The diploma thesis titled Securitisation of Organized Violence in Europe: The Case of Great Britain and Italy deals with the analysis of security discourses in the United Kingdom during the conflict in Northern Ireland and Italy during the war with the Sicilian Mafia according to the securitization theory of the so-called Copenhagen School and their subsequent comparison. The main aim of this thesis is to capture the form of securitization processes in Italy in connection with the local organized crime. To reach this objective the situation in Italy is confronted with securitization processes in Northern Ireland whose conflict is a frequent subject of international relations and security studies. The theory of securitization as a research tool is presented in its original form formulated by the Copenhagen School and is supplemented by numerous criticisms by later securitization theorists. A significant part of the thesis is focused on a thorough analysis of historical and social context of the investigated phenomenon and on capturing of many securitization statements of political actors to which this work is primarily oriented. The discourse analysis is structured into five stages that reflect the most dramatic periods in development of the presented issue. These periods are characterized by the...

This Master's Thesis called "Climate expertise and security politics: the case of the Czech Republic" deals with engagement of climatologists in politics and society. Nowadays, certain actors (politicians, activists, celebrities, etc.) perceive climate change as dangerous threat to humanity, and so, they try to securitize this issue. They endeavor to inform ordinary people and make politicians to adopt extraordinary measures. Among these securitizing actors, we could find several climatologists who can fulfil role of security experts. However, such a trend is not present in the Czech Republic. Czech climatologists are not so active publicly and in politics compared to their foreign colleagues. This Thesis would like to analyze what are structural conditions of this trend. It is focused on various influential elements - society, politics, media and scientific field itself. It is based on concept of co-production that is about mutual relationship between these elements. It shows that society, politics and media are rather discouraging Czech scientists from engagement. However, also scientific community as such is not coherent, but there are several different epistemic communities. This Thesis would also like to connect science with Security Studies, mainly securitization theory and security...

Russian-American Relations and the Mass Media Securitization of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump in the American Press by Valeriia Alikina This thesis is focused on two issues relevant to Security Studies and Political Science: relations between the Russian Federation and the United States of America, which are currently experiencing yet another decline, and problematics of political journalism. It reviews the process of securitization of Russia through speech acts in the mass media of its historical opponent, the United States. First, the thesis provides a theoretical framework, securitization theory, introducing its main principles. To prove that the process of securitization indeed occurs, the method of discourse analysis is employed. The third chapter provides background information on the relations between the Soviet Union/Russia and the United States since the end of the World War II; this information is completed by the role mass media had in their affairs. The next chapter frames the issue of propaganda, elaborating on the meaning behind this concept, the "fake news" narrative, and the idealistic idea of media objectivity. In the fifth chapter, the case study, two processes of securitization are reviewed. The first one is the American mainstream media, namely ​The New York Times​ and ​The...

The thesis in your hands focus on foreign Fighter phenomenon in the Czech Republic. It argues, that Foreign Fighters are specific kind of migrants who travel both short-term and long-term into a conflict area of their choice. Some do come back to their countries of departure. The thesis has two goals. First one is to find out if there is potential for securitization of Foreign Fighters in the Czech Republic present in Czech society. For this purpose, securitization theory is used. Second goal of the thesis is to look closer on the Foreign Fighter phenomenon both in general and in local circumstances. The thesis presents analysis of academic literature on the topic of Foreign Fighters. It discusses definitions, Foreign Fighter numbers and threat assessment, and approaches adopted to deal with the phenomenon. Next, specifics of foreign Fighters in the Czech Republic are discussed. A survey was launched in order to gain data for this study among Czech society. Results of the survey indicate there is not much interest for securitization of the topic in the Czech Republic. Further results yielded there is not much of a difference in Czech Foreign Fighters and their compatriots from other countries, except maybe focus of Czech fighters on Ukraine except Middle East.

The aim of this thesis is to contribute to theoretically sound concept of Peace Journalism, which combines theoretical foundations from two spheres: conflict and peace studies and media studies. Influence of journalists as intervening force and explaining factor with regard to (violent) conflict is neglected. However, Peace Journalism is not theoretically strong and builds upon dualistic definition vis-á-vis so-called War Journalism. The concept of Peace Journalism has to overcome this delamination in order to reflect theoretical underpinnings of conflict transformation theory and conflict analysis. Moreover, Peace Journalism has to differentiate media according to an involvement of given societies in a conflict. This offers an opportunity to specifically and accurately analyse news coverage of conflicts. Case studies analysing Czech coverage of Cyprus and Nagorno-Karabakh conflicts illustrates this approach. The coverage is essentially flat, distorts a reality of the conflict, pays attention to visual and physical aspects of the conflict and closes the conflicts in arbitrary time boundaries.

Cyberspace offers many opportunities but is also a very hostile place for women. Studies claim that women are disproportionally affected by certain cybercrimes and suffer frequent rights violations in cyberspace. The aim of cybersecurity policies is, among others, to protect citizens from different cyberthreats and the EU has a vital role in designing such policies. This involves portraying what issues are seen as cyberthreats and in extension, which issues are prioritized over others. Therefore, it is important to problematize what key EU bodies depict as cybersecurity threats and how they incorporate gender in their cybersecurity policy and strategy. This study uses post-structural feminist theory to analyze the EU cybersecurity discourse and its implications for women’s rights. This is because the theory emphasizes the deconstruction of discourse to showcase hidden gendered power dimensions. It is a qualitative case study that uses the framing method to identify the discursive construction of threats, priorities, and key issues, and McPhail’s feminist policy analysis framework to investigate how gender is incorporated in the discourse. The findings confirm previous research, which states that cybersecurity is mainly state-centric and securitized and gender is silenced in the overall discourse. Among the five distinct frames that I identified in the discourse on cybersecurity, none includes a gendered perspective. No official EU document adopts or argues for a gender-sensitive approach to cybersecurity. Gender is only mentioned with regard to empowering women in the STEM sector, although the European Parliament stresses the need to target cyberviolence against women. The study concludes that a gender-neutral approach to cybersecurity has negative implications for women’s rights, as cybercrimes and violates women endure are overlooked and deprioritized in comparison to a gendered approach. This is because it is more likely that political measures can be taken if the policies and actors acknowledge the gendered issues, which then have positive implications for the protection of women’s rights in cyberspace.

Denna uppsats syftar till att klarlägga de diskurser som förekommer i Sveriges klimatpolitiska handlingsplan 2019/2020, i relation till perspektiven ekologisk modernisering, säkerhetisering och miljörättvisa. Genom en kritisk diskursanalys påvisas att handlingsplanen, som antas vara en produkt av de diskurser som förekommer i det svenska politiska samtalet generellt, i hög grad reproducerar en diskurs om ekologisk modernisering. Texten relaterar i mindre utsträckning till perspektiven säkerhetisering och miljörättvisa, och den förhärskande diskursen om ekologisk modernisering väcker frågor om hur exempelvis målkonflikter och rättighetsproblematik vid resursutvinning kommer att hanteras av politiken i framtiden. / The purpose of this thesis is to expose what discourses are present in the climate policy action plan presented by the Swedish government in 2019. The material is analysed through acritical discourse analysis, with the three theories of securitization, ecological modernizationand environmental justice as a theoretical frame. The results of the study show that in this particular document, the discourse of ecological modernization is highly present, whereas the discourse of securitization is only present in small parts. The discourse of environmental justice is hardly present at all, and this raises questions about how potential goal conflicts regarding resource extraction, in the name of green transitioning, will be handled by the political sphere in the future.

- EN The aim of this thesis is to answer the research question of "Why did the US not conduct a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities during the Trump presidency despite the sharp criticism of Iran's nuclear program?" The thesis presents several hypotheses that deal with the conditions for a military strike against nuclear facilities of a potential nuclear proliferator to be conducted. One such hypothesis is chosen to be confirmed or refuted in the case of US- Iran relations during Trump's presidency. The hypothesis states that Iran was able to deter the US by the threat of conventional retaliation. Methods of single case study and discourse analysis are used. The empirical part of the thesis firstly assesses whether all three steps of securitization as described by the Copenhagen school were completed. This work claims that Iranian nuclear program was indeed successfully securitized in the US during Trump's presidency. Secondly, an analysis of the components of Iranian conventional deterrence is provided. It is ascertained that Iran commanded strong enough conventional forces to be able to mount effective attacks on targets valuable to the US. All three conditions of the deterrent's credibility were also met, and Iran sufficiently communicated the threat to the US. Therefore, this thesis...

This thesis investigates US state level politics framing of the BLM protests during 2020, by inductively identifying frames and then proceeding to study if and on what grounds securitization occurs in these. Press statements, interviews and documents from eight Mayors and Governors in six of the states where the protests have been the most prominent are analyzed. From this material, four frames have been identified: the alienated outsider frame, the constructive rage frame, the limited guardian frame, and the desecuritizing frame. Recent developments in securitization theory investigate human life and dignity as a reference object, making a case for integrating humanitarianism in terms of grounds for justifying extraordinary measures. Three grounds for securitization are investigated empirically in the identified frames: state, social and humanitarian security. The study concludes that whilst both state security and to a lesser degree humanitarian security are detected in the identified frames, societal security seems to be the most prominent. This suggests that large-scale identities are the most common reference objects in the treated context. Further research is encouraged, especially in terms of distinguishing potential frame alignment processes by looking at a greater number of states over a longer period of time.

As a global phenomenon, the outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 has impacted the socio-economic and political life like no other event of the recent past. With over 600,000 fatalities in its member-states, an unprecedented economic recession and damage to the Single Market, the European Union has been hit unexpectedly hard by COVID-19. Through the lens of Securitisation, and more precisely, Collective Securitisation, this thesis has the purpose to examine how the EU and its institutions have responded to the threat that is the spread of SARS-CoV-2, asking ‘Has SARS-CoV-2 been successfully securitised in the European Union?’. By applying a qualitative content analysis to speeches of the European Commission published between January and May 2020 as well as to a European Parliament Plenary debate following the speech of Commission President von der Leyen on April 16th, 2020, the thesis establishes that securitising moves have taken place in the examined timeframe and that they have been accepted by the European Parliament. In accordance with the Copenhagen School framework of Securitisation and Sperling and Webber’s Collective Securitisation model, the thesis concludes that COVID-19 was therefore successfully securitised.