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Between Power and Perception: Analyzing China's Influence in International Relations
Karásková, Ivana ; Kučerová, Irah (advisor) ; Stuchlíková, Zuzana (referee) ; Harnisch, Sebastian (referee)
The doctoral thesis focuses on the People's Republic of China's influence in international relations. It follows two main research objectives, a theoretical and an empirical one. The first goal is to more firmly establish the concept of influence and distinguish it from power, the second is to analyze China's influence in the Czech Republic before, during and after the 'restart' of Czech-China relations in 2012. The thesis rests on the idea of a conceptual 'filter' through which power (conceptualized as ability) passes on its way to becoming influence. As a result, the effects of policies implemented by an actor who aims to exert a power on another actor are co-dependent not only on its power, but also the perception of the actor which is being influenced. The thesis claims that in case of a significant distance (defined geographically or otherwise) between 'the sender' and 'the receiver', perception matters more as it has greater ability to amplify or decrease the effects of the sender's power - i.e. the influence. The latter objective aims at explaining the methods the People's Republic of China uses to impose its interests on others and the receivers' reactions to such efforts. The thesis uses a case study of the Czech Republic as a country where China's influence is just getting established and...
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The Irish issue in the light of the Brexit debates
Puklová, Anna ; Knutelská, Viera (advisor) ; Kučerová, Irah (referee)
The topic of this thesis is the Irish issue in the light of the Brexit debates. British people decided to leave the European Union in referendum in June 2016. Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty was activated 29th of March 2017. Two years long negotiating period started from that date. The withdrawal agreement proposal which was approved by all 27 members of the European Union was rejected three times by British parliament. Brexit was postponed until the end of October of 2019. Future relationship on the island of Ireland with Irish backstop became the main barrier of Brexit negotiations. Both sides of negotiations agree on no possibility of hard border between Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. Both of them want to follow The Good Friday Agreement of 1998. On the other hand none of them is willing to step aside from their earlier requirements. Theresa May, British prime minister, decided to leave the EU Custom Union and the European Single Market resolutely. The EU rejected to renegotiate the withdrawal agreement proposal that includes the Irish backstop. The Irish backstop guarantee maintaining an open border on the island of Ireland in the event that the UK leaves the EU without securing an all-encompassing deal. Great Britain is afraid to lost control over its territory. Based on the...
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Visegrad Countries Positions Towards European Policy on Ilegal Immigration and Asylum
Karaca, Bilal Bahadır ; Kučerová, Irah (advisor) ; Jeřábek, Martin (referee)
Illegal immigration is one of the current problems that occupy the European agenda. With the beginning of the revolutionary movements called 'the Arab Spring' in the Middle East and North Africa, Europe has faced massive uncontrolled migration waves. In this period, the asylum applications in European countries have broken a record in the history of the EU. This situation has impelled the European Union and its member states to take certain measures. However, political disagreements were observed over some of the measures taken by the EU. In light of these developments, this thesis will focus on illegal immigration movements from the Middle East and North Africa region to Europe right after the beginning of the Arab Spring (in other words from at the end of 2010 to now). In this context, this master's thesis aims to give the immigration and asylum policies of the European Union aiming to prevent these illegal immigration waves and to evaluate the political positions of the Visegrad countries during this period.
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Analysis of the behaviour of selected states in the South China Sea
Jetelinová, Denisa ; Kučerová, Irah (advisor) ; Karásková, Ivana (referee)
The South China Sea has been already for several centuries the root of a dispute among states neighbouring along its borders, namely the People's Republic of China (China), Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, and Malaysia. Since the Sea is very geopolitically and geostrategically important, China attempts to claim itself to be a sovereign. However, its activities face the demands of other states, especially Vietnam and the Philippines, which are also interested in gaining control over the islands in the South China Sea. For that reason, the dispute still persists, and the continuous activities of all concerned countries have created an endless spiral of events in which it is difficult to distinguish between the action and the reaction of individual actors in the dispute. My diploma thesis therefore focuses on the analysis of actions of the three selected countries, China, Vietnam, and the Philippines, from the perspective of structural realism that is split into two contradictory streams, defensive and offensive. Their different views on the world help me to clarify whether the behaviour of the chosen actors is defensive of offensive. For the analysis, the period from 2011 to 2018 was chosen. During that time, several major incidents have appeared between selected countries, especially...
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Geopolitical Importance of the South China Sea
Volf, Dominik ; Kučerová, Irah (advisor) ; Karásková, Ivana (referee)
This diploma thesis, entitled "The Geopolitical Importance of the South China Sea", deals with the issue of the South China Sea dispute in view of the economic and strategic importance of the region. The main goal is to analyze the claims of individual countries and to find out whether this dispute has the potential to grow into an armed conflict. The dispute arose from overlapping territorial claims that countries in the region began to make after the end of World War II. This is primarily the case of the various maritime features in the vicinity of which there are considerable reserves of natural resources. It is the interest in securing these resources that is the main issue of the dispute. To this day, this situation has not been resolved and on the contrary it has triggered a response from states outside the region, mainly the United States of America and Japan. In order to achieve the goal of this diploma thesis, the theoretical framework, which is geopolitics and critical geopolitics, is first introduced. Furthermore, the general meaning of seas and oceans with the current legislation is introduced. On this basis, country case studies are conducted with the aim of making a comparative analysis that should clarify the current form of the dispute and the potential of the dispute to grow into...
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Influence of foreign private actors on political decision-making in the Czech Republic: case study of Japanese and German economic actors
Barták, Petr ; Parízek, Michal (advisor) ; Kučerová, Irah (referee)
Influence of non-state transnational actors on decision-making of sovereign states is one of the most important topics in the international relations discipline. Some academic approaches consider this influence as quite important. Others perceive it as only secondary. Economic actors are a specific case because they on one hand bring know-how, employment and economic growth. On the other hand, they decrease sovereignty of the host states. This thesis tries to uncover influence of the two strongest non-state transnational economic actors in the Czech Republic - German and Japanese Chambers of Commerce. The topic of lobbying of these actors in the case of lack of labor force in the Czech Republic was chosen because of its good empirics. The text also aims to test assumptions according to which bargaining power of such actors is influenced by geographical distance between the host state and home country of the transnational actor. This thesis also wants to address the general topic of influence of the transnational actors on states in the international relations, based on the findings of this case study.
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Impact of nuclear power plants decommissioning: comparison of Germany and the Czech Republic
Myslivcová, Kateřina ; Holubcová, Jitka (advisor) ; Kučerová, Irah (referee)
The diploma thesis examines the effect of decommissioning of nuclear power plants on the energy security of two European countries - Germany and the Czech Republic. First, the author focuses on theoretical anchoring of energy security. The practical part then examines both countries from the perspective of their energy mixes and policies and infrastructure interconnection. This is the starting point for the comparison of the effects of the decommissioning of nuclear power plants. Second, the author presents three scenarios to replace nuclear energy, exploring how German and Czech energy security will change. The first scenario is the use of renewable energy only. The second option is a combination of renewable energy and coal. Finally, the third option is again a certain proportion of renewable energy along with natural gas. Last but not least, the author concludes in the presented paper that, despite the various possible combinations of how to replace nuclear energy, both countries would be worse off within the framework of energy security.
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The Limits of the EU's Political Conditionality Approach in the Western Balkans
Křiklánová, Michaela ; Karlas, Jan (advisor) ; Kučerová, Irah (referee)
The thesis aims to unravel the relationship between the EU's enlargement strategies and democratization in the Western Balkan countries by looking on the impact of the strategies on changing democracy levels in two empirical cases: the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Serbia. Over more than a decade, the effect of the conditionality tool on democratization has been curbed by an insufficient emphasis placed on pro-democratic reforms and by the role of security concerns which were often prioritized over aims directly linked to democracy promotion. Grounded in the conflicting objectives theory, the thesis demonstrates that the recently employed strategy appropriately sequencing goals while prioritizing democratic transition over security concerns is more effective in inflicting domestic democratic change. Subsequently, the following necessary and sufficient conditions for a successful sequencing strategy were defined: strong emphasis on democracy-related goals combined with clearly outlined temporal perspective, and corresponding action of international actors.
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Economic change in Russia: Oil dependency
Krupa, Mikuláš ; Kučerová, Irah (advisor) ; Parízek, Michal (referee)
This thesis concentrates on the case of Russian economy and assessment of its dependence on oil. Russia is often cited as an example of country suffering from resource curse as its natural wealth forms significant share of country's exports and revenues. Thesis will first concentrate on factors determining current state of Russian economy. Presence of the symptoms of Dutch disease in the Russian economy will be studied using the Vector error correction model (VECM) applied on the real effective exchange rate of country (REER). Thesis will also contain an assessment of Russian institutional environment to check for other symptoms of resource curse theory. Analysis of latest federal budget will be used to evaluate the sustainability of Russian federal finances. The thesis is concluded by discussion of results and possible paths of future development of Russian economy.
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World maritime shipping at the beginning of 21. Century
Bubnová, Kateřina ; Romancov, Michael (advisor) ; Kučerová, Irah (referee)
The bachelor thesis deals with the world's maritime trade at the beginning of the 21st century. This thesis deals with the development during the 19th and 20th centuries from the point of view of progress, which influenced the modernization and progress in this area, the 20th and 21st century from the economic point of view, how the volume of goods transported changed. Segmenting cargo vessels is another important chapter, splitting into groups and subgroups, allows a better view of types of merchant ships. It also examines international organizations that are very important for determining and adhering to the rules. The chapter on Maritime Policy deals with environmental policy, balancing the goals of sustainable development and economic objectives of countries. The second part of the chapter deals with the issue of maritime piracy, which greatly hinders maritime trade. It focuses more on Somali piracy, although it is not currently the main danger area, so it has its own specifics. The last part deals with the most important ports as the basic components of maritime trade. Navy trails are linked to the New Silk Road, a project of the People's Republic of China, which could change the sea routes, considering new ports.
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