Czech Journal of International Relations
The Czech Journal of International Relations (CJIR) is a peer-reviewed academic journal that publishes scholarly work in International Relations (IR), and also research based in other disciplines if its contribution is relevant for IR. The journal’s scope is neither theoretically nor geographically restricted, yet it seeks to promote research that resonates within the Central and Eastern European (CEE) context. CJIR therefore provides a venue for studies on European politics, international institutions, small states, environmental politics, great-power competition, international conflicts, migration, and related topics that have implications for, or originate from, the CEE region. While it strives to foster academic excellence in and support researchers from Central and Eastern Europe, the journal welcomes contributions from all parts of the world. The journal invites suggestions for special issues. CJIR publishes peer-reviewed articles, discussion articles and book reviews. The journal is published by the Institute of International Relations (IIR) in Prague, Czech Republic. The IIR is an independent public research institution which conducts scholarly research in the area of international relations. Its founder is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic. CJIR is fully Open Access, with no Article Processing Charges. Why publish in the Czech Journal of International Relations? CJIR is a leading voice in the study of international relations within the Czech Republic and the broader CEE region. CJIR offers an experienced pool of reviewers, which combines experts on IR theories with regional specialists. CJIR is open to a broad range of approaches – CJIR was a pivotal journal in bringing new theoretical and methodological approaches to Czech IR and we are eager to continue in this tradition. CJIR provides a careful editorial work – our editors work closely with both authors and reviewers and we aim to make the most of the articles submitted to our journal. CJIR offers a fast review process – the editors aim for making the final decision within two to three months of receiving it. Initial evaluation takes 2 days on average. CJIR publishes articles online ahead of print – accepted articles will appear on our webpage as soon as it is processed The Czech Journal of International Relations is an open access journal. All our content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Users are allowed to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles and reviews, or use them for any other lawful purpose without asking for prior permission from the publisher or the author. These conditions are in accordance with the Budapest Open Access Initiative definition of open access. Texts published in Czech Journal of International Relations are available under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence. Authors retain copyright and grant the journal the right of first publication. Under the CC BY licence, anyone may use, share, copy, distribute, adapt, or build upon the work for any purpose, including commercial use, provided that proper acknowledgement of the work’s authorship and its initial publication in this journal is given. The journal encourages broad dissemination and reuse of published research in accordance with the terms of the CC BY licence. Our journal does not apply article processing or submission charges.
Institute of International Relations Prague
Book Forum on Quinn Slobodian's Hayek's Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right
In this forum, Valentina Ausserladscheider, Béla Greskovits, and Daniel Šitera discuss Quinn Slobodian’s Hayek’s Bastards: Race, Gold, IQ, and the Capitalism of the Far Right (Zone Books, 2025), which examines the relationship between neoliberalism and the contemporary far right. Slobodian challenges the dominant view that right-wing populism represents a bottom-up revolt of globalization’s “losers” and instead argues that today’s far right emerged from within neoliberal thought itself. Through an intellectual genealogy, he traces how segments of neoliberalism evolved to incorporate racism, xenophobia, and male chauvinism as natural components of the market order, producing a far-right neoliberal vision of free markets fortified by borders and hierarchy. The contributors to this forum discuss both the book’s key insights and its limitations. While Ausserladscheider explores its conceptual implications for understanding the state and nationalism, Greskovits and Šitera test Slobodian’s argument against the post-socialist contexts of Hungary and Czechia. Slobodian concludes the forum with a polemical response to their critiques.
Copyright (c) 2025 Czech Journal of International Relations https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
This obituary pays tribute to Joseph S. Nye Jr. (1937–2025), one of the most influential thinkers in international relations of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. It traces his intellectual evolution from the early critique of realist orthodoxy to the formulation of key concepts such as soft power, smart power, and neoliberal institutionalism. The text highlights Nye’s dual role as a scholar and a policymaker, emphasizing his ability to translate theory into actionable foreign policy, notably during his service under the Carter and Clinton administrations. It reflects on Nye’s enduring efforts to embed ethics and legitimacy into strategic thinking and leadership, which ultimately shaped the global vocabulary of power. The obituary also situates Nye’s work in dialogue with figures such as Henry Kissinger, and revisits his influence on U.S.–Asia relations, NATO enlargement, and debates on American decline. The text concludes with some reflections on Nye’s legacy as a moral voice in foreign policy and a diagnostician of the changing nature of power in an interconnected world.
Jan Kovář: Debating Immigrants and Refugees in Central Europe. Politicising and Framing Newcomers in the Media and Political Arenas
Ivana Rapoš Božič reviews Jan Kovář’s ambitious, comprehensive, and meticulously researched book. According to Rapoš Božič, Kovář explores the politicization and framing of one of the last decade’s most polarizing and widely debated socio-political issues: migration. He focuses on two Central European countries—Czechia and Slovakia—and their distinct arenas of media and political debates. Through this complex comparative research design, Kovář aims to tackle several shortcomings of previous studies on the politicization and framing of immigrants, such as their dominant focus on Western Europe, lack of a cross-national comparative perspective, and tendency to favor the analysis of media discourse over that of its political counterpart. His book successfully achieves these aims and also does much more: it offers a nuanced and multilayered understanding of the politicization and framing processes of migration in two countries located in a region whose hostile approach to migrants and refugees during the so-called mid-2010s European migration crisis has attracted the interest of many migration scholars. Rapoš Božič reads the book from her perspective, which inevitably pushes the book to another promising point of debating migration—that is, the construction of the European East-West divide. This reading is informed by her disciplinary background in cultural sociology and qualitative research methods, as well as her close professional and personal ties to both of the countries under study. From this specific position, she praises several aspects of the book but also raises some critical remarks.
Reassessing the Czech Public Attitudes towards Israel and the Israel-Palestinian Conflict
The Czech political elites have traditionally maintained an unwavering support for Israel, and it has been popularly assumed that this view is widely translated into the Czech public opinion. In this review essay, I contest this popular assumption and argue that the Czech public opinion is more nuanced and less uniformly pro-Israel than previously believed. Drawing on public opinion data and original surveys, this paper highlights that many Czechs adopt neutral or even maintain some pro-Palestinian stances in this regard despite a dominant pro-Israel media narrative and a unified political consensus. The empirical evidence confidently shows that there is a significant gap in public and elite attitudes towards Israel and Palestine. The Czech case thus goes against the theoretical assumption that an undivided elite discourse favoring a particular policy should translate into a general public support.
International Principles or Crude Geopolitics? The Incoherence of Czech Foreign Policy Towards Ukraine and Gaza
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Czech Republic’s foreign policy has gained an unprecedented salience in domestic politics. While strongly supporting Ukraine based on international law, the Czech government stands unreservedly behind Israel in the conf lict with Gaza and Lebanon, ignoring international humanitarian law. The article argues that this inconsistency undermines the credibility of Czech foreign policy, and its commitment to human rights and international law, and threatens its partners and interests. The framing of the two wars by foreign policy representatives suggests that this discrepancy is driven by civilizational geopolitics. The neglect of universal principles leads to inconsistency with the position of the majority of the European Union and contributes to the weakening of the international order.
Poland’s Attitudes and Policy Towards Israel and Palestine after October 7th: Continuity and Change
Poland’s response to the escalation of the Israeli-Palestinian conf lict after October 7th, 2023, showed considerable continuity, though notable signs of change were also evident. Among the key transformative variables, one can point out: the post-election government change and the consequent realignment with the EU-Brussels stance, and the reorienting public attitudes due to the dramatically deteriorating humanitarian crisis in Gaza that were accompanied by new social phenomena as pro-Palestinian street protests and campus campaigns. The paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of the dynamics of continuity and change in Poland’s relations with Israel and its stance on the Israeli-Palestinian conf lict. This paper argues that the interplay of international developments and domestic circumstances has led Poland to distance itself from Israel. If this trend becomes a harmonized and institutionalized foreign policy approach, it may ultimately redefine the Poland-Israel relations. Against this backdrop, the paper examines key drivers of this shift and its potential short- and medium-term consequences.
Václav Havel’s Zionism? The Role of New Political Elites in the Transformation of Czech Policies Towards the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict after the Fall of Communism
This essay analyzes the causes and conditions that led Czech political elites to form a strong bond with the State of Israel after the Velvet Revolution. This bond gradually developed into a strategic alliance. This relationship became increasingly accompanied by the Czech Republic’s clearly uncritical stances towards Israel and its policies in the Middle East. In this context, the important role of Czech political elites – initially led by Václav Havel – is examined, while the shifts in their thinking that contributed to today’s approaches in Czech diplomacy are illustrated.
Czechoslovak Support for the Founding of Israel in the Late 1940s: the Myth of Everlasting Friendship?
The war between Israel and Hamas that began in October 2023 deeply polarized public and political opinion worldwide. In contrast to many EU countries, the Czech Republic adopted a position of unwavering support for Israel, referencing their shared values and long-standing friendship grounded in the historical ties between the Czech and Jewish peoples. This article explores this narrative by examining the commonly cited example of Czechoslovakia's support for the establishment of Israel in the late 1940s, which included providing arms supplies, military training, and diplomatic backup. However, such reflections on history often overlook important international and domestic factors of the time, including the Eastern Bloc’s efforts to expand communism into the newly decolonized Third World countries and its pursuit of financial gain. As a result, Czechoslovakia’s pro-Israeli position during the Cold War was short-lived, and was quickly reversed when the political circumstances changed. Ignoring these facts leads to distorted historical interpretations and even the development of some historical myths.
Czech Foreign Policy towards Israel, Gaza and Palestine: An Introduction
This text introduces the special forum focusing on the Czech foreign policy towards Israel and Palestine in the wake of the Hamas’ October 7 attack and the ensuing Israeli war in Gaza. It discusses the Czech political elites’ statements and decision-making regarding the Middle East that have been largely defined by starkly pro-Israeli positions. The introduction goes on to note how Prague’s decisions and steps on the EU and international level have become increasingly remarkable due to their uncritical support for the Israeli conduct in spite of the global criticism aimed at its breaches of international and humanitarian law. The introduction further briefly outlines individual contributions, arguing that the forum overall speaks to IR-relevant issues pertaining to the notion of a special relationship, the role of the domestic context for foreign policy, and the EU’s international position vis-a-vis the recent major conflict in its neighborhood.
International Organizations Climbing on a Ladder of Public Participation: A Case Study of the World Bank Instruments
Despite that a lot of attention has been paid to the legitimacy of IOs and the “transnational turn of global governance,” an in-depth analysis of access to information and public consultations as fairly new elements of public participation has not been conducted before. This article brings evidence from the World Bank (WB), its instruments of public involvement, and their practical usage in the last 10 years. The results show that in each of the “rungs” on the “ladder” of public participation, the WB designed a tool that is particularly used when a local aspect is involved. Therefore, I argue that the need for implementation of the IO policies on the ground might also drive their legitimation practices and the public participation in these instruments. Furthermore, the paper suggests that an exchange of resources between IOs and non-state actors can work both ways and their cooperation can thus be mutually beneficial.
Cross-national Salience of Marine Environmental Issues: Evidence from UN General Assembly Debates, 1993–2020
In this paper, we examine an important dimension of state preferences regarding the protection of the marine environment, namely the salience of marine environmental problems. To do so, we analyse statements delivered in the annual reviews of ocean affairs and the law of the sea in the General Assembly of the United Nations in the years 1993–2020. In methodological terms, the paper employs topic modelling. The results reveal that the attitudes of states to the importance of specific environmental issues are relatively heterogeneous and the overall salience of these issues also varies significantly. The variation is primarily driven by the geographic characteristics of countries. The ratio of the given country’s marine territory to its land area is positively associated with the salience of climate change, pollution, and the aggregated salience of environmental topics in the country. Also, the absolute size of the marine territory is positively associated with the salience of sustainable fisheries.
Grappling with the Climate Crisis in IR: Existentially, Psychologically, Interdisciplinarily
The introduction to this special issue argues that International Relations (IR) needs to give greater consideration to the existential and psychological implications of the accelerating climate crisis. Starting from debates about the disciplinary suitability of IR to meaningfully tackle an issue as all-encompassing as climate change, this introduction gives a short overview of how the problem of climate change has conventionally been conceived, and finds that IR has so far not sufficiently appreciated the psychological implications of the climate crisis. Yet, such a perspective is sorely needed, as climate change is not only an environmental problem but also a problem of existentialist sense-making, and because IR’s actors are themselves deeply affected by changes to the physical world that they are a part of. Consequently, this introduction provides a sketch of what an existential-psychological inquiry into the implications of climate change could look like and concludes that, regardless of the current state of the discipline, IR has a duty to become a discipline that can meaningfully contribute towards mitigating the climate crisis.
Jan Eichler: NATO and the War in Ukraine: Geopolitical Context and Long-term Consequences
In NATO and the War in Ukraine: Geopolitical Context and Long-term Consequences, Jan Eichler, a well-established scholar at the Institute of International Relations in Prague, contributes to the scholarly discourse surrounding NATO’s expansion, its geopolitical impacts and the impact of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. By combining historical revisionism with theoretical insights, Eichler crafts a compelling narrative that critiques prevailing perspectives on NATO’s post-Cold War role. The book offers an engaging mix of empirical rigor, theoretical depth and a revisionist spirit, making it a significant intervention in international relations (IR) scholarship. Eichler’s academic contributions place him squarely within the critical realist tradition of IR, informed by both classical realism and neorealism. His engagement with the works of Kenneth Waltz, Stephen Walt and John Mearsheimer situates him in dialogue with some of the most influential theorists in the field. However, Eichler distinguishes himself through his willingness to critically assess NATO’s post-Cold War trajectory, an area often dominated by uncritical endorsements. His alignment with revisionist scholars like Andrew Bacevich adds depth to his critique of triumphalist narratives that celebrate NATO expansion without grappling with its unintended consequences.
Stefan Auer: European Disunion: Democracy, Sovereignty and the Politics of Emergency.
Jana Vargovčíková reviews Stefan Auer's new book. According to Vargovčíková, Auer brings a timely, elegantly written, and engaging critique of the many deficits and overstretches of the EU´s technocratic integration and its impact on democracy in Europe. He also provides a refreshing appreciation of the contradictory relationship between CEE experience and EU membership to point out these overstretches. However, Auer's polemical and provocative style risks falling into interpretative traps, including creating a caricature of the EU as a monolithic bloc and relativizing the CEE radical conservative autocrats at the expense of truly democratic and plural politics in the region. First, his critique rests on a reductionist caricature of the EU as a homogeneous project on its way to becoming a superstate and moving away from a Europe of nation states. Second, his rightful critique of the EU asymmetries makes him underestimate Central European radical conservatives' antidemocratic tendencies that are manifested through their own extraordinary politics in the manner of culture wars. Finally, Auer's admiration for political sovereignists makes him mistakenly view popular sovereignty as the only expression of national democracy rather than seeing the other EU-friendly democratic claims and actors of democratic politics in the region. European Disunion: Democracy, Sovereignty and the Politics of Emergency. London: Hurst, 2022, 288 pages, ISBN: 978-1-78738-684-6
Copyright (c) 2025 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
From Grassroots Humanitarianism to Mutual Aid: Citizen Responses in Poland and the Czech Republic to Russia’s War in Ukraine
Russia’s full-blown war in Ukraine created an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Europe. By the end of 2022, over eight million Ukrainians had become refugees throughout Europe, with more than 11 million crossing Ukraine’s borders (UNHCR Operational Data Portal). The Ukrainians have fled to many countries, but Poland and the Czech Republic have received some of the largest numbers of Ukrainian individuals seeking protection. The multilayered response to this influx of people has been impressive and surprising, with ordinary individuals showing up at the border to provide food and transportation while ordinary citizens and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) mobilized to create local systems of humanitarian assistance. This paper explores grassroots citizens’ aid in Poland and the Czech Republic from February 2022 until August 2024. It argues that in both countries, private individuals and small volunteer-run groups organized creative grassroots initiatives that went beyond providing immediate material assistance. Solidarity with Ukrainians also fueled citizen-led mutual aid and transformative spaces of care aimed at altering existing institutions and practices and integrating Ukrainians.
Paik Sun Jup: From Pusan to Panmunjom. Předmluva: Matthew B. Ridgway a James A. Van Fleet. Brassey's (US) Inc. 1992, 271 stran.
Copyright (c) 2024 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
Harold James: Deutsche ldentität 1770-1990. Campus Verlag, Frankfurt, New York 1991, 310 stran, ISBN 3-593-3452-1.
Ivan Pfaff: Sovětská zrada 1938. BEA, Praha 1993, 144 stran, ISBN 80-900111-01.
Jacques Attali: Verbatim. Tome I. Chronique des années 1981-1986. Fayard 1993, 958 stran.
Vydavatelský počin Společnosti Edvarda Beneše
Publishing activities of the Edvard Beneš Association
Postoje obyvatel Chodska k Němcům (informace z výzkumu)
Attitudes of Inhabitants of the Chodsko Region towards Germans (Information from Research)
Úloha veřejné diplomacie v mezinárodních vztazích
The Role of Public Diplomacy in International Relations
Portugalsko a Evropská politická spolupráce
Portugal and European Political Cooperation
Hospodářské uspořádání v „nových“ spolkových zemích Německa
Economic Configuration in „New“ Federal States of Germany
Polsko a „zředěná bezpečnost“ ve střední Evropě
Poland and „Diluted Security“ in Central Europe
Obchod OECD se zeměmi východní části střední Evropy
The OECD's Trade with the Eastern Part of Central Europe
Nacionalizmus a politika ve východní Evropě
Nationalism and Politics in Eastern Europe
Češi a Slováci z dnešního západoevropského pohledu
Czechs and Slovaks from the Today's Western European Point of View