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European Union as a State-Building Power
Zdrálek, Jan ; Ditrych, Ondřej (advisor) ; Kučerová, Irah (referee)
This thesis concentrates on the role of the European Union as a state-building power. It scrutinizes EU foreign policy in terms of state-building phenomena in three selected areas: Western Balkans, Eastern Partnership, and Southern Neighbourhood. First, it presents the EU as an increasingly powerful international actor and a normative power. Then, it overviews the existing literature on state-building with a special focus on Francis Fukuyama's neoliberal approach and David Chandler's critical remarks. The thesis is methodologically grounded in the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA), specifically the four-value fuzzy set QCA, which enables to bridge the quantitative and qualitative approaches. The analysis operates with 23 cases (countries) and five variables in order to assess the EU state-building practices in relation to the targeted states' resilience. Drawing on the moderate generalizations from QCA results, the thesis concludes that the EU is, indeed, a state-building power which strengthens the resilience of states through its state-building practices.
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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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