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Indigenous Autonomy as a Pathway to Human Security in Mexico: A Comparative Study of Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Michoacán
Caltová, Anna ; Krausz Hladká, Malvína (advisor) ; Hynek, Nikola (referee)
This thesis studies the impact of autonomy in the form of alternative forms of local governance on human security in Mexico, with a prime focus on the concept of personal security. The research is motivated by the increasing attempts of communities to establish autonomy in response to an insecure environment troubled by high levels of criminality and government paralysis due to corruption. This study uses a comparative case study approach employing both quantitative and qualitative methods, on the cases of three Mexican states: Oaxaca, Chiapas, and Michoacán de Ocampo. The analysis of primary and secondary sources, and examination of crime data at a municipal level, suggest that regions with autonomy tend to reach better personal security than non-autonomous regions. Further research is needed to conclusively determine the impact of autonomous governance on other aspects of human security.
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The European Union - Iran Relations: Indirect Outcomes of the Nuclear Agreement Negotiations
Kubíček, Pavel ; Weinfurter, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Hynek, Nikola (referee)
Reference Kubi0ček Pavel. The European Union - Iran Relations: Indirect Outcomes of the Nuclear Agreement Negotiations. Prague, 2024. Master's thesis. Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Studies. Abstract The European Union is an important long-time actor of the diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran. For this reason, their relation is constantly observed and debated, which results in various approaches and conceptualizations of this relation. This study covers the indirect impacts of the Iranian Nuclear Deal, which was negotiated between Iran and several world powers and EU, which played the major role in the negotiation. The thesis evaluates the European Union's approach to the negotiations after the Nuclear Agreement through the perspective created framework of Sewell's Structuration Theory and Theory of Security Complexes. In its second part, the thesis provides a brief overview of the major events that accompanied the negotiations as well as those that occurred during the subsequent period. Furthermore, this case study focuses on events and activities that can be considered indirect effects of the abovementioned diplomatic negotiations. The thesis sets out to analyse the less obvious impacts of the negotiated agreement, which may be overlooked in the...
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Empathy, Local Knowledge and the Construction of Suffering: an Analysis of the Epistemological Limitations of the US Militaries Approach to Civilian Harm Mitigation and Reporting
Smith, Alice ; Cheskin, Ammon (advisor) ; Hynek, Nikola (referee)
Civilian harm mitigation and reporting is a mechanism which is used by liberal democracies to illustrate they have taken all measures to prevent harm to civilians during conflict, and therefore abide to principles of Just War theory. However, vast amounts of civilian suffering continue to take place, with no repercussion to the governments at fault, regardless of these technologies. Using the case of the US military during Operation Inherent Resolve in Syria and Iraq from 2014-2018, this research seeks to address this puzzle. In doing so it will attempt to bridge the gap between the work of the US military, and that of non-profit organisations who represent local experiences. This research will make the case that the US militaries failure to construct suffering adequately due to the association of suffering with femininity and the use of masculinised language during conflict. Furthermore, it will illustrate how local knowledge is rejected on the basis of its foundation in emotion and subjectivities which are also associated with femininity. This contradicts the militaries own subjectivities in their decision making found through this research. All in all, this will challenge the ability for the US military to hold the responsibility of mitigating and reporting civilian harm. Making the case that,...
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The Russian Hybrid-Gambit and Baltic Countermoves: Hybrid War, Grand Strategy, and Whole-of Society Defense
McDonell, Rory Joseph ; Hynek, Nikola (advisor) ; Anceschi, Luca (referee)
This study explores hybrid warfare as a strategic choice for states under geopolitical pressure. This form of warfare, often covert and non-military, is not a new concept; history's prominent military theorists have long advocated for achieving political objectives through subversion and coercion rather than overt conflict. While not new, technology and a changing geopolitical landscape are making these tactics more prevalent, and the very nature of open democratic societies can make them vulnerable to hybrid attacks. Russia's strategic challenges, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, exemplify the conditions that stimulate the application of hybrid warfare. The loss of control over critical geographical invasion points, combined with Western encroachment on its borders, has led to Russia employing hybrid warfare in an attempt to regain strategic influence over former Soviet territories. The Baltics have responded by implementing whole-of-society defence, a strategy that encourages integrated comprehensive societal participation for national defence. This research aims to understand and explore these opposing strategic dynamics. This study is guided by two key research questions: first, what is the role of hybrid warfare in grand strategy and how effective is it in accomplishing...
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Scotland's ethical paradiplomacy as strategic narratives
White, Kenneth ; Paterson, Ian (advisor) ; Hynek, Nikola (referee)
This dissertation seeks to interrogate Scotland's upcoming publication of a feminist approach to international relations, announced in 2021 - situating it within a growing cohort of states. It assumes the position that Scotland's international activities - conceptualised as paradiplomacy - are already feminist. In conducting this argument, it will explore questions as to why Scotland adopts a feminist foreign policy and as to how this policy might look. The analytical frameworks necessary to answer these questions are conjured through feminist theory, soft power, and strategic narratives. Building on these concepts, content analysis is utilised in relation to Scottish Government communications through the years of Scotland's 'good global citizenship' from 2016 until the present. From this approach, an array of interesting feminist strategic narratives are gleaned and harnessed to better understand how Scotland approaches gender within its paradiplomacy.
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Vox Populi, Vox Dei? The Politicisation of Abortion in the United States
Pazos Puig, Paula ; Hynek, Nikola (advisor) ; Bujnoch, Louis (referee)
The Supreme Court's recent overturning of Roe v. Wade, and with it the constitutional right of abortion, has sparked a debate on the limits of state interference with certain fundamental and private rights. This thesis aims to explore the legal and theoretical framework that allows putting certain fundamental rights, and more specifically that of abortion, up for a vote, and analyses the particularities of the abortion debate through liberalism's political conceptions of justice as fairness. In addition, a conceptualisation of abortion as a human security matter than can be incorporated into the security agenda is provided, which allows for the protection of abortion as a fundamental right.
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Understanding Violence and Conflict: Greenland as a Theory-Building Case Study
Guidoboni, Luca ; Hynek, Nikola (advisor) ; Kilroy, Walt (referee)
Greenland is a land where unresolved conundrums and fast-paced emerging threats intersect. If not properly addressed, these could worsen the critical rates of suicide (one of the highest in the world and 6-7 times higher than the other Nordic countries), multigenerational trauma, and other forms of abuse. By developing and applying a renewed conceptualization of violent conflicts aimed at unravelling their roots, this study recognises that there are precise violent phenomena and conflictual dimensions that curb Greenlandic development across human security and international relations. The study confirms that the Danish 'benign' colonisation, by constituting a discriminatory relationship, provoked frustration among the Inuit, fostering the psychological push factors to self-destruction and violence against other fragile individuals, while environmental conditions and contextual phenomena limited violence at the micro-level. More broadly, the case study demonstrates that discrimination in its wider sense is the main source of violent conflicts and that the redistribution of the ownership of resources is the main way to prevent large and organised violent phenomena. In fact, Greenland currently needs a multi-agency psychosocial healing programme that addresses households and individual therapy....
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The phenomenon of hybrid activities of state and non-state actors
Havlík, Martin ; Hynek, Nikola (advisor) ; Ludvík, Jan (referee)
The rigorous thesis deals with the issue of hybrid action of state and non-state actors using a wide range of tools of power to promote their own interests. The primary intention is to relate the content to the concept of security according to the Copenhagen school, which was one of the most important in the second half of the 20th century after the collapse of the bipolar world order to expand the dimensions of security. The definition of the main concepts of security is further extended by Clausewitz's concept of war and the American concept of Theory of Victory. The introductory theories are followed by an analysis of key theoretical apparatuses of important Western, Russian and Chinese security experts, which are then compared in relation to the essential factors of individual hybrid approaches. The work further describes in detail the significant categories of tools such as soft power, hard power, smart power and sharp power. An important part of the work is also the analysis of state, non-state and proxy-state actors, as the main carriers, users and representatives of hybrid action. In this context, the key determinant is the chosen reference object in the form of the Czech Republic. To complement the issue, the work also includes the related area of facing hybrid threats and hybrid action...
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Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zones and the metaphysics of security communities: perspectives from Tlatelolco and Bangkok
Canola, Vanessa ; Hynek, Nikola (advisor) ; Solovyeva, Anzhelika (referee)
with Adler and Barnett's unorthodox approach based on s' institution and metaphysical factors, such as common identities, norms, transactions and ideas, bringing a fresh approach to the 'academic' table. Through six qualitative one America and Southeast Asia, the author aimed to answer the following research questions: "To what extent do these NWFZs constitute two distinct 'security communities', a concept forged ?", "Can these NWFZs fall under one of the following labels describing their development path: 'nascent', 'ascendant' or 'mature' security communities?", "What is the role of collective identities, shared ideas, and ternational behavior of the state parties?". As a result, after applying the 'three tier' model and analyzing the case studies' development paths, Latin America and Southeast Asia can thus be considered 'loosely tied security communities' in their 'mature'
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