International interactions: relations, security, and space

Institute of Political Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University

Leading representatives of the research team: doc. PhDr. Jan Karlas, M.A., Ph.D. (guarantor), doc. PhDr. RNDr. Nik Hynek, M.A., PgDip Res, Ph.D.; doc. PhDr. Běla Plechanovová, CSc.; PhDr. Michael Romancov, Ph.D.

Contacts: Jan Karlas (jk.kurzy@seznam.cz), Nik Hynek (nikola.hynek@fsv.cuni.cz), Běla Plechanovová (bela.plechanovova@fsv.cuni.cz), Michael Romancov(michael.romancov@gmail.com).

This research programme deals with three areas that all concern international interactions: international relations, international security, and geopolitics. In the area of international relations, the research team concentrates on the analysis of international institutions. It proceeds from an assumption that international institutions facilitate the mutual coordination of states’ policies. In this way, they help to the resolution of global problems, which cannot be anymore tackled by the independent effort of individual states. Apart from global institutions, the members of the research team also pay attention to the European integration process.

In the area of security, the research programme concentrates especially on strategic studies and critical security analysis. Strategic studies deal e.g. with the role of military technologies in international politics. The concern with strategic studies is balanced with the research in critical security studies. This stream brings to the study of security the emphasis on the ideational and discursive segments of security.

The geopolitical part of the programme explores the relationship between international politics and human geography. It examines the key theories of geopolitics, as well as the relations between space and politics in the key regions of the contemporary world. It aims at uncovering the dynamics that results from the global character of the current world and from its constantly shifting internal boundaries.

Selected outputs

• Hynek, Nik (2015), Czech Strategic Narrative on Afghanistan: Ideological Reactiveness and Domestic Political Contestation, in Beatrice de Graaf et al., Strategic Narratives, Public Opinion, and War, London: Routledge: 118-137.

• Hosli, Madeleine – Kreppel, Amie – Plechanovová, Běla – Verdun, Amy (2015), Decision making in the EU before and after the Lisbon Treaty, London: Routledge.

• Romancov, Michael (2014), Evropský rozměr společenských tendencí součastnosti aneb jaká je Evropa a jaký je svět? - Geopolitický pohled, Acta Universitatis Carolinae. Iuridica, 60 (1): 71-80.