UNIVERZITA KARLOVA V PRAZE FAKULTA SOCIÁLNÍCH VĚD Institut politologických studií Eliška Vyšatová Praha 2014 Diploma thesis: The Functioning of national-separatist organizations. A Comparative study of the IRA and ETA Abstract: The diploma thesis "The Functioning of National-Separatist Organizations. A Comparative Study of IRA and ETA" deals with two West European national-separatist organizations as well as the phenomenon of political terrorism and ethnic conflict. The selected organizations are unique among other ones as to their history and the way of functioning, and for these reasons they have been chosen for this study. Both organizations can be considered the main source of conflict in the national separatist movement in Basque Country and Northern Ireland from the beginning of the 20th century. The basic premise is that both IRA and ETA reach their aim, which can be generalised as independence of the national states, which they are a part of, in a specific way, it being primarily terrorism. The main aim of this paper is to compare various aspects of functioning of IRA and ETA and, on the basis of these results, to evaluate if we can consider these as two organizations different from other groups of this kind as well as different from each other, although they demonstrate some similar...

The thesis identifies and further examines the role of propaganda in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, more specifically in the period around the annexation of the Crimean peninsula by the Russian Federation in March 2014. Critical discourse analysis is employed in order to analyse selected speeches of the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and the President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, relevant to the topic and in the period under investigation. The first chapter introduces a theoretical framework on propaganda in international relations, its definition, history and research. The methodology is described in detail in the second chapter. The historical context of the conflict is provided at the beginning of the empirical part of the thesis closely followed by a detailed analysis of the selected speeches. The findings support the prediction that there is a presence of propaganda identified within the speeches of both political leaders, thus in the conflict itself, and offer valuable insights into the hidden meanings and possible motives behind its use. The study advances our understanding of the phenomenon and helps us to expose and confront propaganda further.