The Czech-German Strategic Dialogue: Assessment of Current State and Future
The Czech-German Strategic Dialogue: Assessment of Current State and Future

Author(s): Benjamin Tallis
Subject(s): International relations/trade
Published by: Ústav mezinárodních vztahů
Keywords: Czech-German relations;
Summary/Abstract: This discussion paper seeks to examine such competing evaluations of the current state and future prospects of the CGSD. Partly this focus on the future is due to the ongoing nature of the work in the various working groups of the CGSD, which it is difficult or too soon to judge but also because of the predominance of underlying and overarching issues that will continue to affect the success- or otherwise – of the dialogue regardless of the specific decisions made by the working groups and the eventual review of their work that will be conducted in 2017. Also in keeping with the terms of the project, the discussion paper does not provide historical background to, nor a legal overview of the dialogue, but instead examines the current state and future potential of the dialogue to serve and fulfill the common values and interests of the partners in both bilateral and regional terms.This assessment is informed by the conceptual framework for evaluating the strategic partnerships of the Czech Republic that was devised in an earlier report(on conceptualizing strategic partnerships in general). The current discussion paper draws on this framework – and presents relevant aspects of it in Chapter 2, adapted for the specific purpose of this discussion paper – but also contextualizes the present and future of this specific partnership and its new expression in the CGSD in light of a variety of issues that arose in the course of the research conducted on Czech-German relations but which also have wider and deeper impacts and implications for Czech (and German) domestic, European and foreign policy. This approach allows for an in-depth look not only at the relationship itself but its present contingencies and conditions of possibly and how these may need to be changed or challenged if the CGSD is to deliver on its potential and the Czech Republic and Germany are to truly become strategic partners. The discussion paper also recognizes that the focus on ‘strategy’ is not the sole concern in Czech-German relations and that the CGSD has had positive impacts on these relations in more general terms. However, given the very branding of this dialogue as ‘Strategic’, the dialogue must either be evaluated on these terms or will force a re-think what is considered strategic in and by the two countries.

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