Ústav mezinárodních vztahů

Actualities of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict
Dating back to the early years of the 20th century, the Nagorno-Karabakh region – located on the border of Armenia and Azerbaijan, has always been a source of controversy, violence, opposing interests and cardinal acts. After the Bolshevik revolution in October, 1917, Nagorno-Karabakh had become part of the Armenian Soviet Republic. Only four years later, in 1921, Stalin was the one, who put the territory under the control of the Azerbaijani Soviet Republic. Since then, there were several negotiations, diplomatic approaches evolved, both of the countries claimed that the region belongs to their territories, starting a conflict that, at the time was nowhere to be seen this intense and widespread as it is today. Taking all these violent acts from both of the involved parties and such brutal military interventions, as the one in 2016 into account, is it safe to say that the long-time latent conflict have reached a point where it is impossible to be reversed, or can there still be some kind of peaceful settlements?

The Global Trade Regime in Crisis
Mezinárodní Politika has established cooperation with the Peace Research Center Prague, a newly-established interdisciplinary center of excellence at the Charles University, with focus on prevention, management, and transformation of conflicts in world politics. This article is part of the policy brief series published by the PRCP and Mezinárodní Politika. For more information, visit http://prcprague.cz

Orthodox Church of Ukraine: Escalating Nation Building
On 15 December 2018, two canonically unrecognized Orthodox Churches in Ukraine united themselves into a new Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), opening thus final stage of a long and painful process of creation of independent canonical Orthodox Church in Ukraine. This process culminated on 5th of January 2019, when Constantinopol´s patriarch Bartholomew I issued Tomos, an official decree mandating independence for new Church under Orthodox Law. The process is also complemented by law, which might eventually require Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) to clearly identify its association with Russian Orthodox Church. The new phase of Ukrainian nation and state building project thus started. However, the new church and related developments might also create previously unforeseen challenges. It will be thus the ultimate success of the state-building in Ukraine, which will determine if the new Church will eventually strengthen or further divide Ukrainian society.

The Rising influence of Chinese Social Media
People Can Say ‘No’: The Rising influence of Chinese Social Media It is worth noting that with the wider use of internet and social media, the social media and its users obtain stronger influence in China, both domestically and internationally. The Chinese social media users, especially the young generation who are born after the 1980s, are more in favor of expressing themselves and their ideas online publicly. Even though there are online speech regulation and strict limitations of accessing Western social media and internet, the Chinese social media users still demonstrate impressive power on many issues. Domestically speaking, the Chinese social media users have launched more thousands of anti-corruption campaigns online and deeply changed Chinese political environment, now even the Chinese government itself relies on information provided online to inspect bribed government officers. While from an international aspect, events like “March to Facebook Event” in 2016 and boycott of D&G (an Italian fashion brand) show a completely different Chinese young generations, who are more confident and dissatisfied with the Western bias towards China. This article aims to introduce several political and social events which are heavily influenced by Chinese social media and demonstrates the importance of Chinese social media when conducting studies on China.

Immigration to the Russian Federation
The problem of immigration became one of the main challenges for Russia in the second decade of the twenty-first century. However, there is still no comprehensive research on this subject in academic literature. Russia was not and is not seen as an immigration country. However, the observable trends and statistics contradict this. Russia’s vast territory and shrinking indigenous population are among the factors that encourage the arrival of a significant number of immigrants. Despite the crisis precipitated by the events in Ukraine, falling oil prices and economic problems, Russia ranked third in the world in terms of the number of immigrants in 2015. The article attempts to characterise immigration to Russia and to determine whether it is demographically necessary and if the current migration trends are having a positive impact on Russia’s demography. Answering these research questions will help to verify the claim that immigration is necessary for the further development of the Russian Federation; however, it is necessary to analyse which type of migration flows assist the Russian Federation in solving its demographic problems. Russia therefore needs a clear and effective strategy in this area, not ad hoc action.

Russia’s Return to the Middle East
After the dissolution of the USSR, Russia disappeared from the Middle East and lost most of the influence it once had. However, with the military intervention in Syria in 2015, Russia came back on the scene, taking most of the world by surprise. Since then, Russia launched a diplomatic offensive to regain its influence in the region. What are its main strategies to do so, and how successful is Russia in its campaign to return to the region it was once ousted from?

One Belt One Road Versus the Eurasian Economic Union
Mezinárodní Politika has established cooperation with the Peace Research Center Prague, a newly-established interdisciplinary center of excellence at the Charles University, with focus on prevention, management, and transformation of conflicts in world politics. This article is part of the policy brief series published by the PRCP and Mezinárodní Politika. For more information, visit http://prcprague.cz

Gender: National Action Plans for UNSCR 1325
Another Word to Gender:  National Action Plans for UNSCR 1325: How can the Czech Republic improve?: It’s coming close to twenty years since the landmark UN Security Council Resolution 1325 (1325) was adopted, and yet there is very little improvement to show for it. This resolution was implemented in order to encourage a more pluralistic approach to conflict response and resolution initiatives, and to specifically encourage the participation of women in these processes. It calls on member states to “incorporate gender perspectives in all United Nations peace and security efforts” and emphasizes a focus on specific issues of conflict, such as gender-based violence (Office of the Special Advisor on Gender Issues and Advancement of Women). With these objectives in mind, a select few countries were early to draft and adopt legislation relating to 1325 and have already implemented a second national strategy. Alternatively, some countries have only recently adopted a plan and others have yet to formally implement anything at all. It is this variance that is problematic, and more needs to be done to bring up those countries who have been lagging behind so they are on the same level as those who have moved onto revised versions of their action plans. In terms of the Czech Republic’s efforts, much can be said about the overall focus of their National Action Plan, and the points where they need to improve upon.

The most effective counter-terrorism approach
The matter of how to legally resolve global terrorism is a complex challenge. Global terrorism, which has increased during the first decade of the 21st Century, is among one of the top security threats. Counter-terrorism experts struggle to come up with solutions given the many considerations one needs to take into account. For instance, counter-terrorism policies taken by authorities differ from one country to another but the threat is global. Because of this, international cooperation is required to be truly effective. In today’s society, where social construction shapes more or less its norms, how do you determine what’s right? Let’s consider the example of US and French counter-terrorism policy development and its far-reaching effects. Over the past decade, these countries have developed counter-terrorism policies but in 2018, these policies remain insufficiently transparent.

The Hidden Costs of Building Peace in Myanmar
This article is a summary of the paper presented by Ph.D. candidate Michal Kouřil of the Institute of International Relations Prague and the Metropolitan University Prague at the 13th International Burma Studies Conference in Bangkok, Thailand under the auspices of the Center for Burma Studies (Northern Illinois University, US). Predominantly optimistic reports by various media agencies around the world emerged almost immediately after the closely watched general elections that took place in Myanmar in 2015. Articles such as: “The longest civil war has ended, refugees have not yet returned” that appeared in Czech media the day after the election results were published overwhelmed the Internet. Despite the fact, that the National League for Democracy won the election in 2015 and that the previous government signed a numerous ceasefire agreement like never before in the whole conflict history, we still cannot say that the conflict was solved. However, this information was probably enough for the mass media and the wider public to evaluate the situation as the end of the civil war. This finding implies how little awareness there is about the complex conflict situation in Myanmar or about peace building in general and how easily this process can be underestimated.