This thesis deals with the action and impact of the credit rating agencies in the capital markets during the financial crisis. The work is divided into two parts; the first part stresses the importance of a proper understanding of the rating, its characteristics, functions, users and the rating process. The emphasis is put on the market analysis of ratings and rating agencies in the U.S. and European market. The second part of this work is devoted to examining the issue of rating agencies during the crisis, which contributed to the spread of the financial crisis, criticism relevant issues and regulatory arrangements.

The objective of the thesis is to acquaint readers with field of structured product valuation. It is a relatively complex issue which is, however, based on general valuation foundations. The opening chapter is dedicated to these general fundamentals of valuation. Emphasis is placed mainly on present value principle, a specific variant of comparison, and its related aspects. The second section describes key elements of structured product valuation. Greater part of this chapter is devoted to the Monte Carlo simulation, the most employed tool in valuation of these products in practice. An important part of Monte Carlo simulation is an option spread, which arises as by-product of the simulation and reflects value of an option contained in the evaluated instrument. Third chapter is focused on interest rate and prepayment models. Level of prepayment is dependent on interest rates development which both are the most critical factors that affect value of structured products. Description of models includes theoretical and mathematical formulation as well as mentioning their advantages and disadvantages. Valuation model is illustrated in the last part, which is demonstrated on valuation of hypothetical structured products example. Based on the model, the development of cash flows from underlying asset portfolio is forecasted which in turn determines the value of evaluated instruments. The final section deals with advantages of structured products and, hence, why banks and other institutions use them in practice.

This diploma thesis is concerned with a financial tool called factoring. It involves an assignment of account receivables before their maturity date onto the factoring company and thus taking over their administration while providing immediate cash to the original creditor in order to sustain liquidity. Legislation of this method of financing is not yet fully resolved therefore it is crucial to focus primarily on the ecnomic substance of individual contracts. Basically, there are two major types of factoring: recourse and non-recourse depending on the level of assumed risk, together with transfer of ownerwhip of the account receivable. This fundamental distinction is inevitable for correct financial reporting which should reflect not only the accounting principles but also it should respect other implications, such as taxation.

This diploma thesis focuses on the moral hazard aspects in the financial crisis on the USA market in the years 2007-2009, that later became known as a global crisis of real economic. The thesis aim is to prove a role of moral hazard in the financial crisis origins, role that can be detected in the activities and behavior of the market participants. There is a survey of the individual causes of the crisis and interpretation in the terms of moral hazard. First part of the thesis focuses on the theoretical basics of moral hazard that is being represented by the Principal-Agent Problem. This theory is further applied on the financial market theories. Second part of the thesis describes the origin and development of the financial crisis. It represents the introduction of the crisis without exploring the causes. The third part of the thesis is the core part, there is presented the role of moral hazard in the financial crisis due to the synthesis of the two previous parts. Item by item there are introduced the activities on the crisis market, where the principle of these activities is presented in terms of moral hazard. This part also includes moral hazard in the society that influences also the financial market. The last part focuses on the regulation of the financial markets in connection with the possibilities of moral hazard elimination.

The aim of this thesis is to study how electoral authoritarian regimes remain resilient over time, by observing how they handle challenges to their rule. More specifically, the thesis will focus on the strategies used to legitimize further rule. This will be achieved by conducting a case study on Rwanda and investigating how the Rwandan government uses insecurity and threat perception to legitimize further rule during the period 2010-2019. The theoretical framework consists of both Andreas Schedler’s definition of an electoral authoritarian regime as well as securitization theory. The material used is speech acts by important actors from the time period in question as well as law changes and information on how existing laws are used. With the use of critical discourse analysis, the thesis concludes that the Rwandan government has developed a discourse of traitor/patriot by securitizing traitors, strategically varying in intensity throughout the time period. Political opposition is effectively repressed by referring to the threats mentioned in the speech acts. To successfully circumvent the main flaw of electoral authoritarian regimes according to Schedler’s theory (uncertainty), the Rwandan government creates uncertainties themselves and then refers to the very same uncertainties to legitimize continuous rule.

Over 5,000 European citizens joined the ranks of the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the early 2010s. Since the rollback of the terrorist organization in 2016, European Union (EU) member states have had to decide whether or not to repatriate these individuals who were made prisoners mainly by Iraqi, or Kurdish authorities. France, the EU country that saw the highest number of its citizens join ISIS was also directly targeted by terrorist attacks orchestrated by ISIS returnees. From 2017 to 2019, it relied heavily on a non-repatriation approach, a measure which was welcomed by the general public but criticized by human rights and legal experts. However, in 2019, the withdrawal of US troops and the Turkish offensive in North-East Syria have further destabilized the region and pushed the French government to adapt its strategy. This study aims at understanding how the Macron administration legitimized the measures it implemented to tackle the ISIS returnees phenomenon and whether its approach has evolved. Through critical discourse analysis (CDA) and by drawing from the securitization theory, this research investigates the official communications of the French government between 2017 and 2020. The data will reveal that the “low-probability, high impact” threat posed by ISIS returnees has been over-securitized. This might lead an over-perception of this threat, which could threaten the social cohesion of the country and make measures bargaining with human rights and the rule of law acceptable for the public opinion. While many contributions have analyzed the policies and laws related to the issue of ISIS returnees in the EU, few have investigated how states responded to it in their official communications. With a focus on the EU country that has been the most concerned by this phenomenon, this study will help to bridge this gap in knowledge and will have broader implications for discursive practices regarding ISIS returnees and terrorism in Europe and the West.

The aim of this thesis is to analyze the process of securitization of immigration and multiculturalism within the framework of migration, immigration and integration policies focusing on the case of Germany. Using the migration-security nexus as a primary theoretical foundation, I argue that within the policies and legislations related to immigration, German governments ultimately perceive immigration as a threat at the level of state security as well as Germany's national identity. The first government I have selected for my analysis is the cabinet led by Gerhard Schröder (1998 - 2005) who challenged the romanticized perception of the German nation as a "nation of descent" by saying that "Germany is a country of immigration." Secondly, I focus on the chancellorship of Angela Merkel whose approach toward the Syrian asylum seekers in the context of the current migration crisis (9/2015 - 11/2016) has been called "Wilkommenskutlur" (or "Welcome culture"). Nonetheless, by studying the policies related to immigration as well as governments' discourses, I argue that in both cases, immigration and multiculturalism are indeed linked to security issues. Hence, immigrants are perceived as a threat to Germany's national security and its identity.

This Master Thesis called "The Securitization of Immigration. An Assessment of the Extent of Securitization of Immigration in the German Political Discourse in the aftermath of the 2015 European Refugee Crisis" aims to identify the influence of the 2015 European refugee crisis on the German political discourse in reference to immigration and asylum. Since immigration became one of the greatest security concerns in the post-Cold War era, it appears plausible that the unprecedented high-numbers of asylum applications in 2015/16 triggered securitization in Germany. This impression is reinforced in reference to the increasing popularity of the anti-Islam, far-right PEGIDA movement and the right-wing populist party AfD. However, the merely welcoming attitude towards refugees among the German population, which attracted attention all over the world, challenges the securitization thesis, because the political discourse is assumed to be oriented towards public opinion. Thus, the political discourse in the aftermath of the 2015 European Refugee Crisis is assumed to be torn between fear (securitization discourse) and optimism (humanitarian discourse) in regard to immigration and asylum. By conducting a discourse analysis, contextualized speech-acts based on a generic structure used by Holger Stritzel were...

The thesis seeks to analyse media discourse of four print media in Great Britain and in France in the time period between January 2014 and November 2015 to determine what changes in media discourse occurred after the terrorist attacks on the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris and how were the domestic Muslim communities affected. Thesis draws on the theories of securitization, Critical Discourse Analysis, Discourse Historical Analysis and media studies. The two countries are contrasted in terms of their approaches to integration (multiculturalism and assimilation). Corpus consisting of articles drawn from online databases of two French and two British national newspapers is analysed.

Master's Thesis Kristýna Čermáková Abstract This master's thesis explores the topic of the securitization of migration in the Czech Republic and the gender dimension of the discourse on migration. After a theoretical exploration of the migratory process and the specificities of its female face, a discourse analysis of the Czech media will present the main epistemological core of the work. The primary research question attempts to identify the ways in which the Czech media contributes to the shifting perception of migration as belonging to the sphere of politics, even presenting migration as a threat to security. The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter provides a theoretical insight into migration studies, the motives to migrate and the phenomenon of forced migration. Despite the general assumption of mainstream academics that migrants are mainly men, the second chapter shows that women's experiences with migration differ greatly from those of men. Based on the Copenhagen stream of thought, the discourse analysis of the Czech media carried out in the third chapter points to the construction of perceptions about migration within Czech society. The absence of gender in the public discourse on migration is further analyzed in the last chapter. The missing gender dimension proved to be...