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From competition to cooperation: Foreign aid policy as a mirror of Sino-Japanese relations in the age of Chinese rise
Crespi, Daniele ; Kolmaš, Michal (advisor) ; Karásek, Tomáš (referee)
In this thesis I explore the current trends of the Sino-Japanese bilateral relations as it appears through the lenses of the TPMC. The TPMC, short for Third-Party Market Cooperation, is a public-private-partnership initiative between China and other countries not part of the Belt and Road Initiative, and the cooperation with Japan aims at combining the relative advantages of the two economies in order to meet the infrastructure demand for a developing Southeast Asia. I argue that this partnership has the potential to lead to improvement to the bilateral relations between the two parties, according to the theory proposed by Press-Barnathan in 2006 and then elaborated further in 2009, consisting of three conditions regarding the domestic support for the peace process (in this case, the TPMC), the degree of economic disparity between the actors, and the presence of a third party that can facilitate the process; I than use elements of Critical Discourse Analysis to gauge the extent of this positive effect by examining how the construction of the partner has changed in the years after the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding concerning the partnership, by analysing how different discursive strategies in the creation of meaning are used, according to frameworks used by Lams (2017), and Hagström...
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The Influence of the Media in a Case of Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands Dispute
Poláčková, Iveta ; Kolmaš, Michal (advisor) ; Aslan, Emil (referee)
Diploma thesis is analysing newspapers articles issued between September 2012 and December 2021, and their influence on Chinese citizens. Articles are primarily about dispute of Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands in East China Sea. Author is analysing emotionally coloured words, primarily nouns, adjectives, and verbs which could be found in two most read English-written Chinese newspapers - People's Daily and Global Times. For the analysis of these words, critical discursive analysis was used, primarily works of Norman Fairclough and Paul Kowert. The main question asked by the author is, what kind of language is used in the articles. The hypothesis is that these articles are using emotionally coloured words which can have influence on its readers. In the first part of the diploma thesis, author is dealing with critical discursive analysis, in the second part, author is dealing with the articles, how were they chosen, topics which are included in the articles, and analysis of the words used in them. The author concludes that articles which have been analysed really include emotionally coloured words which can influence their readers.
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Discourse on multilateralism: USA, EU and Japan
Kolmaš, Michal ; Drulák, Petr (advisor) ; Karlas, Jan (referee) ; Beneš, Vít (referee)
The aim of this dissertation, titled "Multilateralism in discourse: USA, EU and Japan" is to pinpoint differences in perceptions of basic policy concepts across various intellectual traditions. The dissertation is based in the presumption that cultural,intellectual and language context are inseparable parts of our perception of reality and terms, through which we describe it. For the interpretation of these cultural differences, the thesis chose three actors with different cultural, historical and language traditions. In their respective discourses, the thesis interpreted the perception of a basic term of international relations - multilateralism. The discursive perception of multilateralism was connected to a theoretical typology of motivation for the priority for multilateralism over other forms of foreign policy behavior - instrumental, moral and social. This typology was tested against the interpretation of multilateralism on two case studies: the War on Terror and the ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. By doing so, the thesis found out that although there is a single shared definition of multilateralism, individual perceptions on the concept's value and role are significantly differing. The United States prefer instrumental logic, the European Union prefers moral logic and Japan oscillates between...
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Geopolitical Imagination and Security Perception in Japan
Sosna, Petr ; Hynek, Nikola (advisor) ; Kolmaš, Michal (referee)
This thesis deals with Japanese foreign and security policy through the optics of critical geopolitics, specifically the "geopolitics as culture" notion developed by Gearóid Ó Tuathail. Using this notion as an analytical framework, the development of Japan's foreign and security policy from the establishment of a modern Japanese state till present days is analyzed, with three main concepts being addressed: (1) foreign policy traditions; (2) geopolitical and geostrategic discourses; (3) and strategic and geopolitical culture. For reasons of narrowing the topic down and applying the concept more consistently, one specific element of Japanese foreign and security policy is at the centre of attention: Japan's "maritime identity". The goal of the thesis is to identify and characterize Japan's geopolitical imagination and attempt to determine if and how has this imagination been expressed in the country's security policy with regard to the maritime identity. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
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Why Japan cancelled the deployment of the Aegis Shore missile defence system
Aritake, Shuhei ; Kolmaš, Michal (advisor) ; Riegl, Martin (referee)
Despite the worsening security situation in East Asia, in 2020, Japan suddenly and abruptly canceled the deployment of the Aegis Ashore missile defense system. Why is that? I argue that neither the often-cited neorealist theory nor the official government explanation well define the reasons that lead to the cancellation. Instead, I build on the neoclassical realist paradigm and illustrate three key components that led to this abrupt political change: ShinzoAbe's leadership, changes in domestic political decision-making process, and the role of external actors (US and China). The research found out that personal and politico-cultural factors play essential roles in Japanese decision-making in addition to systemic pressures. The relationship with China also had played a vital role in making security policy. The combination of individual, domestic and systemic factors provide a holistic picture of how and why such a decision has transpired. Keywords Japan, Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD), Aegis Ashore, neo-realism, Neoclassical realism Range of Thesis: 55 Pages, 13 476 words, 87 798 characters
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Structural Violence and Great Power Competition: The Effects of Sino-U.S. Geopolitical Rivalry in the Indo-Pacific
Iocovozzi, James ; Kolmaš, Michal (advisor) ; Plášek, David (referee)
Structural Violence and Great Power Competition: The Effects of Sino-U.S. Geopolitical Rivalry in the Indo-Pacific Abstract This paper examines the effects of the ongoing strategic rivalry between China and the United States for influence over the Indo-Pacific in order to demonstrate the negative impacts upon structural violence within the region. Using an amalgamation from various authors, this paper establishes a definition and set of criteria for the presence of structural violence which are then applied to the cases of Vietnam, Myanmar, and Japan. By correlating the mechanisms with which China and the United States garner influence with the specific consequences for the prevalence and severity of structural violence, this paper illustrates that the ongoing geopolitical rivalry poses considerable threats to all Indo-Pacific nations regardless of their development status or social, political, economic, and geographic characteristics. Results indicate that the extent of each country's structural violence was directly or indirectly affected by the presence of foreign involvement, and that different levels of alignment or independence can serve to reduce or exacerbate these effects. Furthermore, evidence indicated that China's methods pose a more immediate threat to induvial countries, but that the United...
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Development of Japanese Strategic Culture after the Cold War
Šelepová, Adéla ; Ditrych, Ondřej (advisor) ; Kolmaš, Michal (referee)
Recently, the volatile developments in Northeast Asia have put Japanese assertive policies on the spotlight and revived the necessity to understand the state's pacifist conduct that had been studied by scholars aiming to grasp its projection into foreign and security policies ever since the end of the Second World War. The academic debate between neorealism and constructivism gained momentum with the dissolution of the bipolar world order following the end of the Cold War. Yet, the examination of their respective approaches proved the inappropriateness of the rigid adherence to either of the IR stream when scrutinizing the Japanese case. Hence, the thesis expands in the field of analytical eclecticism by reconciling the outputs of the academic debate and consequently maps Japanese post-Cold War evolution through synthesis of concepts emanating from neoclassical realism and strategic culture. The thesis thereby acknowledges the crucial role of the system and its structure and, at the same time, understands the peaceful and antimilitarist principles as a driving force behind Japanese decision-making embedded in the state's strategic culture. Against the backdrop of the complex theoretical and methodological research design, the thesis examines the relevant empirical data within the timespan of almost...
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Years of Dreaming Big: Chinese Nuclear Rise and Great Power Strategic Stability
Nikolić, Luka ; Ludvík, Jan (advisor) ; Kolmaš, Michal (referee)
Great powers have almost exclusively decided the destiny of international relations. The birth, life, and death of an order have been regulated by those actors with the largest military, strategic, economic, and other capabilities. Conceptually building upon the premises of structural realism, the thesis claims that the Chinese nuclear rise is the decisive factor for the disappearance of the incumbent international system and the consequent rise of the new one, labeled as asymmetric triangular nuclear competition. This critically affects the notion of strategic stability, adjusting its characteristics for a different strategic environment. The research has twofold relevance. First, in the academic sense, it deepens a scantly treated debate on the interconnection between the management of nuclear weapons arsenal and the overall outlook of the international system. Second, in the practical sense, the study of the behavior of great powers provides an excellent foundation for policy analysis. The aforementioned is achieved in the three stages. In the beginning, the Chinese nuclear rise is considered as a set of comprehensive reforms in terms of weapons systems, military apparatus, but also doctrines and strategic concepts. After that, the nuclear rise is put in the context of Chinese silent moves from...
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How terrorists pick their targets: Cases of Aum Shinrikyo and the Japanese red army
Hromádková, Klára ; Kolmaš, Michal (advisor) ; Aslan, Emil (referee)
Although Japan is not a state which would often be associated with terrorist attacks, several extremist and terrorist groups formed in the country in the second half of the 20th century. One of them was the ultraleft terrorist organization called Japanese Red Army, which was founded in the 1960s as a part of the student leftist movement, and the second was Aum Shinrikyo, a religious millenarian organization founded in the economically prosperous 1980s as one of the so-called new new religious groups. Both these groups, circumstances of their establishment and the way they chose targets of their terrorist attacks are the studied subjects of this work. The first part of this study focuses on the theoretical description of terrorism. In the following chapters, I focus on both groups, specifically on two selected terrorist attacks, in which I examine the influence of the following factors on the choice of their targets: ideology, quality of leadership, quantity and quality of members, weapons available and financial base. Concerning the Japanese Red Army, the thesis focuses on the terrorist attack on the Lod airport (1972) and the attack on the U.S. and Swedish Embassy in Kuala Lumpur (1975), regarding Aum Shinrikyo, it is the attack on the Sakamoto family (1989) and the Tokyo subway sarin attack...
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Proactive pacifism in Japan's foreign policy
Švárová, Kristýna ; Kolmaš, Michal (advisor) ; Karmazin, Aleš (referee)
This bachelor thesis offers a complex empirical evaluation of proactive pacifism in Japanese foreign policy in the last years of Prime Minister Abe's government. Proactive pacifism represents a great challenge to Japan's future direction. Scholars are debating whether Japan has radically changed in recent years under the Abe reforms and whether it abandons its policy of post-war pacifism, or whether it is only evolutionary development which is still strongly constrained by rooted social and cultural norms based on the pacifist constitution. For the needs of empirical analysis of proactive pacifism in Japanese foreign policy, three criteria have been established - 1) the legislative and the institutional criterion, 2) the militaristic criterion and 3) the social criterion. The institutional and the legislative criteria show significant change in the Japanese post-war development. Sending Japanese SDFs abroad is nothing new in the recent decades but exercising the right to collective self-defense is a major step. The use of weapons in foreign missions is for many authors a proof that Japan is abandoning its post-war pacifism. However, the militaristic and the social criteria showed that post-war pacifism still has a significant impact on political and foreign behavior. Japan is still far from being...
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