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US Private military companies.
Pejřimovský, Martin ; Anděl, Petr (advisor) ; Raška, Francis (referee)
Private military companies in the USA aren't a completely new phenomenon. According to various sources, first mercenaries set foot on the American soil no later than during the famous war of independence. What has changed about the US private military contractors since these times is their overall number, the amount of countries they operate in, the scale of services they can provide and last but not least, the extent of money they receive. The process of development of the US private military firms wasn't continual. They played only a minor role approximately up to the end of the Cold war. The US Army used them only to provide the construction, support and logistical services. These days however, the department of defense needs them to provide highly specialized tasks such as spy and counterspy operations, risk consulting, training of the elite armed forces, and the protection of convoys or high-profile people in the warzone. In this thesis I am trying to examine, why did the US private military companies become so essential for the army of the United States. The results of my research show that the most important reasons for this development were the introduction of professional armed forces in 1973, a continuous decline of the defense budget after the end of the Cold war and the widespread...
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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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'Special relationship' between the United Kingdom and the United States and renascence of their relationship after September 11, 2001
Žáčková, Olga ; Rovná, Lenka (advisor) ; Nálevka, Vladimír (referee)
Diploma thesis 'Special relationship' between the United Kingdom and the United States and renascence of their relationship after September 11, 2001, deals with the special Anglo-American relationship in past and present. Both countries share common history, common language and threads of cultural heritage. The United States maintains close economic and military relationship with the UK. US military and intelligence cooperation in its current form dates back to the World War II and it was rooted in the doctrine of anti-Soviet Containment. US-UK 'special relationship' was widely seen as likely to expire with the end of the Cold War, but was revived following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States. Particular emphasis in explaining the renascence of the 'special relationship' in the world changed by terror is placed on the role of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his relationship to President George W. Bush.
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Perspectives of the Cuban Transition to Democracy
Fungačová, Hana ; Mlejnek, Josef (advisor) ; Dvořáková, Vladimíra (referee)
Diploma thesis "Perspectives of the Cuban Transition to Democracy" tries to analyze the current situation in Cuba and answer a question if the transition to democracy is possible and if so, in which period of time. It also tries to confirm or disprove two hypotheses set ahead: 'the transition to democracy is possible but only in a long period of time' and 'there will not be any changes during Fidel Castro's life'. This paper also tries to depict some theoretical models of the transition to democracy, brief history of Cuba which is indispensable for understanding of the current situation in Cuba and the perspectives of the future transition as well. The thesis also comprehensively deals with characterization of the current Cuban regime and its main representatives, analysis of the civil society and the inner opposition in Cuba and also with the international situation and its main actors which are able to to influence the current situation in Cuba and its future transition as well. There are also depicted some scenarios and factors of the future transition and briefly described some essential subsequent reforms though the application of some theoretical approaches on the analysis of the particular situation in Cuba.
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Africa: clash of two hegemons?
Dunajová, Alžběta ; Werkman, Kateřina (advisor) ; Oklešťková, Ivana (referee)
On the base of the theoretical concept of hegemony, the work tries to discover whether the United States and China can be considered a leaving, respectively rising hegemonic power in Africa. The theoretical part is based on the conception of hegemony by Immanuel Wallerstein and Robert Gilpin and sets an analytic framework for the identification of four groups of indicators - political, economic, military and cultural ones. The results of the research confirmed China as a rising hegemon and United States as an actual hegemonic power in Africa.
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What is the Strategic Impact of Chinese Anti-Access and Area-Denial Capabilities on the Offence-Defence Balance in East Asia? A Comparative Case Study of the United States and Japan
Oldemeier, Niels ; Kučera, Tomáš (advisor) ; Urbancová, Kateřina (referee)
iv ABSTRACT Over the last four decades, the People's Republic of China has modernized its armed forces and acquired the world's largest and most diverse missile arsenal. In light of Beijing's vague yet increasingly assertive stance in the region, China's A2/AD capabilities have sparked a discussion about their offensive potential and threat to the region's stability. This thesis has conducted a qualitative strategic impact of Chinese anti-access and area-denial capabilities on the offence-defence balance in East Asia. Applying Biddle's revised offence-defence theory, this thesis investigated and compared the Sino-American and Sino-Japanese balances. The analyses found that Chinese A2/AD capabilities do not have a uniform impact on the offence-defence balance in the region. Despite its offensive potential, Chinese A2/AD does not provide an effective, sustainable counter to Japan's deep, reserve-oriented force employment strategy. Even though China fields the world's largest fleet, it does not field enough principal surface ships to exploit a temporary offensive advantage. As such, any Chinese attempt to claim the Senkakus would result in a Chinese naval overstretch and create a mutually contested no man's land in the East China Sea. As for the Sino- American balance, Chinese A2/AD creates an...
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The Islamic Petroleum State: A study of US-Led airstrikes against ISIS's oil network in Iraq and Syria
de Rooij, Mats Julian ; Dowd, Caitriona (advisor) ; Špelda, Petr (referee)
Dissertation Mats de Rooij Charles University Student Number: 17287595 ABSTRACT Keywords: ISIS oil financing strategy-making third-party interventions United States This dissertation will explore the US-led coalition's strategy for disrupting ISIS's oil network in Iraq and Syria. Scholars have debated the desirability of third-party interventions and strategies for countering financing structures of violent non- state actors. However, remarkably limited research exists on ISIS's estimated largest source of revenue during the existence of its caliphate: the production and distribution of petroleum. This study will therefore introduce a framework for analysing the military response enacted by the US-led coalition between September 2014 and October 2017. It will do so through a mixed method study that includes the first-hand generation and analysis of a dataset containing 5,768 unique data points that present both an insight into the strategy behind the strikes and vulnerabilities in ISIS's oil network. Findings demonstrate how the coalition was able to exploit vulnerabilities specifically in the production, transportation, and refinement stages of the production chain. It will be argued that, as the campaign proceeded, the coalition became increasingly willing to take risks of collateral damage as a...
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Securitising biology: Biological threats and state preparedness in the wake of a pandemic
Artico, Chiara ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Butler, Eamonn (referee)
64053643 SECURITISING BIOLOGY: BIOLOGICAL THREATS AND STATE PREPAREDNESS IN THE WAKE OF A PANDEMIC ABSTRACT The management of infectious diseases in the realm of public health has shown increasingly overlapping areas with biological warfare preparedness. While the acknowledgement of these common elements is not only frequent but also codified in an international treaty and subject to distinct regulations, research into how these two fields connect is scarce. Potential deliberate use of biological weapons typically leads to intense political mobilisation and ensuing dedication of financial resources. Contrarily, the management of health crises over the last decades has been severely flawed, and no country in the world is considered fully prepared to a pandemic, according to the Global Health Security Index. The current COVID-19 pandemic has recently been further proof of the inadequacy of state-level prevention and preparedness capabilities. This dissertation aims at bridging the existing conceptual gap and policy divide between biological warfare and infectious disease preparedness, and to analyse elements that can be mutually applicable and potentially beneficial. It will do so by establishing analytical equivalence between the securitisation of an artificial biothreat and a nature-borne infectious disease...
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The US Financial Market Uncertainty and Its Spillover to European Stock Markets
Karolík, Richard ; Horváth, Roman (advisor) ; Kočenda, Evžen (referee)
This thesis studies the spillover of the financial market uncertainty arising from the United States to three major European stock markets by analyzing the impulse response functions that were estimated using the local projections method. European stock markets are represented by their corresponding in- dices: the DAX 30 index for Germany, the CAC 40 for France, and the FTSE 100 for the United Kingdom. The results prove the existence of uncertainty spillover from the United States into Europe with the negative relationship be- tween the performance of a particular stock market and the uncertainty shock emerging from the US. Additional analysis examines the response to uncer- tainty shock for the two subsamples based on the Lehman Brothers collapse. The results show a possible interesting improvement in the ability to recover from uncertainty shock since the collapse of Lehman Brothers and can serve as a starting point for the further analyses in the field. JEL Classification F12, F21, F23, H25, H71, H87 Keywords Uncertainty, financial market, stock market, United States, Europe Title The US Financial Market Uncertainty and Its Spillover to European Stock Markets
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