The thesis proposes the analytical review on how the Baltic States, namely, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia perceive Russia as a threat to their national security by addressing and evaluating the main changes in their security policies. To analyze the changes and differences in their perception, the securitization theory is applied. Following the most recent changes in the security environment in Europe, starting from the Ukraine crisis and annexation of Crimea in 2014, supplementary theoretic concept such as security dilemma is used for better understanding of the challenges that the Baltic States/NATO - Russia relations face. The main goal of this thesis is to provide a detailed overview of how Russian interference in Ukraine's domestic affairs, created a sense of anxiety in the Eastern Europe and affected security sectors of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Keywords: the Baltic States, Russia, Ukraine Crisis, Securitization theory, Security Dilemma, NATO

The aim of the thesis is to map and analyze the Czech public debate about the bombing of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia by NATO air forces in 1999. The North Atlantic Alliance attack on the FRY, which followed shortly after the Czech Republic had joined the Organization. Part of the political representation reacted to NATO's actions with restraint or regret, while the current, represented mainly by President Havel, became a principled supporter of the attack, even on the international political scene. The work deals with various levels of this debate: the initiation of individual actors in the problems of the NATO Operation in Yugoslavia, the starting points, argumentation strategies or links with other topics. It tries to reveal secondary motivations in the formulation of individual opinions (considerations of the security interests of the Czech Republic, worldview, prejudices, etc.). The source base of the work is mainly periodicals, especially the most read dailies. Klíčová slova (anglicky): Czech Republic, Serbia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Yugoslavian crisis, The conflict in the Balkans in 1999, NATO Air Strikes Against Yugoslavia in 1999, NATO

This diploma thesis deals with the temporal and spatial distribution of Taliban terrorist attacks in Afghanistan. It covers the period since the start of the Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001, when the troops of the United States and their allies invaded the country, until the end of 2018. This thesis aims to find out what targets Taliban attacked during the reported period, and whether there is a link between the frequency of terrorist attacks and the real events that took place at the time of the attacks. The secondary aim of this work is to place the results obtained by the analysis into a broader geographical context. Using geographic information system, this thesis evaluates spatial differences in the localization of Taliban terrorist attacks. Data of the Taliban attacks were obtained from the Global Terrorism Database, and the maps were created in ArcGIS software. Within the temporal analysis window, the frequency of attacks is related to the timeline of predetermined important events, such as elections, religious and national holidays and decisions of foreign parties about their activities in the region. It was found that the increased frequency of Taliban attacks was related to the Afghan elections or the decisions of foreign parties about their operations in the region. The...

No description available.

aj Two years ago there was a need to re-define the position of The North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the system of international relations and to identify it`s main threats and their perception. The strategic concept from the 1999 has become obsolete document which couldn't adequately react to new threats. In the 2009 the process of creation new strategy started. There was assembled a group of experts under lead of Madeleine Albright to stimulate a discussion across member states about the nature and task of NATO and the current perception of security through a number of seminars and conferences. Subsequent analysis of the current security discourse served to NATO Secretary General as a form of recommendations for the preparation of the new strategy. The process of creation was as important as its outcome document, because it included the general professional public in addition to national governments. In my diploma thesis, besides the main themes of the new strategy, I will focus mainly on reflection of Czech debate on the new strategy. I introduce the concept of epistemic communities by Peter Haas, through which I define epistemic Czech group that dealt with the creation of a new NATO strategy.

Syftet med detta arbete har varit att identifiera normer och värden som förmedlas i statliga uttalanden kopplade till NATO-frågan för att nå en djupare förståelse av statens diskursiva praktik, samt hur detta kan förstås som en del av socialiseringen av den svenska befolkningen. Förmedlade normer och värden undersöktes utifrån tre kategorier; svensk säkerhetspolitik, den svenska identiteten samt NATO som organisation. För att undersöka detta har det gjorts en diskursanalys på citerade uttalanden från politiker och myndighetsanställda publicerade i artiklar från SVT Nyheter. Citaten har analyserats utifrån diskursanalysens konstruktivistiska perspektiv i kombination med Flockharts teori om komplex socialisering. I analysen används diskursanalytiska verktyg, som studerande av ordval, metaforer och lexikala oppositioner. Resultaten visar på att normer och värderingar kopplade till säkerhetspolitik och den svenska identiteten förekommer i högre grad jämfört med färre normer och värden om NATO som organisation. Det identifieras även vissa spänningar inom de olika kategorierna. Vidare har återkommande mönster av enhetlighet och riktning identifierats i diskursen. Studien bidrar med en fördjupad förståelse för förespråkade normer som förmedlas från staten mot den svenska befolkningen.

The decision to apply for Swedish membership in NATO in May 2022 demonstrates a major shift in security policy, as it means leaving the tradition of non-alignment. Three factors make this event interesting to explore further. 1) The decision was conducted under rapid circumstances and, 2) two of the larger political parties, the Social democratic party and the Sweden democrats, changed their traditional viewpoint on keeping non-alignment and instead argue for NATO-membership. 3) The decision was isolated from debates and referendum, which means a lack of transparency to the citizens. The research problem is focused on how this rapid decision officially was legitimized, and the aim of the research is thus analysing how the discourse on NATO-membership was constructed and prompted by the political actors who changed their policy. Leaning on theories on how attitudes, worldviews and security are constructed, this report analyses both the political actors’ communication process as well as how they displayed their attitudes and interpretations of the security context. Methodologically, Political discourse analysis (PDA) was applied on speeches and statements in order to deconstruct arguments, and as a complement, statistics were analysed to view public opinion. The findings display that the political actors mostly used descriptive arguments to rationalise the decision to apply for membership in NATO. In addition, the political parties used arguments associated with “fear” and “danger”. Emotional arguments that connoted “national love” were integrated in the Social democratic party´s speech to the citizens. In contrast, the Sweden democrats offered few statements and short speeches. Similarities between the political actors were that the Russian invasion of Ukraine 2022 is mirrored in the political actors’ interpretation of the security situation and the claim that Sweden needs the defence guarantees that follows with a membership in NATO. In conclusion, the findings suggest that the Swedish resistance to NATO-membership has turned to positive attitudes in a similar way in both politics and the “everyday life” of the citizens.

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 has changed the security policy situation in the world. The EU and NATO are two security policy actors that, because of the situation in Ukraine, have received increased attention. Previous studies have discussed future scenarios regarding the two organizations and, among other things, whether the EU will take over NATO’s role as the primary security policy actor in Europe. The purpose of this essay is thus to highlight and compare the EU’s and NATO’s security policy ideas. This study is an idea analysis based on two theories in international relations, liberalism and realism, with the intention of examine whether the EU’s and NATO’s respective security policy ideas show any development since the end of the 90s, as well as classifying these as either liberal or realist theory. The essay also discusses ideological similarities and differences made visible in the organizations’ respective documents. The essay is based on an analysis of the EU’s Security Strategy (2003), the EU’s Global Strategy (2016) and the EU’s Strategic Compass (2022) as well as NATO’s sixth, seventh and eight strategic concepts (1999, 2010, 2022). The conclusion indicates that the EU’s and NATO’s security policy ideas include aspects that derive from both realism and liberalism, but that the EU emphasizes more ideas of liberalism while NATO’s ideas can relate better to realism. However, the EU has shown the most significant development, as the organization has approached the ideas of realism for its security policy by increasing the focus on defence issues and its military capacity.

This diploma thesis is puzzled with influence of NATO on Army of Czech Republic (ACR)'s armaments and if this influence is key factor in decision making regarding new acquisition projects or if other factors have bigger impact on decision making in question. NATO with the USA as its main sponsor is more benevolent than Warsaw Pact of which The Czech Republic was part during Cold War. Even though we can observe attempts to force member states into increasing their defense budgets from position of power, the main principle in new armament acquisition is standardization, which is based on semi-voluntary bases. However, in case of The Czech Republic standardization is not starting factor for new acquisition project. Change in security environment after Russian aggression in Ukraine in 2014 forced states to into increasing their defense budgets, which was manifested itself in summit in Wales in 2014, where NATO member states promised to allocate 2% of GDP by 2024. However, it was observed that not all states will meet this deadline and that size of state do not play significant role. Increasing of defense budget allowed ACR to start long awaited modernization projects. This diploma thesis found that not NATO but outdated equipment with fear from being dependent on Russian provisioning plays a key role.

Denna studie undersöker hur svensk media gestaltade och rapporterade om den svenska Natodebatten under våren 2022. Syftet är att jämföra ett urval artiklar från fyra av de största nyhetsmedierna i Sverige för att identifiera generella mönster i form av argumentation, vilka källor som kommit till tals och deras primära inställning till Nato samt vilken dominerande inställning artiklarna har till Nato och ett svenskt medlemskap. Metoden för denna studie är en kvantitativ innehållsanalys som ger en överblick över rapporteringen i artiklarna. De teoretiska ramverken grundar sig i gestaltningsteori och dagordningsteori, som bland annat föreslår att medierapportering kan påverka den allmänna opinionen. Dessa teorier kompletteras med tidigare forskning om säkerhetspolitik och den svenska opinionen kring Nato ur ett historiskt perspektiv. Resultatet av studien visar att nyhetsrapporteringen präglas av en positiv inställning till ett svenskt Natomedlemskap, detta till stor del på grund av Rysslands invasion av Ukraina i februari 2022 och den inverkan den haft på den svenska opinionen angående Natomedlemskap.