Master thesis | Crisis and Security Management (MSc)
open access
The phenomenon called the Involuntary Celibate movement is quick to grow on the internet as well as violent attacks that are related to these so-called "Incels". Mainly in North-America these...Show moreThe phenomenon called the Involuntary Celibate movement is quick to grow on the internet as well as violent attacks that are related to these so-called "Incels". Mainly in North-America these violent incel attacks occur. The discussion in this thesis is how the North American states view these attacks and the incel movement overall in order to respond or anticipate to it. Along with that, this thesis sheds light on the difficulty of categorizing such a phenomenon. Looking at the definition of terrorism, it remains a daily struggle to have a collective meaning for it. This thesis helps to create more awareness about the involuntary celibates, and provide insights of possible dangers that come along with them. Moreover it discusses the political discourse of categorizing and defining such occurrences. It discusses how different actors within Canada and North America perceive the phenomenon and how they believe are correct reaction is. This thesis furthermore provides a piece that goes more in-depth on the specific characters, and create a framework of the incels that might be useful for instances to have idea what this movement entails.Show less
Master thesis | Crisis and Security Management (MSc)
open access
In two cases of the decision to deploy military forces, Bosnia and Uruzgan, the role of the Dutch intelligence culture in the decision-making process and the role Dutch strategic culture within the...Show moreIn two cases of the decision to deploy military forces, Bosnia and Uruzgan, the role of the Dutch intelligence culture in the decision-making process and the role Dutch strategic culture within the Dutch Intelligence culture is researched.Show less
Master thesis | Crisis and Security Management (MSc)
open access
2023-03-30T00:00:00Z
Twenty-seven years after the swiss military compulsory service officially allowed women to serve in the same position as men, their numbers remain scarce. They officially represent under one per...Show moreTwenty-seven years after the swiss military compulsory service officially allowed women to serve in the same position as men, their numbers remain scarce. They officially represent under one per cent of military forces. Meanwhile, several decision-makers call for a transformation of this balance, either to reach ten per cent of women in the ranks or to include them completely in the draft group. This research finds that women have played a key role in the military in the past 100 years and that they have been systematically invisibilised. The analysis shows that the military and the state in Switzerland is male centred (Peterson, 1992; Sjoberg, 2009), that women were prevented from gaining the status of an actor in the military practice despite filling that role, and that the military is highly dependent on women’s unpaid labour. The analysis of women’s presence and how it is reported to the public show that women comply with gendered norms rather to challenge them to be accepted in the military. Therefore, this research argues that a specific gender-sensitive policy would be necessary to attain the announced goals.Show less
Master thesis | Crisis and Security Management (MSc)
closed access
The focus of this paper is the security cooperation between FIU-NL and Europol, organizations that annually process transaction data on millions of EU-citizens. The author makes the case that...Show moreThe focus of this paper is the security cooperation between FIU-NL and Europol, organizations that annually process transaction data on millions of EU-citizens. The author makes the case that Function Creep, “the expansion of the use of a system or token to include other functions not originally envisioned by their promotors” undermines trust and therefore hinders security cooperations. Through the application of Whelans network theory and the concept of Function Creep in a case study design. The case study is of the implementation of the integration of FIU.net, a decentralized system, into SIENA, Europols centralized database. The author argues that a clear negative impact on trust is found, even when the Function Creep is only ‘intended’ and aims to expand upon the commonly understood conceptualization of Function Creep.Show less
Master thesis | Crisis and Security Management (MSc)
open access
Although strategic communication is a tool that can help in countering adversarial influencing campaigns whilst simultaneously increasing resilience against them, it also has the potential to work...Show moreAlthough strategic communication is a tool that can help in countering adversarial influencing campaigns whilst simultaneously increasing resilience against them, it also has the potential to work against the sender’s own goals. This research focuses on how the design of a message contributes to this phenomenon, referred to as ‘information fratricide’. Because the term ‘information fratricide’ is derived from the military and this research focuses on non-military strategic communications in the modern contested information environment, information fratricide is theoretically and conceptually (re)developed to be better suitable for the use in this research. This is done by breaking down Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding theory (1973) and Shannon and Weaver’s concept of ‘noise’ (Shannon & Weaver, 1949). In order to identify the role of message design in information fratricide, an analysis of information fratricide incidents was made. The analysis focused on the communication of U.S. officials about the Russian military build-up at Ukraine’s borders in 2022 and the information fratricidal effects on three receivers of this communication, and found that message design contributes to information fratricide through the ideas that codes add to a message. Furthermore, it was found that the effects of past information fratricide incidents work over time to potentially affect future friendly operations.Show less
Master thesis | Crisis and Security Management (MSc)
open access
This thesis assesses how United States drone strikes against al Qaeda Central in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, in Pakistan, between 2004 and 2011, affected the broader organization of al...Show moreThis thesis assesses how United States drone strikes against al Qaeda Central in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas, in Pakistan, between 2004 and 2011, affected the broader organization of al Qaeda. This research was conducted by means of a 7-S analysis of al Qaeda’s broader organization throughout two timeframes: from 1988 until 2001, the pre-drone phase, and from 2001 until 2011, the intra-drone phase, across seven organizational factors, namely Shared Values, Strategy, Structure, Systems, Style, Staff and Skills. This paper found that US drone strikes directly impacted al Qaeda’s Structure, Style, Staff, Skills and Systems and indirectly its Shared Values. Al Qaeda’s Strategy remained unaffected. The drone program affected al Qaeda mostly by denying al Qaeda secure communications, killing large numbers of operatives, thereby accelerating al Qaeda’s educational and promotional processes, and by disrupting the intergenerational transfer of skills and knowledge.Show less
Master thesis | Crisis and Security Management (MSc)
open access
Freshwater is an essential yet scarce good, that is predicted to only become scarcer because of climate change and growing populations. In addition, freshwater in rivers is often shared between...Show moreFreshwater is an essential yet scarce good, that is predicted to only become scarcer because of climate change and growing populations. In addition, freshwater in rivers is often shared between multiple countries. Despite multiple predictions by scholars and experts, states often do not go to war over freshwater. Instead, most disputes end in the signing of a treaty. However, these treaties are not always fair and do not, actually, always end conflict. In the view of this research, treaties are merely a way in which states fight, without using violence, and should thus be seen as a part of ongoing conflict, rather than the end of it. In addition, despite theoretical predictions, international organisations do not play a large role in the creation of River Basin Organisations and neither do hydrohegemons.Show less
