Ústav mezinárodních vztahů

Lack of Engagement? The Spectrum of EU Member State Policies Towards Kosovo
What are the current relations between the Czech Republic and the Republic of Kosovo? Tomáš Dopita (IIR) contributed to the publication "Lack of Engagement? Surveying the Spectrum of EU Member State Policies Towards Kosovo", edited by James Ker-Lindsay and Ioannis Armakolas. This publication provides an overview of information on foreign policy towards Kosovo in nine EU countries, namely the United Kingdom, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Greece, Slovakia, Romania, Cyprus and Spain.

Veronika Bílková elected a vice-president of the Venice Commission
The Co-ordinator of the Centre for International Law of the Institute of International Relations Prague was elected a vice-president of the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe at the 113th Plenary Session of this body held on 8-9 December 2017. The Venice Commission (the full name is the European Commission for Democracy Through Law) is an expert body of the Council of Europe in the areas of constitutional law and international law. It was established in 1990 and it has 61 members both inside and outside of Europe. Veronika Bílková has been its member on behalf of the Czech Republic since 2010 and she was the chair of the Sub-Commission on International Law in 2013-2017.

The Slovak NGDO Pontis Foundation’s Depoliticizing Development Discourse
New article by Tomáš Profant was published by Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe.

Global Terrorism Index Prague Launch
The Institute of International Relations Prague, the Prague Society for International Cooperation and Metropolitan University Prague invite you to the launch of the 2017 edition of the Global Terrorism Index (GTI).

New PP: The European Union must effectively develop energy relations with global producers and partners
Translation of the initial policy paper of the Centre for Energy Policy. There are almost no oil or gas resources in the EU. To strengthen its energy security, the EU has taken a number of measures in its energy policy. To find out which measures these were read the policy paper of our Centre for Energy Policy.

Chinese Assertiveness in the South China Sea
New book by our Associate Researcher Richard Q. Turcsányi published by prestigious publishing house Springer! It offers an assessment of China’s assertive foreign policy behavior with a special focus on Chinese policies in the South China Sea (SCS). By providing a detailed account of the events in the SCS and by analyzing power dynamics in the region, it identifies the driving forces behind China’s assertive foreign policy. Considering China’s power on a domestic as well as an international level, it examines a number of different sources of hard and soft power, including military, economics, geopolitics, and domestic legitimacy.

Berlin–Prag: Entfremdung vermeiden – Chancen ergreifen
Our Senior Researcher Jakub Eberle is co-author of new policy paper on Czech-German relations published by German think-tank SWP.

ILR: Kurdistan and Catalonia as new states?
During recent weeks, two major referenda have taken place with serious ambition: to create new states by secession, one in Catalonia in Spain, one in the Kurdish territory in Iraq. The current analysis sheds light to the international legal background of similar situations and their possible consequence under the current legalpolitical circumstances.

Terrorist Attacks on the Energy Sector: A Strategic Instrument of the Islamic State in the Middle East and North Africa
Article by Lukáš Tichý was published in Mediterranean Quarterly. It focuses on the global terrorist and militant group the Islamic State (IS), specifically on its use of terrorism targeting the energy sector as a strategic political instrument in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in 2014–16. The essay has two main thrusts. First, it analyzes the importance that the IS attributes to energy in general and, more specifically, to the strategy of terrorist attacks targeting the energy sector. Second, the essay describes examples, goals, and motives of terrorist attacks on the energy sector and the accompanying criminal activities conducted by the IS in selected MENA countries.

The Historically Important Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons Was Adopted
Entirely unnoticed by the Czech media, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (NWT) was approved on July 7 2017, the last day of the second round of the UN Conference in New York.