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EU Development Aid: Idealism or Pragmatism?
Phamová, Xuan Mai ; Knutelská, Viera (advisor) ; Földes, Kristián (referee)
My thesis looks into development into why European Union provides development assistance. My hypothesis is that it is becoming more pragmatic throughout the period 2014 to 2019. I begin my work with introduction into the topic, literature overview and presentation of the hypothesis. In the second part, I present theoretical framework of constructivism and methodology of motive analysis. Motive analysis is a method developed for studying motives via discourse. I have defined 7 motives in a coding book, which will be analysed in the speeches of EU representatives, concretely European Commission's Presidents and High Representatives / Vice-Presidents responsible for European External Action Service. In the third pat, I provide brief overview and context of EU's aid policies. In the last, analytical part, I analysed the speeches and identified each motives one by one, I have looked into development of motives throughout time and came to conclusion that most of time, all motives are prevalent behind development aid, only their occurrence and importance slightly changes, depending on internal and external factors. It can be seen thant while in 2014 the aid was slightly more tilted towards idealism, in 2019 the aid motives slightly shifted towards pragmatism.
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Specific Contribution of the Roman Catholic Church to the European Integration according to the Article 17.3. of the TFEU: EU perception of the dialogue with COMECE
Kubiš, Vojtěch ; Knutelská, Viera (advisor) ; Jeřábek, Martin (referee)
The aim of the thesis is to analyse how the EU perceives the specific contribution of Churches to the European integration as stated in the Article 17.3 of the TFEU. The specific contribution is analysed on the case of Roman Catholic Church (RCC) which predominates in the dialogue under the Article 17.3. There are two time periods addressed in the thesis. Firstly, the specific contribution is addressed in the context of the debate on the EU constitution. It is examined, based on the analysis of politicians' speeches and MEPs amendments, whether the specificity is rooted in the area of values. Second period is marked by the year 2009 when the TFEU entered into force, and 2014 when the dialogue with Churches was somewhat degraded. In fact, the new body responsible for the interaction became DG JUST, thereby replacing BEPA, i.e. organization directly reporting to the President of the Commission. Based on the analysis of the speeches and other relevant documents regard all the official meetings, I examine what the EU politicians expected from the Church and what was Her specificity according to them. Against this background is also analysed the fact that the dialogue with Churches was separated from the civil society organizations. It results from the research that the EU perceived the specific...
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Environmental policy of the European Union and its impact on the environmental policy of the Slovak Republic
Kozáková, Tamara ; Karlas, Jan (advisor) ; Knutelská, Viera (referee)
This diploma thesis entitled "Environmental policy of the European Union and its impact on the environmental policy of the Slovak Republic" targets the environmental policy of these two entities, focusing on a specific area, namely waste management. Despite the fact that environmental policy did not belong to the original agenda of the European Union during its creation, today, due to the gradual development characterized in the first part of the work, the EU is a prominent player in this field. In other parts of the work we describe how Slovakia has gradually undergone a progressive change, ie Europeanization, through its involvement in EU policies. Based on the membership of the Slovak Republic in the European Union since 2004, the Slovak Republic has obligations and commitments, which shows the significant influence of the European Union, and thus the existing environmental policies of the Member States are no longer politically or legally separated from EU environmental policy. In addition to the goal of providing a comprehensive overview of the development of environmental policy of the both European Union and the Slovak Republic since its formation, the main goal is to analyze the implementation of waste management in the form of Framework Directive 2008/98 / EC on waste. This goal is based...
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Member State's positions towards Western Balkans Enlargement
Války, Oliver ; Knutelská, Viera (advisor) ; Jeřábek, Martin (referee)
This thesis studies the positions EU member states take towards the Western Balkan Enlargement. We examine what forms these positions. We examine what influence does the net contribution to the European budget have, net contributors are less likely to support further Enlargement. The levels of migration and the feeling that migration is a concerning issue do not have relevant influence on the popularity of the Enlargement. We found no relevant correlation between the feeling of European citizenship and the support for the EU membership for the Balkan countries. We can, however, see that the New Member States are much more likely to support the EU enlargement than are those who became EU members before 2004. We have chosen four cases for case studies. In the case study of France, we can observe the influence of the French president on the Enlargement process and the resulting reform of its method. In the German case, the position of the political elites is a strong support of the Enlargement, even if the public are not that enthusiastic and have a lot of influence, since the German parliament has to also approve beginning of any accession talks. In the case of Greece, we can see how Greece was able to use its position as an EU member and gain leverage in their dispute with Macedonia over the name of...
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Post-Vilnius European Neighborhood Policy: The Case of South Caucasus
Akdemir, Enes ; Knutelská, Viera (advisor) ; Plechanovová, Běla (referee)
This study attempts to analyze the evolution of the ENP in Southern Caucasus during post- Vilnius era. With contributions of the recent history, it aims to find out how these evolving policies affected the region from the competing theories perspective. It's seeking an answer to whether or not "initially neoliberal" strategy of ENP is designed to transform the region into a space with stability. While doing this, effectiveness of the ENP and multidirectional contributions it brought to the region is discussed. Neorealist and neoliberalist assumptions made for assessing the ENP's practices in the region. The thesis is methodologically supported with Congruence Analysis, which qualitatively enables us to observe theoretical developments based on multiple cases. Drawing on the main challenges to ENP's initial strategy, main hypotesis argue that neorealist assumptions are prevailing over neoliberalist assumptions, which can be shown as an outcome of the ENP's evolving policies in post- Vilnius era.
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Development cooperation as a foreign policy instrument: EU vs. China in Africa
Kreidl, Dominik ; Knutelská, Viera (advisor) ; Plechanovová, Běla (referee)
The main topic of this thesis is the use of development cooperation as an instrument of foreign policy of the People's Republic of China (China) and the European Union (EU) in Africa. The aim of this diploma thesis was to find out whether the development cooperation policy of China, respectively the EU with African countries, is motivated rather by pragmatic or normative interests. In order to answer this research question, a qualitative content analysis was applied, in which the documents of these two actors were examined. The main theoretical concept of this diploma thesis is the concept of normative power, which served as an indicator of normative interests. In the case of the EU, the hypothesis that the EU would primarily act as a normative power in development cooperation, i.e. that it would be interested in disseminating its norms in the international system, has not been confirmed. The results of the content analysis reveal that pragmatic interests prevail in the development cooperation between the EU and African countries. In the case of China's involvement in development cooperation, the results of the analysis reveal that the main motivations within this policy are mainly normative interests, i.e. the interests of disseminating its norms in the international politics.
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Why the Czech Republic postponed adoption of the euro currency?
Vošková, Martina ; Karlas, Jan (advisor) ; Knutelská, Viera (referee)
The diploma thesis is devoted to explanation of Czech position towards European monetary integration. Even though Czechia is committed to adopt euro, the official term has not been set. The main purpose of a thesis is to answer why the Czech Republic postponed entrance into to eurozone indefinitely. The first chapter applies materialistic aspects of liberal intergovernmentalist theory into the Czech context by analysing economic interests on micro and macro level. Detailed cost-benefit analysis results in a slight favour of entrance. However, valid economic arguments on both sides and lack of interest group pressure allow government to adopt waiting strategy. Second analytical part incorporates constructivist theory, particularly defines Czech national identity and its effect on public opinion on eurozone. The thesis refuses exclusive character of the Czech identity and its ability to fully explain postponement of euro adoption. Thesis main contribution to international relation research is final chapter, which extends traditional integration theories by perspective of ideology. Ideological prism seems to present the most eloquent explanation of the Czech position, especially dominance of firstly the Eurosceptic ODS and then populist party ANO, as well as conservative stance of CNB. Despite the fact that...
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The Attitudes of the Czech Republic's Presidents towards the European Integration
Simon, Filip ; Ditrych, Ondřej (advisor) ; Knutelská, Viera (referee)
The main aim of this rigorosum thesis is to interpret the development of attitudes of three Czech presidents to the process of European integration in a broader international context. The thesis answers the question of which topics they dealt with in relation to European unification, how their attitudes differed and whether those attitudes had been changing over time. Within the framework of theoretical anchoring, the thesis inclines to the perspective of social constructivism and from an epistemological point of view, it is based on an interpretative qualitative research based on the method of critical discourse analysis. Departing from the studied texts, the thesis concludes that Europe of Václav Havel was not an economic or geographical concept, but exclusively a philosophical concept, as he perceived Europe primarily as a spiritual unit. Havel was also a supporter of the federalized European Union, in which the Czech Republic would increase its international political influence. Václav Klaus had a significantly different opinion which defended the intergovernmental model of governance and he considered the merging of Europe with the European Union at the European level a methodological mistake. Maintaining the concept of national states was a necessary condition for maintaining the regime of...
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Diplomatic recognition of the USSR by Great Britain and the United States
Abramov, Philipp ; Romancov, Michael (advisor) ; Knutelská, Viera (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with diplomatic recognition of the USSR by Great Britain and the United States. In the first part the development of the Soviet diplomatic tradition is introduced in the reference period, i.e. 1917-1933, with the description of key aspects of foreign policy of the Soviet Union. The second chapter is devoted to the question of recognition of the USSR by Great Britain, containing a brief description of tsarist regime commintments to Britain. The third part clarifies the recognition of the USSR by the United States with emphasis on economic cooperation during 1920s and it's role in the recognition of the USSR de iure. Conclusion of this thesis introduces a comparison of both cases focusing on four aspects (reaction on bolshevik coup d'état and consolidation of the AUCP(b) leader role, role of post-war German question and tsarist Russia debts, volume and development of international trade, engagement of domestic political situation) in order to identify and explain the delay between recognition by Great Britain and by the United States.
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