This thesis deals with Japanese foreign and security policy through the optics of critical geopolitics, specifically the "geopolitics as culture" notion developed by Gearóid Ó Tuathail. Using this notion as an analytical framework, the development of Japan's foreign and security policy from the establishment of a modern Japanese state till present days is analyzed, with three main concepts being addressed: (1) foreign policy traditions; (2) geopolitical and geostrategic discourses; (3) and strategic and geopolitical culture. For reasons of narrowing the topic down and applying the concept more consistently, one specific element of Japanese foreign and security policy is at the centre of attention: Japan's "maritime identity". The goal of the thesis is to identify and characterize Japan's geopolitical imagination and attempt to determine if and how has this imagination been expressed in the country's security policy with regard to the maritime identity. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

Knowledge of a country's national geopolitics is the key to understanding the state in all its political forms. Therefore, this thesis is devoted to the Ukrainian geopolitics of the 20th - 21st century. In it we described the main concepts and opinions of Ukrainian geopoliticians. Our goal was to learn more about the theoretical foundations of Ukrainian geopolitics as it was in the 20th century and to see its further development in the 21st century. We tried to describe as fully as possible the views of Ukrainian geopoliticians and note the peculiarities of their thinking. We also analysed possible factors influencing the geopolitical vision of Ukrainians in the 20th and 21st centuries. This thesis is divided into three major parts and conclusions. The first chapter presents the main geopolitical concepts that emerged in the first half of the 20th century and their classification. In the second chapter, we focused more on those concepts that concerned the Black Sea region. In the third chapter, we presented the main and interesting concepts of Ukrainian geopolitics of the 21st century. Conclusions are an important analytical element of our work

The purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate a new empirical and systemic geopolitical approach to the study of the ongoing territorial dispute in the Arctic resulting from the desire of two nation states, Denmark and Russia, to extend their own northernmost limits of the Exclusive Economic Zone to the central part of the Arctic Ocean. This approach combines geographic, legal and political analytical perspectives with quantitative research design to produce an inter-disciplinary study. Empirical evidence on the long-term socio-geographic development in the region (1993-2013) is provided together with information on particular territorial gains and losses for all decision-makers that arise in a number of potential scenarios (options). Variation in each decision-maker's aggregate national socio-geographic resource, as implied by particular territorial modifications in the central part of the Arctic Ocean, serves as a basis for derivation of nontrivial payoffs on each option in the dispute. These payoffs are introduced into a three-player graph model for conflict resolution (Denmark, Russia, and the World) and stable dispute solutions are suggested on the basis of different combinations of decision-makers' strategies, whose optimality is evaluated as well. Finally, alternative scenarios of...

The aim of my work is to apply the political-geographical or geopolitical optics to a specific foreign security activities of the EU, i.e. to put political aims and activities of political-geographical framework. In geopolitical terms, it is necessary to assess the potential and the current deployment of civilian missions. For this purpose, in accordance with the hypothesis of my work, that the civilian aspects of crisis management CSDP are based mainly on the willingness and desire of Member States in a given area or country involved should be analyzed for the three major priorities of Member States (UK, Germany and France) in civilian areas (see National Security Strategy). The work compares the current activities of EU civil security-CSDP and geopolitical intentions of the three great European powers, Germany, France and Great Britain. Civilian CSDP should concentrate in geographic areas that are of key importance to most member states and especially for three large powers. The question is whether the major European powers reflect their priorities in EU policy in its entirety or whether there are other factors that prevent them from doing so. Such factors include decisions based on consensus and the growing power of the European Commission, which defends its interests very hard in the CSDP. Large Member...

CHINA IN GLOBAL AND REGIONAL POLITICS IN THE 21ST CENTURY - GEOPOLITICAL CLASH WITH JAPAN, INDIA, USA, RUSSIA AND EUROPE Mgr. Martin Petrtýl Supervisor: Doc. Dr. Bořivoj Hnízdo, PhD. Institute of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences This dissertation discusses the current and future role of China in the 21st century. I worked with the idea to prepare a systematically detailed analytical study of the country in relation to its surroundings as well as its internal environment for more than 8 years, including many interruptions. I, above all, contemplated about the way how to truly scientifically, i.e. credibly, it means in the maximum possible the limits of verifiability, develop a full work that could hold up to the colleagues from the scientific community and myself. It is logical it was and is my attempt to allow minimal possibility of any criticism of this work for its formal, content, or other deficiencies. First, I decided to analyse in some detail the currently known theoretical approaches and methods of study, not only in political sciences, especially those used by political geographers, but also in other related fields, especially in the field of study of international relations, sociology, political science or general security studies. I did not want to study the issue is the...