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Managing state-militia relations
Waddington, Michael ; Aslan, Emil (vedoucí práce) ; Kaczmarski, Marcin (oponent)
Title- Managing State-Militia Relations Subtitle- Divide and Control 25/07/2022 Glasgow Student Number: 2610868 Dublin City Student Number: 592498 Charles Student Number: 39388528 Presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree Of International Master in Security, Intelligence and Strategic Studies Word Count: 20050 Supervisor: Emil Aslan Date of Submission: 26/07/2022 Abastract Militias are playing an increasing role in an array of conflicts across the globe. This makes understanding how states can successfully manage these groups vital as they have both the potential to be key counterinsurgency tools, as well as the causes of instability and unnecessary violence. Existing research on state-militia relations highlights many mechanisms used to shape the partnerships between these groups. However, they have failed to acknowledge the impact the organisational structure of militias has on shaping these partnerships. This dissertation investigates this gap in research by exploring the role decentralisation of militia leadership plays in the management of state-militia relationships during civil wars. States seek to limit the independent capacity of militias while protecting their anti-rebel capacity. Existing study of the mechanisms through which this is achieved have focused on identity and...
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Brothers in espionage: Examining the relationship between the Stasi and the KGB
Brütsch, Nickolas Adler ; Kaczmarski, Marcin (vedoucí práce) ; Michálek, Luděk (oponent)
This dissertation seeks to answer the research question "what was the relationship between the Soviet KGB and the East German Stasi". Based on the maxim that "there are no such thing as friendly intelligence services, just intelligence services of friendly states" this work analyses the KGB-Stasi relationship through a theoretical framework grounded in the work of Sophia Hoffmann and Joseph Hatfield. In order to provide an answer to the research question this dissertation analyses the KGB- Stasi relationship at the levels of state, institution and individuals. Throughout this project argues that there are no such thing as friendly intelligence services, and that the relationship between the Stasi and the KGB was far from friendly despite shared goals, adversaries and history.
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The regional order in Asia-Pacific: The role of the joint Sino-Russian air patrols and the Dokdo/Takeshima dispute
Kim, Stella Celine ; Kaczmarski, Marcin (vedoucí práce) ; Ludvík, Jan (oponent)
This paper analyses the role of the joint Sino-Russian air patrols that took place annually since 2019 in the East China Sea and Sea of Japan. Asia-Pacific as a region shaped by the strategic competition of the United States (U.S.) and China is set to experience a shift in the regional order through an emerging Sino-Russian military partnership, which has managed to destabilize the American security architecture through its most recent air patrols. These joint air patrols fly not only routes over three highly relevant strategic locations but have also caused further friction between the U.S.' most important allies in the region: South Korea and Japan, over the defence of an unsettled territorial dispute of Dokdo/Takeshima, whose airspace was violated in the first joint air patrol. Through four case studies which capture variations in the warplanes, flight path and duration of the joint air patrols, and a lack of a coordinated response from both South Korea and Japan, a rift between the U.S.' most important allies in the region, that is being exploited by a rising Sino-Russian military partnership can be detected. This paper contributes to the research on the emerging Sino-Russian military alliance, the continuous Sino-U.S. strategic competition and the relevance of the disputed territory of...
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Russian gas politics: A discursive approach to German and Polish energy security narratives and their uploading to the EU
Sainz de Vicuña, Santamarie de Paredes Miguel ; Karásek, Tomáš (vedoucí práce) ; Kaczmarski, Marcin (oponent)
Energy security is back at the centre of the political discussions in the European Union (EU) due to the current energy crisis, with the energy relationship with Russia and the different energy policy priorities as the most important friction points. This paper aims to move beyond the strategic and political considerations of the discussion and focuses on how the disagreements among member states shape the European energy security discourse. The study conducts a discourse analysis of the German and Polish energy security narratives as they represent the antagonistic positions in the debate. The dissertation then dissects the attempts by these states to upload their preferences to the EU level, with the conflicting attitudes demonstrated on the example of Nord Stream 2. The study shows that Poland has shaped the EU's energy security narrative during the recent years more successfully than Germany, to the point that the EU's discourse now contests the energy security preferences of Germany as revealed by the case of Nord Stream 2. Keywords: Energy Security European Union Germany Poland Europeanization Nord Stream 2
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Beyond the algorithms: Evaluating the risks of deploying machine learning in domestic counterterrorism: A comparison between predictive policing and counterterrorism activities
Bicknese, Emma Lisa ; Špelda, Petr (vedoucí práce) ; Kaczmarski, Marcin (oponent)
Over the last decades, Machine Learning (ML) has been implemented in nearly every part of our daily lives. Whereas this development was heavily discussed in the area of predictive policing (PP), there was little public debate when it comes to ML's implementation in domestic counterterrorism (CT). This is due to the fact that the counterterrorism domain is a very non- transparent field. Classified information forms an obstacle to proper scholarly analysis. The thesis aims to contribute to the public debate on the implementation of ML in CT by asking the following research question: examining critiques provided by scholars on predictive policing, what are the risks of deploying machine learning tools in domestic counterterrorism? A comparative case study method supplemented by scenario-building allows for an analysis of the risks of ML/CT. More specifically, by using PP arguments as a proxy for CT, arguments can be made to show that the technical and socio-technical risks, in most cases, also hold for counterterrorism tools. The analysis highlights those risks by exploring PP arguments for three CT instruments: individual risk assessments, biometric tools (most notably facial recognition technology), and general models that predict details of future terrorist attacks. It was found that only the last...
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We didn't start the fire: Ressentiment, the far right, and the Capitol Hill insurrection
Breyer, Magdalena Katharina ; Massetti, Emanuele (vedoucí práce) ; Kaczmarski, Marcin (oponent)
The far-right phenomenon continues to function within the logics of ideological modernity. As such, there is a necessity to examine and understand the foundations, the political and social logics and origins, of the original matrices, for it is within these that the fundamental elements rest to make sense of contemporary ideological fields and grasp developments such as democratic backsliding, ideological radicalisation, and the events of January 6. Nevertheless, scholarship on the influence of Nietzschean thought within the American far right has largely been scant. However, within the contemporary discourse of the American far right is a Nietzschean paradox, the simultaneous mobilisation of language which echoes Nietzsche's critique of slave morality in discussing the Left and their own diction which is symptomatic of the very ressentiment that Nietzsche afflicts to Christianity and liberal modernity. In observing this paradox and locating it within the ongoing developments of the far-right phenomenon, notably its structural and ideological convergences, and the gaps within existing explanations for the 'essence' and 'evolution' of the phenomenon, this paper deploys an interdisciplinary methodology rooted both in New Historicism and discourse analysis to evidence both Nietzsche's role as an...
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Saudi energy sector developments within the energy transition process: Strategies and geopolitical impact
Biazzi, Rocco ; Abdolmohammadi, Pejman (vedoucí práce) ; Kaczmarski, Marcin (oponent)
GUID: 2594125B UNITN: 224994 CUID: 76781368 Saudi Energy Sector Developments within the Energy Transition Process: Strategies and Geopolitical Impact Abstract The energy transition pathway is redesigning the whole global energy sector thereby entailing significative implications for the global geopolitics and geoeconomics. Since the transition aims to achieve the decarbonization of the energy sector, resource-rich regions with a strong dependance on oil revenue must address several challenges to cope with such a phenomenon. In particular, the Middle East and North Africa countries and oil producers need to rethink their strategy in order to adapt to a low/zero carbon emissions production. Some positive signals are given by the great potential of Middle East and North Africa countries for renewable energy sources, with some countries leading the pathway towards different ways of producing energy. Saudi Arabia, for instance, has started developing projects aimed at enhancing sectors and methods such as hydrogen, Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and renewable energy. Due to the high number of Saudi resources and the expertise of producers such as the national company Aramco, Saudi Arabia has outlined a grand strategy for the years to come. However, the outcome of this transition and its major consequences in...
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Security as Simulacra: Surveilling gendered bodies and constructing security out of computation
Shlifer, Hallie Quinn ; Kaczmarski, Marcin (vedoucí práce) ; Špelda, Petr (oponent)
Student #: 60106041 Abstract Artificial Intelligence has become ubiquitous across the field of security and defence, especially in applications alongside surveillance. In this Dissertation I interrogate the question of how, through application and out of discourse AI impacts the securitization of Muslim women's veiling practices within the EU. I argue that the discourse constructed around the use of AI, through official documents written and commissioned by the various EU bodies, forms a cohesive body. Using discourse analysis, I trace the patterns throughout the documents and connect them to manifestations in rhetoric on the wearing of veils in public at the EU institutional level. Through this method, I conclude that the discourses of AI surveillance manifest in the way laws are applied to women who wear Islamic veils, and their identification as a security threat to Europe as a both a political and conceptual unit. Furthermore, finding that the discourses of security and science intermingle to form a rigid notion of risk which further corners women who are already marginalized by European security frameworks.
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Lethal crossroads: The evolution of Taliban violence in response to counterinsurgency strategies in Afghanistan 2006-2021
Mccafferty, Sean ; Biagini, Erika (vedoucí práce) ; Aslan, Emil (oponent) ; Kaczmarski, Marcin (oponent)
Lethal Crossroads: The Evolution of Taliban Violence in Response to Counterinsurgency Strategies in Afghanistan 2006-2021. July 2022 Presented in partial fulfilment for the Degree of International Master in Security, Intelligence and Strategic Studies Word Count: 21861 Date of Submission: 24/07/2022 Student Number Glasgow: 2188272M Dublin: 20109547 Prague: 19142078 Supervisor Dr Erika Biagini Abstract This thesis examines how the Taliban's use of the Improvised Explosive Device (IED) evolved in response to changing counterinsurgency strategies in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2021. The work aims to identify the role of state counterinsurgency strategies in affecting variation in IED use by insurgents. The evolution of methods of violence in Afghanistan has rarely been focused on. Yet, the Taliban's return to power in 2021 amid the withdrawal of the last coalition forces necessitates reflection on the conflict across academia and policy making. To investigate the evolution of the IED this research employs a longitudinal case study design applying qualitative research methodologies such as the constant comparative method to analyse three distinct phases of insurgent and counterinsurgent violent competition in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2021. An evolutionary theoretical framework outlined by Veilleux-Lepage...
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Dealing with the Dragon - An Analysis of Middle Power Strategies and the Rise of China
Mastenbroek, Alexander ; Schlotti, Jivanta (vedoucí práce) ; Kaczmarski, Marcin (oponent) ; Karásek, Tomáš (oponent)
Over the past decades, "the ascendancy of China" has been a popular object of analysis within the academic field of International Relations. A common subject of these studies is the impact of China's rise on the security architecture of the Asia-Pacific and how this affects other international actors. Within this context, the majority of the research neglects the role of the category of so-called 'secondary powers' and its internal diversity. In response, middle power theory has attempted to remedy this situation by focusing on the most powerful of these secondary powers, the so-called 'middle powers'. This dissertation aims to strengthen the theoretical basis for this theory by analysing one of its major underlying assumptions, namely that there is such a thing as generalisable middle power behaviour. Specifically, it tests a central hypothesis that middle powers have shared behavioural preferences with regards to their security strategies. This is divided into two types of strategies: functional, referring to the pursuit of leadership roles in niche issue areas, and normative, including a tendency to support conflict mediation and the international rules-order. For this purpose, this dissertation examines the responses of two middle powers in the Asia-Pacific to the rise of China to determine to...
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