This master thesis focuses on a relationship between poverty and conflict. The aim is to analyze poverty as a potential cause of internal conflict. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part discusses the multidimensional character of poverty, the nature of a nexus between poverty and conflict and introduces modern concepts of economic causes of conflict. The second part tests if higher personal income reduces the probability of internal conflict to emerge. Both phenomena are transformed into a simple mathematical function in order to test their nexus. Characteristics of both regional and universal nature of their relationship are scrutinized. Finally, poverty is not universally believed to be a major cause of civil conflicts. However, poverty is suggested to be a major cause of internal conflicts if personal income is not high enough to satisfy basic human meets. The level of violence, under which conflicts are likely to emerge, is believed to be set at the level of 2$ (of daily income). #English version of the thesis is available per request.#

This thesis The Role of the Interpreter in Conflict Zones presents a general overview of some basic characteristics of interpreting in conflict zones. The theoretical part characterizes historical development of interpreting in conflict zones and describes the legal status of interpreters working in such an environment based on the international humanitarian law. The following section describes the use of interpreters in the Czech Army, examines the language training of the Czech soldiers and defines a summary of the past and current missions of the Czech Army. These descriptions serve as a basis for the empirical section of this thesis which analyzes responses of Czech soldiers represented in the questionnaire survey that aimed to clarify their experiences with interpreting in foreign missions of the Czech Army. The survey shows that the Czech soldiers appreciate the quality of interpreting in foreign missions and prefer to use the local civilian interpreters. Key words: interpreter, conflict zone, civilian, combatant, Czech Army.

Armed conflict affects men and women differently due to their previous roles in the society. For instance, it often crucially changes the status of women and enhances their emancipation. Therefore, women should be included in conflict resolution as well as in peace negotiations and post-conflict reconstruction, to ensure sustainable peace. Examples from many African countries driven by conflict denote that women are not automatically included in these processes. This single intrinsic case study documents the work of women peace mediators in Burundi. At the theoretical level, the study argues for an elicitive endogenous approach to peacebuilding, embedded in the conflict transformation theory by John Paul Lederach. Nevertheless, theoretical concepts are not emphasized because they tend to limit the mediators' agenda which actually involves a wide range of conflict handling mechanisms. The main part of the study is based on semi-formal questionnaires filled out by women peace mediators in Bujumbura. The goal of the research is twofold: First, it is aimed to introduce the mediators and to understand their motivations to mediate. Second, it documents their everyday work by analysing official reports. The findings show that an "average" mediator is a married woman, with children, with at least secondary...

The thesis (A)symmteric dynamics of the conflict in Sri Lanka is an attempt to apply the theoretical concept of asymmetric conflicts and asymmetric warfare to the empirical case of the conflict in Sri Lanka and to figure out whether or not the asymmetric nature of the relationship between the sides of the conflict was the cause of the conflict's long term persistence and incapability of finding a durable solution to the conflict . In order to do so, the author first introduced the theoretical framework itself and highlighted the most significant features which were furthermore employed as the tool for the following analysis. On this basis the conflict in Sri Lanka was set into the theoretical framework and relevant asymmetries between the two counterparts - the Sri Lankan government/army and the organization of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam - were identified. As the next step, the author tried to embrace the variable dynamics of the conflict in terms of relevant asymmetries and also symmetries which came to being within the course of the conflict. Since the symmetric situation is deemed to be more advantageous for finding the solution to a conflict, the author focused on the impact of the "symmetrization" on the prospects for the solution to the Sri Lankan conflict. However, the final findings...

This thesis deals with role of the European Union in the ethnic conflicts of South Caucasus, notably in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. In the first part, the author concentrates on the evolution of situation in South Ossetia and Abkhazia as well as on the role of international actors in these territories, before the outbreak of war between Russia and Georgia in August 2008. The master thesis continues with the analysis of the EU's engagement in break-away territories where author focuses on the evaluation of specific policies and instruments used by the EU towards the two ethnic territories and Georgia. The final section assesses the EU's responsiveness during the Russian-Georgian war and also the steps taken in the period after the violence. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to evaluate the Union's policies in South Ossetia and Abkhazia before, during and after the breakthrough war in August 2008. In this context, the author concludes that EU policies have failed because of unability to prevent a renewed outbreak of violence. Failure depended on the EU's reluctance to get involved in political and security issues and also on Russia's influence on decision-making process of the EU member states.

This diploma thesis presents an overview of the archaeology of military camps and field fortifications from modern period (1498-1815) in the region of South Bohemia. It summarizes and evaluates the present South Bohemian research in the context of modern Euro-Atlantic conflict archaeology as well as the research conducted in Czech Republic. The recherché deals with published Czech and foreign research. An integral part of thesis is the description of the modern period war events concerning South Bohemia with overlap to bordering regions of Germany and Austria. The core of the study contains several case studies, where author presents various types of sites with temporary military constructions using different methodological approaches suitable for individual types. These include the siege of České Budějovice town during the Bohemian Revolt in the years 1618-1619 investigated by the analysis of the iconographic source, localisation and excavation of remains interpreted as one-off field fortification in Lhenice region, or the identification and interpretation of the field camp based on cartographic sources. These chapters presenting also results of field survey, are accompanied by further topics such as the role of castles in modern period conflicts or issue of borderline fortifications and camps.

The aim of this thesis is to describe the origin and development of the Common Foreign and Security Policy and Common Security and Defense Policy within the European Union and its functioning in the events of two selected conflicts - between Kosovo and Serbia and between Georgia and South Ossetia and Russia. The thesis deals with the European Union´s approach towards Kosovo and Georgia before the conflicts, during the post-conflict situations and with civilian missions in the framework of Common Security and Defense Policy, which operates in both countries.

Power-sharing has become a frequent approach to conflict resolution and postconflict reconstruction in deeply divided multi-ethnic states. Although most of the power-sharing arrangements failed within the first years after their establishment, a few contemporary cases are associated with successful power-sharing, namely with the consociational model. This work aims to determine the impact of the power-sharing arrangement on conflict dynamics and vice versa, thus the development of the model in the long term. Designs, aims and theoretical predictions of two power-sharing models, specifically consociational and centripetal models, are elaborated and subsequently compared with the after-civil war development in Lebanon and Burundi from 2005 to 2019. The periods are divided into time units bounded by amendments of the power-sharing arrangements and peace agreements. That enables to observe the development of both conflict dynamics and models. Political and civil society developments, conflicts registered in the UCDP database and political crisis are considered and put into the context of power-sharing arrangements. Based on the results, I claim that conflict dynamics from the last civil war are maintained on elites' level in the long term, while the gap between elites and masses has widened. Also, the...

This diploma thesis deals with the topic of Early Warning Systems (EWS), a key part of conflict prevention. It applies a model of quantitative analysis of international media outputs on the case of the Mali insurgency in January 2012. As an EWS tool, it analyzes international media represented by the major global press agencies. The main goal of the thesis is to answer the following research question: Did the international media manage to anticipate the outbreak of the conflict in Mali? The answer should also show whether international media can detect growing tensions leading to a conflict and therefore whether they could be used as an EWS tool. The application of the model should, observing the period from August 2011 to the beginning of the insurgency on January 17, 2012, prove whether the conflict could have been anticipated. In order to contextualize the model, structural factors of instability were identified in the discussion of the dynamics of the conflict that has been repeating itself for dozens of years. A discourse analysis of international media during the observed period was also presented on the background of the securitization theory of the Copenhagen school of security studies. The discourse analysis and the quantitative EWS model have both shown that international media have not...

This thesis analyses the peace process between Ecuador and Peru and stimulates discussion in the field of conflict resolution. On Monday, October 26th, 1998, President of Peru Alberto Fujimori and Ecuador Jamil Mahuad Witt signed an international agreement that ended more than 150 years lasting territorial conflict. A series of hostile acts and armed conflicts have accompanied these neighbouring states for decades. Four states became the guarantor of the peace treaty: Brazil, the United States, Argentina and Chile. Complicated negotiations began in 1995 after a short war on the Cenepa River. The negotiating teams of the guaranteeing states used various mediation strategies, including the organization of negotiations, sanctions and financial incentives. The aim of this qualitative case study is an analysis of the causes of successful mediation performed by the guaranteeing states. The research follows the theoretical part, which describes the so-called contingency approach and ripeness theory.