Petr Kratochvíl, EU Global Strategy Expert Opinion, No. 15, 05 February 2016
We present to you a special analysis of the EU Global Strategy by the IIR Director Petr Kratochvíl. Petr Kratochvíl was among the very few top EU experts selected to provide an opinion on the new EU Global Strategy. The European Union Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) – in close cooperation with the Strategic Planning Division of the European External Action Service (EEAS) – has carried out a wide-ranging outreach and consultation process. As part of this process, the EUISS asked 50 well-known analysts and commentators – roughly half of them from inside, and half of them from outside the Union – to give their opinion on the priorities that the forthcoming EU Global Strategy should address and how. The resulting contributions are collectively reproduced in one volume and offer a rich selection of independent views intended to nurture the drafting of the strategy, and we are proud that our director, Petr Kratochvíl, is one of the experts contributing to this volume.
Patryk Kugiel (ed.), Ondřej Horký-Hlucháň, Rudolf Fürst, Jan Hornát et al., V4 Goes Global: Exploring Opportunities and Obstacles in the Visegrad Countries’ Cooperation with Brazil, India, China and South Africa, The Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM) report supported by the International Visegrad Fund, Warsaw, March 2016
The Visegrad Group countries have become more active in pursuing their foreign policy outside Europe, focusing in particular on strengthening their cooperation with the emerging powers – China, India, Brazil and South Africa. When approaching these countries, however, they all have to struggle with similar barriers that result from different potentials and an absence of historical ties. The Visegrad Group can become a useful mechanism in overcoming these obstacles and enhancing relations with the emerging powers, but the four countries have to learn not only to compete, but also to cooperate on the global stage.
Markéta Wittichová, Bordering the Central Mediterranean Search and Rescue Assemblage, Discussion Paper of the Institute of International Relations Prague, April 2016
Since the beginning of 2015, pieces of news about migrant boat disasters in the Mediterranean Sea have been filling the headlines of major national and international media. Search and rescue operations have been, in many cases, a line between life and death for people travelling to Europe in unsafe dinghies. Using assemblage thinking and Latour´s actor-network theory, this paper by Markéta Wittichová, an IIR Associate Research Fellow, analyses the (non)involvement of various actors in search and rescue operations. It further explores the boundaries of the Search and Rescue assemblage.
Lukáš Tichý and Nikita Odintsov, Can Iran Reduce EU Dependence on Russian Gas?, Middle East Policy, Spring 2016, Volume XXIII
This article written by the IIR Research Fellow Lukáš Tichý and the IIR Associate Research Fellow Nikita Odintsov tries to address the question of whether Iran can indeed decrease the EU’s dependency on imported Russian gas.
Markéta Wittichová and Jan Daniel, Peacekeeping Contributor Profile: Czech Republic, March 2016
Markéta Wittichová and Jan Daniel are the authors of the profile of the Czech Republic as a Peacekeeping Contributor on the server Providing for Peacekeeping. This project of the International Peace Institute, the Elliott School at George Washington University, and the Asia Pacific Centre for the Responsibility to Protect at the University of Queensland contributes up-to-date country profiles. Each profile examines recent trends related to UN and non-UN peacekeeping operations, the given country’s internal decision-making process on whether to contribute uniformed personnel to the UN, the rationales driving its contributions, the major barriers to contributing, current challenges, key domestic champions and opponents of the contributions, major capabilities and caveats, as well as providing sources for further reading. The profiles are available online and in PDF format.