logiky vhodnosti. Abstract Presented diploma thesis aims to answer a question whether the European Union can be perceived as a relevant actor of international security relations in the context of human rights protection and international security threat regulation. For the purpose of achieving the main goal of the thesis a definition of the EU actorness is used which presumes that the EU could be perceived as an actor of a policy provided it is being perceived as an actor acknowledged by other actors of international security and is able to influence their behavior at the same time. Both are proved by analysis of the antiterrorist sanction régimes, and more specifically a related the Court of Justice case Kadi. By means of the case, the EU pushed for institutional changes within the UN Security Council strengthening human rights protection. Within the EU, regarding the Member States, the EU can be perceived as actor if it succeeds in spread its own normative patterns among them. By the analysis of the Kadi case as well as of the Court's human rights doctrine development I try to prove that an EU institution (in this case the Court of Justice) succeeds in convincing the Member States that they should support the Court of Justice doctrine even though it might diminish their own power and influence. Normative...

The current research investigates how the perceived emotional responses of a majority of Americans to 9/11 (i.e., collective anger and fear) affect individuals’ support for governmental policies, in particular, military intervention, anti-immigration policy, and restricting civil liberties. Study 1 found that perceived collective anger was associated with support for military intervention and anti-immigration policy, and that those effects of perceived collective anger on policy support were significantly driven by individuals’ own anger. Study 2 showed that experimentally manipulated collective anger (i.e., exposure to the majority’s anger relative to the minority’s anger) had marginal effects on support for anti-immigration policy and restricting civil liberties, and individuals’ own anger mediated the marginal effect of collective anger on support for restricting civil liberties. Participants exposed to either the majority’s or minority’s fear supported anti-immigration policy and restricting civil liberties as strongly as did those exposed to the majority’s anger. Implications and limitations of these findings were discussed.

This thesis critically interrogates the underlying assumptions which legitimise the hard regulation of online platforms regarding terrorist content, by turning to the case of the EU Regulation 2021/784. Utilising qualitative critical discourse analysis, the study analyses how the EU's strategy against terrorist content online is discursively legitimised through the lens of Theo van Leeuwen's framework for discursive legitimisation strategies, focusing on moral and rational justifications. The study's empirical contribution demonstrates how the EU's strategy is legitimised primarily through public security, fundamental rights, digital economy and efficiency discourses. It contributes theoretically by highlighting how counter-terrorism measures regarding online spaces function through rationalisation and moralisation strategies which legitimise policies as reasonable and morally justifiable, when in fact they rest upon a series of contested assumptions and narratives about the threat from terrorist content. Furthermore, the study puts forward that the regulation contributes to the institutionalisation of online platforms role in countering terrorist content online and reproduces unequal power relations between large and small hosting service companies, public authorities, and individuals.

The purpose of this thesis is to determine how different variables can affect a terrorist group's reaction to a targeted leadership strike, known as a decapitation strike. Decapitation strikes often produce unwanted results, such as a splintering of the terrorist group, or a failure to destroy the group. It is important that we understand which variables can lead to a group's destruction after a decapitation strike, to maximize the decapitation's effectiveness. In my research I have determined that group size, group ideological extremism, and the role of the leader targeted all have a substantial impact on the success of the decapitation strike. Using these three variables, I will examine three groups which have varying size, extremism, and leadership, and determine whether the decapitation strikes were successful and how these variables affected the results.

Terrorist organizations have always been predominantly dominated by male members in numbers of participants, supporters, and leaders. Despite men having the majority of the roles, oftentimes the world witnesses attack executed by female terrorists which deal a substantial amount of damage to the infrastructure and the peaceful civilians surrounding them. Furthermore, the sense of unpredictability and unpreparedness from the counterterrorist forces and the general public adds up to the overall advantage women possess in the field of terrorism over men. Considering these observations, one can argue that women have grown to be far more dangerous and successful in the field of terrorism than men, who still hold the absolute majority in terrorist organizations. This thesis will investigate the phenomenon of women as nontraditional terrorists through answering the question of who deals more damage per terrorist attacks between males and females by looking at four major distinct terrorist organizations and their individual cases of attacks reported in the Global Terrorism Database. The unit of measurement for this study will be the average of death and wounded tolls, while the variables investigated will be individual male/female attacks and mixed-group/male group/female group attack to evaluate the impact of female member’s presence in group-attack settings. The goal of this thesis is to raise awareness on female lethality in terrorist organizations to the counterterrorist forces and the general public which is extremely important for domestic and foreign policy/security measures.

The United States, Germany, and other Western industrialized countries began seeking multilateral anti-terrorism agreements in the 1970s. In that decade, transnationally operating terroristic actors tapped into the anti-imperialist, anti-colonial global discourse of the 1960s to justify themselves as national liberation fighters. This dissertation is a case study of Western state officials who interacted with one another and with recently independent states in response to the activity of such ostensible insurgents. The dissertation reveals how Western officials worked to define and deploy the terrorism label against these non-state actors. U.S., German, and other Western officials generated international conventions that treated terrorists as ordinary criminals and ignored their political motivations. The resulting multilateral agreements stipulated that terrorism was an illegal and criminal act. These solutions undermined national liberation actors’ claims to protected status as wartime combatants. This dissertation clarifies some of the mechanisms which permitted Western states to shape the norms about who is or is not a terrorist. However, Western efforts to define and regulate terrorism also led to the institutionalization of terrorism as a global security threat without providing long-term solutions. These agreements did not prevent terrorist attacks. In addition, the Western multilateral conventions were deeply controversial. They triggered still unresolved debates amongst states worldwide about the conditions under which non-state actors had rights under international law to commit politically motivated violence. / History

No / The Russo-Chechen conflict has been the bloodiest war in Europe since the Second World War. It continues to drag on, despite the fact that it hits the headlines only when there is some 'terrorist spectacular'. Providing a comprehensive overview of the war and the issues connected with it, the author examines the origins of the conflict historically and traces how both sides were dragged inexorably into war in the early 1990s. The book discusses the two wars (1994-96 and 1999 to date), the intervening truce and shows how a downward spiral of violence has led to a mutually-damaging impasse from which neither side has been able to remove itself. It applies theories of conflict, especially theories of terrorism and counter-terrorism and concludes by proposing some alternative resolutions that might lead to a just and lasting peace in the region.

The main focus of this thesis is to examine Israel's counter terrorism methods and their consequences and to debate the effectiveness of Israel's counter terrorism policy. By stimulating a debate on these issues it is possible to identify a more effective counter terrorism policy. In order to examine Israel's counter terrorism methods, their consequences and effectiveness, it is necessary to first explore the overall concepts of terrorism and counter terrorism. Then, because counter terrorism policy is hard to evaluate if one does not look at the context which surrounds it, this thesis will therefore explore some aspects of Israeli security history which has and continues to influence its counter terrorism policy. Furthermore, this thesis will provide an introduction to the general development of Palestinian resistance movements which will include a scrutiny of Hamas. This thesis has selected some of Israel's counter terrorism methods, and will be examining the width and depth of these methods as well as their consequences on the Palestinian society in general and on Hamas in particular. In seeking to answer the more general question about the effectiveness of Israel's counter terrorism policy the thesis will evaluate this aspect by relying on qualitative and quantitative indicators. This thesis will show that Israeli counter terrorism methods do reduce the capacity of Hamas and as such has prevented certain attacks or incapacitated Hamas' military wing for a limited time; they have, however, had a limited effect in the long run. It will be shown that these methods have consequences far beyond reducing the terrorist organisation capacity, which deepen the root causes for terrorism and increase the motivation to continue the resistance.

<p>Even though terrorism has been on the political agenda for several years there is no general accepted definition of the phenomena of terrorism. Several scientist do also apply that terrorism have changed after the 9/11-attacks. The purpose with this thesis was to analyze and compare the image of terrorism represented by the United States, United Kingdom, Sweden and Norway, in an attempt to draw conclusions about similarities and differentials. The material that was used was these four nations individual counter terrorism strategy. This was made by using idea analysis and self constructed dimensions based on earlier science about security, terrorism and international law. A result of this study showed that there is a consensus about terrorism as a high existential threat because of the religious extremism that is related to Al Qaeda and justifies mass murder and have showed attempt to acquire weapons of mass destruction. On this adoption the nations in this study justifies extraordinary actions in cooperation against global terrorism. It is however some differentials about the means to counter this threat. The United States, United Kingdom and Norway describes in their strategy that the threat of Al Qaeda and its allies should be met by military force. United Kingdom describes that the military action is to consider as an exception based on the extraordinary threat that Al Qaeda poses. Sweden on the other hand shows a description of terrorism as a criminal act that should be met by national measures.</p>

Aiming to facilitate the description and evaluation of rhetorical responses to security issues, a framework was developed for comparative analysis of oral and written presentations. The framework was applied on three speeches held by the Swedish Prime Minister Göran Persson and three speeches by the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in the wake of the terrorist attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11 and the subsequent military operation in Afghanistan. The framework was based on four narrative structures, referred to as images. The image of aggression was used to describe the speaker’s interpretation of a dramatic event, the image of threat to describe his consideration of the security threat and the image of securitisation to analyse solutions suggested in relation to the threat. The image of communication, finally, was used to describe relations between the speaker and his audience appearing in the speeches. Each image included an actor, an act or event, a referent object to the act and time and space. The images were analysed as discrete parts and also by an integrating approach. In the analysis, descriptions of the images were related to rhetorical tools, including logos, pathos, ethos, identification, vividness and agency. The analyses revealed similarities and dissimilarities between the two speakers. As for similarities, Persson and Putin used similar topoi. Persson used democracy – terrorism whereas Putin preferred civilisation – terrorism/barbarism, and both used cooperation. To both speakers, the images of aggression and threat tended to appeal to pathos and identification, and the image of securitisation and communication to logos and ethos. As for dissimilarities, Persson relied on the UN whereas Putin offered direct help to the US operation. In Persson’s speeches, the predominant topos was cooperation, in Putin’s civilisation – terrorism/barbarism. Persson focused on democratic values, Putin on the fight against terrorism. Persson’s images were more elaborated and vivid, Putin’s more moderate. These dissimilarities were tentatively explained by the two speakers’ different individual styles and domestic situations and, most important, by the speakers’ different agency on the international arena. In essence, the present framework, based on four discrete images, was found to be well-suited for cross-cultural analysis of rhetorical responses to security issues. The similarities exceeded the dissimilarities, which led to the conclusion that rhetoric of security politics may be defined as a discrete rhetorical genre. A bi-polar world view pervaded the rhetoric, preventing long-term solutions to security issues. Instead a focus on cooperation topoi, nuanced information, and the means and ends of securitisation was suggested.