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Building the hotspots in order to strengthen the common border security after the Arab Spring
Svoboda, David ; Weiss, Tomáš (advisor) ; Králová, Kateřina (referee)
The bachelor's work Building the hotspots in order to strengthen the common border security after the Arab Spring is dedicated to analysis of how hotspots in Italy and Greece have helped to the reduction of migration crisis in the EU. The migration crisis were resulted in Europe after the Arab Spring. This analysis works with data like the number of migrants in Greece and Italy, asylum applications, with an emphasis on 2015-2017. This bachelor's work works on verifying of these three hypotheses: The hotspots will increase the identification of newly arrived migrants soon, will reduce the number of illegal migrants traveling from the hotspot site deeper to the EU, and that hotspots can speed up the decision-making process with migrants. This work has four chapters. The first chapter explains the basic terms of this work - migrant and refugee. It also explains why the migrant must not be expelled from the EU. The second chapter is dedicated to the characteristics of the migration crisis (2013-2016) and the main pillars of the EU asylum and migration policy. The third and fourth chapter describe the hotspots. The first one describes the origins of hotspots (from the initial idea to financing), building of them, it also describes the EU support teams and possibilities that migrants has if they receive...
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The Limits of Europeanisation in Turkey: The Influence of Economy and Religion on Foreign Policy towards the EU
Blažek, Ondřej ; Weiss, Tomáš (advisor) ; Najšlová, Lucia (referee)
The diploma thesis deals with the phenomena of Europeanisation of the third states and its limits. The thesis is a one-case study focusing on Turkey and Europeanization of its foreign policy. Foreign Policy Analysis was chosen as the method of the paper. It focuses here on the internal changes in Turkey that came up with the AKP party government and led to the change in foreign policy in which the relations with the EU were given less room. Economy and religion are analysed as two major limits of Europeanization. Economy was one of the motives on which the change of orientation of foreign policy was based when Turkey started establishing tighter relations with states in the regions of Middle East and Africa. Turkey was building its image as the hegemon and mediator in the region to protect its foreign investments. The AKP was a pro-Islamic political party and religion plays also a role in Turkish foreign policy. Since the AKP started ruling the country it has been reducing the secularization despite it was one of the pillars of the republic since it had been established. Islam became the unofficial but important factor in orientation of Turkish foreign policy. These factors had influence on Europeanization of the country because EU was becoming less priority region and this fact divided the...
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Copyright in the European Union: Influence of Interest Groups during the Creation of the Collective Rights Management Directive
Slabyhoudek, Václav ; Šlosarčík, Ivo (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
The master's thesis focuses on the influence of interest groups during the creation of the 2012 Proposal for a Directive on collective rights management. In particular, the thesis deals with the pre-legislative phase of the legislative process, which began in April 2004. The theoretical framework includes conceptualization of interest groups, lobbying and influence. The mechanisms of influence are analysed using two theories - rational choice theory and rational choice institutionalism. The thesis utilizes process tracing - theory testing as a main methodological approach. Empirical evidence is investigated by analysing primary sources. The main subjects of the analysis are the most relevant documents from the European Commission concerning the pre-legislative phase. Four semi-structured interviews with selected relevant actors were also conducted. The thesis concludes by confirming/ disproving of the main hypothesis: Specific interest groups succeeded in influencing the text of the proposal for a directive on the collective management of copyright.
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Success Factors of the British Arms Industry in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s and 1990s
Falta, Matěj ; Weiss, Tomáš (advisor) ; Váška, Jan (referee)
Bachelor thesis Success Factors of the British Arms Industry in Saudi Arabia in the 1980s and 1990s deals with two tranches of the giant arms trade known as Al-Yamamah, whose memorandum of understanding was signed in the 1980s. From a methodological point of view, the thesis could be considered a case study that analyzes key contracts over a given period of time. It is divided into three main chapters, each representing one factor examined. The thesis tries to answer whether the established hypotheses - that the factors of success were trust, corruption and a higher degree of interconnection between the private and public spheres - are correct. Text first describes relations between the two countries since the First World War until normalization of relations in 1963 after the Suez crisis and first major arms contracts in the 1960s and 1970s. Thesis mentions the situation after Operation Desert Shield, when ongoing contracts were in jeopardy, and also covers the ethical side of arms trades. Text deals with the foundation of corrupt practices and, consequently, with corruption in the Al-Yamamah trade itself. Finally, it deals with the degree of interconnection of the private and public spheres, the role of prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the export organizations DSO/DESO and shortly also with Her...
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Democracy assistance policies of the US and the EU: different approaches and their causes
Hornát, Jan ; Weiss, Tomáš (advisor) ; van Hüllen, Vera (referee) ; Fawn, Rick (referee)
The United States of America and the institutions of the European Union are the most prominent democracy assistance donors in third countries. Over the last two decades, they have spent tens of billions of dollars to support the formation and consolidation of democratic regimes around the world. In this sense, the US and the EU have seemingly shared interests - i.e. seeking to build democratic institutions in target countries so that these become part of the community of democracies and contribute to the stability of the world's economic and political system. However, if we look at the approaches and strategies used by the US and the EU to support democracy, we find that they are often quite different and, in some respects, clashing. Why are the approaches of both actors different if they strive to reach the same goal? Or - upon closer examination - are their goals indeed somewhat different? The key problem is that democracy as such is a contested concept, so it is necessary to ask the question: if we are promoting democracy, what kind of democracy do we mean? If we finance the development of one or the other institution, what model of democratic establishment will be created? The thesis takes a constructivist view of this issue and demonstrates how the different democratic identities of the two...
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Analysis of European Union's expectations of TTIP
Barták, Petr ; Bernkopfová, Michala (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
Bachelor thesis Analysis of expectation of the EU from TTIP is an overview analysis. This text covers four main areas regarding TTIP. Those topics are engineering industry, automotive industry, public procurements and agriculture. The analysis covers expectations of the European Union, partly of the Czech Republic and touches expectations of the United States of America a little bit. The author used only official document of the governmental institutions and scientific documents as resources. Any scientific documents and official papers issued before 8th of November 2016 were not used. The reason behind that are American presidential elections. Those elections shifted expectations from the TTIP. Unofficial and non-professional texts were not used at all. The analysis follows topics from several points of view. Those perspectives are social sphere, tariff measures, non-tariff issues, possible gains, and controversial topics. Requirements regarding the customer's safety are included as well. Possible changes in regulations are also analyzed. The text is interspersed with figures that support numerical data.
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Why is Israel not in the EU?
Houdek, Kryštof ; Bečka, Jan (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee)
This bachelor thesis considers Israel's potential membership in the EU. The hypothesis is that the EU and Israel share a common interest in regards to Israeli membership. Yet, national states within the EU would block Israeli requests because of ideological bias. The first part of the thesis describes the attitudes of Israeli politicians and of the public in regard to entry to the EU. Then, I will illustrate the wide economic, security and research cooperation between the EU and Israel. The second part illustrates the attitudes of european politicians of all stripes. Lastly, I will describe the strategic interest of the EU on Israeli membership. The research question asks, simply, why Israel is not in the EU. The answer is divided into two parts. One part analyses legal documentation from the EU in order to prove that, on a legislative level, Israeli membership does not face any significant obstacles. The second part attempts to prove that in terms of national states there is an opposition strong enough to stop such an initiative. The work combines two theoretical approaches: liberalism and neorealism. Liberalism argues in favour of mutual cooperation. Neorealism explains why such cooperation has no chance of fulfilment. The research includes content and discourse analysis of statements made by...
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Limiting Factors of the European Union Counter-Terrorism Mechanisms
Pospíšil, Petr ; Weiss, Tomáš (advisor) ; Šlosarčík, Ivo (referee)
The basis, upon which this thesis has been built, are the two following trends: occurence of terrorist attacks in the EU and creation of new counter-terrorism institutions on the EU level. A frequency of both trends has been rising: the occurence of terrorist attacks on the EU territory has increased despite the closer cooperation in security and counter-terrorism area that can manifested by adopting new measures and designing new institutions. Therefore, the author asks a question: What factors are hindering a better functioning of the EU counter-terrorism mechanisms? The six most significant EU counter-terrorism institutions with exclusively or overwhelmingly counter-terrorism mandate is subjected to analysis. The respective limits of their functioning have been subsumed to a classification that was created by the author using the general institutional theory, in particular the theory of regimes. The attention is given to an interplay between the EU counter-terrorism bodies and their counterparts on the national level. In case of every institution that has been explored, the author evaluates the following criteria. Firstly, presence of a "patterned behaviour" in sense of cooperation between the national counter-terrorism bodies and the EU institutions. Secondly, a subjective perception of such...
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German-Russian Relations during the Ukrainian Crisis and the Russo-Georgian War
Ksiazkiewiczová, Pavla ; Weiss, Tomáš (advisor) ; Eberle, Jakub (referee)
Pavla Ksiazkiewiczová Německo-ruské vztahy na pozadí ukrajinské krize a rusko- gruzínské války Abstract The thesis examines the German response to the Ukrainian Crisis in 2008 and the Russo- Georgian War in 2014. On the background of these two conflicts, I would like to demonstrate the German-Russian relations and their deterioration in the past years. My main research question was why did Germany decide to support and advocate the EU sanctions against Russia during the Ukrainian Crisis in 2014, when they did not promote such a solution in the 2008 during the Russo-Georgian War. My hypothesis is that German foreign policy shifted from the economic interests-oriented approach towards norm-oriented one. I am working with the theory Foreign policy analysis, which studies the management of international relations and state's activities. This theory can be understood as a critique towards dominant structural approach in international relations because it says that foreign policy is determined by the domestic policy. I constructed the German response to the Ukrainian Crisis and the Russo- Georgian War using qualitative discourse analysis. With this method I am analyzing the statements of those actors, who influence German foreign policy.
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The influence of institutions on the United Kingdom's climate policy
Stanová, Natália ; Weiss, Tomáš (advisor) ; Kasáková, Zuzana (referee)
The thesis analyses the state of the United Kingdom's climate policies and it particularly focuses on the question, how these policies are determined by its institutional system, that is majoritarian democracy. Theoretically majoritarian democracies generally have a weaker record in the environmental policy and the thesis aims to research, if and how the features of majoritarian democracies in reality influence the policy outcomes. The thesis focuses on the two party system, that often produces adversary and inconsistent politics and the pluralist system of the interest groups that tends to give better possibilities to the economically powerful actors such as business and energy groups. The base for the analysis will be the climate policies during the last twenty years and the performance and general discours of two main governing parties. Thesis also takes a closer look on the cases of Climate Change Act and Energy Act 2015 and their ability of the interest groups to achieve their goals. The thesis concludes that the combination of the institutional system with the low salience of the topic for the main parties poses significant obstacles and limitations to an active and progressive climate politics.
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