The aim of this thesis is to find out, whether the European Union is capable to propose and implement coherent, comprehensive, interoperable and robust counterterrorism measures in all the territories of member states. After the attacks in the USA and subsequently in Europe, the European politicians have started to discuss cooperation related to the fight against terrorism much more intensely. The question is, whether the newly adopted measures are effective and supported enough to have bigger impact on the global terrorism than those adopted at the national level.

In the last few decades the European Union (EU) and its members have emphasized the importance of human rights and the need to improve human rights conditions in Third World countries. In this research project, I attempted to find out whether the European Union and its members practice what they preach by giving precedence to countries that respect human rights through their Official Development Assistance (ODA) program. Furthermore, I tried to analyze whether European integration occurs at the foreign policy level through aid allocation. Based on the literatures on political conditionality and on the relationship between human rights and foreign aid allocation, I expected that all EU members promote principles of good governance by rewarding countries that protect the human rights of their citizens. I conducted a cross-sectional time-series selection model over all recipients of ODA for each of the twelve members for which I have data, the European Commission, and the aggregate EU disbursements from 1979 to 1998.

Securitization of Immigrant - and its Political Impacts on European Union Recent events that has changed the European Union's immigration policies - securitization of immigrants has a political effects beyond immigration policies Key Words: securitization, European Union, immigration, refugee crisis 2015, immigration policies Has securitization of immigrants affected on European Union's immigration policies? 1. Securitization theory 2. Securitization of immigrants 1. http://www.e-ir.info/2016/01/29/implications-of-the-securitisation-of-migration/ 2. media 3. How has securitization of immigrants affected on EU policies / what kind of changes EU has done on its policies 1. after 9/11 1. terrorism 2. what changed EU has done 2. refugee crisis 2015 1. what changes EU has done

Ever since Kosovo’s declaration of independence in 2008, the EU has striven for a supportive relationship with the burgeoning new state; a relationship which can be seen to have been built upon the institution’s constitutive normative principles. This relationship has consequently resulted in a national emphasis upon environmental development throughout Kosovo. However, how beneficial has the EU’s promotion of these normative principles over Kosovo actually been for Kosovo’s environmental development? And subsequently, what are the potential consequences of the EU being perceived as an influential ‘normative power’ for other actors in the international system? This thesis has addressed these questions through conducting a series of semi-structured expert interviews, as to generate contemporarily relevant and applicable data which reflects the benefits of the EU’s operation in Kosovo and illustrates contemporary EU power exertion. Ian Manners’ theoretical conceptualisation of EU power, ‘Normative power Europe’, provides the theoretical framework for the conducting of this research. This paper argues that the EU’s exertion of normative power over Kosovo has, overall, been beneficial for Kosovo’s environmental development through wide-spread developments to key areas of Kosovo’s environmental sphere; however, there have also been certain shortcomings and failures of the EU in in this regard as certain key-areas of Kosovo’s environmental sphere, regardless of the long-term presence of the EU in Kosovo, remain largely underdeveloped. This conclusion can be employed in order to draw reflections on the potential consequences of the perception of the EU as an influential ‘normative power’ for other actors in the international system; other international actors could move away from more traditional conceptual approaches to power/ influence exertion in the international system, and developing states could also grow to be more receptive to normative power exertion processes. Therefore, the presented conclusions are not only relevant to the case of Kosovo, but could also be employed in a more practical manner in exploring the role and consequences of the EU’s contemporary power exertion in the international system as a whole.

In 2015, Europe experienced the most significant refugees' outbreak in modern history. Millions of displaced persons crossed the external borders of the European Union. Some of the EU member states represented and handled the outbreak as an opportunity. Some others framed and dealt with the migratory pressures as a security threat. The designation of an issue as an existential threat to a referent object constitutes a security speech act. According to the Copenhagen School of Security Studies, when extraordinary measures and the acceptance of the audience follow a security speech act, then we observe successful securitization. Motivated by the desire to examine the securitization of the refugee crisis in Europe, from a Copenhagen School's perspective, I performed a thorough assessment of the relevant literature which brought into the light a research gap. Despite the persistence of the Copenhagen School's scholars to underline the importance of their analytical framework's 'audience acceptance' component, most of the securitization literature focuses on the other two components of a successful securitization: the security speech act and the emergency action. As a result, the audience acceptance component suffers from under-theorization, underdevelopment, and under-assessment. To enhance the analytical potential of the Copenhagen School's theorem, I develop two methodological novelties -the Triangulation Method of Audience Identification and the Comprehensive Securitization Empirical Framework. The first guarantees the accurate identification of the securitization audience. The second classifies ten different forms of securitization based on the presence or absence of the three securitization components and on the placement of the 'audience acceptance' within the securitization's timeline. To demonstrate the applicability of the novel analytical tools, I test them on the securitization of the European refugee crisis. To support my findings, I perform a comparative case study of five case studies: Greece, Poland, Hungary, Germany, and the EU. To draw my conclusions, I consult thousands of official statements, hundreds of surveys and opinion polls, dozens of relevant books and peer-reviewed articles and several in-person interviews with renowned decision-makers. The outcomes of the research suggest that, in the case of the European refugee crisis, the primary targeted audience was the general public. However, the opinion of the general public about the designation of the existential threat and about the necessity of the extraordinary measures' adoption was rarely considered after the utterance of the security speech acts. In most of the cases, the securitizing actors assessed the feelings of the general public before uttering the speech acts. The findings of this research also indicate that the higher the negativity of the general public towards immigrants and refugees, the most likely the political elites to perform a security speech act and to resort to emergency action. Despite the indisputable impact of the public opinion, the final decision about the securitization of the refugee crisis belongs to the political actors

This thesis is a qualitative comparative case study aimed at exploring the viewpoints of two opposing international relations perspectives, realism and liberalism. The aim is to pursue an interpretation of the study through the use of theories. Realism focuses on state security, military power and the survival of the state. Liberalism reflects on the worldviews, identity and ideas. The theories present four main principles in each theory of the conflict and the contradictions between the theory’s point of view give the study a deeper interpretation of Russia’s and EU’s position in the Ukraine conflict.   The study has shown that both Russia and the EU have potential explanations in terms of IR-theories. Realism and liberalism complement each other, showing that the positions of Russia and the EU are equal and different, which shows similarities and differences in theory. These two perspectives provide explanations for the Ukrainian crisis from two different levels. Realism provides the main explanation at the individual level and the individual actors and liberalism provides the main explanation at the general level and on the international arena.

The European emergence of Covid-19 has come to characterise a new kind of enemy for the EU, a cross border health threat which knows no borders and affect the EU’s health, economic, social and transport sectors indiscriminately. Therefore this thesis aims to explores the measures taken by the EU to respond to the outbreak of Covid-19. By using three European integration theories, neofunctionalism and liberal and new intergovernmentalism, different aspects behind the EU’s crisis response can be analysed and later put into evaluation in relation to the European integration project. It is found that, while facing initial challenges in solidarity, the EU has managed to present significant responses toward the pandemic. These are mostly based in the economic arena through the NGEU and the MFF for 2021-2027. Still, there are significant measures presented to enhance the capabilities of the EU’s current health framework, under the new EU4health-programme.

The issue of Euroscepticism has been racking the European Union for many years, and the United Kingdom’s exit from the block came as a shock for many. Carried by a campaign on social media, the Leave campaign’s success has highlighted a number of issues that risk not only the EU, but democratic society itself. Focusing on public opinion formation on the EU and political polarisation, this paper explores the question of how a political entrepreneur can polarise a society in a desired fashion. Based on a content analysis performed on 1,100 tweets posted by the Leave campaign, the study attempts to map out topical and polarising tendencies of the campaign, together with a propensity to employ misinformation. The results show a focus on certain topics pertaining to public opinion formation on the EU and a tendency to tweet on them in a polarising manner across the board. Finally, false claims were found throughout the dataset, propelling an argument that there is a relationship between misinformation and polarisation which risks further polarising a given polity.

Who is 'the public'? The case of the EU's Public Diplomacy in the Eastern Partnership Master's Thesis - Kristin Aldag - Charles University, June 2021 Abstract For states and other international actors such as the European Union, public diplomacy is an important tool to achieve their political and economic interests abroad by communi- cating directly with foreign audiences. While the existing body of academic literature on pub- lic diplomacy is rich, few authors have thus far addressed the question of who actually consti- tutes the public, and which specific target groups can be distinguished. Using the EU PD prac- tices in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) from 2010-2020 as a case study, this thesis will thus attempt to fill this gap and contribute to the academic literature in the field by offering an overview of the various target groups within the European Union's public diplomacy. In a thorough content analysis of relevant primary sources, the thesis focuses on the policy objec- tives and practices of the European Union's outreach to different groups and audiences in the EaP region. The third chapter presents the results of this comprehensive research, which has shown that several distinct groups within the general public in the EaP can be identified, among them young people, media professional and...

The thesis examines the European Union as a mediator in the case of Belgrade-Pristina dialogue. It tends to discover which factors led to lower mediation effectiveness after 2015, by EU's mediation strategy, leverage and coherence. The thesis is designed as a qualitative case study which compares three different stages of the case by implementing a combination of congruence method and process tracing. Drawing for the content and document analysis as well as four interviews conducted and two personal communications, the thesis analyses the factors which influenced effectiveness and compares them throughout three different phases of the mediation. In the end, the analysis shows that while strategy remained the same, levels coherence and leverages changed and concluded that it was the weaking of EU's leverage strength that influenced mediation effectiveness the most.