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Russian information warfare in the Baltic states and its impact on the society
Andrle, Vít ; Laryš, Martin (advisor) ; Střítecký, Vít (referee)
This diploma thesis analyses the phenomenon of the Russian information warfare targeting the Baltic states - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. In five chapters the thesis initially theoretically examines phenomenon of the information warfare itself, specifically its typical components and advantages because of which the Russian Federation uses it. After that, the thesis estimates conceptual preconditions and incentives in the Baltic region due to which Russia implements the information warfare specifically in this region. The information warfare in this sense is understood as the psychological pressure onto the society of Baltics, hence, as one of the tools to enforce the interests and goals of the Kremlin's official foreign policy, because the initiators of such information campaigns are the Russian state media or their proxies. Third, in the empirical part, based the conceptually determined factors and particular events related to them, thesis thoroughly deals with discourses and narratives spread through the Russian and pro-Russian media operating in the Baltic states. More specifically, the analysis conducts research of the content of these narratives, their rhetoric, specific features, context and possible impacts onto the society in the Baltics. The goal of this thesis is to analyse thoroughly...
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Information Warfare and the Politics of Threats: An analysis of Russian Information Warfare on Germany and its Perception by German politicians
Mehrer, Angela ; Ludvík, Jan (advisor) ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (referee)
The master thesis analyses the perception of Information Warfare and Russia among German politicians. By using the Qualitative Content Analysis by Schreier, speeches given in the German Bundestag relating to Information Warfare, and Russia were analyzed from January 2015 until December 2018. Using International Relations (IR) theories and political psychological approaches, a theoretical framework was developed in order to determine factors which have an impact on the perception of politicians. The thesis divides this perception into three categories - friend, partner, and threat. Each category is analyzed in depth resulting in support for two of the four hypotheses. The thesis demonstrates that it is not only the political orientation, but also economic interests which determine if a state and its warfare tactics are perceived as a danger. Moreover, the deductive part of the analysis reveals that Russia's behavior which can be perceived as aggressive, irrational, and power-seeking, also determines whether the regime is perceived as threatening. Information Warfare per se is no issue of concern in the Bundestag. However, information warfare tactics such as disinformation campaigns, the spread of fake news and propaganda, and Russia's meddling in western politics are perceived as a danger to...
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An Interplay of Narratives: How Do the Czech Journalists Perceive Securitized Disinformation?
Hroch, Jaroslav ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (advisor) ; Střítecký, Vít (referee)
The aim of this thesis is to contribute to theoretically sound concept of Peace Journalism, which combines theoretical foundations from two spheres: conflict and peace studies and media studies. Influence of journalists as intervening force and explaining factor with regard to (violent) conflict is neglected. However, Peace Journalism is not theoretically strong and builds upon dualistic definition vis-á-vis so-called War Journalism. The concept of Peace Journalism has to overcome this delamination in order to reflect theoretical underpinnings of conflict transformation theory and conflict analysis. Moreover, Peace Journalism has to differentiate media according to an involvement of given societies in a conflict. This offers an opportunity to specifically and accurately analyse news coverage of conflicts. Case studies analysing Czech coverage of Cyprus and Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts illustrates this approach. The coverage is essentially flat, distorts a reality of the conflict, pays attention to visual and physical aspects of the conflict and closes the conflicts in arbitrary time boundaries.
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Genesis of Russian propaganda as a serious security threat of the 21st century from the perspective of NATO and EU
Stejskalová, Jana ; Kučera, Tomáš (advisor) ; Střítecký, Vít (referee)
The thesis entitled "Genesis of Russian propaganda as a serious security threat of the 21st century from the perspective of NATO and EU" examines the phenomenon of contemporary Russian propaganda. Russia commonly uses propaganda as a tool of promoting its interests. Russian propaganda is very sophisticated, aggressive, and massive. Mainly due to the effective use of the internet and social networks, Russian online actors are able, in a short space of time, to successfully generate an information chaos, which is difficult to navigate in. Contemporary Russian propaganda has several key aspects, namely the anti-American and anti-European orientation, attacks on Western democratic values, and the mixing of truth with fiction. Thus, propaganda becomes an effective weapon in the information war that the Kremlin has initiated. The West is aware of these alarming issues and tries to respond. The thesis analyzes the development of the perception of the Kremlin propaganda by the Western international security organizations NATO and EU. At the same time, it attempts to identify the moment when Russian propaganda began to be perceived as a serious security threat. Whereas the key of the analysis is to interpret the perception of Russian propaganda, the concept of securitization was chosen as the theoretical...
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Information War and IR
Nyč, Tomáš ; Ditrych, Ondřej (advisor) ; Záhora, Jakub (referee)
Diploma thesis is focused on the issue of the information warfare in context of debate about modern warfare. Firstly, thesis presented the debate of modern ways of warfare, which consists concepts such as hybrid warfare, non-linear warfare etc. Then presented three main concepts of information warfare in the context of this debate and within the three centres of contemporary power in the world (West, Russia and China). Western concept clearly separating war and peace, Russian complex concept of hybrid-information war and Chinese concept of three warafres. Subsequently, the thesis develops a thesis on the securitization of information warfare in the western environment (EU and NATO states). Securitization is understood as a rhetorical act that presents a phenomenon as a major security threat. In the context of the West, the information warfare has been to some extent securitized. This whole securitization is problematic if we look at the information warfare as a normal state of international relations, which are inherently conflicting and anarchic.
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Combatting Disinformation Campaigns: A Reappraisal of Strategic Communications
Wilson, Alyssa Joy ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Beneš, Jan (referee)
In the context of increasing technologicalization and the growing interconnectedness of our world through social media, this thesis aims to answer the question, why is disinformation not being sufficiently handled in the United States in the wake of the foreign meddling in the 2016 Presidential Elections, and what can and should be done about the threat? This master thesis therefore aims to delve into the inherent vulnerabilities in the U.S. societal fabric, and thus conduct an in-depth explanatory case study model analysis of what should be done to further combat and counteract disinformation and election meddling within the country. The author argues that disinformation and election meddling are not only a serious security threat, but are also not being properly handled as they are only being addressed technologically, and not through the realm of information, and societal resilience. This thesis therefore argues that strategic communication, which should be redefined and expanded in definition, should be used to combat disinformation campaigns to prevent further election meddling. The author posits that a two-level approach is best, one which aims to negate the negative disinformation campaigns through a single governmental body, while also addressing the root causes through education.
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Russian news websites in the Czech Republic and its reporting about the European Union
Podzimková, Pavlína ; Osvaldová, Barbora (advisor) ; Moravec, Václav (referee)
In recent years, many sources have referred to the Russian hybrid or information warfare against the West. Disinformation media is considered an important part of the Russian strategy. A large number of allegedly Russian disinformation websites have appeared in the Czech Republic after 2014, when tensions in Ukraine were escalated. In this bachelor thesis we will analyse three of them: Sputnik Czech Republic, Aeronet and AC24. This content analysis will focus especially on news about the European Union. The aim of this bachelor thesis is to confirm or disprove the hypothesis about the Russian propaganda effort to weaken the status of Western institutions. The thesis will also deal with methods of manipulation in the content of disinformation websites.
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Historical Argumentation in the Russian Information Warfare in Ukraine between 2014-2016
Vaidišová, Natálie ; Kolenovská, Daniela (advisor) ; Šír, Jan (referee)
This bachelor thesis examines Russia's presentation of historical arguments in the information war in Ukraine between 2014-2016 and focuses on the methods and degree of Russia's manipulation of historical arguments. The work reviews the content of a pro-Russian website Russkaya Vesna, which targets Ukrainians. The thesis centres around two historical eras - World War II and the Soviet Union era. When describing events related to WW2, the website adopts a condemning narrative, labelling the UIA, OUN and Stepan Bandera as "fascist", which is examined in the first chapter of the thesis. In its evaluation of the Soviet era, the "soviet nostalgia" phenomenon is put under examination and the ways in which Russia encouraged this nostalgia are being focused on. Based on this research, the thesis proves that between the years 2014-2016, the informational sphere represented a substantial part of the Russian-Ukrainian war, and that the Russian government actively used misleading historical arguments to bolster pro-Russian attitudes in the people of Ukraine.
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US Strategic communication towards Islamic state
Truchlá, Jana ; Beneš, Jan (advisor) ; Riegl, Martin (referee)
The main topic of my bachelor thesis is illustration of public image and strategic communication towards ISIS of two US most recent presidents Obama and Trump. In the theoretical part of the bachelor thesis I will outline the basic description of the Islamic state as a terrorist aggressor and the threat of the West as opposed to US protective policy and leadership in the World Anti-Terrorist Coalition. In this part of thesis I would primarily try to depict the main concept of strategic communication, its forms and the differences between the notions strategic communication and propaganda. In the main part I will describe the activities and the ways of formulating US strategic communication actors to explain the individual steps during the war against ISIS for the relevant audience - US citizens. In particular I will concentrate on official political strategic communication of the US Presidents which I will demonstrate on the particular examples - presidential press conferences and releases. Among digital media, I will focus on using the Twitter social network as a phenomenon to implement diplomacy through tweets. The key point of the work will be a determination of the priorities of strategic communication in the timeframe of Obama's and Trump's term in office. Choosing this specific timeframe...
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Seek Russians behind everything: Critical research of "Russian disinformation campaign" discourse in the Czech republic
Čech, Adam ; Rychnovská, Dagmar (advisor) ; Záhora, Jakub (referee)
of diploma thesis ‚Seek Russians behind everything: Critical research of "Russian disinformation campaign" discourse in the Czech republic'. Author: Bc. Adam Čech Supervised by: Dagmar Rychnovská, M.A., LL.M., Ph.D. Study programme: International relations Year of work defence: 2019 This study researches the "Russian disinformation campaign threat" discourse, that was established in the Czech republic since 2014. The study utilizes a method termed for the purpose of this work as "lesser discourse analysis". It explores the origins and influences that played a role in creation of a specific understanding of the topic. Subsequently it engages in a critical analysis of the discourse and assesses whether the understanding of the Russian hybrid threat, especially regarding the disinformation, is legitimate and based on known facts and correct interpretation of them, or whether it is not (partially) based on delusions, myths, logical shortcuts, misinformation (or possibly disinformation) on part of the creators and active participators of the discourse. The study also presents a set of recommendations to "straighten" the discourse on this important topic. The study engages in analysing of the process of the agenda-setting regarding the topic through the lenses of "securitization theory ". It identifies...
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