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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 (vedoucí práce) ; Hynek, Nikola (oponent)
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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Torn by divided loyalties? - Russian soft power influence in Estonia's Narva amid the Russo-Ukrainian War
Kutzscher, Christian ; Ó Beacháin, Donnacha (vedoucí práce) ; Cheskin, Ammon (oponent)
The city of Narva is Estonia's third largest city, located on the border to Russia. Its inhabitants are largely of Russian origin and many ties to the neighbouring Russia to the east are still existent. When Russia invaded Ukraine for the first time in 2014, breaching the sovereignty of an independent nation, various scholars, journalists, and experts were quick to identify parallels with other geostrategic locations that seemingly resemble the Ukrainian case. For Estonia, the scenario of 'Narva next?' was created. The large proportion of Russophones, economic problems, the legacy of the Soviet oppression and exploitation as well as a societal gap between Estonians and Narvians seemed to make Narva an entry point for Russia's 'green men'. In 2022, Russia is invading Ukraine in a large-scale war, once again showing the violent character of Putin's expansionist ideology. Together with the fear of invasion in the Baltic States, Narva is once again in the spotlight. The Russian influence in NATO and EU member countries is largely exerted through disinformation campaigns, propagated through various media outlets. This dissertation analyses the impact of Russian soft power, both in media, traditions, and cultural ties. The comparison between before and after the invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022,...
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Russian foreign policy identity and the war in Ukraine
Zhakypbekova, Aidana ; Střítecký, Vít (vedoucí práce) ; Cheskin, Ammon (oponent)
Current Russia's unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine raised concerns about Russia's aggressive behavior that poses a serious threat to international security, as it is the largest war in a European continent since World War II (BBC, 2022a; Psaropoulos, 2022; The Guardian, 2022). Russia rejects to stop its hostile and brutal foreign policy, and as a result, faces economic, political, and social isolation from the world (Psaropoulos, 2022; Bown, 2022; Ria Novosti, 2022). This dissertation explores 1) how Russian foreign policy identity is revealed in the discourse surrounding the war in Ukraine and 2) to what extent the war in Ukraine demonstrates long-term identity patterns of Russian foreign policy. In terms of a theoretical contribution, this dissertation explores Russian foreign policy identity from the perspective of constructivism and a theory of strategic culture (Adler, 2013; Antczak, 2018; Berger, 1966; Hopf 1998; Kanet, 2022; Snyder, 1977; Wendt, 1992). The question of Russian foreign policy identity will be addressed through the qualitative case study analysis of the war in Ukraine and thematic discourse analysis (Dijk, 2009; Paltridge, 2012; Paul, 2009; Priya, 2020; Yin, 2009). The dissertation argues that Russian foreign policy identity analyzed through the discourse of RIA Novosti...
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Sending in the troops: A comparative analysis of the potential regional security paradigm shift within the Collective Security Treaty Organisation
Pollock, Anthony ; Cheskin, Ammon (vedoucí práce) ; Kučera, Tomáš (oponent)
This thesis examines the regional security governance of the Russian-led military alliance of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO). The main argument in this thesis is that the organisation has seemingly experienced a paradigm shift in its response to resolving internal conflicts of member states who have requested assistance from the organisation. This is conveyed through a comparative analysis of three incidents in which a member state has called for an intervention from the CSTO: the revolution and subsequent ethnic clashes in Kyrgyzstan in 2010, Armenia's call for intervention following the encroachment of Azeri troops into Armenian sovereign territory in 2021, and the Kazakh Unrest in January 2022. This thesis will convey that in the past the CSTO has abstained from intervening in such conflicts deeming them to be internal affairs or Russia has opted to act alone to resolve the matter rather than utilising the regional mechanism of the CSTO. This is due to the organisation's institutional design which ensures that there are a series of bilateral relationships between Moscow and the other member states, which have been established in order for Russia to maintain its sphere of influence within its near abroad. This thesis argues that there has been a potential paradigm shift...
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Russian cyber strategy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA): Analysing the Kremlin's disinformation efforts amid 2022 invasion of Ukraine
Janadze, Elene ; Biagini, Erika (vedoucí práce) ; Cheskin, Ammon (oponent)
Over-reliance on social media platforms for news in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) provides fertile ground for Russia to cultivate its image as a great power through Russian state- funded media channels such as RT Arabic and Sputnik Arabic. RT Arabic (formerly known as Russia Today) started operating in the developing countries of the Arabic-speaking Middle East as early as May 2007 (Jensen, 2018). Although disinformation has grown to be an important component of Russia's strategic engagement in the MENA, the Kremlin's information operations targeting the Arabic-speaking populations are still not thoroughly investigated in the literature. This study draws from the literature on Russia's broader strategy in the MENA and brings emphasis to the information component of the strategy that has received little academic attention. Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine marked a further increase in Moscow's Ukraine-related disinformation campaigns in the MENA, providing a new opportunity to assess Russia's broader strategic goals in the region via gaining insights into the anatomy of the Kremlin's information operations. In this light, Russia's disinformation efforts in the MENA - the region that has traditionally been a battleground between great powers - have become a significant subject to study....
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The Role of National Media in the Framing of the Conflict in Eastern Ukraine
Kaidanovych, Nadiia ; Conway, Maura (vedoucí práce) ; Cheskin, Ammon (oponent) ; Kazharski, Aliaksei (oponent)
The Role of National Media in the Framing of the Conflict in Eastern Ukraine July 2019 2048729 17116121 66571752 Presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of International Master in Security, Intelligence & Strategic Studies Word Count: 21931 Supervisor: Dr Maura Conway Date of Submission: 25 July, 2019 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract..................................................................................3 Introduction..............................................................................4 Theoretical Background................................................................6 Media Functions in Society.................................................................6 The Impact of Traditional Media Coverage on Conflict...........................9 Media as a Propaganda Tool............................................................9 CNN Effect.............................................................................16 Media in a New Era: Between Conflict and Peace.....................................16 Research Objectives...................................................................23 Research Objectives...................................................................23 The Scope of Research........................................................................24 Methodology...........................................................................25 Framing......................................................................
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Hybrid Warfare' or 'Weaponisation' of Information? Comparative study of the evolution of Russian assertive (dis)information actions
Topuria, Revaz ; Cheskin, Ammon (vedoucí práce) ; Murphy, Karl (oponent) ; Aslan, Emil (oponent)
Russian assertive actions over the last decade have led some observers to think that Kremlin is employing fundamentally new concepts of armed conflict. Subsequently, scholars came up with a number of buzzwords and ill-defined concepts such as 'hybrid warfare' and 'Gerasimov Doctrine'. This paper believes that novelty of Russian actions is not in terms of its military, but rather the specific nature of operations employed by Kremlin had to do more with the way military was integrated with other instruments, mostly state-run and coordinated information operations. Thus, the project puts a whole new emphasis on information operations and claims that while in certain cases Moscow still uses conventional military, Kremlin's new plan is to achieve goals through information online in the first place, rather than fight the enemy on the battlefield. As paper intends to analyse how Russian information strategy has evolved, it employs quantitative and qualitative content analysis to examine narratives built by RIA Novosti and Russia Today/RT during Russo-Georgian War of 2008 and annexation of Crimea in 2014. The results show that Russia has learnt its mistakes from Georgian case as in 2014 pro- Kremlin media was more sophisticated and relied on using contested areas of international law to depict Russian...
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Assessing the Digital Hegemony
Keyser, Daniel ; Vostal, Filip (vedoucí práce) ; Cheskin, Ammon (oponent) ; Biagini, Erika (oponent)
Assessing the Digital Hegemony Daniel Keyser Abstract This paper seeks to answer whether there exists a global superpower in regard to control of the internet. This position, drawing upon the historical and political science related position of Hegemon, is explored further through the concept of Hegemony and its related ideas to form both a theory, that of Digital Hegemony, and methodology to address the question in an empirical case study of the United States of America and the People's Republic of China. The empirical argument is based off of the amount of traffic generated by nationally based companies, the amount of control over internet based architecture and infrastructure globally, and the development of future technologies linked to the internet. The empirical findings of this paper conclude that the United States of America has control of the internet through amount of traffic generated, and amount of architecture and infrastructure globally owned by nationally based corporations, but that this Digital Hegemony is being challenged by the People's Republic of China, especially in regard to future technologies linked to the internet, arguing that the United States must increase its investment and development into these industries either by government back programs or its corporations to maintain the...
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The 1% Predicament: A Resource Worth Fighting? The Role of Water Critical Infrastructure during the Syrian Civil War
Staa, Robin ; Rivetti, Paola (vedoucí práce) ; Cheskin, Ammon (oponent) ; Karásek, Tomáš (oponent)
Since the 1960s, the relationship between water Critical Infrastructure (wCI) and conflict has been discussed extensively; both inside and outside of academic circles. Initially, the matter was solely viewed as a one-sided relationship in which conflicts had a destructive impact on water CI and environmental resources in general. However, the mid-1990s saw a reversal of the causal arrow, as academics started to highlight how wCI can exacerbate tensions and drive conflict. A decade later, this hypothesis was questioned, and scholars began to point out how water CI enhances cooperation and promotes peace. Accordingly, since the 1990s, the majority of the discussion on the relationship of water CI and conflict has been dominated by a discourse between the 'water conflict' and the 'water peace' perspectives. However, the last decade this field of study has seen a new shift as scholars are increasingly giving more focus to an additional dimension of the relationship between water CI and conflict, namely how water CI is utilised to further political, economic, military, or terrestrial objectives. Through an analysis of the Syrian civil war, this study makes several contributions to the emerging literature on the use of water CI and its effectiveness in conflict. This paper demonstrates that wCI is used...
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Managing Declining Power: The Visegrad Group's Defence Cooperation within the Context of EU Defence and Security Integration
Watt, Keir Alexander ; Ó Beacháin, Donnacha (vedoucí práce) ; Ludvík, Jan (oponent) ; Cheskin, Ammon (oponent)
This paper examines the Visegrád Group's (V4) defence cooperation within the wider context of EU defence cooperation. Analysis centres around explaining the V4's place in these broader developments and how EU policies have interacted with the V4's attempts at increasing their defence cooperation. Defence cooperation initiatives are conceptualised as an effort to manage and reverse declining European military power. The analysis follows a narrative form, theoretically informed by neoclassical realism to detail and explain the most important factors propelling closer defence cooperation at the European and V4 level. Whilst also explaining intervening factors which have hampered these efforts. These factors are identified and interpreted through neoclassical realism using multi- layered analysis. Analysis follows a narrative centred around several periodic crises which have created "perceptual shocks," propelling cooperation as a response to further declining capabilities. These include the Balkans crisis (1992), the financial crisis (2008), and Russia's annexation of Crimea (2015). The paper shows that these crises propelled EU and V4 defence cooperation, but with variable success. A key obstacle for EU cooperation was the primacy of national interests in defence cooperation, which in turn hampered successful...
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