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Russian proxy or rogue mercenary army? Situating the Wagner Group
Sutherland, Matthew Donald ; Bureš, Oldřich (advisor) ; Aliyev, Huseyn (referee)
The Wagner Group is an umbrella term referring to a network of mercenary groups, extraction companies, and political strategists linked to the Kremlin by oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin. Wagner has spread throughout Africa, the Middle East, and South America. Characterized by obscured activities and denied by the Kremlin, Wagner escapes conventional definitions of a Private Military and Security Company (PMSC) in both practice and theory. The pervasive labelling of Wagner as a "PMC" makes it difficult to effectively engage with the group at either an academic or policy level. Therefore, a scholarship situating Wagner in relation to PMSC literature would provide a platform to address Wagner across academic and political platforms. This project aims to fill that gap by situating Wagner in relation to current PMSC and mercenary literature. This will be accomplished by an extensive review of the current literature, followed by synthesizing PMSC definitions and categories that are relevant into the contemporary field. Once this has been established a comparative analysis of a variety of the Wagner Group's global activities will allow us to assess where Wagner sits amongst these definitions and categories. Addressing this gap in the literature will provide a new and effective platform for engaging with Wagner...
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Hybrid Governance in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Voloskyi, Glib Artemovich ; Berg, Julie (advisor) ; Kazharski, Aliaksei (referee) ; Dowd, Caitriona (referee)
The hybrid governance theory has facilitated the shift beyond the state-centric perspective on security governance. Yet the theory has never been tested under the conditions absent from an active or recent military conflict. It tends to neglect the relations between the state and non- state security actors and superfluously praises non-state and hybrid security orders. The paper elaborates on these academic gaps. Based on secondary data, it investigates hybrid security governance in South Africa. The paper demonstrates that hybrid security governance can exist in a non-conflict setting. It discusses the patterns of the emergence of non-state security actors, their relations with the population and the state. The findings are found to be consistent with the hybrid governance theory, though there are a number of peculiar features. Additional studies on hybrid governance in a non-conflict setting will help to distinguish the features of South African hybrid security from the general logic of hybrid security governance in a non-conflict setting.
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Proliferation of Non-State Armed Groups and their impact on state fragility and insecurity in the Sahel Region of Africa
Ofori-Ayeh, David ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Špelda, Petr (referee)
in English The most potent threat to the security and stability of the state in some geographical regions after the cold war has been the proliferation of VNSA due largely to the declining capacities of states especially in the developing world. For a myriad of reasons, the modern nation-state seems incapable of performing its functions and fulfilling the obligations of the state to its citizens. Moreover, the state appears to have lost its monopoly on the use of force within its territory, a situation which has led to the prevalence of swathes of ungoverned territory with marginalized and aggrieved communities whose resentment against central authority find resonance with Non-State Armed Groups whose violent contestation of state authority has further contributed to state fragility and increased insecurity. The Sahel region is one that represents this dynamic in all of its dimensions.
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The Study of Use of Heavy Armoured Vehicles by Non-State Actors in Syria Conflict
Kotrbáček, Adam ; Kučera, Tomáš (advisor) ; Rosendorf, Ondřej (referee)
The use of heavy weaponry - such as tanks - in recent and current military conflicts has been overlooked, as were the principles of conventional warfare in general. With relation to armed conflict, attention has been given especially to the questions of conflict prevention and deconfliction. The thesis focuses on the ongoing conventional conflict in Syria, with the emphasis on the tactics of use of heavy armoured vehicles by non-state actors. The thesis takes advantage of volume of accessible primary sources concerning the topic to establish distinct modes of use of heavy weapons - the patterns of deployment, to analyse how the heavy weapons itself and the environment affecting their usage. On the two chosen case studies, these patterns of deployment are operationalised into an independent variable to assess whether the use of heavy armoured vehicles by insurgents in north-western Syria could be causally link with the outcome of military operations.
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Beyond State-Sponsored Disinformation: Understanding the Emerging Threats
Neads, Simone ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Špelda, Petr (referee)
Disinformation poses a clear security threat to institutions and society as a whole, as it has been shown to increase insecurity, radicalization and polarization. Currently, there are many different understandings of this phenomenon which creates barriers to finding solutions. The initial objective of this thesis is to provide an overview of the different conceptions in order to formulate an inclusive understanding of disinformation. This will then be used to test three hypotheses: that disinformation is not a new phenomenon, that it is not only state sponsored, and that technology has allowed for the recent inundation in campaigns. Through a case study analysis this thesis concluded that not only were all of these hypotheses verifiable, but that based on the discussion, it can be expected that disinformation will become increasingly prevalent. The finding suggest that it will be possible for even non-securitized actors to start campaigns, making them harder to identify. Additionally, technology will allow narratives to be increasingly targeted. These narratives are amplified by the systemic problems with social media that benefit outrage and shocking content. The thesis concluded that it may be possible to address disinformation proactively.
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Field Social Work With Seniors
PETRÁŠOVÁ, Kateřina
The thesis deals with the quality of support of family carers who take care of the sick elderly. In doing so, it examines both the situation of carers, the issue of family care and its pitfalls, and the state's approach to supporting family carers. It examines the development of this support and its targeting, while examining the development of support in the last five years, when the concept of family care support was included in the social policy outlook until 2025. It also addresses family carers as a separate group to which social work should be targeted.
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Differences and similarities between business and environmental constituencies within UN climate negotiations
Henley, Morgan ; Parízek, Michal (advisor) ; Karlas, Jan (referee)
The leader of the climate change regime is the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) which hosts the international climate change negotiations at the annual Conference of Parties (COP). In addition to official parties which represent nations in the UNFCCC, businesses and environmental groups are also playing a role in the negotiations as observers, which are grouped together in constituencies. This research will look at the two largest and original constituencies, the Business NGOs (BINGOs) and the Environmental NGOs (ENGOs) which represent business and environmental groups respectively. Both constituencies have a focal point for their members with the UNFCCC Secretariat, which for BINGOs is the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Climate Action Network (CAN) for ENGOs. Specifically, this paper compares the ICC and CAN and finds similarities and differences between their functioning within the UNFCCC in regards to their ability to build coherent policies between their members and how transparent they are in their activities. It was predicted that businesses groups have a harder time working together and are less transparent than the environmental groups which the research indeed confirmed. A series of interviews with various actors in the climate negotiations...
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Czech non-governmental organisations and EU climate change policy
Stuchlíková, Zuzana ; Najšlová, Lucia (advisor) ; Šlosarčík, Ivo (referee)
The thesis aims to analyse the relations of non-governmental organisations towards the European integration process, which creates an additional platform for their interest representation. This case study focuses on how Czech non-profit organisations, which are dealing in long term with the topic of climate change, try to use the instruments and channels available at the EU level to promote their idea of the 2030 Climate and Energy Framework targets and how the EU climate action policy translates to their understanding of the topic. The thesis is based on the Europeanization theory that assumes that non-state actors are adjusting their behaviour to the existence of another platform of decision making and interest representation. I, therefore, assume, that the selected sample of Czech ecological NGOs tries to actively use the opportunity to participate in the EU decision making - especially because a climate policy is decided mostly at the EU level and therefore the outcomes, such as the 2030 Framework, present another tool to achieve change in the climate policy of the Czech Republic. I conclude that from the perspective of selected NGOs the European climate policy is perceived as an important driver behind the development in this field in both Czech Republic and global negotiations - even though...
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The main actors of the economic diplomacy in the Czech Republic - dynamics of change
Frišaufová, Tereza ; Druláková, Radka (advisor) ; Peterková, Jana (referee)
This bachelor thesis deals with economic diplomacy of the Czech Republic, particularly it deals with its main actors -- Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Industry and Trade -- and dynamics of changes of their relationship. The aim of the thesis is an analysis of crucial interaction between these two actors thus the essential part of the paper is focused on three fundamental events of ministerial interaction. The turns of the year 1998/1999, 2010/2011 and the year 2014, which is a key component of the thesis since it covers current situation between actors and contemporary condition of the Czech economic diplomacy
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