New Issue of the Czech Journal of International Relations (59:3)

The two full-length research articles were written by Doubravka Olšáková (Charles University and the Czech Academy of Sciences) and Onder Canveren (Dokuz Eylül University) with André Kaiser (University of Cologne). Olšáková’s piece is titled A Review of Science Diplomacy: Theoretical Evolution to a Post-Naïve Approach and Its Relevance for the Czech Republic and provides a timely and essential review of literature on science diplomacy. Canveren and Kaiser’s piece is titled Exploring Populism in Erdogan’s Discourse on Turkey–European Union Relations, and, as the title suggests, explores populist traits in the Turkish president Erdogan’s discourse on Turkey-EU relations. It argues that Erdogan uses populism to project the image of strong/charismatic leadership as a genuine representation of the will of oppressed people.

The two articles are followed by a new format that we publish for the first time. It is a Forum based on a keynote speech given by Rola El-Husseini (Lund University) at the Intercultural and Interfaith Dialogue conference organised by the IIR at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs. El-Husseini’s ideas are reviewed and commented upon by four selected authors, namely A. Ebru Akcasu (Anglo-American University), Sonia Dayan-Herzbrun (Université Paris-Cité), Blanka Knotková-Čapková (Metropolitan University Prague) and Elżbieta Korolczuk (Södertörn University and the University of Warsaw). The Forum touches on the intersection of religious freedoms and women’s rights, both within European societies, and third countries. It is a timely and important discussion and we are happy to host it on our pages.

Lastly, we offer our second Book forum, this time on Hans Kundnani’s Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project. Eurowhiteness skillfully reveals what has been obscured by the European Union as a vehicle of “imperial amnesia”. The three reactions of Stefan Auer (University of Hong Kong), Pavel Barša (Charles University)and Agnes Gagyi (University of Gothenburg), and the author’s response continue a polemical discussion on this imperial amnesia, as viewed through different intellectual traditions and regions, including Central and Eastern Europe and anti-colonial perspectives. We close the issue with a book review of Ondřej Slačálek, discussing Aliaksei Kazharski’s Central Europe Thirty Years after the Fall of Communism. A Return to the Margin?.

Dear readers, we hope you will find the issue intellectually stimulating.

Pleasant read,

Michal Kolmaš,

CJIR Editor-in-chief