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Securitization of Migration in the Czech Republic - Role of Refugee Women in the Discourse on Migration
Čermáková, Kristýna ; Záhora, Jakub (advisor) ; Ditrych, Ondřej (referee)
Master's Thesis Kristýna Čermáková Abstract This master's thesis explores the topic of the securitization of migration in the Czech Republic and the gender dimension of the discourse on migration. After a theoretical exploration of the migratory process and the specificities of its female face, a discourse analysis of the Czech media will present the main epistemological core of the work. The primary research question attempts to identify the ways in which the Czech media contributes to the shifting perception of migration as belonging to the sphere of politics, even presenting migration as a threat to security. The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter provides a theoretical insight into migration studies, the motives to migrate and the phenomenon of forced migration. Despite the general assumption of mainstream academics that migrants are mainly men, the second chapter shows that women's experiences with migration differ greatly from those of men. Based on the Copenhagen stream of thought, the discourse analysis of the Czech media carried out in the third chapter points to the construction of perceptions about migration within Czech society. The absence of gender in the public discourse on migration is further analyzed in the last chapter. The missing gender dimension proved to be...
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The Effects of Securitising Migration: The Case of Slovakia and the Czech Republic
Bandurová, Jana ; Ditrych, Ondřej (advisor) ; Záhora, Jakub (referee)
The Master's thesis called "The Effects of Securitising Migration: The case of Slovakia and the Czech Republic" aims to analyse the extent to which is migration constructed as a security threat in crucial conceptual and strategic documents regarding migration, drafted by the Ministry of Interior of the Slovak Republic and the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic. Given that the Ministry of Interior is a key player in the field of migration in both countries setting the direction of migration policy on conceptual, legislative and implementation level, it enters a discursive field of migration by offering its own understanding of migration, which has a great impact on the policymaking in the area of migration, migration practice and consequently on the life of migrants. Despite the fact that both Slovakia and the Czech Republic have one of the lowest shares of foreigners within population in the whole European Union as well as neither of the two countries have been the final destinations of migrants during the so called refugee crisis, we can identify the dominant role of security discourse in both countries. To get a better insight into a wider social context, the thesis also builds on the number of "texts and talks" dealing with the issue of migration beside the official policy documents and...
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Media Image of Bashar al-Assada during the Arab Spring: The context of Jewish diaspora
Plíštilová, Tereza ; Kubátová, Hana (advisor) ; Záhora, Jakub (referee)
The bachelor thesis examines the media image of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Israeli daily coverage of Haaretz and The Jerusalem Post news websites during the first the Syrian Arab Spring (2011-2012). The research questions this dissertation aims to answer are the following: 1. How the media image of Bashar al-Assad has changed during the years 2011 and 2012 on the web Jpost.com. 2. How the media image of Bashar al-Assad has changed during the years 2011 and 2012 on the web Haaretz.com. 3. What were the key events and developments that have lead to a different views on Bashar al-Assad? The thesis is divided into three main parts, the first theoretical part contains normative media theory, objectivity of the media and role of the media in politics and society as well as the characteristics of both newspapers. Regarding the methodological framework, mixed research methods were chosen in order to combine qualitative and quantitative approaches. Discourse analysis was identified as the ideal approach for the qualitative part, while content analysis was chosen as the most suitable method for the quantitative part. The research analyses 231 media content including media reports, commentaries, and opinion section.
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The legitimization of non-intervention in Syria in the U.S. discourse: A discourse analysis of the selected Western speeches between 2011 and 2014
Vítková, Kateřina ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Záhora, Jakub (referee)
The thesis "The legitimization of non-intervention in Syria in the U.S. discourse: A discourse analysis of the selected Western speeches between 2011 and 2014" examines the discourse of the President of the United States Barack Obama concerning the Syrian crisis. It focuses on the reasoning that Obama used to explain or even justify his non- interventional approach regarding the crisis in Syria between the years 2011 and 2014. The thesis works with the hypothesis that the United States while justifying non-intervention in Syria, have avoided the geopolitical background of a split in the international community regarding possible solutions to the Syrian conflict. In legitimizing military "non- intervention" they chose another strategy, such as the 'downplaying' strategy, gradually setting out increasingly distant criteria and mitigating emerging threats. To accomplish the established goals the paper used the Narrative Conceptualization Analysis (NCA), as introduced by Shaul Shenhav, that examines the narrative concept through a signified story that consists of at least two events. The NCA largely confirmed the hypothesis. Obama's discourse lacked the geopolitical background. Obama mitigated the threats and set out the increasingly distant criteria, e.g. he claimed the regime of Bashar al-Assad would fall on...
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Military coup as a distinctive feature of Turkish military, the changing civil-military relations, and the current position of the Turkish army
Tkadlečková, Daniela ; Kučera, Tomáš (advisor) ; Záhora, Jakub (referee)
The July military coup attempt in 2016 forced the Turkish nation to decide, whether it would follow examples of Republic's past and support the coup, or whether it would turn away from the army, thus giving up on the traditional perception of the army as a guardian of secularism and values on which Atatürk built the Republic. This work analyses how the Turkish civil-military relations changed, what factors influenced this change and how the Turkish society currently perceives the army. The research focused on four interventions staged by the army in the 20th century, as well as on the July coup attempt. Military coup is understood as a specific feature of the Turkish army and it is examined based on the theory of praetorianism; the coups in Turkey are then being presented as interventions, that were repeated not only based on army's determination to protect stability and the Republic as such, but also based on the nation's acceptance of the interventions which did perceive the army as a last resort. Furthermore, the work presents reasons, which played a crucial role in the transformation of civil-military relations in the beginning of 21st century, and it compares, how the perception of army by the Turkish nation was changing before and after the July coup attempt.
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The US Mediation of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict during the Obama Presidency: the Case of Unfulfilled Ambitions
Čurdová, Markéta ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Záhora, Jakub (referee)
This thesis aims to explain the lack of success in US mediation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during the Obama presidency. The US had a considerabe potential due to its capacity and resources available to bring the conflict parties to a settlement. The thesis focuses on the US internal dynamics and not external influences. Thus, the work analyzes the mediation procedure applied by the US, the exercise of leverage during the negotiations and the stance of the US Congress towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict resolution. The thesis answers subsequent questions. What mediating procedures were applied by the United States during the Obama presidency? Was leverage used? If yes, what forms of leverage were utilized? What were the issues at the core of the leverage exercise? Based on these questions, the thesis analyzes three hypotheses. Firstly, that the US acted primarily as facilitator of communication rather than formulator or manipulator. Secondly, it assumes that the US was not successful in the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict due to a relatively scarce exercise of its leverage in the process of mediation. Lastly, it claims that the US Congress did not respond flexibly to the dynamics of the US foreign policy in the mediation of the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.
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The attitude of the European Union to the State of Israel
Kološová, Štěpánka ; Karlas, Jan (advisor) ; Záhora, Jakub (referee)
This bachelor thesis offers readers a comprehensive view of the developments that are related to and related to one of the most difficult understandable conflicts in the Middle East. Using a case study, I analyzed individual historical events that had an impact on the development of relations in the Middle East, but also changed the attitudes of European states, respectively, of the European Communities or the European Union. Before the analysis I made two research questions: "What is the relationship of the European Union to the State of Israel?" and "Which of the three basic theories based on the theory of international relations is best able to reflect the European Union's relationship with Israel?". By case study and research into the EU's attitudes and negotiations with Israel, I have found that relations between Europe and Israel can be characterized as very strong in the field of economic cooperation, but they are volatile in the political negotiations. It turned out that for the European states, the Middle East region was always very important in the direction of foreign policy or trade relations. Research has also shown that the best way to reflect the European Union's relationship with Israel can be through the liberal theory of international relations. This approach emphasizes respect for human...
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The Evolution of EU Foreign Policy towards Israel: Wars in Gaza 2008/2009 and 2014
Zdrálek, Jan ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Záhora, Jakub (referee)
The thesis concentrates on two phenomena: EU foreign policy and the EU-Israel relationship. As a result, the methodological approach is two-fold. The first focal point of the thesis is the evolution of EU foreign policy itself, especially concentrating on the situation before and after the Treaty of Lisbon came into effect on 1 December 2009. The second focal point of the thesis are two qualitative analyses of Operation Cast Lead (2008/2009) and Operation Protective Edge (2014) which compare the reactions of EU institutions with the reactions of two 'pro-Israel' EU member states (Germany and the Czech Republic) and two 'anti-Israel' EU member states (France and Sweden) to each conflict. The theoretical approach of the thesis is derived from the theory of normative institutionalism developed by Daniel C. Thomas. Based on this theory, the thesis argues that: [1] the increasing power of EU institutions has a mitigating effect on the sharp rhetoric of the member states; and [2] accentuated by the Lisbon Treaty reforms, institutionalism transforms the whole concept of EU foreign policy as individual member states perceive joint action as an intrinsic value and favour consistency and coherence in EU policy-making across time and issue-areas. Lastly, based on the qualitative analysis of the EU statements...
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Analysis of the Official Israeli Discourse during the Second Intifada: Categorisation and Legitimisation
Záhora, Jakub ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Drulák, Petr (referee)
This thesis named "Analysis of the Official Israeli Discourse during the Second Intifada: Legitimization and Categorization" is concerned with discursive construction of Palestinian terrorism and Israeli security policies by Israeli officials in the period following 2000. The paper draws on works which refuse to perceive language as neutral communication means to describe the social reality, and instead approach it as a tool to impose and maintain social and political inequality and dominance of some groups over others. These theoretical foundations underpin the following research which examines legitimation strategies employed by Israeli officials in order to justify Israeli controversial measures aiming to quell Palestinian terrorism during the Second Intifada. The paper identifies several discursive schemes through which Israeli state representatives purported to legitimize Israeli security policies that were harshly criticized at the time. The basic strategy is to depict and categorize Israelis as peace yearning people who relentlessly offer far-reaching compromises aiming to achieve calm, which proposals are being adamantly rejected by Palestinians whose only reaction is resort to terror. The thesis further deals with Israeli officials' reframing of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a part...
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The Reasons Behind the Success of the Pro-Israeli Lobby in the United States
Záhora, Jakub ; Bečka, Jan (advisor) ; Fojtek, Vít (referee)
Since at least the 1970s, Israel has been benefiting hugely from the so-called "special relationship" with the United States. The US provides the Jewish state with considerable financial aid which reached $3 billion annually in the form of non-refundable grants in the 1990s. America also supplies Israel with modern military systems and American companies cooperate with their Israeli counterparts in developing new weapons, devices etc. US representatives also protect Israel from major diplomatic failures at the international forums like the UN. Some people believe that the American support for Israel is driven by moral imperatives, as Israel constitutes a shelter for the minority which experienced hundreds-of- years lasting hatred, with its ultimate expression being the Holocaust. This argument further states that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and therefore it presents a natural choice for an ally of the United States. Others argue that Israel is an indispensable strategic asset, necessary for maintaining the American presence and securing the American interests in the region. However, all these points can be refuted. The often emphasized moral aspect omits the painful issue of Palestinian refugees forced out by Jewish forces in 1948-1949 and continued Israeli occupation of the Palestinian...
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