Czech Journal of International Relations

Aliaksei Kazharski: Central Europe Thirty Years after the Fall of Communism. A Return to the Margin?

2024-11-10T16:57:07+01:00

Ondřej Slačálek reviews Aliaksei Kazharski´s new book. According to Slačálek, the book has many promising points of entry for understanding the (re)construction of “Central Europe” as a region, and understanding it from the East rather than (yet again) from the West. However, this potential is realized only partially. As the book does not take the region´s real historical marginality seriously, in it, Central Europe does not become marginal until it deviates from its alleged transition to or place in the supposed Western European mainstream. Slačálek sums up that the book can be read not only as a valuable scholarly contribution to the debate, but also as a document of its time: a time when (at least for many influential analysts) conservative nationalism could look like something that may be localized on the European “margins” and considered a re-creation of regionalized pathologies of Central Europe, while the western part may be characterized by a “universalist”, “liberal” and “humanitarian” stance. He concludes that this kind of analysis is also a biased construction that might belie the much more complex and richer reality.

Double Standards and Dissonance: Women’s Rights and Freedom of Religion in the Global North

2024-10-08T10:46:17+02:00

In this article, I explore the complex intersection between women's rights and religious freedom in liberal democracies, particularly focusing on the Global North. I demonstrate how both religious freedom and women’s rights have been instrumentalized by Western powers, often as tools of foreign policy. I highlight the dissonance between Western nations’ rhetoric, which promotes these rights globally, and their domestic practices, which sometimes impose restrictions, especially on Muslim women. Through case studies, including countries in the Middle East, France, and the United States, the article underscores the hypocrisy of Western democracies that criticize religious restrictions in authoritarian regimes while enforcing their own limitations on women’s religious expression. In the conclusion, I emphasize the importance of consistent application of human rights to avoid reinforcing cynicism and authoritarian practices.

Performative Contradictions of Women's Rights and Religious Freedoms: Dissonance across Space and Time

2024-11-10T08:20:50+01:00

This piece deliberates on Rola El-Husseini’s contribution to contemporary debates on double standards and dissonance at the intersection of women’s rights and religious freedom in the Global North by highlighting similar performative contradictions of the past. In exercising thinking through current dilemmas with Mark Twain’s commentary on non-dyadic marriages in the Ottoman Empire and the United States, this reaction suggests that across time and space, whoever the manufactured “other” may be, the processes and mechanisms of inclusion and exclusion generally favor the interests of those who hold and seek to maintain the greatest martial, economic, and political power.

Religion, Coloniality and Women’s Rights

2024-11-02T15:24:55+01:00

In response to Rola El-Husseini’s article, “Double Standards and Dissonance: Women’s Rights and Freedom of Religion in the Global North,” this paper addresses the French approach to secularism and women’s rights within a context of coloniality. Analyzing France’s secular framework, I explore the secular control over Muslim women’s attire and identity, tracing these regulations back to colonial practices. By examining how religious expression, particularly in relation to Islam, is selectively restricted, this commentary highlights the paradox of French “laïcité” as both a liberating and oppressive force, revealing ongoing colonial legacies in contemporary women’s rights discourse.

Power, Institutionalisation, and Religion: Gender-Washing as a Tool of Autocratic Control

2024-10-28T21:15:12+01:00

This article reflects on Rola El-Husseini's critique of the Western double standards concerning women’s rights and religious freedom in her work "Double Standards and Dissonance: Women’s Rights and Freedom of Religion in the Global North." It expands on the concept of "gender-washing," illustrating how both left- and right-wing authoritarian regimes exploit gender equality rhetoric for political gains without genuine efforts toward equality. Through examples from Czechoslovakia and contemporary India, the article explores how different ideologies—from Marxism-Leninism to religious nationalism—use women’s rights as a façade while maintaining autocratic control. It also engages with postcolonial feminist critiques of Western universalism.

Freedom of Religion and Freedom from Religion in the Context of Contemporary Anti-Gender Politics

2024-11-02T08:06:29+01:00

In the contemporary world, the topic of women’s rights has often been employed and manipulated in debates on religious freedom. In her article Rola El-Husseini shows that whereas Western politicians have promoted liberal values, including religious freedom, internationally, they have rarely uphold these principles domestically. Often, these values have been applied selectively, leaving Muslim communities—especially Muslim women—without the protections usually afforded by liberal democracy. This contribution discusses how opposition to women’s rights unfolds in contemporary Poland, where the Catholic Church has been instrumental in opposing women’s and minority rights. In the conclusion, it poses the question of whether we truly need more freedom of religion, or whether maybe what we should strive for is more freedom from religion and a firmer division between the state and the church, indiscriminately of what type of church or religious belief this may be. Such a perspective is rooted in the recognition that so far every religion has contributed to infringing women’s rights, and establishing and reinforcing social hierarchies.

Book Forum on Hans Kundnani's Eurowhiteness: Culture, Empire and Race in the European Project

2024-11-20T15:28:12+01:00

This book forum discusses Hans Kundnani’s pivotal book on “Eurowhiteness” and the role of race in the EU integration project. It includes three reactions from Stefan Auer, Pavel Barša, and Agnes Gagyi, along with Kundnani’s response. Eurowhiteness skillfully reveals what has been obscured by the European Union as a vehicle of “imperial amnesia”. The three reactions and the author’s response continue a polemical discussion on this imperial amnesia, as viewed through different intellectual traditions and regions, including Central and Eastern Europe and anti-colonial perspectives. As a result, the forum uses the book to either deepen the debate on the EU’s civilizationism with new perspectives or expand the Eurowhiteness narrative with new geo-historical contexts and connections. Issues of Russian imperialism in Ukraine, the Israeli war in Gaza, and the economic dimensions of European coloniality are brought to the foreground, particularly when viewed through the imagination and reality of Central (and Eastern) Europe.

A Review of Science Diplomacy: Theoretical Evolution to a Post-Naïve Approach and Its Relevance for the Czech Republic

2023-08-15T07:40:33+02:00

The paper critically reviews the evolution of the concept of science diplomacy and sheds light on the lack of theoretical reflection on the role of science diplomacy in the Czech context. The idealistic vision of science diplomacy presented by the AAAS and the Royal Society in 2010 has recently been replaced by a more constructivist vision that acknowledges the vulnerability of science and emphasises the political and international implications of S&T diplomacy by pointing to clashes between national interests and those of scientific communities. This post-naive vision relies on the growing strategic value of science and technology, which may lead to the acceptance of new policies regulating the inputs and outputs of scientific systems. The paper briefly outlines the current strategy of the Czech Republic within the EU, highlighting its geostrategic dimension and identifying relevant challenges for the future agenda.

Exploring Populism in Erdogan’s Discourse on Turkey–European Union Relations

2024-02-19T15:14:38+01:00

Many political leaders have adopted populist themes in their foreign policy discourses, motivated by, for example, revisionism, domestic mobilisation, and personalisation of foreign policy. Since the failed coup attempt in 2016, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has become a prime example of this trend. This article analyses Turkey’s relationship with the European Union (EU) by deciphering populist themes in his discourses. The article’s method, thematic discourse analysis, examines speeches and statements from multiple data sources using a deductive codebook. According to the study’s qualitative and quantitative in-depth analysis people-centrism, partnership diversification, general will, positive partisanship, and personalisation emerge as distinct populist themes in Erdogan’s speeches. Erdogan uses populism to project the image of strong/charismatic leadership as a genuine representation of the will of oppressed people(s). In his discourses, special weight is given to people-centrism, and it is supported by the themes of general will and personalisation.