Ústav mezinárodních vztahů

Czech stance on refugees could risk gains of last 25 years, says IIR’s Benjamin Tallis
Benjamin Tallis was the guest of Radio Prague where Ian Willoughby asked him about his work at the Institute and about the Czech foreign policy.

Hey Europe, Stop Putting Russia First
Michal Kořan, is author of an entry published at the Atlantic Council's blog. "The West's deteriorating relationship with Russia has opened a window of opportunity to offer Eastern European countries a genuine future within the European Union, unrestrained by Moscow. To seize this opportunity, the West should refrain from past policies that, in the end, always put Russia first."

Alleged Czech policy of harsh treatment of refugees 'works'
Czech authorities regularly place illegal migrants in grim detention centers. The UN has criticized the practice, which some believe is proving effective in keeping the numbers of refugees arriving in the Czech Republic low. Among the experts quoted in a report for Deutsche Welle (DW - Germany's international broadcaster) was Petr Kratochvíl, who thinks that "the UN High Commissioner's report will generally just confirm the stereotype - although it is a stereotype that is becoming more and more true - that the Czech authorities are not very friendly towards refugees and that it has become a sort of national strategy to repel potential refugees by offering such a harsh welcome that most of them will not travel across the Czech Republic."

Ukraine's Local Elections: New law, old problems
Melanie Mierzejewski-Voznyak is the author of an analysis "Ukraine's Local Elections: New law, old problems" published by New Eastern Europe, the exclusive bimonthly news magazine dedicated to Central and Eastern European affairs.

Mediální výstupy k uprchlictví a migraci
Ústav mezinárodních vztahů tak vytváří spojnici mezi akademickým světem, veřejností a mezinárodně-politickou praxí. Výzkumní pracovníci a pracovnice ÚMV často vystupují v médiích, kde analyzují nejaktuálnější světové dění. Mezi často diskutovaná témata patří právě migrace a uprchlíci. Níže přinášíme stručný přehled mediálních výstupů týkajících se těchto témat.

Czech Republic’s stance on refugee quotas
Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka has said that Czech-German relations are the best they have been in the modern era. The statement came on the heels of an article in Hospodářské noviny quoting diplomats who said that ties had actually dipped to their lowest point in 20 years. The reason? Differences over refugee quotas. While successful cooperation on many issues is unlikely to come undone, many analysts agree the Czech Republic has taken a rocky path, politically-speaking, adding there will be a cost. Jan Velinger from the Radio Prague discussed this with Vladimír Handl.

Mittelosteuropa hat die EU noch nicht verstanden
Die Flüchtlingskrise in Europa spitzt sich zu. Deutschland ist mit seiner Willkommenskultur erstmals ernstlich überfordert und hat Grenzkontrollen wiedereingeführt. Zugleich rühren mittel- und osteuropäische Staaten Beton an, wenn es um die Einführung verbindlicher Quoten für die Aufnahme von Migranten geht. Zur europäischen Migrationspolitik im Folgenden ein Interview für das Radio Prag mit dem Politologen Vladimír Handl vom unseren Institut für internationale Beziehungen in Prag.

Fighting the wrong battle
The IIR researchers and members of the Centre for European Security of the IIR claim in their newest contribution to the server openDemocracy "Fighting the wrong battle: Central Europe’s crisis is one of liberal democracy, not migration" that: "The hostile response of central and eastern European heads of states to the prospect of accepting Syrian refugees is emblematic of a wider problem of democracy and liberalism in these countries."

Streit mit Brüssel ist nicht gewollt
Der Politikwissenschaftler Vladimir Handl glaubt nicht, dass sich die osteuropäischen Staaten einer Quotenregelung zur Verteilung von Flüchtlingen in Europa langfristig verweigern werden. Auf einen Konflikt mit der EU würden sie es nicht ankommen lassen, sagte er im DLF (Deutschlandfunk). Finanziell sei die Aufnahme von Flüchtlingen in den Ländern "klar machbar".

The East’s Flight from Russia
Comment of Vít Beneš on the sources of the Ukraine crisis was published at the Svenska Dagbladet blog. In the article Vít Beneš argues that the notion about “the West moving into Russia’s backyard” is a serious distortion and misinterpretation of the post-Cold War history. After the end of the Cold War, the West did not march anywhere. In fact, Russia’s backyard moved.