Česká zahraniční politika v roce 2013: Analýza ÚMV
Czech Foreign Policy in 2013: Analysis of the IIR

Contributor(s): Michal Kořan (Editor)
Subject(s): Media studies, 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, Politics and communication, Comparative politics, Present Times (2010 - today), EU-Accession / EU-DEvelopment
Published by: Ústav mezinárodních vztahů
Keywords: Czech foreign policy; domestic political and media context of the Czech foreign policy; bilateral and regional relations; European Union; security and defense policy; EU institutional development; human rights; economic diplomacy;
Summary/Abstract: Since 2007 the Institute of International Relations continuously monitors the Czech foreign policy, and it has released seven analytical monographs about it, which have always corresponded to the same unified analytical framework. The books’ structure is and always has been as follows: The first two chapters analyze the overall domes-tic political and media 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 most important thematic areas of the Czech foreign policy, specifically the Czech impact on the European Union and the Czech security and defense policy. The third part shows the main trends and dynamics of the Czech activities in the region that is geographically closest to the Czech Republic – 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. Alongside this composition, all the chapters follow a unified analytical structure. Each chapter works with the Czech Republic’s political and conceptual context as a basic internal basis for the Czech foreign policy. In the second part of each chapter, a specific agenda and some events of the examined year, as well as their impact 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. The team of authors emphasizes continuity in both conceptual and thematic matters. For this reason, the analysis can build on a robust empirical basis and deepen people’s understanding of the Czech foreign policy. In the yearbook for 2013, there are two significant shifts from the above described concept. First, partly due to a three-year grant of the Grant Agency of the Czech Re-public, the team of authors has enriched the conceptual framework by adding several further analytical categories that would allow them to qualitatively improve the theoretical knowledge of foreign policy-making in the future. Secondly, thanks to the deepened cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the long-discussed plan of the Ministry to replace the regularly published Czech Foreign Policy Report with a new output that would preserve the statistical level of the Report but would also include evaluations and analyses has been put into practice, as this book is precisely this kind of output. On the basis of these discussions, a new concept has materialized this year for the first time. In accordance with this concept, the Institute of International Relations’ foreign policy analysis now includes, for the first time, parts dealing with statistics and surveys, and these parts were prepared by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. English versions of the yearbook will also be prepared with the support of the Ministry in the future. Regarding the overall conceptual framework, there have been several changes in terms of the main questions that we are asking, as well as in how the above described concept will be fulfilled. The aim is to develop a new conceptual framework for explaining the foreign policy of small and medium-sized states, as well as a more general explanation of the Czech foreign policy as such.

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