|
|
(Gender-Neutral) Conscription in the Nordic Countries' Armed Forces
Šťastníková, Štěpánka ; Plechanovová, Běla (advisor) ; Ludvík, Jan (referee)
While conscription has been experiencing a modest, albeit notable comeback in the past decade, the emergence of its gender-neutral variant is largely overlooked. Through a comparative case study of Norway, Sweden, and Finland, this thesis explores the reasons that led to or hindered the introduction of gender-neutral conscription in the three Nordic countries. Given the countries' similarities in many areas, the thesis aims to explain why Norway and Sweden introduced gender-neutral conscription, whereas Finland retained conscription only for men. To do that, the three cases are analysed using an original framework based on the surveyed literature, which features the following factors: national security situation, role and character of conscription, its legitimisation, integration of women into the military and thematization of gender equality in the military. On the one hand, the analysis identifies common patterns in the cases of Norway and Sweden across most of the factors. In the two countries, the security situation was perceived to be relatively favourable, conscription was used as a tool for the recruitment of future active-duty soldiers and thus the practice was considerably selective, conscription was reformulated to address changing circumstances, women were integrated into the military...
|
|
|
Privatisation of Security in the Context of the "War on Terror": Analysing the Private Military Companies Phenomenon
Vurbs, Jan ; Jireš, Jan (advisor) ; Slačálek, Ondřej (referee)
V Praze, dne 25. července 2013 ………………………………… Abstract The main focus of this thesis is the phenomenon of private military companies and their deployment in situations of armed conflict conducted under the auspices of the so-called "War on Terrorism". The aim is to provide the reader with an introductory insight into this issue, describe specific activities of private military companies during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to answer research questions about their positive or negative contribution to the overall results of these conflicts and the possible impact on civil-military relations. The main thesis of this work is that the performance of these companies can not be categorically evaluated because it is different from case to case. There are, however, some general trends which can be traced in regard to "War on Terrorism". They mainly relate to the lack of efficient state control of private military companies and their conduct. The work is divided into several parts. The first deals with the historical development of conducting military operations with the help of non-state financially motivated actors. This section is intended to create a framework for a better understanding of the issues examined. The second part is devoted to theoretical classification of private military companies and...
|
|
|
Comparative Study between the 2016 Failed Military Coup and Previous Successful Coups in Turkey
Safarli, Adil ; Kučera, Tomáš (advisor) ; Aslan, Emil (referee)
The 2016 Turkish failed coup attempt was a striking political event of the year. Although Turkey is a country with a long history of successful military intervention and deep-rooted coup culture, the coup organizers could not achieve the desired outcome in 2016. The coups of 1960, 1971, 1980 and 1997 have resulted in the government's change where the military played an important role by influencing the political sphere. However, the result was different in the coup attempt carried out on 15 July 2016. As the President, a large segment of military, political parties and a significant part of the society had an anti-coup attitude and stood up against the military coup. For this reason, the thesis attempts to compare the 2016 Turkish failed coup with the previous successful coups of 1960, 1971, 1980, and 1997's in Turkey. The comparison is based on the hypotheses built on four civil-military relation theories and concepts: Military Professionalism, Civilian Supremacy, Social Cohesion and Public Institutionalism. According to the analyses, the findings indicate that the theories of Civilian Supremacy and Public Institutionalism better explain the failure of 2016 and the success of the previous coups than other theories.
|
|
|
Examining the Growth of Private Military Contractors and their Applications in State Stability in Latin America
Austman, Connor ; Kučera, Tomáš (advisor) ; Bureš, Oldřich (referee)
Private military companies have rapidly filled in many operational force capacities that national militaries now longer have the capabilities to fill natively. As such, PMCs have expanded their rosters as well as their services provided to fill in many roles, and have carried out many such roles such as logistics management, personal and site security, and some inherently state functions such as training indigenous security forces and interrogation of prisoners. This rise has impacted national militaries in many facets of their operations and abstract professional bases. The ability of the PMC to carry out operations at the same standard as regular soldiers but with higher pay has impacted how the regular soldier views their own place in the professional national military, and creates problems for the establishment as a whole. This thesis will discuss the Iraq War as a case study and the impact of PMCs on the war, as well as introduce the Huntingtonian theories of soldier professionalism and corporateness, and will also employ a critical Marxist perspective to analyse the role and impact of PMCs in the modern military convention and in civil-military relations.
|
|
|
Role of the army in the state at the time of transition : case study of civil-military relations in Egypt
Šťastná, Ema ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Kučera, Tomáš (referee)
In connection with the events of the Arab Spring in 2011, the region of northern Africa in particular underwent significant political changes. One of the states in which widespread protests caused the overturn of the authoritarian regime and subsequently established the democratization process was also Egypt, whose case is profoundly analysed in the second part of the thesis. Generally speaking, the thesis is concerned with the analysis of civil-military relations in states characterized by the low political culture. In the first place, it focuses on societies undergoing democratization process where the military traditionally maintains strong position within the state and hence often assumes the role of the leader of the transition. Therefore, the principal objective of the analysis constitutes the role of the army at the time of transition to democracy. At the same time, the thesis poses three research questions aiming partly at the military position, partly at the motives determining the willingness of the military to intervene. In the second part, the thesis analyses the given case through five defined factors which it subsequently examines in two levels: conceptual and interventionist. The goal of the thesis it to explain which factors determine strong position of the army in given praetorian...
|
|
|
Privatisation of Security in the Context of the "War on Terror": Analysing the Private Military Companies Phenomenon
Vurbs, Jan ; Jireš, Jan (advisor) ; Slačálek, Ondřej (referee)
V Praze, dne 25. července 2013 ………………………………… Abstract The main focus of this thesis is the phenomenon of private military companies and their deployment in situations of armed conflict conducted under the auspices of the so-called "War on Terrorism". The aim is to provide the reader with an introductory insight into this issue, describe specific activities of private military companies during operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, and to answer research questions about their positive or negative contribution to the overall results of these conflicts and the possible impact on civil-military relations. The main thesis of this work is that the performance of these companies can not be categorically evaluated because it is different from case to case. There are, however, some general trends which can be traced in regard to "War on Terrorism". They mainly relate to the lack of efficient state control of private military companies and their conduct. The work is divided into several parts. The first deals with the historical development of conducting military operations with the help of non-state financially motivated actors. This section is intended to create a framework for a better understanding of the issues examined. The second part is devoted to theoretical classification of private military companies and...
|
|
|
Civil-Military Relations and Process of Democratization in Turkey under the Justice and Development Party
Kabická, Klára ; Buben, Radek (advisor) ; Koubek, Jiří (referee)
The diploma paper addresses the issue of civil-military relations in the Turkish Republic, whose nature is one of the obstacles to the democratic consolidation. The aim of the study is to analyze the period from 2002 to the present, in which the Justice and Development Party has launched a new era in the civil-military relations and began working to end the dominant role of the army within the Turkish state and the regime, and its subordination to the civilian and democratic control. The work examines adopted reforms and the current role of the army. It assesses if the Republic of Turkey is closer to the democratic model of the civil-military relations.
|
guest ::
