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The Importance of Intelligence Activities During The Period of The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (1939-1945)
Vacková, Kateřina ; Michálek, Luděk (advisor) ; Střítecký, Vít (referee)
The research of this diploma thesis deals with the significance of the intelligence activity that was maintained on the territory of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia in the period 1939-1945. One of the main goals of this work is to introduce the reader to the meaning and essence of intelligence activity at the time when it was labeled as illegal. This activity is subjected to a closer examination by the author in an effort to better outline the operation of intelligence activities during the occupation of the Czechoslovak territory. Another goal is to take into account the approaches of two great powers (Great Britain and the Soviet Union) to Czechoslovak intelligence activities, which brought valuable information during the Second World War. The last goal was complementary to understanding the distinction and fragmentation of intelligence activity on the territory of the Protectorate. It is an examination of the branches of the domestic resistance, which replaced the intelligence activity that could not be carried out by an established institution with legislative delimitation.
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MLOSINT: Classifying Vehicle Losses in Ukraine
Kanát, Antonín ; Špelda, Petr (advisor) ; Střítecký, Vít (referee)
This thesis explores the potential of applying machine learning (ML) to assist with open source intelligence (OSINT) analysis. As the shared input of both disciplines, data is the primary lens through which the topic is examined. To understand the entire process of deploying an ML model from data collection to analysis, an image classifier of Russian vehicle losses in the invasion of Ukraine was trained and tested. Trained on a dataset of over 50,000 labelled images from the WarSpotting database, the classifier achieved a decent accuracy of 79% on evaluation data on the five most populous categories of images. On testing data from a later period, the performance dropped to 62%. One explanation offered is that the static frontlines and the prominence of drones led to most of the recent imagery being aerial, while the training data was captured mainly from the ground. That result demonstrated how inevitable changes, even in seemingly well-curated data, can lead to the low performance of ML models in deployment. Beyond changes on the battlefield, deeper data issues came to light, including the cascading effects of early data management decisions and dataset imbalance. Overall, current image classification methods do not work well on the noisy data available.
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Cyber Warning Intelligence: Enhancing Predictive Capabilities in Cyberspace. A Comparative Study of the American and Italian Cases
Signor, Sofia ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Scotto, Thomas (referee)
Cyber Warning Intelligence: Enhancing Predictive Capabilities in Cyberspace. A Comparative Study of the American and Italian Cases July 2023 University of Glasgow: 2686635S University of Trento: 233481 Charles University: 722530 Presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of International Master in Security, Intelligence and Strategic Studies Word count: 24141 Supervisor: Prof. doc. Dr. Vit Stritecky, M.Phil., Ph.D. Date of Submission: 26/07/2023 Abstract The present research project addresses the question of how cybersecurity strategies currently adopted by public and private major organisations might be revised in light of a constantly evolving and increasingly sophisticated cyber threat ecosystem that demands a radical paradigm shift not towards the enhancement of early detection of and reaction to cyber incidents but towards the acquisition of capabilities to forecast them. More specifically, the author revives the Cold War-era concept and practices of indications and warning (I&W) intelligence and attempts to contribute to that line of academic work that has more recently applied them to the cybersecurity context. It is argued that integrating I&W intelligence methodologies within one's extant cybersecurity structures is essential to limit one's exposure to cyber risks and...
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Disinformation in France: A Strategy of Information Warfare in the Digital Age
Bourdas, Annabelle Marie Amelie ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Scotto, Thomas (referee)
Political elections are a fertile ground for disinformation campaigns to prosper as have shown studies on Brexit and the 2016 US elections. The 2022 presidential French elections took place in a particular setting due to the social and political context marked by the rise of far-right parties and movements as well as the succession of crises such as the 2015 terrorist attacks, 2018 yellow vests movement, the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. This context and the health crisis in particular have given a new lease of life to far-right movements. Indeed, they spread disinformation, mainly on social media, on the pandemic and fuelled anti-system feelings to advance their agenda. In this context, the far-right political candidate to the 2022 elections, Éric Zemmour, a famous polemicist, thrived and managed to impose himself in the national political landscape. He did so notably by using discursive practices and his media presence. As a result, there has been a banalisation of far-right rhetoric and conspiracy theories in society. This has two major consequences: first, the undermining of democratic and electoral processes and second, the risk of a resurgence of domestic terrorism. Therefore, disinformation is a threat for democracies as they exacerbate social tensions and divisions which can...
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Organized crime and security : drug cartels : the global capacity of a rising security threat
Ibáñez de Foerster, Marcela ; Balabán, Miloš (advisor) ; Střítecký, Vít (referee)
Over the last four decades organized crime groups, particularly, drug trafficking organizations or drug cartels, have managed to be under the spotlight of the security agendas of American countries such as Colombia and the United States. During the last two decades, however, the global securitization of the drug trafficking issue, has led them to become a major security threat not only for the Americas, but also for Europe and more recently for West African countries. These organizations pose a threat not only to the security of the state, but to the very essence of it, by corrupting and damaging everything they come in contact with at the political, social, economical and even cultural level. This graduate thesis presents an analysis on Latin American drug trafficking organizations or drugs cartels, as they are commonly known, focusing on the cases of Colombian and Mexican drug cartels. By comparing these two case studies, I suggest that today's Mexican drug trafficking organizations have gained their momentum and incommensurable strength by following the footsteps of the big three Colombian drug cartels that existed between the 1980s and 1990s. The first chapter will expose the definitions and concepts surrounding the research of organized crime. In the second and third chapters, both the...
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Cyber Security Stagnation in Indonesia and the Philippines: a Comparative Case Study of their Strategies
Kurta, Noémie Claire Lea ; Kaczmarski, Marcin (advisor) ; Střítecký, Vít (referee)
UOG: 2718439K / DCU: 21111014 / CU: 85819125 Abstract This dissertation has the purpose to find out whether the cyber security strategy of Indonesia is a factor for its cyber stagnation. It is a comparative case study, in which I compare the reactions of Indonesia and the Philippines toward cyberattacks. These reactions being different, I chose to analyse the cyber security strategy of Indonesia focusing on the motivation of the country to have a cyber security strategy, the approaches used in this strategy, the structure of the strategy and its content. Each part will be analysed with the realist tradition, the constructivist tradition and the risk management theory. I will also take the Filipino strategy as a standpoint to demonstrate the various problems of the cyber security strategy of Indonesia. This dissertation will prove that the Indonesian cyber security strategy is largely responsible for the cyber stagnation of the country.
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Deconstructing the Securitization of Albanian Migration in British Media: A Critical Analysis of Coverage from 2021-2022
Hotaj, Alketa ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Glouftsios, Georgios (referee)
In the realm of public opinion and policy direction, the media yields significant influence, in shaping public perceptions and directing legislative decisions. Yet, there have been instances where this influence has reinforced discriminatory perspectives about immigrants, thereby creating an environment imbued with scepticism and mistrust. This research probes into the nuanced portrayal of Albanian immigrants by the British media between 2021 and 2022, a period marked by heightened scrutiny and continued interest in this group, culminating in the securitization of the matter. While using the Critical Discourse Analysis methodology, this study focuses on the British media's themes during this timeframe and tries to locate the stereotypes present in its discourses about Albanian immigrants. 93 news articles from 7 important media outlets in the United Kingdom (The Guardian, Daily Mail, BBC, The Telegraph, The Financial Times, The Sun, Mirror), published online during January 2021 and December 2022 will be analysed for this study. The findings demonstrate that the British media in general had both similarities and differences in framing Albanian immigrants which is aligned with their ideological orientations. The right leaning media outlets, in particular, served as a courtesy for the British...
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Cyberattacks: A New Weapon in the Economic Warfare Toolkit? A Study of Russian Cyberattacks on the European Energy Sector in 2022
Montaña Seisdedos, Elena ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Alì, Antonino (referee)
Principally, this dissertation seeks to answer the question of whether cyberattacks serve as a new coercive tool in contemporary economic statecraft. This comprehensive analysis of the cyberattacks threatening the energy sector in the year 2022 serves as proof that cyber economic warfare is not merely a theoretical concept but a very real danger. Russia's actions during this period have demonstrated the potential havoc that can be wreaked upon nations through the strategic manipulation of their economies and how this can be achieved. By zooming out and seeing the bigger picture, the attacks cumulatively spell out a common trend - the weaponisation of cyberattacks for economic warfare.
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From Hashtag to Policy Agenda: Exploring the Role of German Twitter in the 2022 Iranian Revolutionary Movement
Theisen, Esther Jamileh ; Conway, Maura (advisor) ; Střítecký, Vít (referee)
This master's thesis examines how the Iranian Revolutionary Movement 2022 utilised German Twitter to influence Germany's foreign policy agenda toward Iran. Discursive strategies in the context of social movement studies, besides frame theory, remain understudied. This is particularly true for movements resisting or challenging mainstream, hegemonic discourses. By exploring how the movement utilises German Twitter for the formulation of counter- narratives and strategies of resistance we can gain insight into the hegemonic discourse in German public and political discourses and how the movement addresses them. By using Lazar's (2005) Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) as the theoretical and methodological backbone it was able to identify two counter-narratives and two strategies of resistance and analysed the political impact of them.
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#CartelTiktok: How Drug Cartels Utilise Social Media
Tamayo Romero, Guillermo ; Crilley, Rhys (advisor) ; Střítecký, Vít (referee)
#CartelTikTok: How Drug Cartels Utilise Social Media August 2023 University of Glasgow: 2486717T Charles University: 47459870 Presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of International Master in Security, Intelligence and Strategic Studies Supervisor: Rhys Crilley Date of Submission: 11/08/2023 Abstract Mexican drug cartels have become some of the most powerful organisations in the world. Contrary to most scholarship, I argue that drug cartels are not political organisations but rather function as criminal enterprises like private companies, as their main objective is a quest for profit. Like any profit-led enterprise, cartels have specific objectives, strategies, actions, and actors that help augment their profit and power. To achieve their objectives, cartels utilise branding strategies, referred to throughout this dissertation as narco branding. Narcobranding can consist of in-person strategies carried out by cartel members or others related to their activities or online content through posting videos, creating digital communities, or using social media. This dissertation focuses exclusively on the use of social media, specifically TikTok, by Mexico's two most important cartels: the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación. This research found that through using...
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