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Obama Administration's Approach Towards Fracking: Environmental Agenda As a Priority or Secondary Issue?
Povincová, Michaela ; Sehnálková, Jana (advisor) ; Pondělíček, Jiří (referee)
Hydraulic fracturing represents a significant part of the growing mining and oil industry. The most significant fracking expansion occurred during the period of Barack Obama, whose statements during his candidacy were directed against the oil industry. Based on this, environmental advocates expected Obama to seek to regulate fracking. Under the pressure, Obama was forced to take some steps against fracking, but they could not be so drastic as to create too much complication for the industry. The present work analyzes the steps and regulations adopted by the Obama administration, along with the reactions of supporters and opponents of fracking to the measures. Based on this analysis, the work points out that despite the Obama administration's efforts to introduce regulations to protect the biosphere and communities around fracking, the measures were insufficient and in some cases did not raise any standards for the oil industry. The work also found that due to the significant impact of fracking on the US economy, Barack Obama could not afford to set stricter regulations and in many cases combined the solution of environmental problems with economic solutions or with national security or energy independence. Based on this analysis, it can be concluded that the Obama administration has prioritized US...
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Women Strike for Peace against Nuclear Arms and the Vietnam War
Kunovská, Kristýna ; Pondělíček, Jiří (advisor) ; Tůma, Oldřich (referee)
This Bachelor's thesis deals with the women's peace activist group Women Strike for Peace (WSP) and its opposition to nuclear arms and the war in Vietnam. It covers the period from 1961, when the group was founded, to the early 1970s. In my thesis I deal with WSP membership characteristics, tactics the group used to achieve its goals, important protests or other significant activities that WSP conducted in connection with its dissenting opinion on nuclear arms and the war in Vietnam. WSP held an important position in the Cold War peace movement. Already at the beginning of its activities, WSP had support from many American women and media because of its decent, respectable behavior and emphasis on motherhood. WSP used gender stereotypes to legitimize its activities, claiming, for example, that women as mothers have the right to decide on nuclear arms testing, as there are plenty of harmful substances entering the atmosphere that affect children's health. Women used the same tactics also when their sons were taken to the war in Vietnam due to conscription. However, in the second half of the 1960s, WSP protests and actions became more radical, resulting in increasing criticism from society. The original theoretical basis of WSP also questioned the fact that younger female members began to identify...
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From Planning he Unimaginable to Imagining the Impossible: Civil Defense in the United States 1945-1957
Pondělíček, Jiří ; Smetana, Vít (advisor) ; Koura, Jan (referee) ; Wala, Michael (referee)
This dissertation focuses on the topic of preparations for a possible conflict with the USSR in the US between 1945 and 1957. Many books and articles have been written about the cultural aspects of civil defense programs, which were the most publicly known ways of framing the nuclear war, but the almost completely omit how civil defense activities related to other war planning (i.e. military and mobilization planning). Based mostly on a wide range of primary sources, the dissertation details how the assumption about the nature of the armed struggle between the nuclear superpowers affected the plans and the way they were communicated to the public. It uses evolutionary theory approach to military history to analyze the development of the civil defense doctrine within the context of military planning. It argues that it was seen as essential for enabling the US to continue to wage war having been attacked first by nuclear bombs and that this perception changed only gradually between 1953 and 1957. Analyzing it, as most authors writing on the subject do, as mostly a morale building exercise with little to no purpose outside the realm of psychology leads to misrepresentation of the effort. The dissertation acknowledges that the premises on which the program was built were made obsolete by new weapons...
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The Power of the Native Vote: Evaluation of the Influence of Native Americans on the Outcome of the 2020 Presidential Elections in the United States - A Case Study of Arizona.
Štroblová, Radka ; Kýrová, Lucie (advisor) ; Pondělíček, Jiří (referee)
More Americans voted in the 2020 elections than in any other in 120 years, and the majority supported the Democratic candidate - Joseph R. Biden, Jr. In 2020, Biden won 26 states, including Arizona, where he won as the first Democrat in the presidential elections since 1996. With a small margin of only 10,457 votes, every vote was essential. In Arizona, 412,256 people identify as American Indian and Alaska Native and their support for the Democratic candidate proved to be decisive in the 2020 elections. However, only little has been written about American Indians and Alaska Natives and their voting habits. Existing studies suffer from examining only one tribe or state, are old or ambiguous. American Indians and Alaska Natives are also often excluded from collecting and reporting data, and when included, the data is either inaccurate or put them in "the other" category. This work is the first to examine Native American voting in the 2020 presidential election. It aims to prove that the Native vote was one of the aspects that helped Biden win the elections since Native Americans traditionally support the Democratic candidates. To prove my thesis, I compared the results of the 2016 and 2020 elections from the precincts overlapping with tribal lands in Arizona and conducted a quantitative analysis of...
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U.S. Foreign Policy Transformation, 1945-1948: A Neoclassical Realist Perspective
Bernard, Josef ; Raška, Francis (advisor) ; Pondělíček, Jiří (referee)
This bachelor's thesis deals with the U.S. foreign policy transformation in the 1945-1948 period. In the post-World War Two era, the United States does not return to its traditionally detached foreign policy that characterizes most of its earlier history. Instead, the country remains a key player in international politics. The United States defines its new primary foreign policy interests and remains engaged almost throughout the entire world in its efforts to safeguard as well as pursue these interests. Despite the initial hopeful attitudes of the American leadership, the Soviet-American cooperation soon breaks down and the mutual relationship between the two countries quickly turns into a fully-fledged Cold War confrontation. Consequently, the United States doubles down on its global engagement. This work examines these most important aspects of the U.S. foreign policy transformation in the period starting from the end of the Second World War to the days before the First Berlin Crisis. In doing so, it utilizes the analytical model provided by neoclassical realist theory. The work consists of four main chapters. The first chapter describes the theoretical grounding of the entire work and especially explores the details of the neoclassical realist perspective. The second chapter provides a static picture of...
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NRA influence on D.C. v. Heller decision
Bastlová, Renée ; Kozák, Kryštof (advisor) ; Klvaňa, Tomáš (referee) ; Pondělíček, Jiří (referee)
This bachelor thesis adresses the issue of a landmark case from 2008 which dealt with the city's gun ban and in which for the first time in the history of the Second Amendment was decided in favor of an individual right to bear arms, specifically for the purpose of self-defense. The Second Amendment to the United States Constitution reads "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." There are two possible ways to interpret this amendment. One side of the argument maintains that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to bear arms. The other maintains that it guarantees a right to bear arms just in connection with militia. NRA, one of the most powerful lobby groups in the USA, promotes the individual right to bear arms. As a part of my thesis I analyze methods of NRA's lobbying. The thesis examines to what extent did the Supreme Court of the United States and its justices copy thoughts of the NRA in this case. The goal of this thesis is to show similarity between the NRA's and Court's arguments with the help of long-term views and opinions of this organization that can be seen in the Amicus Curiae Brief. According to my analysis, the NRA is not the reason the case was born. However,...
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The OSS in Vietnam during the Second World War
Do, Phuong Thuy ; Bečka, Jan (advisor) ; Pondělíček, Jiří (referee)
The United States engagement in Vietnam began during the Second World War. With military bases established in China, the U.S. took part in fighting the Japanese troops in the Pacific theatre. When France surrendered to Nazi Germany in 1940, Japan would take over the French Indochina and the war would spread to Vietnam as well. In order to collect intelligence on Japanese targets, the Americans needed to operate secret services on the ground. After the Japanese coup de main in 1945, they would eventually partner with Ho Chi Minh and his organization Viet Minh. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the wartime predecessor of the CIA, provided intelligence training and equipment, while the Viet Minh would assist with valuable information on Japanese troops. To some extent, the OSS helped Ho Chi Minh and Viet Minh accede to power in Vietnam after the war.
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