Diploma thesis 'US-China Relationship in the Field of Naval Security - Cooperation or Conflict' focuses on the current phenomenon of Chinese naval rise and its implications for the relationship between China and today's leading naval power United States both in the Asia Pacific and Indian Ocean region. Using the comparative analysis, both the strategies as well as naval capacities of China and the US in both aforementioned regions are compared in order to assess the future character of their naval relationship. This thesis addresses also the evolution of Chinese navy and Chinese naval modernization on its own as well as its motives and those ideational and material factors which have a considerable impact on this modernization.

Nearly four decades of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-European Union (EU) relationship have witnessed the importance of ideas and identity alongside the economic interests in shaping the behaviour of the two sides. The study takes interest in understanding the EU’s actorness and the EU as a normative actor with and within Southeast Asia through a reflectivist lens. The thesis is an attempt to provide a new perspective on a relationship commonly assessed from an economic angle. It outlines the opportunity of non-traditional security (NTS) challenges to enhance EU actorness and normative influence in Southeast Asia. Against this backdrop, the study explores the dialogue and cooperative initiatives of two regions, which attach relatively little salience to each other. The study employs a NTS lens and draws upon the case of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98, the haze in relation to forest governance, the Bali bombings of 2002 and the political conflict in Aceh. The study assumes that these NTS issues can stimulate processes of threat convergence as well as threat ‘othering’. It argues that these processes enhance European engagement in Southeast Asia and contribute to shaping regional stability in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, NTS crises present situations, where norms can become unstable, contested and substituted. This allows us to better examine the EU as a normative actor. To establish an understanding of the EU’s actorness and the EU as a normative actor, the empirical evidence will focus on the threat perceptions, motivations of action and activities of the EU and its member states. For the purpose of differentiating the EU as a normative actor, the study will also include the discussion of the normative objectives and behaviours of the EU and its member states and apply a reflectivist theoretical framework. Hypothetically, NTS crises trigger external assistance and normative influence and thus, they offer an opportunity to establish a more nuanced picture of the EU in the region. At the same time, the study acknowledges that there are a variety of constraints and variables that complicate the EU’s actorness. The thesis seeks to identify and discuss these. So far, scholarly publications have failed to apply the NTS perspective systematically. This thesis provides the first monograph-length treatment of the EU in Southeast Asia through a NTS and reflectivist lens.

CHINA IN GLOBAL AND REGIONAL POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY - GEOPOLITICAL CLASH WITH JAPAN, INDIA, USA, RUSSIA AND EUROPE Mgr. Martin Petrtýl Supervisor: Doc. Dr. Bořivoj Hnízdo, PhD. Institute of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences This dissertation discusses the current and future role of China in the 21st century. I worked with the idea to prepare a systematically detailed analytical study of the country in relation to its surroundings as well as its internal environment for more than 8 years, including many interruptions. I, above all, contemplated about the way how to truly scientifically, i.e. credibly, it means in the maximum possible the limits of verifiability, develop a full work that could hold up to the colleagues from the scientific community and myself. It is logical it was and is my attempt to allow minimal possibility of any criticism of this work for its formal, content, or other deficiencies. First, I decided to analyse in some detail the currently known theoretical approaches and methods of study, not only in political sciences, especially those used by political geographers, but also in other related fields, especially in the field of study of international relations, sociology, political science or general security studies. I did not want to study the issue is the...

本論文旨在探討中共海洋戰略發展之相關條件、環境、具體措施，以及對周邊國家所產生的影響。後冷戰時期國際情勢緩和，發生大規模戰爭的可能性已大幅降低，地區爭端和衝突反而浮現出來。因地緣政治環境的改變，台海、南海地區已成為區域衝突的引爆點。中共研析波灣戰爭之經驗，放棄「早打、大打、打核戰」時時臨戰之觀念，強調「質量建軍打贏高科技局部戰爭」之策略，故調整戰略方向由陸上走向海洋，以保障其國家利益、國防安全及完成統一中國之企圖。就整體國力言，中共自1978年實施經濟改革後．，經濟成長快速，國家競爭力上升，無庸置疑，已經成為亞太地區經濟大國。而蘇聯解體後，中共來自北方威脅降低，有利其海洋之發展。又因沿海海洋爭奪及領土紛爭問題亟待解決，更全力擴展其海軍武力。中共在 1998年就制定了「中國二十一世紀海洋議程」，提出中國海洋事業永續發展政策。同年中共國務院在國際海洋年會中提出《中國海洋事業發展白皮書》，其中明文主張「中國是發展中沿海大國」。中共大力發展海洋戰略，已為亞太地區安全投下一個變數，亞太各國均深感不安。加上區域內互信機制不夠健全，中共時時對台灣文攻武嚇，更增加地區衝突之危險性。故未來台海、南海問題最後是以和平方式或兵戎相見收場，中共的戰略作為就顯得十分重要。 關鍵字：亞太戰略；國家戰略；海洋戰略；海軍戰略；海軍現代化；海權；積極防禦；近海防禦；局部戰爭；太平洋島鏈；兵力展示，有生戰力；聯合國海洋法公約；戰區飛彈防禦系統；遏制點阻滯；海洋經濟；指管通情系統；亞太經合會；東協區域論壇；東南亞國家協會。