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American Ways of War and Strategic Culture: A Reflection in Domestic and Foreign Cinematography
Kondrótová, Katarína ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Špelda, Petr (referee)
American Ways of War and Strategic Culture: A Reflection in Domestic and Foreign Cinematography Katarína Kondrótová Abstract This thesis examines the portrayal of American strategic culture in movies from the USA and two countries with which the USA has been in conflict with - Vietnam and Afghanistan. The research focuses on comparing them with official US strategies and contrasting the different national portrayals among themselves. The aim is to discover how the USA and its way of war is depicted at home and abroad through movies - a popular medium with the power to shape perceptions. The research is anchored in the international relations theory of post-structuralism and the concepts of strategic culture and national ways of war. They serve as a lens through which the most popular war movies from each country are analyzed. The findings showed that American movies were more precise in depicting their real-life strategic approaches and tended to be more derogatory in their portrayal of their adversaries. They also showed a more critical depiction of US conduct in Vietnam compared to Afghanistan. When it comes to the foreign movies, Vietnamese films were more critical of the USA than Afghan films, but not as disdainful of the enemy as the USA. Afghan depictions exhibited the dual nature of their opinion of...
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Strategic Culture of the Czech Republic
Beneš, Jan ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Eichler, Jan (referee) ; Kučera, Tomáš (referee)
Jan Beneš Strategic Culture of the Czech Republic Abstract The aim of the dissertation is to define in a complex manner the strategic culture of the Czech Republic. Strategic culture is at first analysed as a conceptual phenomenon both in relation to strategy itself and to the theories of international relations. The dissertation introduces the different streams of thought about strategic culture and then studies the approaches of the key involved authors with a special focus on the discussion between the first and the third generation of strategic culture scholars. Concerning the fact that the strategic culture has been originally created for the study of the behaviour and strategic thought of major powers, the author analyses the historical and geostrategic peculiarities of a small state in the Central Europe and then defines own conceptual and methodological framework. Using the method of grounded theory, the important symbols and narratives from the Czech history as well as the most important moments in the Czech political and strategic thought and decision-making are being examined. The historical narratives re-appear and influence the decision-making, thinking and argumentation of the key actors in the Czech security community. The research of the key decisions and historical moments after the 1989 is...
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Germany's commitment to CSDP operations: comparing the cases of the DRC and Libya
Westenberger, Kay Louise ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Beneš, Jan (referee)
This thesis analyses Germany's commitment to multilateral military operations. Following the research question why Germany participates in some multilateral military operations but not in others, Germany's respective decision-making process regarding troop deployment in the DR Congo in 2006 on one hand and military non-engagement in Libya 2011 on the other hand is traced. By contrasting the concept of strategic culture with a purely rational assessment of the factors of alliance politics, risk-analysis and military feasibility of the operations, the decisiveness of taking into account Germany's strategic culture to explain deployment decisions is stressed. Neither is there a lack of external pressure for German military participation in the case of Libya, nor is the military operation in the DR Congo decisively less risky or militarily more feasible. Rather, Germany's multilateral and anti- militaristic strategic cultural strands affect its decision-making. Next to demanding a thorough justification and legitimization of any military engagement, two red lines for military deployment can be identified. First, Germany refuses to act unilaterally and displays a high reluctance towards military engagement outside the multilateral framework of the UN, NATO or EU. Secondly, Germany rejects to engage in...
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Analysing the alternation of strategic subcultures: the case of Israel
Houdek, Kryštof ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Kučera, Tomáš (referee)
The thesis examines altering of Israeli strategic subcultures and their influence on strategic decision-making. It expands the body of literature on strategic culture. The strategic culture influences the decisions regarding when, if and how to use force. The three cases in this thesis encompass strategic decision-making in regard to Iran, Hezbollah and the Syrian civil war. The strategic culture takes a form of particular strategic subculture, which expresses a preference for a particular kind of strategic behaviour. Israeli strategic culture is examined thoroughly throughout its history in the context of strategic culture. The strategic culture and its aspects are described on the background of evolving "national security doctrine." The changes in the strategic culture are correlated with the shifts in the strategic environment and with the evolution of new military technologies and strategies of waging war.
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Between Defence and Offence: An Analysis Of The US "Cyber Strategic Culture"
Persoglia, Davide ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Karásek, Tomáš (referee)
The present thesis deals with the US strategic approach and posture to cybersecurity from a national point of view. On such a topic much has been written already, nonetheless the present work finds a degree of originality by tackling such object of analysis shifting the focus to a ideational perspective. By drawing insights from the meta-theory of Constructivism and the rich research tradition on strategic culture, the present thesis aims at understanding what kind of norms seem to be informing/mirroring what has been labelled the US "cyber strategic culture", and if it is possible to speak of a "shift", or at least track an evolution regarding them, in a historical timeframe that runs from the early 2000s up to the present days. To pursue the stated research agenda, a methodology grounded in discourse and thematic analysis is utilised, with an analytical framework centred around two opposite "thematic normative categories" (themes) called "defensiveness" and "offensiveness", each characterised by a "story" made up by three sub-themes, delineating specific strategic behaviours. A set of official strategies, all tackling cybersecurity and published during the mentioned timeframe by both the White House and the military, form the primary sources to which such methodology is applied, with particular...
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Progressive divergence? The development of Croatian and Slovenian strategic cultures since independence
Vogrinec, Matevž ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Beneš, Jan (referee)
This thesis focuses on the development of strategic culture in Slovenia and Croatia since independence. Croatia and Slovenia are small countries in the Western Balkans. Both countries became independent in 1991 and since then they became important regional actors in the Western Balkans. This thesis traces Slovenia and Croatia's historical position within the former SFR Yugoslavia's defence system. The empirical analysis in the thesis examines official documents of both countries to find basic notions of the strategic culture of Croatia and Slovenia. The thesis' research focuses on finding how both countries' goal of Euro-Atlantic integration influenced the development of their strategic culture. Keywords: Strategic Culture, Slovenia, Croatia
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The Czech-German Military-Security Cooperation vs. the Arising Strategic Culture of the Czech Republic
Stojanovová, Kamila ; Handl, Vladimír (advisor) ; Dvořák, Pavel (referee)
This bachelor thesis depicts the Czech-German military-security cooperation in context of the security cultures of both countries. It focuses on the specific German strategic culture, however, the process of emerging strategic culture in the case of Czech Republic as a possible limiting factor for the military cooperation with Germany has also been pointed out. The theoretical base of this work are the concepts of political- military culture from Thomas U. Berger and strategic culture from Kerry Longhurst. The key criteria for the compatibility-analysis of both strategic cultures are the historical experience with the use of military force, the attitudes to army and use of force across the political elite, in the public opinion and in strategic papers, and the legitimation process of military missions. According to this, the aim of the work is to find the reason why in the period prior to the accession of Czech Republic to NATO the cooperation in the political and practical spheres didn't take place in the same intensity. At the same time, it tries to find the reason why the participation of the Czech Army in PRT Faizabad has been the only significant moment in the military cooperation with Germany after the NATO-accession in 1999. However, this work doesn't leave out the recent development, which...
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Military Strategy of the Russian Federation in Early 21st Century
Konopásek, Štěpán ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Ditrych, Ondřej (referee)
Diploma thesis tracks a process of transformation of the military strategy of the Russian Federation since its establishment (end of 1991) up to now (May 2016). The author observes, using longitudinal method of Process Tracing and with help of strategic theory and concept of strategic culture, the author observes in which areas of the Russian strategic culture and military strategy occurred changes throughout the surveyed period of time and how the changes influenced strategy implemented in armed conflicts in which Russian Federation was involved. Another observed phenomenon is a formalisation of ideological anchoring of revisionist foreign and security policy in the key strategic documents. Following factors are identified as critical in formation and implementation of final strategy: Presidential administration, strategic culture, strategic documents, armed forces, and military operations. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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United States of America and counterinsurgency: Afghanistan
Petráš, Vojtěch ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Karásek, Tomáš (referee)
Counterinsurgency warfare has had an ambiguous position in the American military tradition. After the Vietnam experience, the population-control-oriented doctrine of David Galula was almost forgotten. Current war of the United States of America in Afghanistan turned out to be a conflict where application of the doctrine comes in question. It is codified in the 2006 FM 3-24 counterinsurgency manual. The author of the thesis Spojené státy americké a protipovstalecký boj: Afghánistán asks a question whether the behavior of American armed forces in Afghanistan was in compliance with the COIN doctrine of David Galula. The author looks at the conflict through lens of Galula's eight counterinsurgency steps, as defined in his book Counterinsurgency Warfare: Theory and Practice. The author of the thesis looks for factors that could influence fulfilment of the steps and he gives the factors in perspective with American strategic culture, as defined in the thesis. The analysis shows that the fulfilment of Galula's eight steps has never occurred. Traditional military thinking partially locked successful adaptation of American armed forces to the environment of Afghanistan. However, the author comes to the discovery that in terms of strategic culture, there were some shifts in Afghanistan.
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The causes of continuing existence of the French Foreign Legion
Dolejší, Daniel ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Kučera, Tomáš (referee)
Daniel Dolejší The causes of continuing existence of the French Foreign Legion 2015 Abstract The core theme of this diploma thesis is the French Foreign Legion that is examined from the point of view of national interests and strategic culture of France. It is very unusual in developed countries to have foreigners as a part of national army. Goal of the thesis is to discover and describe the causes of continuing existence of the French Foreign Legion. First of all, the author defines national interests and strategic culture of France for certain periods, and then he assesses the contribution of the Legion to fulfillment of goals connected to the national interests and the strategic culture. To the main conclusions of this work belongs that the first hypothesis was confirmed, the French Foreign Legion helped to reach goals based on national interests in certain periods. On the other hand, the second hypothesis was not completely confirmed. The author expected that the strategic culture always stabilizes and supports the role of the Legion, but he found out the opposite for the interwar period. The author supposes higher importance of the Legion in the area of peacekeeping operations under a mandate of the UN or NATO because the EU currently lacks troops prepared to be deployed abroad.
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