This thesis is dedicated to the significant change in media ownership in the Czech Republic which occured during the Global crisis in 2008 - 2013. In this period almost all foreign owners sold their media to the local enterpreneurs, who took over almost all media houses. This shift happened under generally less comfortable matket conditions, which have hit mostly the printed media. The local enterpreneurs are naturally much more interested in local politics. This text describes these changes and uncovers the economic reasons that led to it, including the extensive research into publicly available, yet not analysed annual reports of media companies. The conclusion is that the foreign owners generally earned well in the Czech market and that they have decided to use the crisis as a good moment to sell. The arrival of new domestic owners caused worries about their possible interference with kontent and by 2017 there are some hints suggesting that they may use the media against the opponents. But there is a fact that may prevent them: the thesis proves how worth the position on the market is. And this should at least limit these efforts.

The thesis examines the influence of the Asian crisis on the position of the Asian Tigers in the current crisis. The aim of the thesis is to identify the main reasons due to which these countries relatively quickly overcame the current crisis. The aim will be achieved by comparison of the reactions of Asian Tigers' economic policies on impacts of the Asian and the current crisis. The thesis is divided into three chapters. The first chapter sets out the main causes of the Asian currency and financial crisis, analyzes the course of crisis and its impact on Asian newly industrialized countries. The second chapter describes the economic development of the countries in the period between the crises. Stabilization measures taken under overcoming the Asian crisis are also evaluated in this chapter. Furthermore, the second chapter analyzes the economic policy of Southeast Asian countries, which in response to the Asian crisis began to accumulate huge amount of foreign exchange reserves. The countries contributed with their policies to the deepening of global imbalances, which are related to the emergence of the current crisis. The third chapter is devoted to the current crisis. As in the first chapter, there are explained the main causes of the crisis, described the course of the crisis in the Southeast Asian countries and then discussed the most significant stabilizing measures that helped to Asian Tigers to overcome the crisis.

Determining whether great crises in donor countries, such as the contemporary COVID-19 pandemic, alter foreign aid allotment represents an urgent research problem. This thesis aims to disentangle if and how aid is increased, reduced or remained the same during crises. The work conducted is a case study of three donor countries: Sweden, the United States and the United Kingdom. Their aid is scrutinized in relation to three crises, the Nordic crisis, the global crisis of 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic. An identified disagreement in the previous research helps create the theoretical framework guiding this study. A hypothesis is drawn from said framework, that aid allotment is to decrease during crises in donor countries. The findings of this thesis can neither confirm nor reject the hypothesis. Case-specific patterns emerge, implying a relationship between crises and alterations of aid. Seemingly, crises affect foreign aid allotment both positively and negatively, opening up for further research to verify the relationship.

根據世界銀行的資料顯示，佔全球面積約19%的2500萬平方公里之地球表面，及佔全球一半以上人口的34億人是相對的暴露在一個以上天然災害之威脅下。隨著全球化的來臨，我們居住在一個風險共享的社會中，而在全球環境安全被視為全球公共財的同時，如何在集體行動的邏輯下進行全球危機管理，已成為全球行動者的主要課題。例如如何透過國際合作來對抗SARS，禽流感等危機，皆是當前全球行動者關注的議題。值得注意的是，儘管近二十年來國際社會對於減災所做的承諾與投入的資源日益增加，災害所造成的經濟損失及受到災害影響之人口卻也逐漸上升。面對這些現象，本研究最主要想要探究的研究問題即在於什麼樣的因素影響著全球減災合作。 本研究主要的研究問題，係探求在全球行動者為何要參與減災合作，而此全球減災合作又如何運作的呢？全球減災合作、理性選擇與全球社會資本的分析架構將被運用。從理論上粹取的因素，例如風險意識、能力素養、偏好、制度限制、資訊、可信的承諾與信任等，被用來分析行動者如何決定參與合作，以及此合作如何運作。鑑於2004年印度洋海嘯所造成的重大傷亡以及後續國際社會對救災及減災的承諾，本研究將以印度洋海嘯預警系統的個案為例，並透過在4個國家共計22人次對參與此系統的國際行動者之訪談資料，以及對參與印度洋海嘯預警系統之人員發放共計591份問卷進行調查及分析，回收問卷目前共計61份，然進行論文分析時為59份。換言之，實際上的回收率為10.66%，而本研究用以分析之問卷回收率為10.32%。本研究最主要的發現為風險意識及能力素養的提升，結合理性選擇與社會資本的不同因素作用下，將對全球減災合作的結果有正面的影響。最後，本研究也對未來國際減災合作提出相關之建議。 / Writing on the issue of global environmental security, the World Bank has noted that approximately “25 million square kilometers (about 19 percent of the Earth’s land area) and 3.4 billion people (more than half of the world’s population) are relatively highly exposed to at least one hazard.” With the coming of the globalization era, we .also live in a shared risk society. Since global environmental security is seen as a global public good, how to act for global crisis management under the logic of collective action has become a primary subject for global actors. Coping with the crises of SARS or Bird Flu through international cooperation has become a significant issue for these global actors. One of the main dilemmas of international cooperation for disaster reduction is the reconciliation of different individual actions. Interestingly, in spite of two decades efforts of international cooperation, the amount of damage caused by natural disasters and the total number if people affected have gradually increased since the 1960s. This research focuses on two questions in the present research: why do global actors cooperate in disaster reduction, and how does this cooperation operate? The frameworks of international cooperation in disaster reduction, rational choice and global social capital are employed here, to explore the issue of international cooperation. Several factors, such as awareness of risk, capacity, preferences, institutional constraints, information, credible commitment, and trust, are used to examine how an actor engages in decision-making and how cooperation occurs. Because of the tremendous damage that resulted from the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and the engagement of the global society in disaster recovery and reduction, the above issues will be explored through a case study of the development of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System (IOTWS). Twenty-two interviews were conducted in four countries and these constitute the qualitative data for this analysis. 591 questionnaires also have been sent to the participants in the IOTWS to collect the quantitative data. I analyzed the quantitative data from 59 returned questionnaires (10.32% returning rate) and the qualitative data from 22 interviewees in four countries. These analyses resulted in several suggestions to facilitate international cooperation for disaster reduction.