peace and stability in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and to endorse regional balance in and around the former Yugoslavia, thus in a regional perspective. A key component of this was the delineation of the Inter-Entity Boundary Line, the State of Bosnia Herzegovina was set as of the Federation of Bosnia-Herzegovina and of the Republika Srpska. Bosnia and Herzegovina is a state, as opposed to a confederation, no entity or entities could ever be separated from Bosnia. Although highly decentralised in its Entities, it would retain a central government, with a rotating State Presidency, a central bank. The agreement mandated a wide range of organizations to monitor, oversee. The NATO-led IFOR was responsible for implementing military aspects of the agreement and deployed on 20 December 1995, the Office of the High Representative was charged with the task of civil implementation. The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe was charged with organising the first free elections in 1996. The Court also rejected the other request stating, This was one of the cases in which the Court had to deal with the question of the legal nature of the Constitution. In later decisions the Court confirmed this by using other annexes of the agreement as a direct base for the analysis. The Court used the same reasoning to dismiss the claim in a later case. Before the Dayton agreement Bosnian Serbs controlled about 46% of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bosniaks 28%, Bosnian Serbs got large tracts of mountainous territories back, but they were pressured to surrender Sarajevo and some vital Eastern Bosnian/Herzegovian positions. All in all by changing quality to quantity their percentage grew to 49% from a bit more than 46% prior to Dayton
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Bosnian War
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The Bosnian War was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between 1992 and 1995. Following a number of violent incidents in early 1992, the war is commonly viewed as having started on 6 April 1992, the war ended on 14 December 1995. The war was part of the breakup of Yugoslavia and this was rejected by the political representatives of the Bosnian Serbs, who had boycotted the referendum. The Croats also aimed at securing parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina as Croatian, Events such as the Siege of Sarajevo and the Srebrenica massacre later became iconic of the conflict. After the Srebrenica and Markale massacres, NATO intervened in 1995 with Operation Deliberate Force targeting the positions of the Army of the Republika Srpska, which proved key in ending the war. The war was brought to an end after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia, Peace negotiations were held in Dayton, Ohio and were finalised on 21 November 1995. According to a report compiled by the UN, and chaired by M, the report echoed conclusions published by a Central Intelligence Agency estimate in 1995. By early 2008, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia had convicted 45 Serbs,12 Croats and 4 Bosniaks of war crimes in connection with the war in Bosnia, the most recent estimates suggest that around 100,000 people were killed during the war. Over 2.2 million people were displaced, making it the most devastating conflict in Europe since the end of World War II, in addition, an estimated 12, 000–20,000 women were raped, most of them Bosniak. There is debate over the date of the Bosnian War. Mulaj reports that Misha Glenny gives a date of 22 March, Tom Gallagher gives 2 April, while Mary Kaldor and Laura Silber, philip Hammond claimed that the most common view is that the war started on 6 April 1992. The Sijekovac killings of Serbs took place on 26 March and the Bijeljina massacre on 1–2 April. Some Bosniaks consider the first casualties of the war to be Suada Dilberović and Olga Sučić, the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina came about as a result of the breakup of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. A crisis emerged in Yugoslavia as a result of the weakening of the system at the end of the Cold War. In Yugoslavia, the national communist party, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia, was losing its ideological potency, meanwhile, ethnic nationalism experienced a renaissance in the 1980s, after violence broke out in Kosovo. While the goal of Serbian nationalists was the centralisation of Yugoslavia, other nationalities in Yugoslavia aspired to the federalisation, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a former Ottoman province, has historically been a multi-ethnic state. According to the 1991 census, 44% of the population considered themselves Muslim,32. 5% Serb and 17% Croat, with 6% describing themselves as Yugoslav. In March 1989, the crisis in Yugoslavia deepened after the adoption of amendments to the Serbian Constitution which allowed the government of Serbia to dominate the provinces of Kosovo and Vojvodina
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Secretary-General of the United Nations
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The Secretary-General of the United Nations is the head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the principal organs of the United Nations. The Secretary-General serves as the administrative officer of the United Nations. The role of the United Nations Secretariat, and of the Secretary-General in particular, is out by Chapter XV of the United Nations Charter. As of 2017, the Secretary-General is António Guterres, appointed by the General Assembly on 13 October 2016, according to the UN website, their roles are further defined as diplomat and advocate, civil servant, and CEO. Nevertheless, this more abstract description has not prevented the office holders from speaking out, responsibilities of the Secretary-General are further outlined in Articles 98 through 100. They are also responsible for making a report to the General Assembly. According to Article 99, they may notify the Security Council on matters which in their opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace, other than these few guidelines, little else is dictated by the Charter. Interpretation of the Charter has varied between Secretaries-General, with some being more active than others. The Secretary-General is highly dependent upon the support of the states of the UN. The personal skills of the Secretary-General and their staff are crucial to their function, the central position of the UN headquarters in the international diplomatic network is also an important asset. The Secretary-General has the right to place any dispute on the agenda of the Security Council. However, they work mostly behind the scenes if the members of the council are unwilling to discuss a dispute. Most of their time is spent on good offices missions and mediation, sometimes at the request of deliberative organs of the UN and their function may be replaced or supplemented by mediation efforts by the major powers. UN peacekeeping missions are often linked to mediation. The recent improvement in relations between the permanent members of the Security Council has strengthened the role of the Secretary-General as the worlds most reputable intermediary, in the early 1960s, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev led an effort to abolish the Secretary-General position. Khrushchev proposed to replace the Secretary-General with a three-person leading council, one member from the West, one from the Eastern Bloc and this idea failed because the neutral powers failed to back the Soviet proposal. Article 97 of the United Nations Charter determines that the Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly upon the recommendation of the Security Council, as the recommendation must come from the Security Council, any of the five permanent members of the Council can veto a nomination. Most Secretaries-General are compromise candidates from middle powers and have little prior fame, unofficial qualifications for the job have been set by precedent in previous selections
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Balkans
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The Balkan Peninsula, or the Balkans, is a peninsula and a cultural area in Eastern and Southeastern Europe with various and disputed borders. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch from the Serbia-Bulgaria border to the Black Sea, the highest point of the Balkans is Mount Musala 2,925 metres in the Rila mountain range. In Turkish, Balkan means a chain of wooded mountains, the name is still preserved in Central Asia with the Balkan Daglary and the Balkan Province of Turkmenistan. A less popular hypothesis regarding its etymology is that it derived from the Persian Balā-Khāna, from Antiquity through the Middle Ages, the Balkan Mountains had been called by the local Thracian name Haemus. According to Greek mythology, the Thracian king Haemus was turned into a mountain by Zeus as a punishment, a reverse name scheme has also been suggested. D. Dechev considers that Haemus is derived from a Thracian word *saimon, a third possibility is that Haemus derives from the Greek word haema meaning blood. The myth relates to a fight between Zeus and the monster/titan Typhon, Zeus injured Typhon with a thunder bolt and Typhons blood fell on the mountains, from which they got their name. The earliest mention of the name appears in an early 14th-century Arab map, the Ottomans first mention it in a document dated from 1565. There has been no other documented usage of the word to refer to the region before that, there is also a claim about an earlier Bulgar Turkic origin of the word popular in Bulgaria, however it is only an unscholarly assertion. The word was used by the Ottomans in Rumelia in its meaning of mountain, as in Kod̲j̲a-Balkan, Čatal-Balkan, and Ungurus-Balkani̊. The concept of the Balkans was created by the German geographer August Zeune in 1808, during the 1820s, Balkan became the preferred although not yet exclusive term alongside Haemus among British travelers. Among Russian travelers not so burdened by classical toponymy, Balkan was the preferred term, zeunes goal was to have a geographical parallel term to the Italic and Iberian Peninsula, and seemingly nothing more. The gradually acquired political connotations are newer and, to a large extent, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia beginning in June 1991, the term Balkans again received a negative meaning, especially in Croatia and Slovenia, even in casual usage. A European Union initiative of 1999 is called the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and its northern boundary is often given as the Danube, Sava and Kupa Rivers. The Balkan Peninsula has an area of about 470,000 km2. It is more or less identical to the known as Southeastern Europe. As of 1920 until World War II, Italy included Istria, the current territory of Italy includes only the small area around Trieste inside the Balkan Peninsula. However, the regions of Trieste and Istria are not usually considered part of the Balkans by Italian geographers, the Western Balkans is a neologism coined to describe the countries of ex-Yugoslavia and Albania
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Halland
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Halland is one of the traditional provinces of Sweden, on the western coast of Sweden. It borders Västergötland, Småland, Scania and the sea of Kattegat, the provinces of Sweden serve no administrative function. Instead, that function is served by the Counties of Sweden, as of December 31,2009, Halland had a population of 303,895. Of these,287,668 lived in Halland County,13,980 lived in Västra Götaland County, during the Danish era until 1658, the province had no coat of arms and no seal. In Sweden, however, every province had been represented by heraldic arms since 1560, when Charles X Gustav of Sweden suddenly died in 1660 a coat of arms had to be created for the newly acquired province. Each province was to be represented by its arms at the royal funeral, there are several theories about the choice of a lion. Bengt Algotsson, duke of Halland and Finland in the 14th century, blazon, Azure, a Lion rampant Argent langued, armed and dente Gules. The same coat of arms was granted for the administrative Halland County. The rivers of Lagan, Ätran, Nissan and Viskan flow through the province, Halland is well known for its fertile soil and as an agricultural district. The Bronze Age was probably a period of prosperity in Halland. This is shown in the number of new settlements and the archaeological remains. Over 1,100 tumuli and grave mounds have been found, the end of the Bronze Age witnessed an over-consumption of resources. This might have been a result of a demand for charcoal in smelting gold or bronze among the local elites. The worsening climate at the beginning of the Iron Age meant that the local elites no longer could obtain bronze to the extent as before. As a result, the structures collapsed. The early Iron Age social structures seem to have been relatively egalitarian and this is likely to have been a distant influence from the growing Roman Empire. During the 5th and 6th century large free-standing farms were created, an example of such a farm can be found in Slöinge. It was not just the structure that changed, so too did the settlement structure
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Norwegians
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Norwegians are a Germanic ethnic group native to Norway. They share a culture and speak the Norwegian language. Towards the end of the 3rd millennium BC, Proto-Indo-European speaking Battle-Axe peoples migrated to Norway bringing domesticated horses, agriculture, cattle, during the Viking age, Harald Fairhair unified the Norse petty kingdoms after being victorious at the Battle of Hafrsfjord in the 880s. Two centuries of Viking expansion tapered off following the decline of Norse paganism with the adoption of Christianity in the 11th century, during The Black Death, approximately 60% of the population died and in 1397 Norway entered a union with Denmark. In 1814, following Denmark-Norways defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, Norway entered a union with Sweden, rising nationalism throughout the 19th century led to a 1905 referendum granting Norway independence. Although Norway remained officially neutral in World War I, the country was allied with the Entente powers. In World War II Norway proclaimed its neutrality, but was occupied for five years by Nazi Germany. In 1949, neutrality was abandoned and Norway became a member of NATO, discovery of oil and gas in adjacent waters in the late 1960s boosted Norways economic fortunes but in referenda held in 1972 and 1994, Norway rejected joining the EU. Key domestic issues include integration of a fast growing immigrant population, maintaining the countrys generous social safety net with an aging population, as with many of the people from European countries, Norwegians are spread throughout the world. There are more than 100,000 Norwegian citizens living abroad permanently, mostly in the U. S, Norwegian Vikings travelled north and west and founded vibrant communities in the Faroe Islands, Shetland, Orkney, Iceland, Ireland, Scotland, and northern England. They conducted extensive raids in Ireland and founded the cities of Cork, Dublin, in 947, a new wave of Norwegian Vikings appeared in England when Erik Bloodaxe captured York. Apart from Britain and Ireland, Norwegian Vikings established settlements in largely uninhabited regions, the first known permanent Norwegian settler in Iceland was Ingólfur Arnarson. In the year 874 he settled in Reykjavík, after his expulsion from Iceland Erik the Red discovered Greenland, a name he chose in hope of attracting Icelandic settlers. Viking settlements were established in the fjords of the southern and western coast. Eriks relative Leif Eriksson later discovered North America, during the 17th and 18th centuries, many Norwegians emigrated to the Netherlands, particularly Amsterdam. The Netherlands was the second most popular destination for Norwegian emigrants after Denmark, loosely estimated, some 10% of the population may have emigrated, in a period when the entire Norwegian population consisted of some 800,000 people. The Norwegians left with the Dutch trade ships that when in Norway traded for timber, hides, herring, young women took employment as maids in Amsterdam. Young men took employment as sailors, large parts of the Dutch merchant fleet and navy came to consist of Norwegians and Danes
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Danish people
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Danes are the citizens of Denmark, most of whom speak Danish and consider themselves to be of Danish ethnicity. The first mention of Danes are from the 6th century in Jordanes Getica, by Procopius, the first mention of Danes within the Danish territory is on the Jelling Rune Stone which states how Harald Bluetooth converted the Danes to Christianity in the 10th century. Since the formulation of a Danish national identity in the 19th century, Danish national identity was built on a basis of peasant culture and Lutheran theology, theologian N. F. S. Grundtvig and his popular movement played a prominent part in the process. Today, the criterion for being considered a Dane is having Danish citizenship. Frankish annalists of the 8th century often refer to Danish kings, the Bobbio Orosius from the early 7th century, distinguishes between South Danes inhabiting Jutland and North Danes inhabiting the isles and the province of Scania. The first mention of Danes within the Danish territory is on the Jelling Rune Stone which mentions how Harald Bluetooth converted the Danes to Christianity in the 10th century. Between c.960 and the early 980s, Harald Bluetooth established a kingdom in the lands of the Danes, stretching from Jutland to Scania. Around the same time, he received a visit from a German missionary who, by surviving an ordeal by fire according to legend, the following years saw the Danish Viking expansion, which incorporated Norway and Northern England into the Danish kingdom. After the death of Canute the Great in 1035, England broke away from Danish control, canutes nephew Sweyn Estridson re-established strong royal Danish authority and built a good relationship with the archbishop of Bremen — at that time the Archbishop of all of Scandinavia. The Reformation, which originated in the German lands in the early 16th century from the ideas of Martin Luther, had a impact on Denmark. The Danish Reformation started in the mid-1520s, some Danes wanted access to the Bible in their own language. In 1524, Hans Mikkelsen and Christiern Pedersen translated the New Testament into Danish and those who had traveled to Wittenberg in Saxony and come under the influence of the teachings of Luther and his associates included Hans Tausen, a Danish monk in the Order of St John Hospitallers. The Dano-Norwegian Kingdom grew wealthy during the 16th century, largely because of the traffic through the Øresund. The Crown of Denmark could tax the traffic, because it controlled both sides of the Sound at the time, in the centuries after this loss of territory, the populations of the Scanian lands, who had previously been considered Danish, came to be fully integrated as Swedes. Later, in the early 19th century, Denmark suffered a defeat in the Napoleonic Wars, Denmark lost control over Norway, the political and economic defeat ironically sparked what is known as the Danish Golden Age during which a Danish national identity first came to be fully formed. The Danish liberal and national movements gained momentum in the 1830s, a new constitution emerged, separating the powers and granting the franchise to all adult males, as well as freedom of the press, religion, and association. The king became head of the executive branch, Danishness is the concept on which contemporary Danish national and ethnic identity is based. It is a set of values formed through the historic trajectory of the formation of the Danish nation, importantly, since its formulation, Danish identity has not been linked to a particular racial or biological heritage, as many other ethno-national identities have
31.
Nobility
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The privileges associated with nobility may constitute substantial advantages over or relative to non-nobles, or may be largely honorary, and vary from country to country and era to era. There is often a variety of ranks within the noble class. g, san Marino and the Vatican City in Europe. Hereditary titles often distinguish nobles from non-nobles, although in many nations most of the nobility have been un-titled, some countries have had non-hereditary nobility, such as the Empire of Brazil. The term derives from Latin nobilitas, the noun of the adjective nobilis. In modern usage, nobility is applied to the highest social class in pre-modern societies and it rapidly came to be seen as a hereditary caste, sometimes associated with a right to bear a hereditary title and, for example in pre-revolutionary France, enjoying fiscal and other privileges. Nobility is a historical, social and often legal notion, differing from high socio-economic status in that the latter is based on income. Being wealthy or influential cannot, ipso facto, make one noble, various republics, including former Iron Curtain countries, Greece, Mexico, and Austria have expressly abolished the conferral and use of titles of nobility for their citizens. Not all of the benefits of nobility derived from noble status per se, usually privileges were granted or recognised by the monarch in association with possession of a specific title, office or estate. Most nobles wealth derived from one or more estates, large or small and it also included infrastructure such as castle, well and mill to which local peasants were allowed some access, although often at a price. Nobles were expected to live nobly, that is, from the proceeds of these possessions, work involving manual labour or subordination to those of lower rank was either forbidden or frowned upon socially. In some countries, the lord could impose restrictions on such a commoners movements. Nobles exclusively enjoyed the privilege of hunting, in France, nobles were exempt from paying the taille, the major direct tax. In some parts of Europe the right of war long remained the privilege of every noble. During the early Renaissance, duelling established the status of a respectable gentleman, Nobility came to be associated with social rather than legal privilege, expressed in a general expectation of deference from those of lower rank. By the 21st century even that deference had become increasingly minimised, in France, a seigneurie might include one or more manors surrounded by land and villages subject to a nobles prerogatives and disposition. Seigneuries could be bought, sold or mortgaged, if erected by the crown into, e. g. a barony or countship, it became legally entailed for a specific family, which could use it as their title. Yet most French nobles were untitled, in other parts of Europe, sovereign rulers arrogated to themselves the exclusive prerogative to act as fons honorum within their realms. Nobility might be inherited or conferred by a fons honorum
32.
Occupation of the Student Union Building
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The occupation of the Student Union Building was one of the most talked about events in Sweden in 1968. Students at Stockholm University decided to occupy their own Student Union Building at Holländargatan in Stockholm on 24–27 May 1968 to send a message to the government. The students were inspired by the protests of May 1968 in France and this was one of many political protests in 1968. Borgerliga Studenter – Opposition 68 was created as a reaction against the leftist students, the building itself is today part of the Stockholm School of Economics. Occupation of the Old Student House
33.
Riksdag
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This is a list of Members of the Riksdag, the national parliament of Sweden. The Riksdag is an assembly with 349 Members of Parliament. In the Riksdag, Members are seated per constituency and not party, the following MPs were elected in the Swedish general election,2006 and will serve until the Swedish general election,2010. Members of the center-right Cabinet of Fredrik Reinfeldt, the coalition during this term, are marked in bold. Members of the Riksdag in alphabetical order
34.
Olof Palme
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Sven Olof Joachim Palme was a Swedish Social Democratic politician, statesman and prime minister. Electoral defeats in 1976 and 1979 marked the end of Social Democratic hegemony in Swedish politics and he returned as Prime Minister after electoral victories in 1982 and 1985. Palme was a pivotal, renowned, and polarizing figure domestically as well as in politics since the 1960s. Most famously, he was the first Western head of government to visit Cuba after its revolution and his 1972 condemnation of the Hanoi bombings, notably comparing the tactic to the Treblinka extermination camp, resulted in a temporary freeze in Sweden–United States relations. It had an impact across Scandinavia. Local convict and addict Christer Pettersson was convicted of the murder in the first instance court tingsrätten, Palme was born into an middle class, conservative Lutheran family in Östermalm, Stockholm, Sweden. Palme family was originally of Dutch ancestry, the family is related to several other prominent Swedish families such as the von Sydow family and the Wallenberg family. His father Gunnar Palme, was a businessman, son of Sven Theodore Palme, through her Olof Palme can claim ancestry from King Frederik I of Denmark. His mother, Elisabeth von Knieriem, was of a Baltic German tradesmen descent and she had arrived in Sweden from Russia as a refugee in 1915. Elisabeths great-great-great grandfather Johann Melchior von Knieriem had been ennobled by the Emperor Alexander I of Russia in 1814 and her great-grandfather Alexander von Knieriem was an attorney general of the Senate of Russian Empire, senator and member of the State Council of Imperial Russia. The von Knieriem do not count as members of the Baltische Ridderschaft. Palmes father died when he was six years old, despite his background, his political orientation came to be influenced by Social Democratic attitudes. His travels in the Third World, as well as the United States, a sickly child, Olof Palme received his education from private tutors. Even as a child he gained knowledge of two foreign languages – German and English and he studied at the Sigtuna School of Liberal Arts, one of Swedens few residential high schools, and passed the university entrance examination with high marks at the age of 17. He was called up into the Army in January 1945 and did his military service at A1 between 1945 and 1947, became in 1956 a reserve officer with the rank of Captain in the Artillery. After he was discharged from service in March 1947, he enrolled at the University of Stockholm. On a scholarship, he studied at Kenyon College, a liberal arts school in central Ohio from 1947–1948. Inspired by radical debate in the student community, he wrote an essay on Friedrich Hayeks The Road to Serfdom. Palme wrote his senior thesis on the United Auto Workers union
35.
Swedish general election, 1991
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General elections were held in Sweden on 15 September 1991. The Swedish Social Democratic Party remained the largest party in the Riksdag, the election was notable due to the rise of a new right-wing populist party named New Democracy which succeeded in securing a parliamentary mandate for the first time. The four parties of the coalition were allocated a combined total of 171 seats,17 more than the two left-wing parties 154, but still less than the 175 necessary for a majority. Thus the centre-right bloc was dependent upon New Democracy to secure a parliamentary majority and this election was also famous for the performance of the Donald Duck Party, which collected 1,535 votes, enough to make it the 9th largest in Sweden. The protest partys platform consisted of the demand for free liquor and wider sidewalks
36.
Richard Holbrooke
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Richard Charles Albert Holbrooke was an American diplomat, magazine editor, author, professor, Peace Corps official, and investment banker. He was the person to have held the position of Assistant Secretary of State for two different regions of the world. From 1993 to 1994, he was U. S. Ambassador to Germany, Holbrooke was a leading contender to succeed the retiring Warren Christopher as Secretary of State but was passed over in 1996 as President Bill Clinton chose Madeleine Albright instead. From 1999 to 2001, Holbrooke served as U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations and he was an adviser to the Presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry in 2004. Holbrooke then joined the Presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton and became a top policy adviser. Holbrooke was considered a candidate for Secretary of State had Kerry or Hillary Clinton been elected President. In January 2009, Holbrooke was appointed as an adviser on Pakistan and Afghanistan, working under President Barack Obama. He served until he died from complications of a dissection on December 13,2010. Several considered Holbrookes role in the Dayton Accords to merit the Nobel Peace Prize, Holbrooke was born on April 24,1941, in New York City, to Dan Holbrooke, a doctor, and Trudi Kearl, a potter, brother, Andrew, survives him. Holbrookes mother, whose Jewish family fled Hamburg in 1933 for Buenos Aires before coming to New York and she stated, “I was an atheist, his father was an atheist. We never thought of giving Richard a Jewish upbringing, holbrooke’s father, who died of cancer when Richard was 15 years old, was born of Polish Jewish parents in Warsaw and took the name Holbrooke after migrating to the United States in 1939. The original family name was Goldbrajch, after Scarsdale High School, Holbrooke earned a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University in 1962, attending on a full-tuition scholarship. He was later a fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, in 1962, Holbrooke graduated from Brown University, where he was inspired by President John F. Kennedy’s call to service to enter government work. A few weeks after graduation, Holbrooke entered the Foreign Service. A year later, after Vietnamese language training, he began six years of service in and he served first in the Mekong Delta, as a civilian representative for the Agency for International Development working on the rural Pacification Program. This involved supporting the South Vietnam government with economic development and enacting local political reforms, Holbrooke then moved to the US Embassy, Saigon where he became a staff assistant to Ambassadors Maxwell Taylor and Henry Cabot Lodge, Jr. As a rising young diplomat with significant experience in the country, following his time in the White House, Holbrooke served as a special assistant to Under Secretaries of State Nicholas Katzenbach and Elliot Richardson. He also drafted a volume of the now famous Pentagon Papers, following these assignments, Holbrooke spent a year as a mid-career fellow at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University
37.
Bill Clinton
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William Jefferson Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Prior to the Presidency he was the 40th Governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981, before that, he served as Arkansas Attorney General from 1977 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, Clinton was ideogically a New Democrat, Clinton is married to Hillary Clinton, who served as United States Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013 and U. S. Senator from New York from 2001 to 2009, and served the Democratic nominee for President in 2016, Bill Clinton and Hillary Rodham both earned degrees from Yale Law School, where they met and began dating. As Governor of Arkansas, Clinton overhauled the states education system, Clinton was elected President of the United States in 1992, defeating incumbent George H. W. Bush. At age 46, he was the third-youngest president and the first from the Baby Boomer generation, Clinton presided over the longest period of peacetime economic expansion in American history and signed into law the North American Free Trade Agreement. After failing to pass health care reform, the Democratic House was ousted when the Republican Party won control of the Congress in 1994. Two years later, in 1996, Clinton became the first Democrat since Franklin D. Roosevelt to be elected to a second term, Clinton passed welfare reform and the State Childrens Health Insurance Program, providing health coverage for millions of children. Clinton was acquitted by the U. S. Senate in 1999, the Congressional Budget Office reported a budget surplus between the years 1998 and 2000, the last three years of Clintons presidency. In foreign policy, Clinton ordered U. S. Clinton left office with the highest end-of-office approval rating of any U. S. President since World War II, since then, Clinton has been involved in public speaking and humanitarian work. He created the William J. Clinton Foundation to address international causes, such as the prevention of AIDS, in 2004, Clinton published his autobiography, My Life. In 2009, Clinton was named the United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti, since leaving office, Clinton has been rated highly in public opinion polls of U. S. Presidents. Clinton was born on August 19,1946, at Julia Chester Hospital in Hope, Arkansas and he was the son of William Jefferson Blythe Jr. a traveling salesman who had died in an automobile accident three months before his birth, and Virginia Dell Cassidy. His parents had married on September 4,1943, but this later proved to be bigamous. Soon after their son was born, his mother traveled to New Orleans to study nursing, leaving her son in Hope with her parents Eldridge and Edith Cassidy, who owned and ran a small grocery store. At a time when the Southern United States was segregated racially, in 1950, Bills mother returned from nursing school and married Roger Clinton Sr. who owned an automobile dealership in Hot Springs, Arkansas, with his brother and Earl T. Ricks. The family moved to Hot Springs in 1950, although he immediately assumed use of his stepfathers surname, it was not until Clinton turned fifteen that he formally adopted the surname Clinton as a gesture toward his stepfather. In Hot Springs, Clinton attended St. Johns Catholic Elementary School, Ramble Elementary School, and Hot Springs High School—where he was a student leader, avid reader
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Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes called Bosnia-Herzegovina, and, in short, often known informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeastern Europe located on the Balkan Peninsula. Sarajevo is the capital and largest city, in the central and eastern interior of the country the geography is mountainous, in the northwest it is moderately hilly, and the northeast is predominantly flatland. The inland is a larger region and has a moderate continental climate, with hot summers and cold. The southern tip of the country has a Mediterranean climate and plain topography, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a region that traces permanent human settlement back to the Neolithic age, during and after which it was populated by several Illyrian and Celtic civilizations. Culturally, politically, and socially, the country has a rich history, the Ottomans brought Islam to the region, and altered much of the cultural and social outlook of the country. This was followed by annexation into the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, which lasted up until World War I. In the interwar period, Bosnia was part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia and after World War II, following the dissolution of Yugoslavia, the country proclaimed independence in 1992, which was followed by the Bosnian War, lasting until late 1995. The country is home to three ethnic groups or, officially, constituent peoples, as specified in the constitution. Bosniaks are the largest group of the three, with Serbs second and Croats third, a native of Bosnia and Herzegovina, regardless of ethnicity, is identified in English as a Bosnian. The terms Herzegovinian and Bosnian are maintained as a rather than ethnic distinction. Moreover, the country was simply called Bosnia until the Austro-Hungarian occupation at the end of the 19th century, Bosnia and Herzegovina has a bicameral legislature and a three-member Presidency composed of a member of each major ethnic group. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina is itself complex and consists of 10 cantons, additionally, the country has been a member of the Council of Europe since April 2002 and a founding member of the Mediterranean Union upon its establishment in July 2008. The name is believed to have derived from the hydronym of the river Bosna coursing through the Bosnian heartland. According to philologist Anton Mayer the name Bosna could be derived from Illyrian Bass-an-as which would be a diversion of the Proto-Indo-European root bos or bogh, meaning the running water. According to English medievalist William Miller the Slavic settlers in Bosnia adapted the Latin designation Basante, to their own idiom by calling the stream Bosna, the name Herzegovina originates from Bosnian magnate Stephen Vukčić Kosačas title, Herceg of Hum and the Coast. Hum, formerly Zahumlje, was a medieval principality that was conquered by the Bosnian Banate in the first half of the 14th century. Bosnia is located in the western Balkans, bordering Croatia to the north and west, Serbia to the east and it has a coastline about 20 kilometres long surrounding the city of Neum. It lies between latitudes 42° and 46° N, and longitudes 15° and 20° E, the countrys name comes from the two regions Bosnia and Herzegovina, which have a very vaguely defined border between them
39.
2008 Kosovo declaration of independence
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The 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence was adopted on 17 February 2008 by representatives of the Kosovo people. The participants unanimously declared Kosovo to be independent from Serbia, while all 11 representatives of the Serb minority boycotted the proceedings and it was the second declaration of independence by Kosovos Albanian-majority political institutions, the first was proclaimed on 7 September 1990. The legality of the declaration has been disputed, Serbia sought international validation and support for its stance that the declaration was illegal, and in October 2008 requested an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice. The Court determined that the declaration did not violate international law, the dialogue resulted in the 2013 Brussels deal between Serbia and Kosovo which abolished all of the Republic of Serbias institutions in Kosovo. Dejan Pavićević is the representative of Serbia to Kosovo. Valdet Sadiku is the representative of Kosovo to Serbia. The Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija took shape in 1946 within Socialist Yugoslavia as a province within Serbias federal republic, initially a ceremonial entity, more power was devolved to Kosovan authorities with each constitution. In 1974 it became the Socialist Autonomous Province of Kosovo which enabled the region to function at every administrative level independently of its host republic within Yugoslavia, the move attracted criticism from the leaderships of the other Yugoslav republics but no higher authority was in place to reverse the measure. In response to the action, the Kosovo Assembly voted on 2 July 1990 to declare Kosovo an independent state, a state of emergency and harsh security rules were subsequently imposed against Kosovos Albanians following mass protests. The Albanians established a state to provide education and social services while boycotting or being excluded from Yugoslav institutions. Kosovo remained largely quiet through the Yugoslav wars, the severity of the Yugoslav government in Kosovo was internationally criticised. In 1996, the Kosovo Liberation Army began attacking federal security forces, the conflict escalated until Kosovo was on the verge of all-out war by the end of 1998. Subsequent peace talks failed and from 24 March to 11 June 1999, the war ended with Milošević agreeing to allow peacekeepers into Kosovo and withdrawing all security forces so as to transfer governance to the United Nations. A NATO-led Kosovo Force entered the following the Kosovo War. Before and during the handover of power, an estimated 100,000 Serbs and other non-Albanians, mostly Romani, in the case of the non-Albanians, the Romani in particular were regarded by many Albanians as having assisted federal forces during the war. Many left along with the security forces, expressing fears that they would be targeted by returning Albanian refugees. Thousands more were out by intimidation, attacks and a wave of crime after the war. Large numbers of refugees from Kosovo still live in temporary camps, some sources put the figure far lower
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Serbia
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Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a sovereign state situated at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Pannonian Plain and the central Balkans. Relative to its territory, it is a diverse country distinguished by a transitional character, situated along cultural, geographic, climatic. Serbia numbers around 7 million residents, and its capital, Belgrade, following the Slavic migrations to the Balkans from the 6th century onwards, Serbs established several states in the early Middle Ages. The Serbian Kingdom obtained recognition by Rome and the Byzantine Empire in 1217, in the early 19th century, the Serbian Revolution established the nation-state as the regions first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory. During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro which dissolved peacefully in 2006, in 2008 the parliament of the province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, with mixed responses from the international community. Serbia is a member of organizations such as the UN, CoE, OSCE, PfP, BSEC. An EU membership candidate since 2012, Serbia has been negotiating its EU accession since January 2014, the country is acceding to the WTO and is a militarily neutral state. Serbia is an income economy with dominant service sector, followed by the industrial sector. The country ranks high on the Social Progress Index as well as the Global Peace Index, relatively high on the Human Development Index, located at the crossroads between Central and Southern Europe, Serbia is found in the Balkan peninsula and the Pannonian Plain. Serbia lies between latitudes 41° and 47° N, and longitudes 18° and 23° E. The country covers a total of 88,361 km2, which places it at 113th place in the world, with Kosovo excluded, the area is 77,474 km2. Its total border length amounts to 2,027 km, all of Kosovos border with Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro are under control of the Kosovo border police. The Pannonian Plain covers the third of the country while the easternmost tip of Serbia extends into the Wallachian Plain. The terrain of the part of the country, with the region of Šumadija at its heart. Mountains dominate the third of Serbia. Dinaric Alps stretch in the west and the southwest, following the flow of the rivers Drina, the Carpathian Mountains and Balkan Mountains stretch in a north–south direction in eastern Serbia. Ancient mountains in the southeast corner of the country belong to the Rilo-Rhodope Mountain system, elevation ranges from the Midžor peak of the Balkan Mountains at 2,169 metres to the lowest point of just 17 metres near the Danube river at Prahovo. The largest lake is Đerdap Lake and the longest river passing through Serbia is the Danube, the climate of Serbia is under the influences of the landmass of Eurasia and the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea
H. M. The King's Medal,12th size on chain (Sweden).
Legion of Honour, Commander (France).
Order of St Michael and St George, Honorary Knight Commander (UK).[36]
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Grand Cross (Germany).
Order of the Oak Crown, Grand Cross (Luxembourg).
Order of the Phoenix, Grand Cross (Greece).
Order of Merit, Grand Cross (Italy).
Order of Merit, Grand Cross (Poland).
Order of Grand Duke Gediminas, Grand Cross (Lithuania).
Order of the Three Stars, Commander Grand Cross (Latvia).
Order of the Cross of Terra Mariana, Grand Cross (Estonia).
Royal Order of Merit, Grand Cross (Norway).
Order of the White Rose, Grand Cross (Finland).
Order of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, Second Class (Ukraine).
