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Political Violence in Turkey
Özturan, Betül ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Aslan, Emil (referee)
This thesis aims to create a novel dataset on political violence to estimate the accurate number of political violence incidents and fatalities in Turkey: Political Violence in Turkey Event Dataset (POLVITED). I argue that the reporting bias and differences in the scopes and definition of event datasets impact the quantitative study of conflict and violence. To eliminate the reporting bias and create a comprehensive dataset on political violence, I apply Matching Event Data by Location, Time and Type (MELTT) method to the Global Terrorism Database(GTD) and Uppsala Conflict Data Programme (UCDP-GED). The finding suggests that UCDP-GED were able to record 65% of the total number of political violence incidents in Turkey, and GTD was able to record 45% of them while 10% is coded in both datasets. POLVITED enables the researchers to capture the accurate picture of political violence incidents in Turkey by eliminating the double recording and alleviating the reporting bias. Lastly, the comparison of POLVITED and official reports demonstrates that, although the reporting bias is inevitable, integration alleviates the problems associated with it by increasing the coverage of the dataset.
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Economic Policies and Rebel Choices: A Comparative Perspective on Libya, Syria and Yemen
Ippoliti, Beatrice Maria Luna ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Laryš, Martin (referee)
In modern history governments have had an active role in responding and influencing the economic circumstances of the state. Whether by allocating resources or administering reforms, peacetime economic policies have traditionally impacted actor's public support as the choice of policy can impact the perception of actor's legitimacy. Despite the plethora of competing definitions, political scientists agree on considering legitimacy as a basic condition of governance -as it entails the acceptance and commitment of a people to a political authority. Rather than a unique characteristic of the state, governance becomes an attribute belonging to any social arrangement that exercises "function of statehood". By focusing on the comparison between the Syrian, the Libyan, and the Yemeni civil war this thesis aim is to enquire whether a positive relationship can be assessed between government economic choices and rebel's legitimacy. Given the neopatrimonial character of the three states this dissertation will focus on the actor's economic behavior to assess legitimacy. For the purpose of this analysis, I have chosen to adopt an Elitist framework as it focuses on bargain dynamics between political actors and elites (or constituencies). The methodological approach utilized is that of a comparative case study.
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Local Self-Defence Militias as Counterinsurgents: The Possibility, Willingness and Rationality of Selective Violence against Insurgents
Gilg, Jakob Julian ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Ludvík, Zdeněk (referee)
Local Self-Defence Militias as Counterinsurgents The Possibility, Willingness and Rationality of Selective Violence against Insurgents Autor: Jakob J. Gilg Submitted: 31.07.2019 Abstract How do local self-defence militias (LSDMs) influence violence against civilians in civil conflicts? Compared to other types of pro-government militias (PGMs), LSDMs are active in their home area. This results in abundant local information that can be used to identify and target insurgents and their supporters selectively. Furthermore, LSDMs are part of the local community, resulting in strong social ties, making indiscriminate violence against the community less likely. Finally, since LSDMs are dependent on popular support and cannot move on to a new area after violent acts, they are incentivised to retain local support by abstaining from civilian targeting. Therefore, I hypothesise that LSDMs are more likely to employ selective violence, and that their deployment decreases civilian fatalities in civil conflicts. To empirically test this claim in a global sample, I use 1) a logistic regression to assess the likelihood of selective violence of PGMs (H1), and 2) a negative binomial regression to evaluate the expected number of civilians killed by the government (H2). The results for the first hypothesis suggest an increased...
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Greek Civil War: Greek Immigrants from Anatolia and Their Involvement in the Communist Insurgency (1946-1949)
Chábová, Tereza ; Aslan, Emil (advisor) ; Soukup, Jaromír (referee)
This Master's thesis deals with the individual's motivations for participation in the Communist insurgency during the Greek Civil War of 1946-1949. More specifically, the thesis aims to analyse the motivations of those who joined the Communist guerrillas and at the same time originated from the population which came as Greek Christian refugees in 1920s to Macedonia, Northern Greece. The Master's thesis introduces several theoretical concepts which try to explain individual's motivations for mobilization in insurgency generally, including the "grievance versus greed" theory, the social networks and collective identity approach as well as coercion approach. The theories are then applied to the empirical case of Greek-speaking Pontic refugees from Anatolia and their participation in the Greek Civil War. The thesis introduces the background and experiences of the researched ethnic group throughout the interwar period up until the Greek Civil War. The analysis of the particular incentives which were behind the Greek refugee's participation is supported by the qualitative research in the form of interviews with 21 witnesses, who fall into the researched group of families who originate from the Pontos region in Anatolia and have family experience of mobilization in Communist Insurgency of 1946 to 1949. The thesis...
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Engagement of Obama's Administration in the Syrian Civil War
Prouza, Tadeáš ; Bečka, Jan (advisor) ; Raška, Francis (referee)
The Master Thesis Engagement of Obama's Administration in the Syrian Civil War is dealing with the role of the United States in the conflict. This work studies the approach of Obama's administration toward the situation in country from the beginning of the revolution until the end of president's second tenure. It analyzes the development of this approach and key events that influenced its shape. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first is dealing with the background of the crisis, historical development of relations between the US and Syria and the broader context of Obama's Middle East policy. The second part analyzes specific period of time between the start of the revolution until 2014. It follows key events that had profound effect on the inner dynamics of the conflict and phenomenon that were shaping the situation in Syria, like the rising influence of the radicals among the opposition. It also analyzes in detail the chemical attack in Ghouta from 2013, which almost led Washington to direct intervention and is regarded as one of the most important events in Obama's foreign policy. The third part is dealing with the rise of the Islamic State (ISIS) and American-led intervention against this terrorist organization. The thesis was written with the help of different sources such as...
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American foreign policy and Colombian peace process
Svoboda, Ondřej ; Raška, Francis (advisor) ; Kozák, Kryštof (referee)
This study analyzes American foreign policy with respect to Colombia since the beginning of the new millennium. The main pillar of this policy is a strategy called Plan Colombia. While the original reasoning behind Plan Colombia was to enforce better antinarcotic strategy to avoid cocaine distribution to the United States, by the time it morphed into a state-building effort. My main interest in this study is to answer the question whether Plan Colombia was successful and if so then whether it was a prerequisite for launching peace negotiations with the FARC and achieving durable peace. This study has several parts. At first, I shed a light into a situation in Colombia at the beginning of the new millennium and explain the motivation behind Plan Colombia. Next, I summarize the historical perspective and describe the most important events leading to the breakthrough which was the signing of the peace treaty with FARC. In the following section, I look more deeply into data about money transfers and I also analyze important socio-political indicators. In the conclusion, I explain why Plan Colombia was in my view a successful policy. I also discuss upon what was the success dependent.
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Comparative analysis of proxies in the Syrian conflict
Janoš, Ondřej ; Doboš, Bohumil (advisor) ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (referee)
The thesis examines the engagement of the external actors in the Syrian civil war. It is focusing on five main internal actors of the conflict. Using the Heraclide method it is evaluating engagement intensity of the external actors in the conflict. Together with the examination of the external players engagement the thesis is also focusing on the relations ship between the external actor and his proxy group in Syria. I examine how the international players changed their strategy or proxy groups during the time.
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Czechoslovak policy towards the Greek minority between 1948-1968
Urban, Patrik ; Karasová, Nikola (advisor) ; Tůma, Oldřich (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with the Czechoslovak policy towards the Greek minority between the years of 1948 and 1968. During and after the Greek Civil War thousands of Greek refugees, mostly sympathizers with the communist left, found shelter in Czechoslovakia. The Greek political emigration came to Czechoslovakia mainly between 1948 and 1950, when the country was still economically harmed by the Second World War. Czechoslovakia was also harmed demographically by huge transfers of population which had been made shortly before the arrival of Greek emigrants. The principal goal of this thesis is to answer the following questions: Why did Czechoslovakia hold variable approach towards Greek minority between 1948- 1968 and whether there were differences between officially proclaimed policy of Czechoslovakia (in the constitution and laws) and real approach towards the Greek minority.
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