How a Realist-Constructivist Theory Can Contribute to Understanding the 2014 Ukraine Crisis Abstract Realism has been the predominant paradigm for analysing Russian foreign policy in recent times, however, it can sometimes appear lacking in convincing power. Constructivism offers some explanation for the motivation behind policy, however, again appears lacking in convincing power alone. Realist-constructivsm has been suggested to bridge the gap, as it were, between traditional notions of power, and cultural influences. The main argument for realist-constructivism is that some of the basic principles of realism must have a constructivist base, for example, in order to define the 'us' and 'them' in international politics and to determine with whom one is competing for power and influence, there first must be an understanding of how one defines the 'us'. This analysis examines the realistconstructivist theory as put forward by Barkin (2004; 2010), analyses its advantages and disadvantages, and seeks to view the Ukraine crisis of 2014 through a realist-constructivist lens, hoping to contribute something to the still young and developing discussion around a realist- constructivist theory. Keywords Realist-constructivist theory; NATO; national identity; Ukraine; Crimea; the EU; 2014; annexation

National parks in the Czech Republic and their legal regulation Abstract The subject of this master theses are national parks in the Czech Republic and their legal regulation. The main legal document that regulates the issue of national parks in our country, is the Act No. 114/1992 Coll., On Nature and Landscape Protection, as amended. This Act has been significantly amended and its wording has been in force since 2017. For the most part, this new regulation affected especially national parks that represent the most important and strictly protected areas in the Czech Republic. Although, in practice the amendment has not yet been fully reflected, as some institutes are still in the process of negotiation or approval. The aim of this thesis is therefore by means of methods of description, analysis and comparison comprehensively summarize regulation of the existing national parks and at the same time in the light of the previous legislation to compare it and analyze. Subsequently, critically evaluate the extent to which the Czech legislator has managed to create an effective legal regulation responding to the current needs of nature protection. At the same time, the thesis also aimed to compare the legal regulation of national parks with a foreign state, specifically Slovakia. This thesis is divided into six...

This Master's thesis is depicting the development of the National Liberal Party, from the earliest stage in the 1860s, up to the year 1914. This depiction is based on expert texts as well as historical and political science literature. The thesis is focused on the political background in Austria and subsequently also Austria-Hungary. The historical part of the thesis is primarily focused on the absolute regime, as well as the national efforts to liberalize the constitutional and political demands. A standalone part of the thesis is dedicated to the division between the Old Czech Party and the Young Czech Party, primarily focusing on their political differences and shared nationalism. The establishment of the National Liberal Party in 1874 was followed by its political and agenda development. The political development is depicted in its election results, as well as its functioning in the parliament of Cisleithania. Since 1879, both the Old Czech Party and the Young Czech Party participated in defending the human rights in Vienna's Czechen-Club. The year 1891 brought about a large change when the National Liberal Party won in the election against the National Party and so became the hegemon of Czech politics. This thesis pays special attention to the work of the Young Czech Party in the Národní listy...

The diploma thesis deals with the influence of foreign exchange interventions on net export of the Czech Republic. The first part deals with unconventional monetary policy instruments with focus on the exchange rate as a tool for zero lower bound situation. The reason why central banks use unconventional monetary policy instruments is described in this part as well as the impact of foreign exchange interventions on international trade. Furthermore, the thesis focuses on the international trade analysis of the Czech Republic and the influence of foreign exchange interventions on imports, exports, turnover and foreign trade balance. It is followed by the quantification of the relationship between the change of the nominal exchange rate CZK/EUR and the Czech international trade through a regression analysis. The results of the thesis show a positive impact of foreign exchange interventions on Czech international trade.

The film industry is one of the creative industries and is often referred to as cultural economy. The filmmakers are trying to maximize their profits and attract as many consumers as possible. One of the most important indicators for producers are box office sales of cinema tickets. The thesis examines national film preferences in Europe, based on these revenues. The aim is to reveal how feature film genre preferences differ among countries in the European Union. The first part of the thesis focuses on the theoretical background and setting the issue in the context of economics. It is followed by construction of data-set, which is then examined by regression analysis. The dependent variable is represented by box office sales. Finally, the results of the analysis are interpreted and explained.

The thesis analyzes the accuracy of the multi-step inflation forecast using se-lected methods of machine learning through inflationary factors in the Visegrad group countries. The methods that were applied in the work analysis are the re-gression of tree methods and the algorithm method to the k-nearest neighbors. Based on the regression tree method, we are able to identify factors that are most prominent in price level development. The output of the analysis consists of 8 models, the suitability and accuracy of which are discussed. The results of the em-pirical analysis are compared with the assumptions that were presented before the analysis has begun. This suggests that methods are not suitable for multi-step inflation prediction.

In this thesis, the issue of language policies and nation-building as seen by a constructivist perspective are studied, the studied case being the Post-Maidan Ukraine. It is argued that the ruling elites of Ukrainian society are persuading the members of minority-language populations to re-categorize themselves according to the blueprint of national and linguistic identities that the elites are presenting. The thesis studies the responsiveness of the populations of Kyiv, Dnipro, Uzhhorod and Odesa to the identity-building efforts. To assess the success rates of the endeavour, the method of linguistic landscape analysis and a survey among students of Czech in Ukraine are employed. In the linguistic landscape analysis, the behaviours of issuers of official, commercial and informal messages appearing in the studied cities are observed. Looking at the language composition of these signs, the overall responsiveness of the populations towards the official language policies, and, by extension, towards the nation-building efforts overall, are assumed. The survey then provides supporting evidence by asking the respondents questions about their attitudes towards the language legislation and stance on the issue of language use in the country. It is observed that in informal contexts, the messages often revert...

Use of the monetary instruments of the Czech National Bank Abstract The aim of the thesis is to chronologically analyze the use of the monetary instruments of the Czech National Bank with emphasis on the issue of changing the primary objective of our central bank in the legislation order and answer the question whether there was a change in the use of the monetary instruments of the CNB or not. The thesis uses mainly descriptive method, analytical method, and comparative method. The sources of this thesis are mainly professional economic publications (professional articles, textbooks), legal regulations, including the case law of the Constitutional Court, and freely available data listed on the website of the CNB or the website of the Czech Statistical Office. The first chapter of my thesis defines the term "Monetary Policy". It theoretically analyses the basic types of the monetary policy and functions. This includes the processes that lead from the use of the monetary instruments to influence the economy. The emphasis here is mainly on explaining the term "inflation targeting" and its use. The second chapter presents the monetary instruments that central banks can use in their monetary policy. The chapter divides monetary instruments into direct and indirect and conventional and unconventional. The third...

The problematic of Romanian transition to democracy after the year 1989 was by its major part determined by the form of previous regime. Because of the extreme pressure and control exercised on the opposition and personal dictatorship of the regime of Nicolae Ceaușescu, no major dissent groups or centers existed, bearing the potential to take part in the overthrow of the regime. In the swift and still unclear events of December 1989, National Salvation Front rose to hold the power, being directed by Ion Iliescu. As a formerly top positioned communist apparatchik, who had been swept out from status and power after several conflicts with Ceausescu, he transferred almost complete communist structure to the newly formed regime, including Securitate, the secret service. Deconstruction of the former regime was actually performed by the execution of the former president and his wife and by trials of several Securitate generals. Iliescu concentrated most of the power around NSF and in contradiction with the original proclamation postponed transition to democracy. The new regime, which was led by Ion Iliescu demonstrated in its ideological presentation and exercise of power apparent similarities with the era of communist rule, nevertheless, it worked under formal democratic framework. Because of this fact,...

The objective of this master's thesis is to examine a detailed summary of the present situation of visitor monitoring methods in large-scale protected areas in Czechia. Methods used in Czechia are introduced on 9 areas. The main research tools used were interviews with 8 key actors and a survey with the head managers of 4 national parks and 25 protected areas. The questionnaire survey was conducted in November and December 2011 and had 100 % return. This thesis presents comprehensive characteristics of the situation in Czechia including levels of monitoring methods. It seems that this study is the first of its kind which has been done in Czechia. Findings show that there is systematic quantitative visitor monitoring in Czech national parks, but that there is not in protected landscape areas. The majority of national park and protected area management do not have a standard certificated methodology for managing counting visitors. This means that their results cannot be compared. To promote better understanding of methods the text includes 22 examples of visitor counting done in chosen European countries and 9 examples from other non-European countries with the goal of summarizing which methods and technologies are available and suitable for use in Czechia. Finally, the evaluations of eight...