Foreign Policy in Programs of Czech Political Parties at Turn of the 21th Century: Historiographical Essay

Abstract

The paper presents a historiographical overview of the evolution of foreign policy concepts of Czech political parties at the turn of the 21st century in terms of cardinal geopolitical changes and formation of a new system of international relations in Europe. After the emergence of the independent Czech Republic, scholars from different countries began to show interest in the foreign policy of the new state in the region of Central and South-Eastern Europe. The present research groups academic papers according to the centers of study of the topic in Russia, the Czech Republic, Great Britain and the USA, also following chronological order, starting from the 1990s and ending with the end of the 2010s. For the first time the author designates a “watershed” in the history of the issue, when in the scientific literature the study of Czech foreign policy in general turns to a narrower range of topics. Many researchers specializing in international relations turned from studying general issues of Czech foreign policy to specific topics, such as the positions of parties regarding further European integration, military cooperation with NATO, relations with Russia, etc. This fact allows us to talk about the growing interest of the scientific community in deep processes shaping the foreign policy of the Czech Republic.