Selected IMS publications

Peters, Joel; Geist Pinfold, Rob (ed.). Routledge Handbook on Israel's Foreign Relations (Routledge Handbooks). New York: Routledge, 2024. https://www.routledge.com/Routledge-Handbook-on-Israels-Foreign-Relations/Peters-Pinfold/p/book/9780367499761.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive account of contemporary Israeli diplomacy and analyses the changing dynamics of Israel’s bilateral relations with other states and the international community over the past seventy-five years.

Research into Israeli foreign policy has been largely sidelined by debates over security, domestic politics and the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. This Handbook addresses the gap in the literature. Comprising 31 essays written by leading scholars of Israel, the Handbook explicates how domestic, societal and economic interests, together with changing Israeli narratives of identity and location, shape and impact Israeli foreign policy. It illustrates how those factors have influenced foreign policy choices and the instruments – economic cooperation, arms sales, military training, and intelligence sharing – that Israel has utilized in order to promote its interests and build relationships with countries and actors throughout the world. Ultimately, the Handbook refutes Kissinger’s famous dictum that Israel has no foreign policy, and instead follows the whims of its domestic politics. By contrast, this Handbook highlights the rich, diverse and changing tapestry of Israel’s foreign relations.

Written in an accessible style, the book is designed for students taking courses in Israel studies and Middle Eastern studies, as well as a general readership interested in Israeli affairs.

Tomalová, Eliška; Pánek Jurková, Jitka. Ambassadors of Bohéme. Contemporary Czech cultural diplomacy and its dilemmas. Praha: Dokořán, 2024. https://www.dokoran.cz/index.php?&p=book&id=1485.

All of us have encountered cultural diplomacy in our lives, even though we may not have been aware of it. Behind the many exhibitions, concerts, happenings, conferences and film screenings is the work of cultural diplomats who show the public their country through culture. Cultural diplomacy is one of the tools of foreign policy, but it has a very special place in the repertoire of diplomatic possibilities: it adds glitz and glamour to diplomacy and does not close itself behind the walls of embassies. The authors follow the successful podcast Jazzman versus Spies and present Czech cultural diplomacy in the form of dilemmas that cultural ambassadors deal with in their work. They offer a picture of contemporary Czech cultural diplomacy and thus contribute to the debate on the role of culture in Czech foreign policy.

Brunclík, Miloš;, Kubát, Michal et al., Power Beyond Constitutions:  Presidential Constitutional Conventions in Central Europe. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan Cham, 2023. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-34244-8.

This research monograph examines presidential constitutional conventions and the role they play in the political systems of four Central European countries – the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, and Poland. As primarily unwritten rules of constitutional practice, constitutional conventions represent political arrangements and as such are political in origin. Not only this, constitutional conventions, in general, and presidential constitutional conventions, in particular, have significant political implications. They shape both the everyday operation and character of regimes. Central Europe represents a particularly useful example on which this role of constitutional conventions can be studied and assessed.

Brisku, Adrian (ed.), A hundred years of Czech(oslovak)-Albanian relations. Mutual fondness and increasing interactions. Prague: Karolinum Press, 2022. https://karolinum.cz/en/books/brisku-sto-let-cesko-slovensko-albanskych-vztahu-26337.

This monograph, consisting of six historical analyses and three contributions of a memoire and synoptic nature, offers a perspective of a hundred-year history of Czech(oslovak)-Albanian relations – both diplomatic and economic and cultural, interpersonal or those in the field of education. This book demonstrates that Czech and Albanians, despite the geographical distance and not always necessarily strong political ties, have developed strong trade relations as well as mutual sympathies. They are based on past ties as well as an increase in direct mutual contacts. Today, a hundred years after the establishment of diplomatic relations, the sympathy and contacts between Czechs and Albanians seem to be even stronger.

Konrád, Ota; Kučera, Rudolf, Paths out of the Apocalypse: Physical Violence in the Fall and Renewal of Central Europe, 1914-1922. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2022. https://global.oup.com/academic/product/paths-out-of-the-apocalypse-9780192896780?cc=pl&lang=en&#.

Paths out of the Apocalypse uses violence as a prism through which to investigate the profound social, cultural, and political changes experienced by (post-) Habsburg Central Europe during and immediately after the Great War. It compares attitudes toward, and experiences and practices of, physical violence in the mostly Czech-speaking territories of Bohemia and Moravia, the German-speaking territories that would constitute the Republic of Austria after 1918, and the mostly German-speaking region of South Tyrol. Based on research in national and local archives and copious secondary literature, the study argues that, in the context of total war, physical violence became a predominant means of conceptualizing and expressing social-political demands as well as a means of demarcating various notions of community and belonging. The authors apply an interdisciplinary understanding of violence informed by sociological and psychological theories as well as by rigorous empirical historiographical approach. First, they examine the most severe kind of physical violence - murder - against the backdrop of shifting scientific and media discourses during the war and its immediate aftermath. Second, the authors use numerous cases of collective violence, ranging from less serious everyday conflicts to massive hunger demonstrations and riots, to unravel its 'language', thus deciphering the attitudes and values shared among an ever-growing group of perpetrators. Paths out of the Apocalypse thus fundamentally rethinks some key topics currently debated in the scholarship on early twentieth-century Central Europe, the First World War, violence, nationalism, and modern European comparative social and cultural history.

Nigrin, Tomáš, The Rise and Decline of Communist Czechoslovakia’s Railway Sector. CEU Press, 2022. https://ceupress.com/book/rise-and-decline-communist-czechoslovakias-railway-sector.

Once the pride of interwar Czechoslovakia, and key during the forced industrialization of the Stalinist period, during the 1970s and 1980s the Czechoslovak railway sector showed the symptoms of the political tiredness and economic exhaustion of the Soviet Bloc. This book examines the failure of central economic planning through the lens of this national transport system.

Based on the presentation of its history and on the detailed scrutiny of the actors, institutions, internal mechanisms, and conditions of the railway sector, the analysis reveals the identities of the real stakeholders in the state administration. This case shows how the country was governed by Communist Party institutions and government ministries, and how developments in the transportation sector—like in every sector—reflected their priorities. Numerous tables with selected statistics underscore the economic analysis and black and white photos offer a glimpse on the technical base of the railway sector.

Weiss, Tomáš; Edwards, Geoffrey (ed.), Small States and Security in Europe: Between National and International Policymaking. Routledge, 2022. https://www.routledge.com/Small-States-and-Security-in-Europe-Between-National-and-International/Weiss-Edwards/p/book/9780367535520.

A multinational group of expert contributors consider how domestic contestation is translated into small states’ foreign policies, how membership of international organisations alters attitudes to security policy in small states and how patterns of small states’ behaviour across domestic traditions, security cultures and geographical location can be identified. Anchored in new institutionalism, the book explores the influence of international organisations on security policies and the tensions created by connecting four strands of literature, on Europeanisation, on the impact of and on institutions, on the way foreign and security policy is made, and the security/strategic culture of small states.

Klípa, Ondřej, Majstr and Małgorzata. Polish Women in Factories in the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Prague: Karolinum Press, 2021. https://karolinum.cz/en/books/klipa-majstr-a-malgorzata-24378.

This study addresses one of partial political and economic phenomena of the postwar period – labor migration in a socialist society. It focuses on the employment of Polish women in companies in the former CSSR. It is based on the research thesis that for women the temporary “migration” was a form and an opportunity to escape the roles into which they were pushed by the communist state – the role of a mother, but also that of a worker. It captures the ability of working women to take advantage of the maneuvering space offered to them within the context of the socialist economy. Their employment and the status of being “guest workers” in the totalitarian regime offered both countries many economic and ideological advantages.

Bankowicz, Marek; Kubát, Michal, What is politics and how to research it? The political science of Giovanni Sartori. Brno: CDK, 2021. https://www.cdk.cz/knihy/politologicka-rada/co-je-politika-jak-ji-zkoumat.

Giovanni Sartori (1924-2017) was an icon of world political science. He was one of the founders of contemporary political science, especially in terms of its theoretical and conceptual foundations. It is impossible to imagine research on democracy, dictatorship, political institutions, parties and party systems, democratic regimes, etc. without his work. Sartori knew politics like few others. Politics was his passion; he studied it passionately, but also with distance. He never took part in it directly, but he did not hesitate to enter into heated political debates. He criticized, argued, polemicised, but at the same time he created with his "thinking against". This book analyses Sartori's lifetime of scholarship with an emphasis on the polemicism that was so much a part of it, but which always resulted in something new. It introduces all of Sartori's major theories and concepts, which were very often the result of his dissatisfaction with the existing state of knowledge and arose from his efforts to find a remedy for the state of affairs. This applies not only to the relevant thematic areas, which are a traditional and important part of research in political science, or more broadly in the social sciences and humanities, but also to political science as a whole, as a scientific discipline.

Lizcová, Zuzana; Handl, Vladimír et al., Německo 1989–2021. Praha: Nakladatelství Lidové noviny, 2022. https://www.nln.cz/knihy/nemecko-1989-2021-uspechy-problemy-a-vyzvy-sjednocene-zeme/

The three decades that Germany went through from the fall of the Iron Curtain to the end of the Angela Merkel era were undoubtedly a remarkable period. The Federal Republic has seen politically 'multi-coloured' governments and their numerous reform projects, and has experienced significant downturns as well as periods of economic growth. Germany's role on the European and international stage and its bilateral relations with the Czech Republic have also changed. German historical self-reflection has shifted considerably, and the image of the Federal Republic and Germans in Europe and the world has evolved.

This collective monograph by leading experts from the Department of German and Austrian Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University aims to bring the Czech reader closer to the way in which German society developed between 1989 and 2021 on the basis of internal challenges and external circumstances, what main characteristics shaped it at the time, and what themes determined the changing societal discourse.

Brisku, Adrian; Blauvelt Timothy K. (ed.), The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic of 1918. Federal Aspirations, Geopolitics and National Projects. New York: Routledge, 2021. https://www.routledge.com/The-Transcaucasian-Democratic-Federative-Republic-of-1918-Federal-Aspirations/Brisku-Blauvelt/p/book/9780367742263.

The Transcaucasian Democratic Federative Republic (TDFR) was a unique, bottom-up, and a fleeting display of political unity and federalism among the main Armenian, Azerbaijani and Georgian political factions between 22 April 1918, when it declared its independence, and 26 May 1918, when it was dissolved and replaced by the three nation-states of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. Focusing on a crucial but poorly understood moment in the modern history of the Caucasus at the end of the First World War, this book offers a systematic, contextually-rich, and multi-perspectival—Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Ottoman, German, British, American, Italian, Bolshevik, Ukrainian and North Caucasian—account of the TDFR, drawing on contributions (with the new material from archives in Tbilisi, Grozny, Yerevan, Baku, Istanbul, Berlin, London, Washington D.C.) by a new generation of historians and scholars working on the region.

The book argues that despite its month-long existence in this geopolitically volatile region, the TDFR, with and its federative nature and the various discussions about federalism and federation that it provoked, continued to have an appeal for Georgians, Azerbaijanis, Armenians as well as for the Great Powers well beyond its dissolution. Moreover, the experience of the TDFR reifies federalism as a key political concept in the modern history of the Caucasus.

Emler, David, La politique, l´histoire, la mémoire: Les usages politiques du passé en France dans les années 1990 et 2000. Paris: L´Harmattan, 2021. Link to the book here.

The book analyzes political uses of the past in France in the 1990s and 2000s. The subject is studied in the triangle of mutual influences between politics, history, and memory. The introduction brings interpretations of the most important French concepts of memory (Halbwachs, Nora, Ricœur). The content is divided into three chapters, analyzing the mutual interactions of politics and history (so-called "memory laws" and reactions of historians), influences between memory and politics (uses of memory in presidential speeches), and mutual effects between history and memory (developments of French historiography of contemporary history).

Šístek, František ed., Imagining Bosnian Muslims in Central Europe: Representations, Transfers and Exchanges. New York, Oxford: Berghahn, 2021. https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/SistekImagining.

As a Slavic-speaking religious and ethnic “Other” living just a stone’s throw from the symbolic heart of the continent, the Muslims of Bosnia and Herzegovina have long occupied a liminal space in the European imagination. To a significant degree, the wider representations and perceptions of this population can be traced to the reports of Central European—and especially Habsburg—diplomats, scholars, journalists, tourists, and other observers in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This volume assembles contributions from historians, anthropologists, political scientists, and literary scholars to examine the political, social, and discursive dimensions of Bosnian Muslims’ encounters with the West since the nineteenth century.

Böhler, Jochen, Ota Konrád and Rudolf Kučera, In the Shadow of the Great War: Physical Violence in East-Central Europe, 1917-1923. New York, Oxford: Berghahn, 2021. https://berghahnbooks.com/title/BoehlerIn.

Whether victorious or not, Central European states faced fundamental challenges after the First World War as they struggled to contain ongoing violence and forge peaceful societies. This collection explores the various forms of violence these nations confronted during this period, which effectively transformed the region into a laboratory for state-building. Employing a bottom-up approach to understanding everyday life, these studies trace the contours of individual and mass violence in the interwar era while illuminating their effects upon politics, intellectual developments, and the arts.

Asavei, Maria,  Art, Religion and Resistance in (Post-)Communist Romania: Nostalgia for Paradise Lost. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan, 2020. https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-56255-7.

This book illuminates the interconnections between politics and religion through the lens of artistic production, exploring how art inspired by religion functioned as a form of resistance, directed against both Romanian national communism (1960-1989) and, latterly, consumerist society and its global market. It investigates the critical, tactical and subversive employments of religious motifs and themes in contemporary art pieces that confront the religious 'affair' in post-communist Romania. In doing so, it addresses a key gap in previous scholarship, which has paid little attention to the relationship between religious art and political resistance in communist Central and South-East Europe.

Hornát, Jan a Lucie Kýrová, America First: Příčiny a kontext volebního vítězství Donalda Trumpa. Praha, Česká republika: Karolinum, 2020. https://karolinum.cz/knihy/hornat-america-first-23675

An unconventional candidate, an unprecedented president? Why did Americans choose such a controversial figure as their head of state? What were the causes and context of Donald Trump's election as US president, and what strategies and themes did he gain support from voters? The aim of this book is to describe and analyze the ways in which Donald Trump has exploited the cracks in Americans' socio-economic and cultural cohesion to achieve electoral victory. The book provides a deeper, contextual understanding and decipherment of the chess background to Election 2016, making many of Trump's actions more readable to observers in the Czech Republic than they appear in his media portrait.

Romano, A. (Ed.), Romero, F. (Ed.). (2021). European Socialist Regimes' Fateful Engagement with the West. London: Routledge, https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429340703.

The book focuses on a time when the socialist regimes of Central and Eastern Europe banked their hopes for prosperity and stability on enhanced relations with the West. Crossing the traditional differences among diverse fields of historiography, it assesses the complex influence of European and global processes of transformation on the socialist elites’ reading of the international political and economic environment and their consequent decision-making. The volume also explores the debate in each country among and within the elites involved in policymaking as they elaborated this strategic view and coped with shortcomings and unexpected turns. A comparative analysis of national cases shows a shared logic and common patterns, together with national variations and a plurality of views on the desirability of exchanges with their capitalist neighbours and on the ways to promote them. The multinational coverage of seven countries makes this volume a starting point for anyone interested in each socialist state’s foreign policy, intra-bloc relations, economic strategy, transformation and collapse, relations with the European Community and access to the EU.

EBERLE, Jakub a Vladimír HANDL, Rozpolcená mocnost; Krize a rozpory německé zahraniční politiky, Praha, Česká republika; Karolinum, 2020. https://karolinum.cz/knihy/eberle-rozpolcena-mocnost-23359

The authors examine in detail three controversial areas of German foreign policy: the relationship with Russia, arms exports, and its economic diplomacy. They conclude that Germany is behaving like a divided power whose political choices are the result of volatility and compromise between different, often contradictory, foreign-policy identities. More broadly, they challenge the notion that the state can now be seen as a one-man actor with a clear foreign policy.

KONRÁD, Ota. Geisteswissenschaften im Umbruch, Bern, Switzerland: Peter Lang D, 2020. https://doi.org/10.3726/b16406

KOZÁK, Kryštof - TÓTH, György - BAUER, Paul. Memory in Transatlantic Relations : From the Cold War to the Global War on Terror. 1st ed. London: Routledge, 2019. 268 s. Memory Studies: Global Constellations. ISBN 978-0-415-78854-0.

The publication analyzes the uses of collective memory in transatlantic diplomacy since the end of the Cold War.

Michal Kubat, Martin Mejstrik, Giovanni Sartori: Challenging Political Science, 2019, ECPR Press, 152 pages, ISBN-10: 1785522876, ISBN-13: 978-1785522871.

This volume brings together selected essays that examine Sartori as a scholar, university professor and intellectual. It is unique in covering all three aspects of Sartori’s academic work: comparative politics, social science methodology and political theory.

KOZÁK, Kryštof. České probuzení z amerického snu. 1. vyd. Praha: Karolinum, 2019. 241 s. ISBN 978-80-246-4280-2.

Kniha se zabývá zkoumáním a obrazem USA v České republice od skončení studené války do současnosti.

LITERA, Bohuslav. Od Stalina ke Gorbačovovi. 1. vyd. Praha: Dokořán, 2019. 403 s. Bod. ISBN 978-80-7363-918-1.

Kniha Od Stalina ke Gorbačovovi navazuje na publikaci Cesta na výsluní. Zahraniční politika Sovětského svazu 1917-1945 a analyzuje hlavní směřování sovětské zahraniční politiky v letech 1945-1991. V případě Sovětského svazu s jeho vysoce personalizovaným systémem vlády se do ní výrazně promítala i osobnost generálního, respektive prvního tajemníka komunistické strany.

HORNÁT, Jan. Transatlantic Democracy Assistance : Promoting Different Models of Democracy. 1st ed. London: Routledge, 2019. 216 s. Democratization studies. ISBN 978-1-138-35087-8.

The approaches of EU institutions and the US to democracy assistance often vary quite significantly as both actors choose different means and tactics. The nuances in the understandings of democracy on the part of the EU and the US lead to their promotion of models of democratic governance that are often quite divergent and, in some respects, clashing. This book examines the sources of this divergence and by focusing on the role of the actors' "democratic identity" it aims to explain the observation that both actors use divergent strategies and instruments to foster democratic governance in third countries. Taking a constructivist view, it demonstrates that the history, expectations and experiences with democracy of each actor significantly inform their respective definition of democracy and thus the model of democracy they promote abroad. This book will be of key interest to scholars, students and practitioners in democracy promotion, democratization, political theory, EU and US foreign policy and assistance, and identity research.

RAŠKA, Francis (ed.). Osudové osmičky: československé dvacáté století očima vzpomínek. 1. vyd. Pardubice: Univerzita Pardubice, 2018. 203 s. ISBN 978-80-7560-194-0.

Tato kniha přináší pohled na československé dvacáté století očima sedmi jednotlivců, kteří prožili a reagovali na osudové události let končících na osmičku. Příběhy dvou autorů jsou podány ve formě rozhovoru, pět autorů nabízí svůj vlastní příběh, perspektivy a názory na události minulé i přítomné.

KOŠŤÁLOVÁ, Renata - KOŠŤÁL, Vratislav. Britská šlechta v Českých zemích. 1. vyd. Brno: Barrister & Principal, 2018. 276 s. ISBN 978-80-7364-076-7.

Historický popis emigrace britské šlechty do českých zemí a jejich akvitice šlechtických sídel na našem území

Kubátová, Hana – Láníček, Králová, Kateřina – Šimová, Kateřina a kol., 230 s. Routledge, London, 2018 ISBN 978-1-138-06132-3

Providing diverse insights into Jewish-Gentile relations in East Central Europe from the outbreak of the Second World War until the reestablishment of civic societies after the fall of Communism in the late 1980s, this volume brings together scholars from various disciplines - including history, sociology, political science, cultural studies, film studies and anthropology - to investigate the complexity of these relations, and their transformation, from perspectives beyond the traditional approach that deals purely with politics. This collection thus looks for interactions between the public and private, and what is more, it does so from a still rather rare comparative perspective, both chronological and geographic. It is this interdisciplinary and comparative perspective that enables us to scrutinize the interaction between the individual majority societies and the Jewish minorities in a longer time frame, and hence we are able to revisit complex and manifold encounters between Jews and Gentiles, including but not limited to propaganda, robbery, violence but also help and rescue. In doing so, this collection challenges the representation of these encounters in post-war literature, films, and historical consciousness. This book was originally published as a special issue of Holocaust Studies.

Hornát, Jan – Kindl, Lukáš 222 p. Charles University, Karolinum Press, 2018 ISBN 978-80-246-3715-0

The important question vis-à-vis China’s rise is how and to what extent do internal changes in China affect its external behavior and thus its relations with the current world hegemon, the United States. This publication asks what the clash of two politically, culturally and economically different internal orders of the US and China will mean for their future interactions in the twenty-first century. The aim is not to measure and encompass the entirety of the posed question, but rather to provide an incursion into this problem through two specific case studies – one focusing on the interaction of the two countries’ distinct political cultures and the other on their economic, geopolitical and ideological interplay on the African continent. As will be demonstrated, incompatible as the two regimes and their respective foreign policies may seem, they will not necessarily predestine conflicts in mutual relations. As America can well coexist with China even if it does not meet the Western standards of a liberal democracy, so does the competition in Africa between these two major powers not have to amount to a zero-sum game.

Zelená, Alena 248 s. Peter Lang, 2018 ISBN 978-3-631-73589-3

Dieses Buch charakterisiert und analysiert sogenannte autobiographische Fragmente. Ausgewählte experimentelle Beispiele aus der Jahrhundertwende zeigen mögliche Zugänge zur modernen Subjekt- und Sprachkrise und ihre Spiegelung im Genre der Autobiographie. Anhand von kommunikativer Offenheit, Ironie und Witz wird die Veränderung des Denkens in der Moderne sichtbar. Die Fragmente thematisieren die Struktur der Grenze und des liminalen Seins, samt den Grenzüberschreitungen im Faktischen, Textuellen und Sprachlichen. Die Autorin zeigt mit Ihrer Untersuchung die Praxis der Selbstinszenierung und der In-Frage-Stellung des Bezugs zwischen dem Text und der dargestellten "Wirklichkeit" auf.

Kučera, Jaroslav 479 s. Dokořán, 2018 ISBN 978-80-7363-912-9

The study delivers a complex analysis of the peace settlement with Germany from the mid-1940s up until now as well as of the involvement of Czechoslovakia and other Central European countries in this process. It is comprised of two main parts, a synthetic and an analytical one. The former is concerned with the overall peace settlement process with Germany. Three case studies in the second part deal with the problem of German reparations, the right to a homeland and to self-determination of the German expellees, and their property claims. The contribution of the study consists in the complex approach to the subject that spans quite a long period, many issues, which were up until now subject of specialised contributions only, a considerable number of important governmental and non-state actors. This approach makes possible to display the peace settlement with Germany in its dynamics and complexity as well as the interdependence of its particular components. In this way, the topic has never been approached either in Czech or in international historical research so far.

Kunštát, Miroslav – Melville, Ralph – Winkelbauer, Thomas - Luft, Robert – Šimková, Pavla – Siska, Veronika 80 s. Collegium Carolinum, München, 2018 ISBN 978-3-944396-62-0

7th issue of the IV. volume of the largest German-speaking biographical dictionary of the history of the Czech lands (entries: Stránský – Štroner) published since 1979 by the Collegium Carolinum, Munich.

Baštová, Petra 453 s. Academia, 2018 ISBN 978-80-200-2797-9

This book deals with the fundamental changes in West German foreign cultural policy during the 1960s and 1970s. Since that time, the foreign cultural policy of the Federal Republic of Germany has been considered "the third pillar of foreign policy" (the two other pillars being classical diplomacy / security policy and foreign economic policy) and a broad definition of "culture" has been used. Further, foreign cultural policy has come to be understood as a cultural exchange rather than a cultural export and is no longer focused solely on the elites. The aim of this book is to provide a complex presentation and fresh evaluation of the fundamental changes in the foreign cultural policy of the Federal Republic of Germany in the 1960s and 1970s on the basis of a large number of archival sources, edited documents and secondary literature. The topic is analysed within a broad historical and international context.

Horák, Slavomír 80 s. Gentiana, 2018 ISBN 978-80-7535-083-1

Historical and tourist guide of a mountain region in Georgia. Based on long-term research, the text summarizes geography, history and ethnography of the region. At the same time, it provides the information on tourism infrastructure including tourist trails marked within the project of the Czech Development Agency on the development of rural tourism. 

Krauzová, Tereza – Matějka, Stanislav 120 s. Charles University, Karolinum Press, 2018 ISBN 978-80-246-3812-6

The war on terror, launched by the 9/11 terrorist attacks, has been waged inside as well as outside the U.S. borders. Perception of threat and efforts to ensure national security have led the United States to major reforms in its national security policy, involving new military, security and legislative concepts. On the level of waging war outside the U.S. borders, the United States has introduced the system of Unmanned Aerial vehicles (UAVs), autonomous aircraft without a human pilot aboard, opening the possibility of highly effective computer game-like targeted killing. On the domestic level, new pieces of legislation and other antiterrorism measures have been raising privacy awareness and concerns whether the U.S. government keeps observing the Constitution. Nowadays, as advanced technology offers a wide range of possibilities on how to intrude one´s privacy and effectively kill people, legal and ethical considerations have to catch up the reality. This work, therefore, seeks to elaborate on the statutory and constitutional framework of the current U.S surveillance measures as well as the limits of the utilization of UAVs.

Klípa, Ondřej - Keck-Szajbel, Mark – Simmeth, Alexander a kol., 130 s. Piktogram Polska, 2018 ISBN 978-83-64707-25-4

“Cultures in Times of Transition” explores how the transformations of the 1980s and 1990s affected everyday life for citizens on both sides of the Iron Curtain; how ideas of “the other” circulated before and after the fall of the wall; and what a future utopia looked like for citizens of the East. These contributions range from the history of agricultural change, urban studies, linguistics, and legal history. They mirror the broadness of questions concerning the transition but also hint at the heterochronous nature of those transformations. 

Jakub Hauser-Věra Velemanová (eds.). 335 pg. Memorial of National Literature, 2018 ISBN 978-80-87376-49-2.

A narrative trilingual collective monograph of the Memorial of National Literature, Tales of the Exile, has just come out, to which Daniela Kolenovská contributed with a Belarusian study on the edge of interwar emigration in Czechoslovakia. The book builds on the success of the exhibition catalogue Exilus Experience, a publication appraised in the Gloria musaealis competition as the best museum publication in 2017. It captures the little-known aspects of the phenomenon of the multinational wave of exiles fleeing from the territory of the former imperial empire from the aftermath of the Bolshevik coup. Thanks to the extremely helpful attitude of Czechoslovakia, a number of educational and scientific institutions and a series of Russian, Ukrainian and Belorussian periodicals, publishing houses, professional organizations and associations were established in this area in the twenties and thirties. Prague has become an unforgettable centre of "Russia outside Russia", where many scientists, artists, writers, as well as actors and opera singers have settled. The fresh monograph contains three language versions of all texts and a great number of illustrations, presenting mostly unpublished materials from the Czech and foreign archive, museums and gallery and private collections.

Konrád, Ota – Kučera, Rudolf 364 s. Academia, 2018 ISBN 978-80-200-2874-7

The book deals with the cultural history of physical violence during the First World War and its immediate Aftermath in the Bohemian Lands Austrian Lands and South Tyrol. It tackles the question of how did the war and the post-war reconstruction influence forms and perceptions of violence in the various context of war victory and defeat among scholars as well as among the wider public. Physical violence is thus treated as a specific form of communication, in which basic ideas about a just order were formulated and where also new social ties were forged. 

Asavei, Maria Alina 175 s. Lexington Books, 2018 ISBN 978-1-4985-6679-7

Should politically concerned and engaged artistic production disregard questions or/and requirements of aesthetic reception and value? Whether art should be “aesthetic” or “political” is not a new question. Therefore, in spite of those several contemporary approaches of this issue, the answer is not set in stone and the debate is still going on. This volume aims to broaden these debates and it stems from numerous conversations with politically engaged artists and artist collectives on issues related to the “aestheticization of politics” versus the “politicization of art,” as well as the phenomenon of the so-called “unhealthy aestheticism” in political art. Thus, this study has three interrelated aims: Firstly, it aims to offer an interdisciplinary account of the relationship between art and politics and between aesthetics and the political. Secondly, it attempts to explore what exactly makes artistic production a strong – yet neglected – field of political critique when the democratic political agency, history from below and identity politics are threatened. Finally, to illuminate the relationship between critical political theory, on the one hand, and the philosophy of art, on the other by highlighting artworks’ moral, political and epistemic abilities to reveal, criticize, problematize and intervene politically in our political reality.

Miloš Brunclík, Michal Kubát, Semi-presidentialism, Parliamentarism and Presidents, Presidential Politics in Central Europe, 1st Edition, 2018, 170 pages, ISBN 9781138054714

The book analyzes the presidencies of three neighboring Central European countries – Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia – in the context of their interactions with cabinets (and prime ministers), parliaments and the constitutional courts, all which have proved crucial actors in the region’s political and constitutional battles.

Using both institutional and behavioral perspectives along with an innovative definition of semi-presidentialism, the book argues that presidential powers – rather than the mode of the election of the president – are crucial to the functioning of the regimes and their classification into distinctive regime types. Focusing on intra-executive conflicts and the interaction of the president with other constitutional players it argues that, regardless of the mode of the election of the president, regimes have traditionally been very similar not only in their institutional settings, but also in the way they function. Finally, it shows that Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia should be classified as parliamentary regimes.

This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of Central and East Europe studies/politics, post-Communist studies, presidential studies and more broadly to political elites and institutions, comparative politics and legislative studies.

KUNŠTÁT, Miroslav - ŠEBEK, Jaroslav - SCHMOLLER, Hildegard (eds.). Krize, válka a nový začátek. Československo a Rakousko v období 1933-1948. 1 vyd. Praha: Masarykův ústav a Archiv AV ČR, 2017. 274 s. Publikace Stálé konference českých a rakouských historiků ke společnému kulturnímu dědictví, sv. 2. ISBN 978-80-87782-80-4.

Kniha se věnuje složitému a dramatickému období let 1933-1948 z česko-rakouské perspektivy: na jeho počátku bylo zřízení autoritativního "stavovského státu" v Rakousku, na jeho konci pak převzetí moci komunisty v Československu. Zvláštní pozornost je věnována tehdejším bilaterálním československo-rakouským vztahům, postavení a roli obou států v mezinárodním prostředí a samozřejmě i jejich obnovení po roce 1945. Některé studie se věnují i kontroverzním tématům, která byla v obou zemích v nedávné době živě diskutována (politický režim v Rakousku po roce 1933, odboj a kolaborace v tzv. Protektorátu Čechy a Morava, vyhnání a nucené vysídlení Němců z Československa ve vztahu k Rakousku aj.).

BITTNEROVÁ, Dana - DRS, Tomáš - DUCHÁČEK, Milan. Etnické komunity:Hrdinové, šibalové a antagonisté Balkánu. 1. vyd. Praha: FHS UK, 2017. 487 s. Agora, sv. 15. ISBN 978-80-7571-002-4.

Tři pojmy v názvu publikace symbolicky vyjadřují náš prvoplánový záměr přemýšlet o aktérech, kteří zanechali či zanechávají stopu ve společenském a kulturním vývoji balkánského prostoru, kteří se zásadně či v určité oblasti života stali tvůrci přítomnosti, budoucnosti či minulosti. Aktéry v našem pojetí chápeme široce,jsou jimi nejen jedinci, společenské skupiny, ale také situace, události, artefakty. Chceme zároveň upozornit na osobnosti, pro které byl či je Balkán a jeho obyvatelé inspirací a výzvou.

VÁŠKA, Jan. New Labour, Británie a svět : Ideový rámec britské zahraniční politiky za vlády Tonyho Blair a a Gordona Browna. 1. vyd. Praha: Univerzita Karlova, Nakladatelství Karolinum, 2017. 308 s. ISBN 978-80-246-3744-0.

Z jakých představ o mezinárodním postavení a roli Británie a o jejích vztazích s Evropou a Spojenými státy vycházela britská zahraniční politika v turbulentní éře Tonyho Blaira a Gordona Browna? Jak reflektovali její tvůrci měnící se mezinárodní prostředí a rozložení moci ve světě? Jak uvažovali o klíčových normách a pravidlech spravujících mezinárodní politiku a o určujících tématech soudobé mezinárodní agendy? V této knize autor na základě obsahové a diskurzní analýzy premiérských projevů a dalších klíčových textů zkoumá a interpretuje proměny ideové struktury, v níž byla zahraniční politika Spojeného království v období New Labour ukotvena.

NIGRIN, Tomáš - TOMEŠ, Zdeněk - SEIDENGLANZ, Daniel. Železniční reforma v Německu. 1. vyd. Praha: Karolinum, 2017. 147 s. Železniční reformy, sv. 4. ISBN 978-80-246-3627-6.

Publikace analyzuje reformu železnic v Německu. Zaměřuje se na historicko-politické důvody reformy a dále na její provedení včetně legislativních detailů. Stranou nezůstává pohled na proměnu dopravně-geografické role dopravy a proměna ekonomických parametrů Deutsche Bahn.

ŘOUTIL, Michal - KOŠŤÁLOVÁ, Petra - NOVÁK, Petr. Katastrofa křesťanů : likvidace Arménů, Asyřanů a Řeků v Osmanské říši v letech 1914-1923. 1. vyd. Červený Kostelec: Pavel Mervart, 2017. 742 s. Pro Oriente, č. 37. ISBN 978-80-7465-254-7.

Předkládaná monografie patří v světovém kontextu vůbec k prvním pokusům představit problematiku vyvražďování křesťanů v Osmanské říši na akademické úrovni v celé její šíři, tedy nikoliv pouze jako národní tragédii Arménů, ale jako snahu o likvidaci veškerého místního křesťanstva, zejména Asyřanů a Řeků.Ve čtyřech částech knihy je podrobně popsáno postavení křesťanů na sklonku Osmanské říše, průběh tragických událostí, k nimž v letech 1914-1923 došlo, stejně jako jejich následky v dalších letech.

ŠÍR, Jan - EMLER, David - FJODOROV, Jurij. Ruská agrese proti Ukrajině. 1. vyd. Praha: Univerzita Karlova, nakladatelství Karolinum, 2017. 345 s. ISBN 978-80-246-3711-2.

Ruská agrese proti Ukrajině představuje patrně největší výzvu evropské bezpečnosti od roku 1945. Nejenže ztělesňuje útok na samotné základy systému mezinárodního práva, ale i s novou naléhavostí nastoluje otázku, kam až sahají ofenzivní ambice současného ruského režimu. Předkládaná monografie osvětluje širší pozadí poslední ruské agrese a podává analýzu vývoje na Ukrajině po roce 2014 v souvislosti s aktuálním ozbrojeným konfliktem. Rozebírá jeho hlavní příčiny a zdroje, přibližuje fungování a průběh ruské hybridní válečné kampaně a hodnotí dopady probíhající rusko-ukrajinské války na stávající mezinárodní uspořádání. Monografie si klade za cíl osvětlit širší pozadí poslední ruské agrese a podává analýzu vývoje na Ukrajině po roce 2014 v souvislosti s probíhajícím mezinárodním ozbrojeným konfliktem.

ŠLOSARČÍK, Ivo. Právní a politický systém Evropské unie. 4. vyd. Praha: Wolters Kluwer ČR, 2017. 373 s. ISBN 978-80-7552-534-5.

Kniha mapuje vybrané institutionální a právní aspekty evropské integrace, zejména implementaci Lisabonské smlouvy, dopady krize eurozóny a migrační krize a problémy i liberální demokrace v některých unijních státech.

BRISKU, Adrian. Political Reform in the Ottoman and Russian Empires: A Comparative Approach. 1st ed. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017. 266 s. Europe’s Legacy in the Modern World. ISBN 978-1-4742-3856-4.

This book offers a historical comparison and contrast of the concepts of reform that developed in the Ottoman and Russian Empires during the nineteenth century. It comprehensively focuses on individual, yet interconnected, accounts of the efforts of key reform figures in both empires during that period and efforts made by the two imperial states to renew themselves. Employing a combined methodology that takes into account insights from the 'Cambridge School' Speech-Act Theory and Reinhart Koselleck's Begriffsgechischte, this book builds upon existing historical literature, on imperial Russian and Ottoman historiographical texts on reform, and on the biographies of key reformists in both countries, including Tsars Alexander I and Alexander II, and on Russian and Turkish statesmen like Mikhail Speransky, Reshid Pasha and Midhad Pasha. It relies, crucially, on con(textual) readings of the thoughts and deeds of those figures. The historical concepts of reform served as key links between the Russian and Ottoman polities in the wider context of geopolitical, economic and cultural/intellectual developments and the changes on the European continent during the nineteenth century. The book argues that unlike in the previous centuries, reform manifested itself in both empires in the forging of new, permanent laws and institutions, in the opening up of their economies to the outside world and in joining and remaining in the European political community of imperial states. The book offers insightful historical examples of the fate of multi-national and supranational polities that sought to reform themselves constitutionally, politically and economically under internal and external pressures.

FIŘTOVÁ, Magdalena - HORNÁT, Jan - SEHNÁLKOVÁ, Jana. Prezidentství Baracka Obamy: naplněné vize?. 1. vyd. Praha: Univerzita Karlova, nakladatelství Karolinum, 2017. 353 s. ISBN 978-80-246-3557-6.

Vdechnul Barack Obama v úřadu prezidenta Spojených států amerických (2009-2017) život svým vizím? Stal se tím, na koho aspiroval, tedy transformačním prezidentem, který vleje do žil frustrované americké společnosti čerstvou krev a naplní tím její potřebu nalézt novou definici amerického postavení ve světě? Na konci prezidentského mandátu je vhodný čas zhodnotit, zdali očekávání změny, která Barack Obama vzbudil u amerických voličů a světové veřejnosti, byla naplněna. Kniha nabízí pohled "zvenku", tedy z pera českých amerikanistů, "dovnitř" palčivých společenských problémů, které tíží Američany, a předkládá i výklad zahraničně-politického angažmá USA. V kontextu rychle se proměňujícího, mnohdy až chaotického současného světa, transatlantické vztahy zůstávají klíčovým pilířem zahraniční i bezpečnostní politiky České republiky. Navzdory krátkodobému hodnocení prezidenta Obamy, jenž může a jistojistě bude předmětem revizí, snaha přenést do českého prostředí barvitou americkou diskusi o směru, kterým se USA v současnosti ubírají, může být užitečná pro všechny, kteří se zajímají o "dějiny přítomnosti", protože věříme, že jejich znalost pomáhá ovlivňovat jejich budoucí vývoj.

VYKOUKAL, Jiří - LITERA, Bohuslav - TEJCHMAN, Miroslav. Východ : vznik, vývoj a rozpad sovětského bloku 1944-1989. 2. vyd. Praha: Libri, 2017. 863 s. ISBN 978-80-7277-561-3.

Práce se věnuje základním trendům vývoje sovětských systémů v zemích středo- a jihovýchodní Evropy od sovětizace přes destalinizační intermezzo, stabilizaci 70. let až po důsledky zahájení politiky přestavby a rozpad jednotlivých komunistických režimů a bloku jako celku.

BRUNCLÍK, Miloš - KUBÁT, Michal. Kdo vládne Česku? : poloprezidentský režim, přímá volba a pravidla hry. 1. vyd. Brno: Barrister & Principal, 2017. 143 s. ISBN 978-80-7485-122-3.

Kniha nabízí systematický rozbor českého demokratického režimu po zavedení přímé a všeobecné volby prezidenta v roce 2012. Autoři současný stav konfrontují s různými koncepcemi poloprezidencialismu, přičemž nabízejí vlastní definici a ptají se, zda se Česká republika v posledních letech posunula k poloprezidencialismu, nebo zda zůstává i nadále parlamentním režimem. Zvláštní pozornost je věnována otázce postavení prezidentů v české politice a společnosti se zaměřením na působení prvního přímo a všeobecně zvoleného prezidenta Miloše Zemana. Autoři docházejí k jednoznačnému závěru, že Česká republika zůstává parlamentním režimem, byť značně deformovaným a špatně fungujícím. Podrobně jsou rozebrány příčiny a následky tohoto stavu. Prezident Zeman v tom všem hraje důležitou a problematickou roli.

RIEGL, Martin - DOBOŠ, Bohumil - BEČKA, Jan. Unrecognized States and Secession in the 21st Century. 1st ed. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017. 225 s. ISBN 978-3-319-56912-3. DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-56913-0.

This book presents novel theoretical and empirical findings on the issue of unrecognized states and secession. The first part of the book conceptualizes unrecognized states as entities with a national identity and which have achieved political independence, yet are not internationally recognized as independent states. It also addresses topics such as the role of superpowers in secessionist conflicts, ontological security in post-Soviet states, and factors influencing the legitimacy of secession referenda. In turn, the book's second part presents selected case studies on various secessionist regions and territories, including Kurdistan, the Caucasus, Kosovo, and Bougainville.

WEISS, Tomáš. Promoting National Priorities in EU Foreign Policy: The Czech Republic's Foreign Policy in the EU. 1st ed. Abingdon: Routledge, 2017. 139 s. Routledge Advances in European Politics. ISBN 978-1-138-21552-8. DOI 10.4324/9781315443843.

This book offers a cross-policy comparison of the methods used by the Czech Republic's representatives in the European Council to influence EU decision making. It focuses on four areas of EU foreign policy and external relations, namely the Common Security and Defence Policy, the promotion of democracy and human rights, the European Neighbourhood Policy, and foreign trade. It applies a categorisation developed in the academic literature on lobbying to analyse the behaviour of the Czech Republic's representatives. The research is based on a survey of Czech representatives to Brussels and a detailed case study in each of the four policy areas. It relies on more than 50 semi-structured interviews with policy makers in Prague and Brussels. It maps the methods that are available to a small member state to advance its interests and evaluates the Czech Republic's success in that regard. In so doing, it contributes to two strands in the literature of EU studies, Europeanisation and small states. The book suggests that the scholarship on lobbying in general offers useful tools for analysing small states' performance in the EU. It also concludes that while there is evidence that Czechia is learning how to behave in the EU and its behaviour is becoming Europeanised, the instability of its national politics and administration is undermining its ability to promote its national interests in Brussels

Nigrin, Tomáš - Landa, Martin - Svobodová, Tereza et al. 156 pg. Karolinum, 2016 ISBN 9788024631868

The monograph Germany without a Core? represents an exceptional view of the nuclear power industry in the Czech Republic. It doesn't perceive it purely as a technical issue that lies only in the competence of engineers and technicians, but as one of the key political and social themes of the last decades. The authors advocate the Angels Merkel's decision to end the operation of nuclear power plants in a wider context, they have been following the development of the issue since the beginning of the civilian use of nuclear power in Germany, and are dealing with a number of current issues, such as the motives for the decision to leave the core, the reaction of the German public, power plants as well as the topic of the radioactive material and its subsequent storage.

The publication presents the theme of the nuclear energy use in context and should therefore not be missing in the bookcase of those interested in the social issues related to issues of the energy economy, but thanks to its cross-cutting character it is also intended for those interested in the modern history of Germany.

Litera, Bohuslav 320 pg. Dokořán, 2016 ISBN 978-80-7363-719-4.

Even though Soviet Russia emerged as a winner from the Civil War of 1917-1920, it was almost completely diplomatically isolated. Two decades later, during World War II, Stalin acted as an equal partner with the most powerful statesmen of the world, with Roosevelt and Churchill. How did such a rise in power take place? The book The Way to the Top analyzes the main direction of the foreign policy of the Soviet Union in 1917-1945, including its sudden but fundamental turnovers. Soviet politics have always been driven to provide Moscow with space for achieving its security, territorial and economic interests. Increased attention is paid here to the Czechoslovak-Soviet and Polish-Soviet relations, because the Polish question has become one of the sources of the post-war Cold War.

Králová, Kateřina; Kocian, Jiří; Pikal, Kamil 418 stran Peter Lang Vlg., 2016 ISBN: 978-3-631-67026-2

Dieses Buch bietet einen umfassenden Einblick in die Politik des jugoslawischen Staates gegenüber seinen 15 wichtigsten, offiziell anerkannten, ethnischen Minderheiten. Das bunte ethnische Mosaik, welches Jugoslawien im 20. Jahrhundert gekennzeichnet hat, weckte seit jeher das Interesse der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaft. Mit ihm ging stets die Frage einher, ob und wie ein Staat mit derartigen Voraussetzungen funktionierend und effektiv gestaltet werden könne. Die Autorinnen und Autoren werfen in ihren Fallstudien dabei eine Reihe von Themenfeldern auf, welche die Relevanz der behandelten Minderheitensituation nicht nur für das Verständnis der Geschichte des sozialistischen Jugoslawien, sondern auch von multiethnischen Staaten insgesamt verdeutlichen.

Šlosarčík, Ivo 138 pg. Karolinum, 2015 ISBN 9788024631516

In the last decade, the Republic of Ireland has not only been through an economic crisis, but the Irish political scene and the relations between Ireland and the European Union have also had to deal with serious turbulences. At the same time, behind the border of the Republic of Ireland, the situation in Northern Ireland was gradually calming, but there was a continuing threat of returning to instability, which had been haunting the region for many decades. The book by Ivo Šlosarčík Ireland and the Crisis. Politics and Economy of the Republic of Ireland in 2008-2014 and their European context provides an overview of the roots and development of the four (economic, political, integration and North Irish) Irish crises and outlines the role of the European Union in dealing with them

Králová, Kateřina; Kocian, Jiří; Pikal, Kamil 223 pp. Sokolov: Flaiva Viera, 2015 ISBN: 978-80-904954-3-2

Šístek, František 392 pg. Podgorica: Matica crnogorska, 2015. ISBN 978-86-84013-79-0

The book presents a set of several more extensive studies dealing with narratives about the identity (especially national and religious) and the instrumentalisation of history in Montenegro from the 19th century up to the present time.

Filipová, Lucie 409 stran Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2015 ISBN: 978-3-525-10139-1

Balík, Stanislav; Kubát, Michal 187 stran Barbara Budrich, 2015 ISBN: 978-3847407287

Wie arbeiten undemokratische Regime? Die Autoren geben einen Überblick über totalitäre und autoritäre Regimen (sowie Mischformen) und stellen anhand Fallstudien die Funktionsweise derartiger Regime dar. Die Autoren diskutieren unterschiedliche Hintergründe, Ideologien und Mentalitäten in modernen undemokratischen Regimen. Dabei dienen spezifische Länder als Beispiele für die zuvor eingeführten theoretischen Konzepte. Das Buch ist in acht Hauptkapitel eingeteilt. Im ersten Kapitel geht es um terminologische Probleme in Bezug auf undemokratische Formen der Regierung. In den folgenden Kapiteln wird die Theorie totalitärer und autoritärer Regime dargestellt. Das vierte Kapitel behandelt andere Formen undemokratischer Regime, die nicht der klassischen Zweiteilung von Totalitarismus vs. Autoritarismus entsprechen. Im sechsten Kapitel werden auf der Grundlage der politischen Psychologie Aspekte der autoritären Persönlichkeit und des politischen Führungsverhaltens untersucht. Die letzten beiden Kapitel beschäftigen sich mit den praktischen Fragen der Funktionsweise von undemokratischen Regimen.

Raška, Francis D. 272 pages Academia, 2015 ISBN: 978-11-372-8022-0

The sequel to the author's book Opuštění bojovníci (in Czech, trans.: Abandoned Warriors) on te Czechoslovak exile organizations focuses on the exile activity after 1968 based on personal letters, memorandums to government officials and published journals from archives in the Czech Republic, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. How did the Council of Free Czechoslovakia, the Exile Magazines, the Charter 77 Foundation, the Palach Press Agency, and the Czechoslovak Documentation Centre of Independent Literature work? And how did the Czech exile groups cooperate with the Radio Free Europe? The book contains a list of exile publishers and summarizes the contents of interviews with the surviving officials of exile organizations.

Králová, Kateřina; Tsivos, Konstantinos 384 stran Athina: Alexandria, 2015 ISBN: 978-960-221-647-7

Newly edited volume on Greek civil war refugees in Czechoslovakia based on about 200 hours of interviews recorded in Czech Republic and beyond creating a master narrative starting from their war memories on Greece up to the Greek crisis (2011) including also a chapter on those who returned to Greece.

Pinard, Peter Richard 388 stran Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, Bern, Bruxelles, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2015 ISBN: 978-3-631-66200-7

Hitler’s regime invested heavily into radio as the most modern media of its era. First in Germany, later in Austria and the Sudetenland, Joseph Goebbels motivated his Volksgenossen to become active radio listeners. But what approach did the regime take to the first non-German people occupied – the Czechs? How would Czech Radio’s staff and listeners respond to Nazi-dominated programming? What strategies of defiance and what options for cooperation existed? What role did Nazism’s core theme of anti-Semitism play? Which Czech societal groups did the Nazis try to reach most? This book casts a spotlight on the effects of the occupation authorities’ policies on specific programming content, as well as on radio as a medium in the so-called Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia.

Kraus Josef, Souleimanov Emil A. 106 pages Auditorium, 2015 ISBN: 978-80-87284-54-4

The monograph deals with the issue of the Azerbaijani community in Iran, the largest ethnic and language-minority in the borders of this Islamic Republic, whose evolution is being explored in the context of the security architecture of the Caspian-Middle-Eastern area. For a closer understanding of this almost unexplored issue in the specialized world literature, the text includes the introduction of the ethnic and religious identity of the Iranian Azerbaijani people, a Turkish-speaking community in which most people are followers of the Shiite branch of Islam. It also focuses on the historical development of this community in Iran, with a special focus on the past two decades, and analyzes the current situation in the region with an emphasis on the emancipation movement of the ethnic Azerbaijanis in Iran. From the international point of view, the text analyzes the key local and extra-regional powers that are important for the security of the Islamic Republic of Iran and their relationship to the Iranian Azerbaijanis and to Iran itself, with particular focus on security issues.

Rejman Michail, Litera Bohuslav, Svoboda Karel, Kolenovska Daniela 839 stran Rosspen, 2015 ISBN: 978-5-8243-1934-7

Emil A. Souleimanov,Huseyn Aliyev 114 stran Palgrave Macmillan 2014 ISBN 9781137498823

Drawing on a range of hitherto unknown first-hand data, this book is the first of its kind to offer an explanation of the incentives of various types of militants – avengers, nationalists, and jihadists – to abandon violence. Empirically, the monograph problematizes the established view of North Caucasian militants as a monolithic category of 'Islamic terrorists.' 

Theoretically, it points out that distinct types of insurgents are variously resilient to external and internal pressures – such as group membership and social bonds, (in)discriminativeness of violence and hidden identities, ideology and beyond – to individual disengagement. The study posits that stronger adherence to ideology, higher lethality rates and indiscriminativeness of violence, interrupted social links, and stonger group membership renders jihadists, followed by nationalists, and in contrast to avengers, the less likely category of militants to seek individual disengagement.

Kubat, Michal - Lebeda, Tomáš et al. 164 pages Karolinum 2014 ISBN 9788024624792

The Czech political scientist and university professor Miroslav Novák celebrated his 60th birthday in 2013, and this is why the representatives of the young and middle generation of Czech political scientists came together in this book to express their respect. Some of them were direct pupils of Miroslav Novák, others not, but all of them remember Novák, some look towards him as a role model, others as an excellent and stimulating political scientist who has greatly influenced the current political politology.

It is a political, non-normative, empirical, comparative, aronian, duvergerian, and sartorian politics book based on the verifiability of facts, their logical and impartial analysis, the finding of causes and consequences of politics, based on the clarified theoretical concepts and concepts, which stand on clear arguments and the correctness of thought. Last but not least, it is also a political science book which seeks to communicate its conclusions, that is to say it aspires to the much needed and, unfortunately, the not always obvious clarity of the interpretation.

Kadlec, Vladimír 145 stran Sokolov: Flavia Viera 2014 ISBN: 978-80-904954-1-8

Balcar,Jaromír - Kučera, Jaroslav 511 stran Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013 ISBN 978-3-525-37301-9

Zwischen den späten 1930er und den frühen 1950er Jahren durchlief die Wirtschaftsordnung der böhmischen Länder einen Wandel von der Marktwirtschaft zur Zentralplanwirtschaft sowjetischen Typs. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht diesen Transformationsprozess, indem sie den staatlichen Lenkungsanspruch und die wirtschaftliche Ordnungspolitik mit der Perspektive der Unternehmen kombiniert. Auf diese Weise werden nicht nur die Akteure des Wirtschaftslebens in den Blick genommen, sondern erstmals auch die Funktionsweisen der beiden Lenkungssysteme und die jeweils unterschiedlichen Handlungsspielräume der Unternehmen.

Gestützt auf eine breite Quellenbasis, die auch bislang unzugängliche Bestände umfasst, kommen die beiden Autoren sowohl für die NS-Kriegswirtschaft im Protektorat Böhmen und Mähren als auch für den Übergang der Tschechoslowakei zur Planwirtschaft in der Nachkriegszeit zu Ergebnissen, die teilweise Befunde der älteren Forschung korrigieren, teilweise Neuland erschließen.

Nigrin, Tomáš 216 pages Dokořán 2013 ISBN 978-80-7363-573-2

The book focuses on West Berlin before and after the construction of the Berlin Wall in 1961, at the time of the so-called Second Berlin Crisis. The main focus is the city, its population and municipal policy, including Berlin's specific problems. High-power politics during the Cold War and the constant tension between East and West form only the framework and the necessary contextual comprehension of the development in the city. In the end, the construction of the Berlin Wall helped to revive West Berlin and stabilize the economic and social situation, including the consolidation of its bonds to the Federal Republic of Germany. The struggle for a free and prosperous West Berlin was led by the mayor in the time of the crisis, Willy Brandt, who was able to move his career forward to the Chancellor's post also thanks to his successes in Berlin. This monograph was created within the system of support of faculty monographs of the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague.

Švec Luboš 391 pages Dokořán 2013 ISBN 987-80-7363-564-0

The publication of the Relationship Triangle between the Soviet Union, the Baltic States and Czechoslovakia in 1988-1991 questions the analogy and asymmetry of the democratization and emancipation processes related to the crisis of the Soviet external and internal empire. It concentrates on one of the contradictions and conflicts that have affected the course of perestroika, the conflict between the three Baltic Republics and the union centre, and how the Czechoslovak society perceived it. The perception of the Baltic issue was related to the attitude of the changing leadership of the state and society, not only to the Baltic revolution, but also to Gorbachev's perestroika, the dismantling of the communist system and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Union.

Emil A. Souleimanov 264 stran Palgrave Macmillan 2013 ISBN 9781137280220

This book seeks to explore the relevance of major theoretical and methodological approaches currently dominating the field of ethnic conflict and civil war research, testing their efficacy by applying them to three major South Caucasus conflicts of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Souleimanov explores the causes and dynamics of ethnic conflict and civil war, distinguishing between onset-based and process-based theories. He introduces a scheme of periodization which links the phase of low-scale inter-ethnic violence with the phase of sustainable organized violence, asserting the crucial importance of elites and their use of opportunity in power asymmetry as a key factor in instigating full-scale civil war.

As a merger of theoretical and empiricist approaches, this book focuses on the case-specific contextual richness of the local conflicts in Karabakh, Abkhazia, and South Ossetia to draw solid theoretical conclusions as well as providing suggestions for the improvement of current theories.

Ivo Šlosarčík, Zuzana Kasáková et al. 248 pages Grada 2013 ISBN 978-80-247-3567-2

The book Institutions of the European Union and the Treaty of Lisbon, prepared by the author of the Department of Western European Studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University in Prague, analyzes the perspectives of the new institutional changes of the European Union after the adoption of the Treaty of Lisbon. The authors aim to assess the implications of institutional reform, its failure and answer the question whether the post-Lisbon European Union will be able to concentrate on the content of its activities instead of other institutional changes.

Kateřina Králová, Konstantinos Tsivos et al. 336 pages Dokořán, 2013 ISBN 978-80-7363-416-2

At the turn of the 1940s and 1950s, approximately twelve thousand refugees affected by the civil war came from Greece to Czechoslovakia. They thought it was only a temporary stay. However, the temporary shelter soon became their second home. A richly illustrated book by a team of junior researchers led by leading Czech experts in the history of Greece, Kateřina Králova and Konstantinos Tsivos, analyzes personal testimonies of five dozen witnesses of three generations. This first collective monograph on this subject is pioneering in its concept and analysis. In the historical introduction and twelve thematic studies, it deals with their attitudes to occupation or civil war. On the basis of intriguing interviews, it depicts the emigration and the children's destinies, but also the process of integration or the effort to preserve one's identity. The book focuses not only on the field of history, but also reflects how individuals perceive themselves, the role they ascribe to themselves and their surroundings in the historical process, and how their experience fits into the wider social context.

Hana Kubátová 268 pages Academia, 2013 ISBN 978-80-200-2230-1

The book discusses the moods and attitudes of the majority Slovak population to the Jewish question in the years 1938-1945. In her analysis, the author focuses primarily on the economic and social aspects of the so-called solution of the Jewish question in Slovakia. It examines the Slovak society's involvement in the economic and social exclusion of the Jews, in the context of a wide range of public responses to the anti-Jewish state politics, from complicity, apathy and lack of interest in the destiny of the Jews to active assistance to the Jewish fellow citizens.

Michal Kubát 120 pages Barrister & Principal 2013 ISBN 978807474860

The book offers a systematic view of the contemporary Czech parliamentary regime. It explains both the theoretical and practical context of its operation. The Czech Republic is ripe for a reform of its democratic regime. Czech parliamentarism is damaged and it does not work how it could and should work. Its reform is therefore utmost needed and should be carried out. The ambition of the book is to propose a solution which would bring about the correction of Czech parliamentarism.

Lucie Filipová 456 pages Academia, 2013 ISBN 978-80-200-2217-2

The book French and Germans Moving towards Rapprochement is the first Czech monograph to illustrate the development of the French-German relations in the years 1950-2000. It is largely based on original research. Lucie Filipová looks at this subject in line with the "bottom-up" concept, which shows that not only the political, economic and cultural elites have contributed to the long-term cooperation between France and Germany, but also to the involvement of several million ordinary citizens. The book illustrates this in particular by an example of partnerships of towns or smaller municipalities. These partnerships are in the French-German case specific by their overall number (over two thousand cases in 2000), the diversity of joint activities and the peace potential that has been associated with them from the very outset and thanks to which these partnerships play an undeniable model role in Europe and beyond. The book is intended both for those interested in relations between the two main actors of contemporary European politics and for those who deal with foreign activities of municipalities and towns. In many ways, it can also be inspiring to interpret Czech-German relations.

Polášek Martin, Novotný Vílém, Perottino Michel et al. 190 pages SLON 2012 ISBN 978-80-7419-094-0

This work deals with the development of the ČSSD (the Czech Social Democratic Party) and KSČM (The Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia) in the first decade of the 21st century (2000-2010), with more attention devoted to the second half of this period. The authors look for answers to two basic questions. Firstly, how the ČSSD and the KSČM have changed over the past decade, what organizational characteristics we can speak about in relation to them and how we can classify them as a result of these characteristics. Secondly, how the observed change can be explained, what its more general and immediate causes were and what the actual course and timing were. The instrument of classification and explanation were the cartel party theory (Katz, Mair) and the three streams theory, or more precisely the multi-stream theory (Kingdon, Zahariadis). How did political marketing transform the internal functioning of the ČSSD? How did the ČSSD Modernization Project make this party become modern? Was the ČSSD policy a problem of aesthetics or content? Is there one explanation for the internal transformation of the ČSSD and the policy it has implemented? Who does anti-Communism actually target against? Is there any reason why the KSČM should be transformed? Is the KSČM really undemocratic? Are the public policies the work of political parties?

Kryštof Kozák, Tomáš Weiss, Helena Schukzová et al. 296 pages Dokořán, 2012 ISBN 978-80-7363-444-5 978-80-7363-444-5

Was the financial crisis merely a transient failure of the banking institutions, or was it a key divide with major societal impacts? The book Impacts of the crisis in the Euro-Atlantic area analyzes in detail the consequences of the financial crisis in the United States and Europe. Individual case studies of experts from the Institute of International Studies at FSV UK investigate the issue at the level of international politics and national policies. Their authors ask how far the states and international organizations in the transatlantic space have been able to use the crisis as an opportunity for structural reform and to what extent the crisis has only worsened and deepened the existing problems. The book brings new insights into highly current issues and is suitable for both the professional and non-professional public.

RAŠKA, Francis 251 stran East European Monographs 2012 ISBN 978-0-88033-706-9

This monograph sheds light on the most important Czechoslovak exile organizations and their activities between 1968 and 1989. Activities of the older exiles are compared and contrasted with those of the post-1968 exiles. In particular, the Council of Free Czechoslovakia and its reunification under Mojmír Povolný in 1974 is analyzed as is the Listy Group founded by Jiří Pelikán in 1971. Pavel Tigrid's journal 'Svědectví' is scrutinized in detail as are Jan Kavan's Palach Press Agency, František Janouch's Charta 77 Foundation, and the Czechoslovak Desk at Radio Free Europe. Individual exile publishing houses are mentioned too. The volume also contains the personal testimonies of a number of key exile personalities.

Králová, Kateřina 286 pages, Karolinum, 2012 ISBN 978-80-246-2010-7

The Book Unpaid Past: Greek-German Relations in the Shadow of Nazism introduces the reader to the little-scrutinized issue of Greek-German relations in the aftermath of the Second World War. A richly illustrated historical study by the leading Czech expert on Modern History of Greece, Kateřina Králová, is the first ever comprehensive monograph on this subject. It focuses mainly on how the Greek society has dealt with the legacy of the Nazi occupation, especially with the question of punishing war crimes. The themes are explored from a political, socio-cultural, economic and legal perspective. At the same time, the book emphasizes that, even in this case, economic interests have played a key role. The ongoing legal disputes between the Greek victims of Nazism and the federal government also show that the topic is still alive. Moreover, the monograph extends beyond the dimension of the Greek-German relations and is, by its very nature, applicable to the experience of other states similarly affected by the Nazi occupation.

Stanislav Balík, Michal Kubát 216 pages Dokořán, 2012 ISBN 978-80-7363-266-3

The topic of undemocratic regimes is nothing new in political science. For nearly one century it has been one of the disciplines to which considerable intellectual effort has been devoted. The reason is obvious - throughout the 20th century and even in these days, undemocratic regimes of various types prevailed and are still prevailing over democratic regimes. Democracy is more of a peculiarity, and the bulk of the world's population lives in regimes that are more or less distant from real democracy. The Book Theory and Practice of Undemocratic Regimes collectively mediates the results of political research of modern undemocratic regimes. The authors deal with both the political theory of all the major types of undemocratic regimes and their practical functioning, which is illustrated on a number of specific demonstrations of undemocracies from different parts of the world of the 20th century and of the present time (Nazi Germany, Soviet Russia, Mao China, Pol Pot Cambodia, Salazar's Portugal, Gaddafi Libya, Kaddár Hungary and People's Republic of Poland).

Anita Pelánová 146 pages Karolinum, 2010 ISBN 978-80-246-1783-1

The publication focuses on the disruptions and reflections of 20th century art. Unlike the history of artwork, it comes with a new look on the subject. Instead of dealing with a detailed analysis of individual artistic directions, it looks at the time and its specifics in the eyes of the painters of this epoch. It depicts changes in the painting optics with regard to the discoveries and development of natural sciences, psychology and noetics. At the same time, it refers to specific scientific discoveries and their implications for seemingly distant problems of art and the visual perception of the world. The term "avant-garde" is not conceived in the usual sense in terms of a left-wing revolt in the artistic environment, but as what seemed as most progressive and up-to-date in the art scene at the given moment. Descriptions of individual artistic directions are interpolated with selected quotations from texts by prominent authors and analyzes of typical works of art with links to internet photojournalists.

Michal Kubát 193 stran Peter Lang Publishing Group 2010 ISBN 978-3-631-59181-9

This book offers interpretations of different forms of political opposition in political theory and also in the contemporary development of politics and government in Central Europe. The problem is analyzed through a comparative approach. The first part of the book targets the question of definitions and typologies of political opposition, above all, in democratic, but partly also in non-democratic regimes. The second part deals with the question of models of political opposition in Central Europe after the fall of communism in the late twentieth century and in the present.

Michal Kubát 193 stran Peter Lang Publishing Group 2010 ISBN 978-3-631-59181-9

The Book Political Opposition in Theory and Central European Practice is a systematic elaboration of an important phenomenon of modern politics, which is political opposition, both from the point of view of political theory and political practice. It aims to analyze the problems in terms of the development and modification of the existing theories, while the ambition of the book is to complement the existing theory with its own analytical observations, which are, at times, of a polemical nature. The text also applies the analyzed theories to the political practice of the Central European countries. The author presents the most important existing approaches and concepts of the political opposition, filling the information gap that exists in Czech political science.