|
Nation Branding of Middle East Countries: The case of Saudi Arabia
Kolská, Martina ; Soukeník, Štěpán (advisor) ; Shavit, Anna (referee)
Changing a country's image is a complex process requiring long-term strategic effort. Nation brands are influenced by a wide range of external influences possibly causing negative images or stereotyping. Thus, regarding states, rebranding is often used to redefine the generally perceived image. Nonetheless, the image of a state is deeply rooted and cannot be changed by marketing tools and communication alone. Noticeable changes and policy actions are needed to create a strong communication basis for the development of a nation branding strategy. Countries generally having reputation problems are often non-democratic and the growth of their brand tends to be limited. The Middle East frequently faces negative image and stereotyping. At the same time, nation branding receives vast attention, effort and budgets there. Saudi Arabia launched its nation rebranding strategy by presenting the Vision 2030 document. This paper aims to determine the extent of nation branding multidisciplinarity in the Saudi context. A combination of a quantitative analysis of national branding indexes and semi-structured expert interviews is chosen. Nation branding in Saudi Arabia has experienced moderate growth, considerable professionalization, and the first strategic achievements of the Vision 2030 plan. On the contrary,...
|
|
Influence of the US Foreign Policy on Syria Conflict
Hrudka, Tomáš ; Zukerstein, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Raška, Francis (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with american foreign policy in the Middle East, specifically how it reflects on the civil war in Syria. For the United States the Middle East region represents one of the most strategically important areas in the world since the end of World War II with their main interests being security of one of their main allies, Israel, and also access to rich middle eastern oil reserves. Destabilization of the region caused by the civil war in Syria of course presents a risk for these american interests. The rise of radical islamic terrorist organization called the Islamic State (IS) as one of its actors, became a pretext for the US entry into the conflict. Although the United States do not participate directly in Syrian civil war, have an impact on its development through support for certain organizations, military intervention in Iraq and other policy instruments. The thesis analyzes the ways in which American policy has affected the development of the conflict in Syria without entering it directly . The main questions the thesis answers are: To what extent US foreign policy in the region affects the course of the Syrian conflict? How is the US involved in the conflict and what political or other tools they use? How did the participation of the United States in the conflict...
|
|
The Approach of the First and Second Obama Administration to Israel: A Comparison Between 2009 and 2014
Čurdová, Markéta ; Bečka, Jan (advisor) ; Anděl, Petr (referee)
This thesis aims to compare the approach of the first and second Obama admi- nistrations to Israel between years 2009 and 2014. It analyzes American foreign policy with respect to Israel through several criteria including the process of conflict resolution, Obama's rhetoric and number of visits into the region made by secretaries of state. The work also observes what effect the Arab spring and the Iranian nuclear program had on American policy towards Israel. By comparing these criteria the author identifies the main differences in the ap- proach to Israel. The thesis verifies the hypothesis that the first Obama admi- nistration accepted pro-Palestinian approach with regard to resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and that it was willing to act more independently on Israel with regard to geopolitical development in the region. The thesis an- swers four questions. How did the approach of the two Obama administrations to Israel-Palestinian conflict change? How did the geopolitical events in the re- gion affect the approach to Israel? Is it possible to observe an exertion of higher pressure on Tel Aviv to make compromises? Does the American perspective of Israel as an ally change in the long run?
|
|
Political-Military Risks for Tourism in the Middle East
Krajňák, Tomáš ; Vágner, Jiří (advisor) ; Jelen, Libor (referee)
Political-Military Risks for Tourism in the Middle East Abstract The master's thesis analyses the perception of political-military risks for incoming tourism in the Middle East from the perspective of Czech potential tourists. The examined area of the Middle East bears some geographic and geopolitical ideas, that are still absent in the Czech scientific milieu. Tourism in the Middle East also operates in the environment of political-military risks. Scholarly literature suggests that these risks represent one of the main factors influencing the choice of destination. The paper deepens understanding of this relationship by focusing on the perception of political-military risks in space, in terms of their typological diversity, and analyses determinants of this perception. The main research tool, a questionnaire, served to collect data that was analysed through descriptive statistics and statistical inference, as a paired t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA) and correlation analysis. The findings are mostly in consensus with theoretical knowledge and previous studies. Individual types of political- military risks showed different impact on the perception for realization of tourism. A statistically significant difference exists between violent and non-violent political-military risks. In some cases, however,...
|
|
Eisenhower Doctrine and the Middle East in years 1957 and 1958
Myslík, Martin ; Pondělíček, Jiří (advisor) ; Raška, Francis (referee)
With the Suez crises, according to American administration, was created a vacuum of power in the Middle East. This vacuum was in the eyes of the American government needed to be fill sooner, than Soviet Union and to isolate pro-soviet state, like Egypt and Syria. To this purpose, the Eisenhower doctrine was created, which should fought against international communism. Used method is the diplomatic history, bachelor's thesis provides outlook to shaping American foreign politics in 1957 and 1958 in the region of the Middle East and its application is comparing with the wording of the doctrine and also from the American view on decolonization. The author of the thesis, in conclusion, summarizes that doctrine was successful in intimidating Soviet union from larger engaging in region, but on the analysis of the use of the doctrine shows, that mostly the doctrine was used in the fight against Arab nationalism not against communism. Which was in contradiction with doctrine, which was supposed to fight only against communism. Keywords Eisenhower doctrine, United States, Middle East, international communism, Crisis of Suez. Cold war, dekolonization
|
|
UNRWA and its activities in selected Middle East countries
Hlaváčová, Lenka ; Šánová, Lucie (advisor) ; Parízek, Michal (referee)
The main aim of this master thesis is analyze role of UNRWA in the Middle East in 1950- 2010 based on the collected data. The main focus is on the population growth tendencies which are often criticized as the result of the UNRWA politics and which might be prolonging the conflict in the area. Second part of this thesis focuses on the elementary and preparatory education at UNRWA schools. Based on the research done, it was concluded that UNRWA isn't responsible of Palestinian refugee growth as it is the result of population growth in region and the result of foreign events. In question of elementary and preparatory education, the decreasing percentage tendencies in attendance at UNRWA run schools have been observed despite multiplication of the refugee population. This might be a result of failing to accommodate to the needs of Palestinian refugees.
|
|
The Final Externalization of the Others and its Consequences for the Turkish Foreign Policy
Chvátal, Viktor ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Ditrych, Ondřej (referee)
This diploma thesis focuses on the analysis of Turkish Foreign Policy (TFP) towards the sub- regions of Central Eurasia (the Middle East and Central Asia) in the period between 1991 and 2010. Theoretically, this thesis combines a modified version of social constructivism with the assumptions of critical geopolitics. Interconnecting social constructivism with the Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), this thesis targets the domestic level of analysis. Therefore, the ideational background of the decision-makers is examined. Although, the potential impact of the identity variable on the TFP articulation is investigated after 1991 only, the genesis of the long-term identity conflict within the Turkish (Ottoman) society is also included in the analyses. Given the geopolitical part, this thesis draws upon the basic critical insight that the geopolitical argumentation is based on discursive rather than material factors. The aim is to identify the geopolitical metaphors which had been, in the examined period, applied while dealing with the above mentioned sub-regions. At this stage, the theoretical approaches are logically synthetized and the genesis and usage of the geopolitical metaphors is examined in relation to the identity of those who formulated them. This diploma thesis proves that the identity conflict...
|
|
Oasis in the heart of Europe. Orientalism in Czech architecture of the 19th century
Vránová, Veronika ; Šmied, Miroslav (advisor) ; Czumalo, Vladimír (referee)
Europe of the early 19th century is searching for its new artistic persona. Several new and distinct directions come into being, all vying for a spot on the landscape of arts and for the leading position. This desire to search for new directions deepens Europe's interest in the Orient. Meeting of the West with the East goes all the way back to early Middle Ages and manifests through several phases all the way to the present day. Fascination by the Orient in the 19th century was connected mainly to Napoleon's Egypt campaign, Greek uprising against the Turks, France's conquest of Northern Africa, World Exhibition in London and excursions into exotic lands themselves undertaken by contemporary enthusiasts. The wave of orientalism permeated all levels of fine art. It is most often seen in painting, graphic arts and photography and seen the least in sculpture. The thesis follows the orientalism phenomenon from the end of 18th century to the First World War. The goal is to provide some insight into its influence on areas of the fine arts in central Europe and provide background for future research in doing so. Key focus of the thesis is the research of exotic tendencies in architecture in the Kingdom of Bohemia and presenting it in the context of oriental architecture of other countries under the...
|
|
The Threat of the Islamic State Terrorism in the Middle East and Beyond
Imanov, Toghrul ; Ditrych, Ondřej (advisor) ; Riegl, Martin (referee)
Bibliographic note Author. ISIS: Terrorist state or terrorist organization . 65 p. Master thesis. Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of International Economic and Political Studies. Supervisor. Abstract The thesis deals with the investigation of the terrorist activities run by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an entity in the Middle East which is commonly referred to as a terrorist organization. By evaluating the activities run by ISIS in the seized territories, the organization of civil governance and public administration in them, the investigation of the propaganda model applied by ISIS for attracting new members from around the globe, and the analysis of the main sources of funding used by the Islamic State, the author proves that ISIS significantly differs from classical terrorist organizations, and therefore might be assigned the status of a terrorist state. Abstrakt Diplomová práce se zabývá. Keywords Insurgency, ISIS, Islamic State, propaganda, terrorism. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
|
|
Barack Obama and Middle East
Černý, Ondřej ; Anděl, Petr (advisor) ; Raška, Francis (referee)
The thesis named Barack Obama and Middle East analyzes American foreign policy to-wards the countries of the Middle East region - Iraq, Iran and Israel. After two con-secutive terms of George W. Bush, new policies of the Obama administration are de-fined with the Middle East still in its centre. This paper answers three basic questions: What is Obama's desirable Middle East policy? In what aspects it is different from the steps of his predecessor? To what extent are the pre-election promises fulfilled? The commitments are defined from Obama's speeches and articles made during the peri-od of his candidacy and also from the recommendations of his advisors. The differen-ces between this planned foreign policy and the steps of George Bush are recapitula-ted in the next part. The third part explores the fulfilment of Obama's promises.
|