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Gibridnaya Voyna in Light of the War in Ukraine: Analysing Changes in Russian Interpretations and the Use of Hybrid Warfare Concept.
Filina, Anastasia ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (advisor) ; Kučera, Tomáš (referee)
After military invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russian Hybrid Warfare went from being a convenient 'bogeyman' of Russian military strategy interpretation, to a conceptual pariah of Western political and strategic discourse. This was not, however the case in Russia, where, admittedly, gibridnaya voyna transformed into the phase of 'rationalisation propaganda' in an attempt justify Kremlin's self-made threat perception. This study aims to fill the research gap in Western contemporary analysis of gibridnaya voyna by conducting an exploratory research to see if there have been any changes in the interpretation and the use of gibridnaya voyna in Russian military scholarship after Russia's military invasion of Ukraine. The study will demonstrate that although conceptual understanding of the term remains the same, its interpretation in military and linguistic (buzzwords) domains experienced significant changes. Keywords Hybird warfare; Russia; West Title Gibridnaya Voyna in Light of the War in Ukraine: Analysing Changes in Russian Interpretations and the Use of Hybrid Warfare Concept.
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Frontex: A Gendarmerie of the EU or just a Border Assistance?
Netopil, Petr ; Kučera, Tomáš (advisor) ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (referee)
This research focuses on the Civil-Security Relations between the EU and its border agency, FRONTEX. Relationships between the state and its border guards vary wildly in space and time in terms of the level of militarization, which is why this thesis set out to define the situation of the EU's first uniformed and armed service. A single case study was used, as FRONTEX as a transnational border agency is a deviant case. This research creates a typology of security services within the state and then places FRONTEX within it. In the discussion that follows, the relationship between the EU and FRONTEX seems to be matched best by the relationship between a state and its gendarmerie, though the police force is also very close. Furthermore, there are exceptions where the agency behaves more like an army or a civilian service. In terms of real-world analogues, it tracks most closely the relationships between the Baltic states, Finland, Poland, and their respective border guards.
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EU response to hybrid threats: the national position of the Slovak Republic
Ilkova, Alexandra ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (advisor) ; Rosendorf, Ondřej (referee)
The main purpose of this master's thesis is to illuminate the national position of the Slovak Republic on the EU response to countering hybrid threats. The national position is illustrated through 9 semi-structured interviews conducted with the Slovak national officials and experts working for the national authorities and alternatively for the non-governmental organisations within the field of hybrid threats. The national officials represent the various state departments, such as the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Ministry of Defense or the Office of the Government. The respondents' professional background heterogeneity leads to a more complex national position, incorporating as many national authorities' structures as possible. At the same time, the work also provides a comprehensive overview of the EU and Slovak approach to countering hybrid threats. While the EU response is mapped out through the adaptation of political and legal frameworks, the emergence of new institutional bodies and inter-institutional cooperation, the Slovak response is demonstrated through the development of national security and defense strategies and the emergence of the departmental units focusing on hybrid threats. Clarifying the approaches to countering hybrid threats from the...
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The Role of Trust in Media in Resilience: The Cases of the Czech and Slovak Republic
Doubravová, Barbora ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (advisor) ; Földes, Kristián (referee)
The marter thesis deals with the role of trust in media in resilience. The aim of the thesis is to explore the approach to trust in media by the state and journalists as a factor in countering the issue of disinformation, with potentially co-explanatory differences between the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic in their societal resilience. The thesis utilizes exploratory research of a qualitative nature. The results are primarily extracted through 15 interviews with journalists and national officials, as well as experts from both countries. As the results illustrate, the state and media sector in both countries consider trust in the media as a crucial factor in resilience against disinformation and countering disinformation. Journalists' perspectives on the subject are similar in both countries, while the approaches of national officials are to a certain extent differen. In the Czech Republic, national officials express a stronger criticism regarding the quality of media on the national level, at the same time, a passive approach to building their trust. On the other hand, national officials in Slovakia depict a greater eagerness to contribute to trust in media. However, it is often diminished by a lack of resources or political will. The results outline the necessity of a comprehensive...
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Comparison of Successfulness of China's and Taiwan's Mask Diplomacy in the Case of the Czech Republic
Svatoňová, Kateřina ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (advisor) ; Riegl, Martin (referee)
This bachelor's thesis examines the perceptions of Chinese and Taiwanese mask diplomacy (deliveries of medical supplies and related events) in the Czech Republic. The thesis aims to answer the research question "How and why did the perception of Chinese and Taiwanese mask diplomacy differ in the Czech Republic" through the analysis and interpretation of data obtained using qualitative content analysis of articles focused on medical supply deliveries, and semi- structured interviews with selected journalists who published some of these articles. Findings from content analysis and interviews with journalists are interpreted through the theories of public diplomacy and soft power by American political scientist and international relations theorist Joseph Nye. The thesis also discusses the limitations of applying these theories to Asian countries with different political systems compared to Western countries.
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Communication of Czech Government during the COVID-19 pandemic
Balážová, Zuzana ; Hájek, Lukáš (advisor) ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (referee)
The bachelor thesis Communication of the government of the Czech Republic during the COVID-19 pandemic deals with the communication of selected representatives of Czech government. The work examines the communication of the Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister and the Ministers of Health. The first section of the thesis focuses on theoretical starting points of the field of government communication, its multidisciplinary nature as well as definition. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the theoretical framework was broadened with crisis communication. At the end of the first section, a model of ideal government communication during the crisis was presented. The aim of the work was to find out whether the government of the Czech Republic fulfilled the theoretical prerequisites for successful communication according to this model. Qualitative methods of analysis were complemented with quantitative methods for a better analysis of communication. The results showed that the communication of the selected members of the government did not fulfill the theoretical prerequisites of successful communication, as they did not fulfill most of the elements of the defined model.
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Theorizing Military Power Projection: Why and When Distance Matters
Bahenský, Vojtěch ; Kučera, Tomáš (advisor) ; Doboš, Bohumil (referee) ; Badsey, Stephen (referee)
The relationship between physical distance and military power is oft-discussed and even more often assumed but arguably still poorly understood. Despite the scope of existing research on the relationship, there is little agreement on the causal mechanism connecting the two variables in question, which hampers further examination of the phenomenon. This work attempts to fill this gap by asking how and when does distance actually matter for military power projection. By connecting International Relations research on the subject with strategic and military studies understanding of the underlying processes and through an in-depth case study of the Falklands War, the thesis identified three general causal mechanisms which mediate distance's detrimental effect on military power: temporal mechanism, contestation mechanism, and materiel mechanism. Additionally, it also found that three mechanisms reinforce each other but generally are not causing additional military power decay in the presence of other conditions limiting war. The thesis argues that distance plays only a minor role in very small deployments into limited conflicts, but this should not be generalized lightly to possible great power wars by using quantitative methods. Possible policy implications of the theory for the United States and its...
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Countering Hybrid Threats: Public-Private Cooperation in Norway and the Czech republic
Musilová, Kristýna ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (advisor) ; Ditrych, Ondřej (referee)
This thesis aims to present policy recommendations in the area of public-private cooperation to counter hybrid interference, especially cyber threats. Research of this kind is unique in Czech academia. There has not been a single published paper that would comprehensively tackle the issue of public-private cooperation as a tool to achieve societal resilience towards hybrid threats. The first part of the research is focused on the Norwegian cooperation model and identifies tools and mechanisms thanks to which was societal resilience-building successful. The second part of the thesis analyses the current situation in the Czech Republic and attempts to identify shortcomings in hybrid threat resilience. The core of the research consists of eighteen semi-structured interviews with the representatives of the Norwegian and Czech public and private sectors. The result is policy recommendations for the Czech government based on an open-source data analysis supplemented by information from the interviews. These recommendations specify applying Norwegian collaboration tools between the public and private sectors. The key suggestions are the implementation of the "system of POCs", preparation of crisis scenarios, which is to a certain extent follow-up of the so-called "standard operating procedures" prepared...
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