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EU response to hybrid threats: the national position of the Slovak Republic
Ilkova, Alexandra ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (advisor) ; Rosendorf, Ondřej (referee)
The main purpose of this master's thesis is to illuminate the national position of the Slovak Republic on the EU response to countering hybrid threats. The national position is illustrated through 9 semi-structured interviews conducted with the Slovak national officials and experts working for the national authorities and alternatively for the non-governmental organisations within the field of hybrid threats. The national officials represent the various state departments, such as the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, Ministry of Defense or the Office of the Government. The respondents' professional background heterogeneity leads to a more complex national position, incorporating as many national authorities' structures as possible. At the same time, the work also provides a comprehensive overview of the EU and Slovak approach to countering hybrid threats. While the EU response is mapped out through the adaptation of political and legal frameworks, the emergence of new institutional bodies and inter-institutional cooperation, the Slovak response is demonstrated through the development of national security and defense strategies and the emergence of the departmental units focusing on hybrid threats. Clarifying the approaches to countering hybrid threats from the...
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Hybrid threats and national security agenda
DOLEŽALOVÁ, Šárka
Hybrid threats and the state security agenda are currently very much debated topics. With the continuous development of IT technologies and changes in military and non-military tactics, hybrid warfare is gradually becoming the dominant way of conducting modern conflicts, which take place largely in cyberspace. The national security agenda is closely related to hybrid threats, as it describes the functioning of the security system of the Czech Republic, in connection with both conventional and modern security threats. The objectives of this thesis are three in total, it involves obtaining information about threats in cyberspace, and how to counter these threats, and further analyze the emergence and spread of so-called fake news that threatens human society. Last objective is to describe the so-called information war and the competence of the government against the spread of fake news. The theoretical part of this thesis first deals with basic definitions from the areas of state security, state security system, hybrid warfare, cyberspace and fake news. The selected topics are related to the current situation and specifics in the Czech Republic. Next part of the theoretical part describes discursive analysis, as it is a method used in the practical part of this thesis. The practical part focuses on the discursive analysis of fake news from the Russia-Ukraine conflict. The basic article is about summary of several fake news and correcting them. For each fake news, there was an effort to find a relevant article from the Czech media and to find out to what extent the opinions in them coincide and how individual events are perceived in the Czech Republic. The resulting analyzes answered the question from the assignment "What effect do fake nws have on the state security policy?" How can we stop the spread of fake news?" And thanks to them, all 4 goals were met.
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NATO and the EU's strategic communication's cohesion from the perspective of the ritual model
Dušková, Lenka ; Karásek, Tomáš (advisor) ; Kučera, Tomáš (referee)
At the core of this master thesis lies the cohesion of NATO and the EU's strategic communication. The cohesion is researched in the context of both institutions' reactions to hybrid threats from quantitative and qualitative points of view. The thesis observes communication's cohesion within the realm of NATO and the EU's responses to the annexation of Crimea and subsequent war in Ukraine, the Skripals' poisoning, and the instrumentalization of migration by the Belarusian regime. What precedes the empirical part is a summary of current academic debates about the concept of strategic communication and also the description of NATO and the EU's communication systems. The analysis then builds on the extensive dataset of NATO and the EU's event-related messages. The intrainstitutional and interinstitutional cohesion is assessed based on the frequencies and timing of the messages in the above- mentioned cases. The subsequent qualitative analysis draws on Carey's proposed ritual view of communication. It further analyzes whether the content of NATO and the EU's strategic communication reflects their core values, threat perception, narratives about expected appropriate behavior, visioning, and whether it refers to the common historical experience, stimulates a shared view of reality, and explicitly...
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Countering Hybrid Threats: Public-Private Cooperation in Norway and the Czech republic
Musilová, Kristýna ; Bahenský, Vojtěch (advisor) ; Ditrych, Ondřej (referee)
This thesis aims to present policy recommendations in the area of public-private cooperation to counter hybrid interference, especially cyber threats. Research of this kind is unique in Czech academia. There has not been a single published paper that would comprehensively tackle the issue of public-private cooperation as a tool to achieve societal resilience towards hybrid threats. The first part of the research is focused on the Norwegian cooperation model and identifies tools and mechanisms thanks to which was societal resilience-building successful. The second part of the thesis analyses the current situation in the Czech Republic and attempts to identify shortcomings in hybrid threat resilience. The core of the research consists of eighteen semi-structured interviews with the representatives of the Norwegian and Czech public and private sectors. The result is policy recommendations for the Czech government based on an open-source data analysis supplemented by information from the interviews. These recommendations specify applying Norwegian collaboration tools between the public and private sectors. The key suggestions are the implementation of the "system of POCs", preparation of crisis scenarios, which is to a certain extent follow-up of the so-called "standard operating procedures" prepared...
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A changing security environment and hybrid threats: the use of shelter theory in Maltese security
Ellul, Mark ; Weiss, Tomáš (advisor) ; Bureš, Oldřich (referee)
In recent years, the security environment of the European Union has changed with security threats and concerns obscuring the traditional boundaries of internal and external security matters. This poses a challenge for Member States by way of being required to necessarily adapt and create structures which address such a new reality. A small southern littoral Member State, Malta has traditionally taken a security approach which emphasizes military guarantees and security assurances. The changing security environment and the rise of hybrid threats may alter this approach. Hybrid threats are actions conducted by state and non-state actors through military and non-military means with the goal of undermining a target. These threats have been present in the past. However, their effectiveness has significantly increased through their proliferation into several domains and the use of innovative technologies in recent years. A specificity of hybrid threats is their use to obscure internal and external security concerns undermining democratic institutions, targeting critical infrastructures, and influencing entire populations. Small state literature considers that because such states have been exposed to non-conventional threats, hybrid threats that impact cybersecurity and critical infrastructures are...
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Hybrid Warfare, Wars, and Threats: A Conceptual Analysis
Bahenský, Vojtěch ; Kofroň, Jan (advisor) ; Ludvík, Jan (referee)
This thesis strives to raise and answer three questions about the concept of hybrid warfare: What concepts of hybrid warfare exist so far? How similar or different are they? How useful are they from conceptual standpoint? The questions are answered by a conceptual analysis consisting of survey of existing concepts, their comparison and detailed evaluation of two of them on the basis of criteria of conceptualization. The answers revealed several important issues of the concept. Firstly, there are too many different concepts of hybrid warfare, often formulated with insufficient care for previous debates and already established concepts. Secondly, the formulated concepts of hybrid warfare are often different to a degree, which calls into question the claim, that all of them are trying to capture the same phenomenon. Lastly, even the better elaborated of the hybrid warfare concepts seem to be rather poorly conceptualized and not very useful. These three answers together cast shadow of doubt on the currently popular concept of hybrid warfare. The results of this work call for more careful thinking on whether and how the use of this concept is helping or hurting both our understanding of contemporary conflicts and our defence efforts against contemporary threats.
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The Response of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Russian Hybrid Threat: Case Study "Fall Lisa"
Pokorný, Jiří ; Handl, Vladimír (advisor) ; Lizcová, Zuzana (referee)
This master's thesis deals with the response of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Russian hybrid threat, which is examined using a case study of the so-called "Lisa case" from January 2016. The thesis aims to place the "Lisa case" in the context of German-Russian relations and hybrid threats in the security reality of the 21st century. Germany and Russia have long had a special relationship, which, however, fell into crisis after the Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. The main goal of Russia's efforts to influence social and political development in Europe has become Germany, which must deal with new methods and strategies of hybrid warfare. The advent of hybrid threats is a challenge not only for Germany but also for its allies. Russia's view of hybrid threats proves that the term has different meanings for different actors. One of the manifestations of the Russian hybrid threat is the case of a thirteen-year-old girl of German-Russian origin Lisa F. who was missing in Berlin for several hours and allegedly raped by migrants. Although the German police promptly refuted the case, the Russian media misused the event to fuel an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty, especially among a significant minority of Russian Germans. The incident spread to the intergovernmental level when Russian...
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Hybrid Warfare, Wars, and Threats: A Conceptual Analysis
Bahenský, Vojtěch ; Kofroň, Jan (advisor) ; Ludvík, Jan (referee)
This thesis strives to raise and answer three questions about the concept of hybrid warfare: What concepts of hybrid warfare exist so far? How similar or different are they? How useful are they from conceptual standpoint? The questions are answered by a conceptual analysis consisting of survey of existing concepts, their comparison and detailed evaluation of two of them on the basis of criteria of conceptualization. The answers revealed several important issues of the concept. Firstly, there are too many different concepts of hybrid warfare, often formulated with insufficient care for previous debates and already established concepts. Secondly, the formulated concepts of hybrid warfare are often different to a degree, which calls into question the claim, that all of them are trying to capture the same phenomenon. Lastly, even the better elaborated of the hybrid warfare concepts seem to be rather poorly conceptualized and not very useful. These three answers together cast shadow of doubt on the currently popular concept of hybrid warfare. The results of this work call for more careful thinking on whether and how the use of this concept is helping or hurting both our understanding of contemporary conflicts and our defence efforts against contemporary threats.
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