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U.S. Invasion of Grenada - Reagan's Attempt at Democracy Promotion?
Hřivna, Václav ; Sehnálková, Jana (advisor) ; Raška, Francis (referee)
The concern of the thesis is the US Foreign Policy after Ronald Reagan took the office of the President of the USA. It deals with the question whether the US invasion of Grenada in October 1983 was in accordance with such policy. Apart from a general conception of Reagan's Foreign Policy which is important for understanding the development of events, the US policy towards Latin America is directly analysed. The thesis follows with the outlining of US-Grenada relations from 1979 which was the year during which a leftist coup d'état took place on Grenada until the invasion itself. Simultaneously there is also outlined the internal Grenadian agenda which played a crucial role in the whole context prior the US invasion. The invasion itself partly took place as a result of a turmoil, which was created by the power struggle within the leading party on Grenada. The thesis also analyses the consequences of the US invasion, especially debates over legitimacy of the whole action which took place on a domestic as well as international level. The goal of the thesis is to find and explain the causes that led the US and Ronald Reagan to invade the island of Grenada.
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Democratic Party's Foreign Policy Voting: A Network Analysis
Mulica, David Robert ; Pondělíček, Jiří (advisor) ; Raška, Francis (referee)
This paper analyzes the voting behavior of Democratic Party members in the 117th Congress. Specifically, it examines roll call votes related to U.S. foreign policy. Namely, it examines votes on funding allocations for the two major policy departments of the executive branch - the Department of State and the Department of Defense, votes on resolutions, and other legislative actions in which Congress has jurisdiction over U.S. foreign policy. More particularly, this study is interested in the voting behavior of members of the so-called "Congressional Progressive Caucus" (CPC), one of the ideological caucuses in the U.S. Congress that has been gaining political strength, especially in recent years. The aim of the study is to show whether the "Progressive Caucus" has developed to be a political force that is already showing tendencies to vote differently from the rest of the Democratic Party, or which specific members of Congress are potentially in positions to mediate between the "CPC" and the rest of the party on foreign policy issues. The study uses the social network analysis methodology to process and project data on the voting patterns of individual members of Congress.
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The Influence of the Korean War on the U.S. Foreign Policy toward the Indochina and Vietnam Wars
Špes, Jakub ; Soukup, Jaromír (advisor) ; Ludvík, Jan (referee)
This thesis examines the impact of the Korean War on U.S. foreign policy toward the wars in Indochina and Vietnam during the Cold War. The Korean War, which took place from 1950 to 1953, had profound and indelible consequences for U.S. foreign policy, particularly toward Southeast Asia, and the experience and erudition gained in the Korean War influenced the United States' approach to the wars in Indochina and Vietnam from 1954 to 1975. For this thesis, I have drawn on scholarly literature and analysis of official U.S. State Department documents published in a compilation entitled Foreign Relations of the United States. The thesis is divided into three main parts: in the first I describe terms associated with overall American foreign policy during the second half of the twentieth century, in the second I briefly summarize the Korean War, and in the third I discuss Indochina, Vietnam, and lessons from Korea. The thesis concludes with the verdict that the Korean War had a profound impact on U.S. foreign policy toward the wars in Indochina and Vietnam.
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Post-conflict reconstruction in Afghanistan from the perspective of Regional Security Complex Theory
Zahálková, Iva ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Střítecký, Vít (referee)
The main objective of this diploma thesis is to analyze the nature of obstacles to the regional approach to Afghanistan through the lens of the Regional Security Complex Theory. I will focus on studying security dynamics within and among three security complexes surrounding Afghanistan, to see how these dynamics affect their interaction with the latter. Prospects of any regional cooperation on Afghanistan are hampered by security dynamics within these complexes whereby primary traditional political-military threats are perceived by the complex states as more threatening than the mostly transnational threats stemming from unstable Afghanitan. Particularly the Indo-Pakistani rivalry and to a lesser extent the Saudi-Iranian rivalry represent major obstacles as it is reflected also in their engagement in Afghanistan. On the other hand, weak Central Asia states are linked to Afghanistan security dynamics by mostly transnational threats and ethnic affinities but are generally too weak to extend their security dynamics beyond their respective complex. The thesis also seeks to analyze the possibility of Afghanistan's external transformation in terms of its inclusion into the South Asia complex and based on now stronger security interdependence among the Afghanistan-Pakistan-India triangle. This assumption could...
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Trump's New America: Identity, Discourse and Foreign Policy
Delmastro, Matthew ; Ditrych, Ondřej (advisor) ; Tesař, Jakub (referee)
This study focuses on the construction of American identity over time as it relates to U.S. foreign policy. It is based on the insights of poststructuralism and variants of discourse theory. In particular, the study depicts the historical development of identity representations within U.S. foreign policy discourse from 2008 to 2020, in order to demonstrate how the ongoing construction of identity enabled Donald Trump's disruptive foreign policy. Much of identity research in IR focuses on Self/Other relationships and understudies affirmative representations of identity. The current study fills this research gap by examining processes of affirmative linking in the construction of identity. The main results of the study found that the Trump administration's identity representations radically diverged from those of the Obama administration. The latter articulated America predominantly as a leader in the world, while the former reconstructed American identity as one of being a victim. However, two representations of American identity stayed constant: America as an inspiration to others and America as a force for good in the world.
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U.S. Foreign Policy Transformation, 1945-1948: A Neoclassical Realist Perspective
Bernard, Josef ; Raška, Francis (advisor) ; Pondělíček, Jiří (referee)
This bachelor's thesis deals with the U.S. foreign policy transformation in the 1945-1948 period. In the post-World War Two era, the United States does not return to its traditionally detached foreign policy that characterizes most of its earlier history. Instead, the country remains a key player in international politics. The United States defines its new primary foreign policy interests and remains engaged almost throughout the entire world in its efforts to safeguard as well as pursue these interests. Despite the initial hopeful attitudes of the American leadership, the Soviet-American cooperation soon breaks down and the mutual relationship between the two countries quickly turns into a fully-fledged Cold War confrontation. Consequently, the United States doubles down on its global engagement. This work examines these most important aspects of the U.S. foreign policy transformation in the period starting from the end of the Second World War to the days before the First Berlin Crisis. In doing so, it utilizes the analytical model provided by neoclassical realist theory. The work consists of four main chapters. The first chapter describes the theoretical grounding of the entire work and especially explores the details of the neoclassical realist perspective. The second chapter provides a static picture of...
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Roosevelt's Man in the Truman's Era: Henry A. Wallace and his Stances on the United States Foreign Policy in the 1940s and 1950s
Rýgrová, Pavla ; Koura, Jan (advisor) ; Janoušek, Petr (referee)
This thesis is dedicated to the rupture between Henry A. Wallace and Truman's administration during the forties of the twentieth century, that is mainly to the Wallace's disagreement with the Democratic Party regarding U. S.-Soviet relations. Disapproval of the former Roosevelt's vicepresident with the official standing of the American foreign policy ultimately lead to his presidency candidacy in 1948 and to the creation of protest Progressive Party, which was supposed to shield this candidacy. The purpose of the thesis was to ascertain to what degree these events had been formed by the commencing Cold War and on the contrary which role was played by Wallace and his followers. In the thesis, I analyzed Wallace's shift in opinion towards Soviet Union, determinants of his viewpoint and direct causes of his leave from Democratic Party. I devoted to the circumstances leading to creation of the Progressive Party, its structure and the role of communists in this process. The core theme is presidential campaign in 1948 and analysis of the reasons behind Wallace's defeat; one chapter is devoted to the reflection of this campaign in the forming Eastern Bloc, including its propaganda employment in the communist media press. Additionally, following evolvement of Progressive Party and the reasons of the Wallace's...
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American Foreign Policy and the Arab Uprisings in Egypt, Libya, and Syria
El-Ahmadieh, Jakub ; Kozák, Kryštof (advisor) ; Bečka, Jan (referee)
The Master Thesis American Foreign Policy and the Arab Uprisings in Egypt, Libya, and Syria concentrates primarily on the conflict between democracy promotion and pursuit of strategic and security interests within the U.S. foreign policy with respect to uprisings in Egypt, Libya, and Syria that broke out in the beginning of 2011. The thesis also concentrates on the processes and the tools used by the United States to support either democratization efforts or their vital interests and how these processes were publicly communicated. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part analyzes history of democracy promotion in the U.S. foreign policy and its conflict with interest-based stability promotion. The second, and the most extensive, part examines the uprisings in Egypt, Libya, and Syria with an accent on the U.S. foreign policy. The third part seeks to identify patterns and features of the U.S. foreign policy with respect to the uprisings in the mentioned countries using the facts mentioned in the previous two chapters. The thesis uses mainly newspaper articles and expert opinions as the principle sources. As the topic is a very current issue there is no huge number of academic sources available especially concerning the later phases of the uprisings. Also, official sources like analyses...
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U.S. Invasion of Grenada - Reagan's Attempt at Democracy Promotion?
Hřivna, Václav ; Sehnálková, Jana (advisor) ; Raška, Francis (referee)
The concern of the thesis is the US Foreign Policy after Ronald Reagan took the office of the President of the USA. It deals with the question whether the US invasion of Grenada in October 1983 was in accordance with such policy. Apart from a general conception of Reagan's Foreign Policy which is important for understanding the development of events, the US policy towards Latin America is directly analysed. The thesis follows with the outlining of US-Grenada relations from 1979 which was the year during which a leftist coup d'état took place on Grenada until the invasion itself. Simultaneously there is also outlined the internal Grenadian agenda which played a crucial role in the whole context prior the US invasion. The invasion itself partly took place as a result of a turmoil, which was created by the power struggle within the leading party on Grenada. The thesis also analyses the consequences of the US invasion, especially debates over legitimacy of the whole action which took place on a domestic as well as international level. The goal of the thesis is to find and explain the causes that led the US and Ronald Reagan to invade the island of Grenada.
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Post-conflict reconstruction in Afghanistan from the perspective of Regional Security Complex Theory
Zahálková, Iva ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Střítecký, Vít (referee)
The main objective of this diploma thesis is to analyze the nature of obstacles to the regional approach to Afghanistan through the lens of the Regional Security Complex Theory. I will focus on studying security dynamics within and among three security complexes surrounding Afghanistan, to see how these dynamics affect their interaction with the latter. Prospects of any regional cooperation on Afghanistan are hampered by security dynamics within these complexes whereby primary traditional political-military threats are perceived by the complex states as more threatening than the mostly transnational threats stemming from unstable Afghanitan. Particularly the Indo-Pakistani rivalry and to a lesser extent the Saudi-Iranian rivalry represent major obstacles as it is reflected also in their engagement in Afghanistan. On the other hand, weak Central Asia states are linked to Afghanistan security dynamics by mostly transnational threats and ethnic affinities but are generally too weak to extend their security dynamics beyond their respective complex. The thesis also seeks to analyze the possibility of Afghanistan's external transformation in terms of its inclusion into the South Asia complex and based on now stronger security interdependence among the Afghanistan-Pakistan-India triangle. This assumption could...
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