|
|
Causes of Civil Wars: The Influence of Natural Resurces Extractive Technologies on the Probability of Civil War Outbreak
Klosek, Kamil ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Plechanovová, Běla (referee)
This study aimed to provide more general knowledge about the mechanisms which link natural resources with civil war outbreaks. The theoretical point of departure was the feasibility hypothesis hypothesis of Collier et al. (2009) in which the authors state that the paramount interest of researchers of civil wars should be directed at the structural conditions within a country. One of their assertions pertained to the role of natural resources. Those provide a potential revenue source for insurgents to finance their rebellion. Hence, the higher the dependence of a state on natural resource exports, the higher should be the probability of civil war outbreak. However, this account was heavily criticized by other researchers. Some claimed that the conceptualization of the Primary Commodity Exports (PCE) variable does not cover relevant natural resources (Fearon 2005), others pointed at the problem of reversed causality and endogeneity (Gleditsch 1998) and also others stressed to differentiate between different natural resources according to their proneness to be looted by rebels (Ross 2003). In order to address these problems, a new variable was conceptualized. The "extraction feasibility" variable measures the degree of extractability of a particular resource. It is composed of two notions, namely...
|
|
|
Two Yugoslavias: One Lost, the Other Dremt of. War and Disintegration of the Yugoslav Federation from the Perspective of the Yugoslav Emigrant Community in the Czech Republic
Hamoudová, Barbora ; Houda, Přemysl (advisor) ; Mücke, Pavel (referee)
The thesis deals with the reflection of the war conflict and the subsequent disintegration of Yugoslavia in the first half of the 1990s from the perspective of representatives of various ethnic and religious groups from the countries of this former federation, who found a new home in the Czech Republic. The aim of the work is to capture their recollection and perception of the causes and consequences of this historical event through oral history, in accordance with the post-positivist paradigm following the cultural turnover in the 1980s. Based on the analysis and interpretation of oral history interviews, I will attempt to interpret the intrusion into the historical subjectivity of these narrators. I will also be interested in the question of their post- conflict identity and their attitude towards the disintegration of Yugoslavia and towards post- war trans-nationalism. The narrators are ex-Yugoslavs who were born in the 1960s and 1970s in former Yugoslavia on the territory of Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the Civil war (1992- 1995) were already adults and they emigrated during the war or immediately after that. Keywords: Yugoslavia, civil war, oral history, emigration, nationalism, religion, post-conflict identity, subjectivity, transnacionalism, diaspora
|
|
|
Currency warfare in civil war: The impact of the weaponisation and targeting of currencies in the Biafran war
Confidence, Jennifer Ezi-Nwa ; Dowd, Caitriona (advisor) ; Ludvík, Jan (referee)
Currency warfare is an actor's use of monetary or military force against an enemy's monetary power. This could manifest in the form of counterfeiting, and currency change, among others. Currency warfare is used as part of a military campaign, either prior to a military conflict or implemented side by side with a military conflict. This kind of warfare plays a crucial role in cutting off the war financing capability of an enemy. Despite its strategic usefulness in military campaigns, our knowledge of currency warfare is poor, even more in internal conflict, because most of the available research focuses on international conflict. For this research, the focus is on civil war to identify how the currency changes by both the government and rebel group (Biafrans) helped to increase or decrease the duration and severity of the conflict. This study on the Biafran war case developed a currency warfare theory for lack of available theory to guide the research. The theory established certain strategic functions; bankruptcy, arms shortage, loss of territory, limited access to foreign currency, hunger and famine, and static conflict zone, as the themes that determine currency warfare's impact on severity and duration. Relying on this, findings indicate that the currency change by Nigeria helped shorten the...
|
|
|
Body and sexuality in San Camilo 1936
Šatopletová, Petra ; Sánchez Fernández, Juan Antonio (advisor) ; Holub, Jiří (referee)
In the Bachelor's thesis Body and Sexuality in the Novel San Camilo 1936, we are going to pursue some of the principal themes of this work; these are based on depictions of the human body in its physical form, i.e. disease, injury, death, external appearance of the characters, and various aspects of sexuality. In order to get to analyze the respective themes, it is neccessary to get to know the author first. It's Camilo José Cela, often noted as one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1989 and various other awards. Beside novels, Cela also wrote poetry, travelogs, plays, essays, short stories and newspaper articles. He is famous for his novel La Familia de Pascual Duarte (The Family of Pascual Duarte), introducing the new literary trend tremendism to the world of literature. The term tremendism is derived from the Spanish word 'tremendo', which can be translated as terrible, horrifying, raising fear etc. This by itself gives us an idea about this style's characteristics, which we are going to present in the following text. We consider it essential to give some insight into the period of history the novel was written and set in. It takes place at the very beginning of the Spanish Civil War, specifically the week around the 18th July 1936,...
|
|
|
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...
|
|
|
Luis Buñuel and Spain in the 1930s
Timko, Maroš ; Soukup, Jaromír (advisor) ; Kovář, Martin (referee)
The bachelor thesis focuses on the phase of the 1930s in Spain. On grounds of movie production of Spanish director Luis Buñuel, it tries to zoom in and clarify the problems and political-economic situation in that era. Author devotes himself to three chosen spheres (anticlericalism, education, army) whose evolution from 19th century until the Second republic is investigated through the specialized literature, contemporary articles and movies. Emphasis is laid on the existence of chosen aspects in political-social level of that era, their presence and critique in selected works, whereby the thesis tries to offer an analysis of certain problems, which are closely associated with the spheres primarily examined in the bachelor thesis. Attention is also focused on the personality of Luis Buñuel, his political orientation and cultural terms of Spain in the 1930s.
|
|
|
Greek and Roman reformers
Grigoryan, Hračja ; Skřejpek, Michal (advisor) ; Bělovský, Petr (referee)
The goal of this thesis on roman and greek reformers was to create a methodical summary of the most important constitutional reforms in ancient Rome and Greece. It is mostly focussed on the history of ancient Rome or Roman reformers, respectively. I call these reforms constitutional for their undoubted life-changing impact on the society as a whole - some of the reforms changed the ancient societies for the upcoming decades and even centuries, some changed them, as I believe, forever. For example a struggle between Lucius Cornelius Sulla and Gaius Marius had a far- reaching impact on Rome as too much of "unbreakable" rules were broken - which, of course, led to another and another heavy and unprecedented interventions which ultimately led to the fall of the republic and the beginning of the new, Imperial, era. Main sources of this thesis are the texts of ancient authors, such as Plutarch Suetonius and Appian, as it was one of my goals to use primary literature as much as possible.
|
|
|
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...
|
|
|
Analyzing the Effects of Ethnicity on Internal Armed Conflicts in Burma: Identity Crisis and the Struggle for Recognition
Nyunt, Myo Win ; Salamon, Janusz (advisor) ; Tesař, Jakub (referee)
While it is a widely accepted argument that ethnicity and armed conflicts are inextricably linked, there is little understating regarding in which conditions and how exactly ethnicity affects armed conflicts, which this thesis aims to explain through a qualitative case study on Burma, a Southeast Asian nation where what is known as ethnic armed organizations and the national armed forces of Burma-the Tatmadaw-have been at war since Burma got independence from Britain in 1948. While ethnicity can turn into a source of conflict in certain situations, ethnic differences per se are not the cause of conflict. However, ethnicity and ethnic groups can produce negative effects in certain situations. As the main research question, this study asks: In which conditions and how 'ethnicity' produce adverse effects that fuel armed conflicts? In addition to the main research question, this study will test three hypotheses in relation of the main research question to get a clear picture of the adverse effects of ethnicity on armed conflicts. The study concludes by discussing research findings and questions for further research in the area of ethnic armed conflict. Klíčová slova: Ethnicity, Armed Conflict, Recognition, Identity Crisis, Burma/Myanmar
|
|
|
Strategy of Survival: the Resilience of the Assad Regime
Beijsens, Eline Elisabeth Gerdina ; Weinfurter, Jaroslav (advisor) ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (referee)
The case of Syria presents an example of a regime performing authoritarian norms of peacebuilding that is indicative of new forms of geographical power implementing alternative models of post-conflict order. Bashar al-Assad utilises authoritarian conflict management to intensify its strategy of binary othering on which to exercise sectarian- infused practices of discrimination and violence to consolidate its power and subsequent legitimacy. The process of authoritarian upgrading left the Assad regime with vulnerabilities that were exploited during the uprising in 2011. Unable to control the protests, Assad intensified authoritarian and illiberal practices as a means to manage the civil war that emerged. Through discursive, spatial and economic practices, Assad was able to retain his seat of power. For example, drawing upon sectarianism as a tool of control, Assad put into place a process of binary othering that classifies citizens as loyal or disloyal. Citizens deemed disloyal are punished through a variety of measures. The authoritarian practices have led to dire conditions for the Syrian people, and are becoming entrenched into very structure of society through the process of reconstruction. However, liberal forms of peacebuilding lack the leverage to counter these practices. Keywords Syria;...
|
guest ::
