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Middle East - a new playground for hegemonic rivalry
Kadović, Marija ; Aslan, Emil (advisor) ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (referee)
Throughout history, the relationship between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been dynamic and complex. These two Middle Eastern superpowers went from being allies to being enemies that are fighting for hegemony in the region after the Iranian Revolution. Ideological and religious reasons are usually used to explain the shift in their relationship.However,the complexity oftheirrelationship can notonly be described by them.This thesis aims to analyse changes that occurred in the relationship between Iran and Saudi Arabia through the lens of the role that leadership played in their relationship,focusing on the impact that public support has on decisions brought by leadership. Already existing literature that relates to this research is mainly focusing on democratic countries. Therefore,this thesis aims to show that public opinion is vital for the non-democratic Middle Eastern leadership of Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well. It will determine leadership decisions related to their mutual relationship, as well as relations they have with other foreign powers, such as the United States and Russia.
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The Critical Dilemma of Turkish Foreign Policy in the 21st Century Between East and West: The Repercussions of Changing Turkish Foreign Policy on Security Alliances in Local, Regional and Global Level
Baydemir, Selami ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Aslan, Emil (referee)
Unrestricted Abstract The collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War resulted in dramatic changes in the international arena, and the American-led liberal hegemonic order declared its triumph against Warsaw Pact which it had struggled against since the post-World War II era. However, this newly formed unipolar international political system intrinsically contained the nucleus of the transition period to the ascendant multipolar world order. On the contrary to static characteristics of the Cold War period, the post-Cold War atmosphere was more dynamic. Therefore, the United States had been trying to adapt itself to these challenging circumstances at the crack of dawn of a multipolar world order which will be based on power struggle against global and regional rivals like Russia, China, India, the European Union, Iran or Turkey. In this regard, countries such as Turkey, who would like to obtain tangible benefits from these global and regional vacuums of power as a result of power struggle among various countries which is imminently stemming from rivalries in the new global context, review their traditional security alliances and seek new foreign policy alternatives in order to balance these power relations and to adapt themselves to the new international situation. Hence, this thesis focuses on...
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The unintened metamorphosis of Political Islam in Egypt: Military autocracy, Salafism and Muslim Brotherhood
Pianese, Marika ; Daniel, Jan (advisor) ; Aslan, Emil (referee)
ENGLISH VERSION The topic of Political Islam or more specifically, the role of religion in politics is becoming crucial in the Arab World, specifically in the North African democracy of Egypt. Because of its 94.7 million of people and its role as the Arab League headquarter, the country still holds power in the region despite not being as strong as in the past. Since the 1970s, Egypt has used religion as an instrument to achieve political ends with different aims. In the 70s, it was to counterbalance the left, in the 80s to co-opt Islamist political groups into formal politics, and in the 90s to contain the Islamist challenge and legitimize authoritarianism. Television started airing more religious programs and lots of aspects of everyday life changed according to conservative Islamic values, giving thus, more importance to Islamic Law. Even if the state wanted to calm the fervent spirits of the conservatives, it didn't achieve its goal, as they only emphasized more the Islamist norms and pressured moderate forces. The dream of establishing an Islamic political and social order has faded with the fall of the Muslim Brotherhood and fragmentation in the country. Despite the increased force of Islamists, the Muslim Brotherhood could still manage a comeback if they play their cards right and find a...
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Challenges of Child DDR: A Case Study of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Gajdošová, Marie Anna ; Aslan, Emil (advisor) ; Svobodová, Karolina (referee)
This Master's thesis is devoted to the study of Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reintegration programs for children formerly associated with armed groups. Its main task is to critically assess the implementation of child Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reintegration programs, to identify the main challenges of these programs, and to provide recommendations for their future improvement. The theoretical part of the work focuses on the concept of child soldiers and the concept of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration. The work examines the case study of the Democratic Republic of the Congo closely. It explores the history of the conflict, the history of using child soldiers, and the history of Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reintegration programs in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Furthermore, this work analyzes the phenomenon of child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the challenges the current Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reintegration programs are facing and provides recommendations for the Congolese government and for the international actors which are providing the Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reintegration programs for children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The work concludes that through the implementation of new policies on the national...
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Motivating Factors for Radicalization in Balkan Muslim-Majority Countries
Vlk, Jonáš ; Aslan, Emil (advisor) ; Kuľková, Miroslava (referee)
The topic of religious radicalization in the Balkans is gaining attention among academia in recent years. However, motivational factors of radicalization in the region still remain rather under-researched. Furthermore, comprehensive research focusing particularly on the motivational factors of Islamist radicalization in the Muslim-majority countries of the Balkans - countries with a specific context and background unique in the wider Europe - hasn't been yet carried out. This paper thus elaborates on the motivational factors of radicalization in the Muslim-majority countries of the Balkans, which is Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania and Kosovo, by applying generally-known factors of radicalization to this specific theatre. Predominantly secondary sources as well as documents issued by the OSCE which maintains field presence in all of the abovementioned countries are utilized in order to provide a thorough overview of motivational factors of radicalization in each of the selected countries. These are discussed respectively in corresponding chapters. Individual chapters are in dialogue with each other following the same methodology and structure, focusing on similar issues. A comprehensive overview of the motivational factors of radicalization in Balkan Muslim-majority countries is thus presented. Applying the...
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Chinese Counterinsurgency Strategy in Xinjiang from 2008 to 2018
Englund, Adam ; Aslan, Emil (advisor) ; Karmazin, Aleš (referee)
This master thesis deals with the Chinese counterinsurgency strategy in Xinjiang with particular attention paid to current situation and latest development. The studied phenomenon is explored using the "Three Pillars" framework authored by the counterinsurgency theorist David Kilcullen. The study concisely presents the concept of insurgency and counterinsurgency with special prominence given to counterinsurgency led by autocratic regimes. The thesis also presents the reader with a comprehensive of Xinjiang's geographic conditions as well as its historical and demographic development. By using the abovementioned framework, the thesis identifies basic characteristics of Chinese counterinsurgency strategy.
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The Implications of the Collapse of the Caliphate for Southeast Asia
Clancy, Jean-Patrick Christian James ; Aslan, Emil (advisor) ; Ludvík, Zdeněk (referee)
Following the announcement of the establishment of a Caliphate in 2014, individuals and groups from all corners of the world pledged their allegiance to the Islamic State. Of particular interest to this study are violent terrorist groups based in Southeast Asia. The thesis focuses on this region as, despite obvious geographical constraints, local bay'ah pledges have allowed ISIS to suddenly emerge in the region with a large and well organised force allowing for an increase in terrorist activities and ultimately the capture of Marawi, the largest city to fall under the ISIS banner outside of Syria and Iraq. But a question remains too often unanswered - why do terrorist groups ally? While the dynamic is rare and paradoxical due to groups' illicit and clandestine nature, strategic alliances between terrorist groups are far from being a new phenomenon. While a handful of scholars dared to explore this complex field, it remains under-theorised to this day. This thesis uses an available list of studies and analyses on terrorist alliances and complements it with theories related to alliances between states in order to understand the rationale behind Southeast Asian Islamists alliance with ISIS. While there lacks a consensus as to why groups ally, the study finds it to be a multi-dimensional and mutually...
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Radicalization in Prison: Approaching the Issue
Dotlačil, Filip ; Ditrych, Ondřej (advisor) ; Aslan, Emil (referee)
In recent years Europe experienced several terrorist attacks on its soil. Some of these were committed by Jihadists radicalised in prisons. An issue already identified by scholars has thus become publicly known and attracted attention of policy makers. The combination of Islamic propaganda with jails imprisoning substantial amount of vulnerable inmates and incarceration of returning foreign fighters create a mixture threatening to produce more violent extremists. The aim of this thesis is to describe how Germany approaches the issue and connect its solution with existing radicalisation models and prison regime concepts. Because of the federal structure of Germany, this description is based on analysis of three levels: institutional analysis of the German framework (macro); comparison of state projects tackling the issue (meso); and a case study of practitioners of one federal state (micro). The thesis comes to a conclusion, that the German strategy is strongly decentralised, still not in its final form, applies the concept of dynamic security as its prison regime and approaches the issue from a holistic perspective, involving also non-state actors and other areas of radicalisation.
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From revolutionary armed forces to revolutionary regimes, empirical analysis of the transformation
Cuby, Alexandre ; Kučera, Tomáš (advisor) ; Aslan, Emil (referee)
The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the role that political ideologies plays in determining the target of insurgency movements. In order to understand how these groups operate, I use Janowitz's military establishment to apply it on the three main revolutionary ideologies of the 20th century, Khomeinism, Marxism/Leninism and Fanonian. Based on these analyses, I hypothesize the three main targets by ideology based on the clarity of the indoctrination and on the level of bureaucracy entailed in the revolutionary texts. I then proceed to compare these theories to three case studies, the Hezbollah, the FARC and finally the PKK. I try to offer an explanation on why religious insurgencies target most of their attacks towards rival factions or why nationalist left-wing groups are mostly focused on attacking security forces. I argue that a well-structured hierarchy, a reliance on the civil society and a clear definition of the political and military targets are quintessential to prevent civilian causalities. But contrarily to most papers on the topic, I find that a strict military discipline has the reversed result that expected. For instance, the FARC and the PKK have such a strict internal code of discipline that it led the members to desert the organizations by thousands and have civilians as...
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