Security architecture in the Czech Republic

Abstract

Security is a vast and complex topic, which becomes much easier to navigate if there is proper and valid documentation available for monitoring of processes, goals and achievements. This becomes even more important when it comes to the security of the state. This thesis aimed to analyse the architecture of security in the Czech Republic, with a goal of con firming or denying the perception created by the state through its publicly available documents and security policies. For simplification, the research was narrowed down to seven separate areas that together represent fields important for the existence and functioning of the state. These areas are Domestic security policy, Foreign security policy, International alliances, Defence forces, Energy security, Trade and Industry, and Monetary policy.

Multiple research methods were selected for designated parts of the research. Initial information was gathered through document analysis, which focused on analysing the existing policies, publicly available government documents and expert literature on security in the seven predetermined areas. Then, a set of interviews with experts in each area were conducted in order to gain insight into daily operations of these areas and the perception of security environment from the inside of the area. Through the method of directed content analysis, the discovered perceptions were compared to each other, in order to gauge the mis/alignment of the two points of view.

It was discovered that despite the general match of the published perception with the perception of the experts, there have been outliers on either side of the spectrum. The perceptions most aligned in the fields of Foreign security policy and Defence forces, managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence respectively. The greatest mis alignment of the perceptions was discovered in the fields Monetary policy and Energy security.

The main limitations of this research were the fact that representatives of the fields of Domestic security policy and Monetary policy refused to participate in the online interviews and only provided partial answers to the research questions through email, referring to potential confidential status of some relevant information. Another were the time constraints on the interviews with experts, which could attain considerable more details should more time be available. Further re search could attain more detailed results by focusing more on the individual areas, rather than overall picture, allocating more time to the interviews with experts and particularly focusing on the areas of Domestic security policy and Monetary policy, as the results from these areas were skewed by the lack of transparency