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Understanding NATO's Intervention in Non-Member States: The Case of Operation Kosovo Force
Bártová, Adéla ; Tesař, Jakub (advisor) ; Sedlecká, Adéla (referee)
The master's thesis deals with the issue of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) out-of-area interventions, specifically focusing on the case of NATO's intervention in Kosovo in 1999. The alliance's decision to intervene against severe violations of human rights in Kosovo despite the lack of a legal mandate to do so was criticized heavily by the international community. This thesis aims to examine the narratives NATO used to justify its involvement in Kosovo. By adopting a theoretical framework of social constructivism, the research aims to examine the role of two constructivist concepts, collective identity and international norms, in the alliance's decision to intervene. To do so, the thesis adopts a discourse-historical approach (DHA) to critical discourse analysis, as established by Reisigl and Wodak (2009). This approach emphasizes the significance of the social, political, and historical context of discourse practices. By adopting the DHA, the thesis seeks to uncover the discursive strategies employed by the alliance to justify and legitimize the intervention in Kosovo. The research is conceived as a case-specific qualitative analysis, which is divided into two sections. The first section deals with the correlation between changes in the official discourse in NATO and the...
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Noncompliance with International Norms - The Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the Vietnam War
Kunovská, Kristýna ; Pulgret, Miroslav (advisor) ; Karlas, Jan (referee)
This thesis addresses the issue of non-compliance with international norms, namely the Geneva Conventions of 1949, in the context of the Vietnam War. It inquires into why parties to the conflict did not abide by these international norms. Non-compliance is discussed here from three perspectives: the state level, the communal level, and the structural level. I argue that at each of these levels, an environment for non-compliance was created, in connection with factors such as ambiguity in treaty language, unwillingness to respect the rules, inadequate reaction from the international community, and insufficient means to enforce the norms
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Testing selected theoretical approaches concerning the building of a US radar base in the Czech Republic
Holý, Petr ; Karlas, Jan (advisor) ; Drulák, Petr (referee)
The aim of this work is to test the ability of three selected theoretical approaches to explain the response of the Czech Republic to the American offer to build the ABM radar device on the Czech soil. These theories are: neorealism, utilitarian liberalism and constructivism. Each of these approaches looks at the social reality from a different perspective which allows us to view the issue in its complexity and diversity. Each theory also uses a different set of independent variables to explain the behavior of the Czech government in this case (these variables are: autonomy and influence for neorealism; domestic interests for liberalism and international and domestic norms for constructivism). Thanks to this variety of variables we are enabled to critically evaluate which key factors played the crucial role in the Czech decision-making process in this particular issue and possibly also to point out some assumed regularities which might play an important role in forming of the Czech security policy as such. The main task of the first chapter is to provide some broader historical and political context of the case. Next three chapters are then dedicated to testing of the theories by comparing their deductively phrased hypothesis with the value of dependent variable, which for our work is represented...
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Desecuritisation and Strategic Narratives: China's 16/17+1 Initiative in the Central and Eastern European Countries
Zhai, Dongyu ; Hornát, Jan (advisor) ; Weiss, Tomáš (referee) ; Snetkov, Aglaya (referee)
This dissertation uses Critical Discourse Analysis to examine China's strategic use of desecuritised language in its 16/17+1 foreign policy targeting the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region. Through the lens of securitisation theory and strategic narratives, the analysis suggests that China's foreign policy narrative targeting the CEE countries is strategic in nature and is a representation of China's ambition to form a new global order. As such, the desecuritisation strategies are used instrumentally to alleviate 'China threat' perception, increase the attractiveness of China in the region, and to further achieve its economic and geopolitical goals. Among political elites in the Visegrád 4 countries, namely Czechia, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia, the level of reception of China's strategic narratives varies. The pro-China attitude at the governmental level is mainly motivated by economic incentives promised in the Chinese narrative as well as the governments' own political agendas. In a parallel process, converse anti-China sentiments and re-securitisation of China in the countries are largely connected to the primacy of the trans-Atlantic relationship with the US as well as the importance attached to European values. Keywords Chinese foreign policy, Central and Eastern European Countries,...
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Contested Meanings of the Norm Against Chemical Weapons: CWC and the Issue of "Non-Lethal" Agents
Martínková, Hana ; Smetana, Michal (advisor) ; Ditrych, Ondřej (referee)
This thesis deals with the debate on non-lethal chemical weapons under the Chemical Weapons Convention regime. I examine the evolution of the debate between 2002 and 2017 and use a modified theory of the cycle of normative change to analyse it. Apart from identifying main actors and actions taken by them, I identify the rule structure, rule tensions and arguments that are central to the issue of riot control agents and incapacitating chemical agents, later re-branded as central nervous system acting chemicals. In addition, I highlight the importance of (re-)framing and issue decoupling as successful strategies for norm- entrepreneurs to employ when gathering support.
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Testing selected theoretical approaches concerning the building of a US radar base in the Czech Republic
Holý, Petr ; Karlas, Jan (advisor) ; Drulák, Petr (referee)
The aim of this work is to test the ability of three selected theoretical approaches to explain the response of the Czech Republic to the American offer to build the ABM radar device on the Czech soil. These theories are: neorealism, utilitarian liberalism and constructivism. Each of these approaches looks at the social reality from a different perspective which allows us to view the issue in its complexity and diversity. Each theory also uses a different set of independent variables to explain the behavior of the Czech government in this case (these variables are: autonomy and influence for neorealism; domestic interests for liberalism and international and domestic norms for constructivism). Thanks to this variety of variables we are enabled to critically evaluate which key factors played the crucial role in the Czech decision-making process in this particular issue and possibly also to point out some assumed regularities which might play an important role in forming of the Czech security policy as such. The main task of the first chapter is to provide some broader historical and political context of the case. Next three chapters are then dedicated to testing of the theories by comparing their deductively phrased hypothesis with the value of dependent variable, which for our work is represented...
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Socialization in international regimes of human rights protection: Study of a constitutional review in Kenya
Šklebená, Karolína ; Zemanová, Štěpánka (advisor) ; Kochan, Jan (referee)
Since its independence in 1963 Kenya has been considered a democratic and non-problematic country, although it had been ruled just by two different presidents until 2002. The transformation to democracy proces followed by improvement of human rights started in 1991 and it took almost twenty years to get rid of some colonial remains in Kenya's legislation. Human rights abuses which peaked during the rule of the second president of Kenya caught attention of international activists and donors during 1990s and due to pressure from inside and outside the situation has began to ameliorate. The adoption of the new Constitution in August 2010 may be considered the biggest success of human rights defenders in the country.
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