Ústav mezinárodních vztahů

Zapad 2017: Could Russia Succeed in Opinion War?
On September 14-20 Russia jointly with Belarus conducted large-scale strategic military exercise - the Zapad (West) 2017. The exercise takes place in the Western Strategic Direction, at ranges located in the Republic of Belarus as well as in the Kaliningrad, Leningrad, and Pskov regions every four years. This quadrennial exercise is not a new one, but the Zapad 2017 exercise has received a huge attention, even before it has formally started.

Russian Soft Power – A Different Concept
What is soft power? American political scientist Joseph S. Nye tried to simplify the definition of the key term power, essential to understanding the behavior of societies, saying that “… power is the ability to influence the behavior of others to get the outcomes one wants”. The concept of soft power, introduced by Nye, implies the possibility for an actor to“… obtain the outcomes it wants in world politics because of other countries – admiring its values, emulating its example, aspiring to its level of prosperity and openness – want to follow it” and, “… in behavioral terms, soft power is attractive power. In terms of resources, soft power resources are the assets that produce such attraction”.

The Right to Self-Determination: Catalonia plebiscite
Today, October 1, Spain’s autonomous region of Catalonia will strive to hold a referendum on its proposed secession from Spain, despite attempts by Spain’s central government and Constitutional Court to thwart it. Arrests, prosecutions, ballot box confiscations, referendum site and poll station shutdowns by police have plunged the region into a state of emergency. The crackdown has polarized the nation as well as foreign observers and exacerbated the secessionist spirit amongst Catalans, who no longer see the referendum as a fight for independence but also for democracy and freedom of expression.

Russian Orthodox Church as a Source of Soft Power
Russian Orthodox Church is at the time the biggest nongovernmental organization in the Russian Federation, a center of the Orthodox faith and therefore a substantial source of the soft power in the Russian Federation. Alongside its conservative values, Orthodox Church tends to promote the “dialogue of civilizations” between the West and Russian-Slavic-Eurasian cultural space, refusing the globalization ideas along with the spreading of the Western (notably American) values and norms as universal values.

Security environment in NATO’s backyard after Crimea
Russia’s illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula and the ongoing conflict in Eastern Ukraine have had significant consequences for the security environment near NATO’s border.

Czech Republic to be scrutinized on its human rights record
Each four and a half years the UN reviews all 193 states human rights records in a procedure called the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). This November, it will be the turn of the Czech representative to stand in front of all other member nations and defend the state’s progress in protecting human rights. What is ahead of the Czech Republic? And more importantly, is it all really worth the effort?

Venezuela: a simple story of blood and greed
Venezuela, the country with the biggest oil reserves in the world, saw its economy collapse as oil prices plummeted. This economic crisis has serious humanitarian consequences. Because of these two crises, the citizens are miserable and mad.

Is Poland Following Hungary to the Right?
Almost thirty years ago, Poland led Central Europe’s transition from Communism to liberal democratic rule. Its rapid move to democratic governance contrasted with the drawn-out transitions of its neighbors and highlighted its eagerness to distance itself from Russia and become part of the liberal West. Today, it has reversed on its path, following Hungary down a path toward weakened democratic rule, xenophobia, intense nationalism, and the extreme right.

Klišé v politice de facto států – případ Podněstří
Konflikty na území bývalého SSSR od konce osmdesátých let až po současný konflikt na východní Ukrajině vedly často ke vzniku de facto států, mezinárodně neuznaných, a bez kurately z vnějšku také stěží životaschopných. Následující text se pokusí dokumentovat užití kýče a klišé pro propagandistické účely jako nástroje pro utvrzení vlastní identity a udržení statu quo, a také jako nástroje Ruska pro připoutání si těchto de facto států na svůj orbit.

Feelings of a ‘human bomb’: Psychology of Suicide Missions
Since the collapse of the World Trade Center in September 2001, suicide terrorism has become an increasingly addressed phenomenon in the West. Most recently, the Old Continent has experienced a proliferation of terrorist attacks and suicide missions on its soil, which resulted in a heated public and academic debate about the nature of these attacks and the appropriate means of response. The problem is that the Western culture, which traditionally ascribes the notion of suicide to social pariahs, finds it fundamentally difficult to make sense of what can drive a person to become a ‘human bomb’. Therefore, despite all the attention, suicide missions have been so far surrounded by many misconceptions.