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Left-wing terrorism: the case of the Red Brigades in Italy and the Red Army Faction in Germany
Budilová, Michaela ; Charvát, Jan (advisor) ; Hájek, Lukáš (referee)
This diploma thesis deals with the phenomenon of left-wing terrorism in Italy and West Germany, two Western democracies where terrorism has emerged more than anywhere else in Europe. Terrorist organizations, including the Red Brigades (RB) in Italy and the Red Army Faction (RAF) in West Germany, emerged in an environment of political and social conflict and radicalized protests against the state establishment. These organisations were chosen for this diploma thesis because of their prominent status, their longevity and the influence they have gained in the field of left-wing terrorism. In its comparative analysis, the thesis attempts to simultaneously interweave three different levels of analysis: the socio-political contexts of Italy and West Germany (macro-level), a focus on the two terrorist groups and their organizational dynamics (meso-level), and the ideology and motivations of the terrorists (micro-level). The aim of this thesis is to explore and gain insight into the RB and RAF organisations in terms of ideology and to describe the factors behind the rise and fall of these terrorist organisations.
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Political Violence in Turkey
Özturan, Betül ; Střítecký, Vít (advisor) ; Aslan, Emil (referee)
This thesis aims to create a novel dataset on political violence to estimate the accurate number of political violence incidents and fatalities in Turkey: Political Violence in Turkey Event Dataset (POLVITED). I argue that the reporting bias and differences in the scopes and definition of event datasets impact the quantitative study of conflict and violence. To eliminate the reporting bias and create a comprehensive dataset on political violence, I apply Matching Event Data by Location, Time and Type (MELTT) method to the Global Terrorism Database(GTD) and Uppsala Conflict Data Programme (UCDP-GED). The finding suggests that UCDP-GED were able to record 65% of the total number of political violence incidents in Turkey, and GTD was able to record 45% of them while 10% is coded in both datasets. POLVITED enables the researchers to capture the accurate picture of political violence incidents in Turkey by eliminating the double recording and alleviating the reporting bias. Lastly, the comparison of POLVITED and official reports demonstrates that, although the reporting bias is inevitable, integration alleviates the problems associated with it by increasing the coverage of the dataset.
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Foucault and Violence: A Genealogy of National Belonging and Representative Power in Turkey
Maze, Jacob Alan ; Salamon, Janusz (advisor) ; Brisku, Adrian (referee) ; Taglia, Stefano (referee)
The central aim of this dissertation is to introduce tools for studying a form of political violence in Michel Foucault's genealogical methodology. This is accomplished by reformulating theories from Hannah Arendt on violence to sync with Foucault's understanding of power, knowledge and experience. Violence is shown to be a relationship where one subject is prevented from fulfilling a strategy by another, which over time accumulates into widespread power relations, or nexuses of violence, within a society. This is contrasted with power, which is when one subject attempts to control the outcome of a situation, and as such it is productive. This method of genealogy is then employed in the case of national identity (i.e., nationalism) in Turkey. Tracing its historical emergence, the late Ottoman Empire becomes the focal point. A network of allegiances, referred to as sultanic power, constituted the relationships that were exercised prior to the nineteenth century. While one pledged their loyalty and subservience to their ruler, this required their ruler to offer them security and prosperity in return. Over the Long Nineteenth Century, a new network of power relations emerged based on representation through the practices and discourses that developed. I come to outline what I term representative power....
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Narcoterrorism: Searching for the crossroads of drug trade and political violence
Kolínský, Prokop ; Makariusová, Radana (advisor) ; Záhora, Jakub (referee)
The main objective of thesis ''Narcoterrorism: Crossroads between drug trade and political violence'' is to describe and analyze the phenomenon of narcoterrorism, a concept that combines in its core the politically-motivated violence, the illicit drug trade, and the use of terrorist methods. The goal will be to establish a comprehensive theoretical framework for the various types of narcoterrorism and the different supportive types that may occur between the politically-motivated or ideological groups, and the drug-trafficking criminal groups. This framework will be later primarily tested on the case of Colombia, where various warring ideological and criminal groups will be observed and analyzed. Other cases that will be secondarily used to further prove the established assumptions, will be focusing on other countries which seen in recent history a surge of political or criminal violence, and are either manufacturing or trafficking illegal drugs. These will include Peru, Mexico, and Afghanistan. In the final section of the thesis, the theoretical framework will be assigned to real historical cases, and a question of the prerequisites of narcoterrorist emergence will be discussed.
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Italian and German Left-Wing Terrorism in the 1970s in a Transnational Perspective
Pešta, Mikuláš ; Koura, Jan (advisor) ; Rákosník, Jakub (referee) ; Valenta, Martin (referee)
The dissertation thesis concerns with the issue of the left-wing terrorism in Italy and Federal Republic of Germany in the 1970s. The chosen topic is approached using the methods of transnational studies, which have been thus far applied only exceptionally in the relation to this phenomenon, despite the numerous parallels in different countries. The focus of the research lies in the analysis of the German-Italian terrorist network as a whole, the contacts between the organizations and mutual influence. The direct and indirect comparison of the cooperating terrorist organizations is also a substantial part of the thesis. The protest movement, which spread at the end of the 1960s and from which emerged the future terrorist groups as its most radical branches, was an important transnational phenomenon itself. The first chapter concerns with the analysis of this movement, emphasizing the reasons of its inception and its stances on political violence. The student and worker aspects of the movement are introduced, as well as older roots in the anti-fascist resistance or in the work of the Marxist authors. The thesis finds a special inspiration for the radicalizing Left in the events in the Third World. The thesis further examines the individual terrorist groups, chosen according to their importance and relevance...
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Political Violence and the Concept of Failed State - Comparison between Iraq and Somalia
Nemešová, Lucie ; Slačálek, Ondřej (advisor) ; Jireš, Jan (referee)
There is recently growing interest, and also the political and academic debate connected to it, in the so called failed states. The problem of state failure in some of the world regions was securitized, particularly after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the failed states began being understood as a security threat by the international community. This change in perception of the failed states reflects the concerns that such states' areas could serve as a "safe havens" of various terrorist groups. This thesis focuses on the relation between state failure and political violence. There is no question that polical violence emerges in the failed states. Its most common form is the civil war which can be both the cause or the consequence of it. But this relation is not necessarily inevitable. The goal of this thesis is to clarify the contribution of the concept of failed state to the explanation of relation between state failure and political vilence and furthermore to inspect the concept's analytical value. This relation is illutrated on two case studies, Iraq and Somalia, and on their comparison.
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URN - Rapid Response Unit: Counterterrorists' Perception of their Enemies and its Relation to the Czech Security Policy
Hladík, Jan ; Jireš, Jan (advisor) ; Barša, Pavel (referee)
The presented bachelor thesis discusses the Útvar rychlého nasazení (URN) - Rapid Response Unit of the Czech Police as a specific counterterrorist unit. The main aim of this thesis is to describe the position of the unit in the context of Czech strategic interests, as well as give an in-depth analysis of the meaning of this special force with reference to the social contract - the Czech Constitution. Firstly a model of innovative terrorism and a terrorist was developed, followed by the development of an anti-model of antiterrorism and an antiterrorist. The relationship between those opposite models is then described along with their implications. Based on the aforementioned research, a dynamic model was created which was used to carry out qualitative research with members of the URN in order to test the model. Various interviews, participatory observations and consultations were used to collect data. Based on an analysis of the results, the need for implementing an innovative mechanism of counterterrorism measurements and policies is recommended. Key words: Útvar rychlého nasazení; Rapid Response Unit; URN; URNA; terrorism; political violence; counterterrorism; antiterrorism; special forces; counterterrorist force; terrorist; antiterrorist; Czech Republic; security policy; security system; Iraq;...
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