New publication - Czech Foreign Policy in 2017: Analysis

We are proud to present to you the already Eleventh Volume of the Czech Foreign Policy IIR Analysis series, the Czech Foreign Policy in 2017: Analysis, where twenty-seven scholars contribute to the debate about Czech foreign policymaker’s efforts within an increasingly unpredictable international environment. This volume consists of eighteen chapters that analyse the important areas of Czech foreign policy throughout the defined period. Concerning the previous year, 2017 was characterised by the end of the era of widespread confidence in the US’s willingness to pursue an internationalist foreign policy and provide reassurances for its allies. USA started to pursue so called „America First“ policy, which didn‘t contribute to the stability in international relations and therefore made less clear what sort of world order this power transition might bring. Regarding Asia, according to President Xi Jinping, China declared a new era in their foreign policy, with specific demand to ultimately respect China’s core interestsAt home, 2017 was also the final year of the government of Bohuslav Sobotka, and it was also the year when conflicts surrounding the leader of ANO 2011 and Andrej Babis had major impact on the government’s stability. Regarding Czech foreign policy, the authors of this volume consider Czech foreign policy as reactive, which ranged from a complete acceptance of external policy to active resistance to external policy. We also shouldn’t forget major problems, which challenged EU (including Czech Republic), namely Brexit talks and the ongoing migration crisis, and also a disunity between political representatives towards Russia, while on the other hand we saw an honest effort of Czech diplomats to stabilise the situation.

The book is available here.