New project at IMS funded by Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Congratulations to Dr. Miroslav Kunštát and the team of researchers Martin Vidlák, Petr Buriánek and Pavel Seifter for successful grant application "Vaclav Havel's Foreign Policy and its Ethical Dimension" supported by the Rockefeller Brothers Foundation.

Efforts to date have mainly gone in for a general description of Havel’s life and his political career or focused on some aspect of Havel’s life and thought. However, no publication so far has offered a stand-alone summation, analysis or evaluation of the foreign policy of the leader of the Velvet Revolution, the last Czechoslovak and the first Czech president.

The aim is first to assemble a substantial collection of oral history through interviews and discussion, to organise a two-day workshop in February-March 2024 and on the basis of that to publish a volume of essays on the subject (Summer 2024). Part of the volume would be a chapter on Vaclav Havel and the United States, authored by Daniel Anýž. Daniel Anýž is a highly experienced and respected journalist, focused on Czech foreign policy and international relations. He was the Fulbright Program student in the U.S. in 2001 and 2002 and a correspondent of Hospodářské noviny daily in Washington, D.C. from 2005 to 2010.

Based on the collection of testimonies, the workshop and the conference proceedings a publication for broader audience will be prepared to round it up and to bring it to the attention of a broader audience, a book on Havel’s foreign policy will be prepared. Its publication is planned for 2026, to coincide with the 90th anniversary of Vaclav Havel's birthday.

Congratulations!