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An investigation of the stopping efficiency of fission products, in the new ion guide designed for ion production through neutron-induced fission at IGISOL in Jyväskylä, Finland, has been conducted. Our simulations take into account the new neutron converter, enabling measurements of neutron-induced fission yields, and thereby provide estimates of the obtained yields as a function of primary proton beam current. Different geometries, targets, and pressures, as well as models for the effective charge of the stopped ions were tested, and optimisations to the setup for higher yields are suggested. The predicted number of ions stopped in the gas lets us estimate the survival probability of the ions reaching the downstream measurements stations.

With the Ion Guide Isotope Separator On-Line (IGISOL) facility, located at the University of Jyväskylä, products of nuclear reactions are separated by mass. The high resolving power of the JYFLTRAP Penning trap, with full separation of individual nuclides, capacitates the study of nuclides far from the line of stability. For the production of neutron-rich medium-heavy nuclides, fissioning of actinides is a feasible reaction. This can be achieved with protons from an in-house accelerator or, alternatively, with neutrons through the addition of a newly developed Be(p,xn)-converter. The hereby-obtained fission products are used in nuclear data measurements, for example fission yields, nuclear masses, Q-values and decay spectroscopy. Prior to separation, the ionized reaction products are stopped in a helium-filled gas cell, referred to as the ion-guide. In this work we present simulations of the stopping of fission products in an ion guide developed for neutron-induced fission. The production and extraction rates are evaluated and compared against experimental values.

In 2004, Mikheil Saakashvili was elected president in Georgia, committing to a foreign policy that would ostensibly make his country a leading example of reform and democratization in the post-Soviet space, and a net-contributor to Euro-Atlantic security. Throughout its time in power and until its defeat in Georgia’s 2012 parliamentary elections, the Saakashvili government remained steadfast in its commitment to establishing these international roles for Georgia, despite developments in both the country’s international and domestic contexts that could plausibly have made these roles, and the foreign policy decisions deriving from them, redundant.

This dissertation explores the relationship between national role conceptions (NRCs) and foreign policy stability. It demonstrates how Georgia’s NRCs as a Beacon of Liberty and a Net-Security Contributor, evolving specifically in the relationship between the Georgian and U.S. governments during these years, contributed to stability in Georgia’s foreign policy. Yet these NRCs were also subjected to serious challenges, particularly relating to two crises ensuing over the November 2007 riots in Tbilisi and the August 2008 war between Georgia and Russia. In both cases, the Georgian government was subjected to conflicting imperatives emanating from its own role conceptions, the expectations voiced by its U.S. counterparts, and the immediate demands of crisis decision making.

Drawing on recent advances in foreign policy role theory and crisis management theory, two social mechanisms are developed, role location and role conflict management. Role location is a long-term process of interaction between the actor and significant others, resulting in a gradual harmonization of role expectations and intentions. Role conflict management instead represents the actor’s handling of potentially disruptive moments, raising questions about the credibility and legitimacy of existing NRCs in the eyes of others, and confronting the actor with choices regarding stability and change in existing NRCs.

The framework is applied in an analysis of the Georgian government’s foreign policy vis-à-vis the U.S. in the years 2004-2012, with particular attention to the disruptive effects of the crises in 2007-2008, and the actions taken to address the resulting role conflicts. The analysis draws on unique first-hand material, including interviews with members of the Georgian and U.S. foreign policy elites, confidential diplomatic correspondence and official speeches, to uncover the processes by which the mechanisms of role location and role conflict management played out in Georgia’s foreign policy. The dissertation concludes that the stability in Georgia’s foreign policy stemmed from the fact that the two NRCs became deeply socially embedded in Georgia’s relations with the U.S. over time, but also from the Georgian government’s ability to adapt its NRCs in response to crises, the role expectations of significant others, and contextual change. 

”Threat Perceptions and National Community in Georgia” addresses perceived threats as obstacles to the development of national community in the country. The article focuses on the interaction between threatening perceptions of the other on the internal and external political arenas, as these are formulated by Georgian government officials and members of the Armenian minority settled in the Javakheti region respectively. The material partly consists of previous research in this field, but primarily of interviews conducted during a field study in Georgia during May and June 2005. The article elaborates on how problems in government-minority relations are reinforced due to differing threat perceptions, which adds to the difficulties of constructively managing Georgian interethnic relations. The problematic nature of this relationship becomes all the more obvious when put into relation with threat perceptions on the external arena, specifically the parties quite different views on Russia’s role in Georgian politics. It is concluded that differing threat perceptions is a pressing issue in today’s Georgia, since these provide obstacles to societal inclusion of minorities and hamper the development of a national community crucial to a civic conception of the nation.