Česká zahraniční politika v roce 2016: Analýza ÚMV
Czech foreign policy in 2016: Analysis of the IIR

Contributor(s): Michal Kořan (Editor)
Subject(s): Human Rights and Humanitarian Law, Civil Society, Political history, Economic policy, Environmental and Energy policy, Government/Political systems, International relations/trade, Security and defense, Political behavior, Comparative politics, Present Times (2010 - today), EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment, Geopolitics
Published by: Ústav mezinárodních vztahů
Keywords: Czech foreign policy; media context of Czech foreign policy; EU; security dimension; Germany; Poland; Slovakia; Russia; Balkan region; Afghanistan; France; Great Britain; Latin America; Economic interests; Human rights;
Summary/Abstract: Since 2007 the Institute of International Relations continuously analyzes the Czech foreign policy, and this years marks the 10th edition. The analytical framework remains the same over all these years (though there was a major addition to it in 2013), which provides a unique opportunity for a long-term comparison of how the foreign policy changed over the years. With this insight in mind, the authors can say that since 2014 that the turbulent international environment contributed to the fact that the domestic political and public interest in foreign policy reached recorded levels that were previously unheard of. In the past, the authors criticized the overwhelming disinterest in foreign policy matters on the part of the politicians and the public in the Czech Republic. However, the heightened, if aroused, political and public attention to foreign policy cannot be rendered exclusively – or even predominantly – as a positive and constructive feature of the foreign policy since then. This is not to say that in the long term, the increased interest in the foreign policy, if sustained and managed in a conscious and responsible way, will not yield a fruitful result in the future. But the nature of the political and public context of the foreign policy since 2014 exposed the immaturity and irresponsibility of the politics of the Czech foreign policy. As mentioned, the books’ structure has been the same since 2007, with slight variations as to which particular chapter was included or excluded in a given year. The first chapter analyzes the overall domestic and global political context of the Czech foreign policy and identify the influence and involvement of each of the main actors in it. The second part focuses on the Czech acting within the European Union and the Czech security and defense policy. The third part analyzes the main development and dynamics of the Czech policies in Central Europe. The fourth section maps out various important bilateral and regional relations, and the fifth part analyzes the participation of the Czech Republic in other multilateral and thematic areas. The fifth part is an up-to-date record of the diplomatic activities and interconnections of the Czech Republic. Furthermore, all the chapters follow a unified analytical structure. Each chapter begins with the political and conceptual context of the discrete analyzed field. In the second part of each chapter, a specific agenda and some events of the examined year, as well as their impact on and relevance for the Czech foreign policy, are analyzed. Most of the authors also included an analysis of the involvement of the different actors in the monitored area and also the media coverage of the given topic. Also, thanks to the deepened cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for the fourth year now, the IIR’s analysis also includes an overview of the diplomatic activities of the main Czech foreign policy actors.

• Details
• Contents
• Book Chapters