The twenty year journey of our country`s return to "Europe" has been successfully completed. Czech foreign policy now faces new challenges. In order to respond to them, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has prepared a medium term outline of its activities, reformulating its priority targets.
This process would have been impossible without an overall self reflection process. Building on this Concept, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will continue to evaluate international trends and, where necessary, clarify foreign policy priorities in a working paper (Short Term Programme). The Concept realistically reflects the opportunities available to the Czech Republic in the international environment. It is based on a balance between resources and ambitions. The following docuement brings basic ideas of the Concept. The full version of the Concept can be downloaded here.
Twenty years of prosperity and stability
Twenty years after the political upheaval in Central and Eastern Europe, the Czech Republic is a stable, democratic and advanced country that has cast its anchor in a sea of international stability and external security. The current circumstances are historically unprecedented for the country. Besides a number of global and European factors, it can be attributed to all those citizens who helped to restore the state’s values after 50 years without freedom or sovereignty. A key role was played by those were there at the rebirth of democracy in Czechoslovakia and the Czech Republic; and helped it overcome the difficulties posed by this new beginning.
A changing environment
In the early 21st century, the Czech Republic, like the world, is facing a completely different situation from the one that existed in 1990. The international status of the Euro Atlantic community, which the Czech Republic is a part of, is changing rapidly. New global players with growing influence are emerging. We cannot ignore the fact that the importance of Central and Eastern Europe, which increased sharply following the collapse of communism and the restoration of democracy in the region, has waned.
The Czech Republic, along with its neighbours in Central Europe, has experienced 20 years of uninterrupted prosperity, during which it has managed to restore true sovereignty and integrate into international organisations. Today it is necessary to ensure the responsiveness of democratic institutions and principles of good governance, both at home and in the organisations of which the Czech Republic is a member, in order to help maintain international stability and security.
Democratic Europe, which the Czech Republic rejoined after emerging from long periods of captivity in the 20th century, now finds itself in a new geopolitical situation. The process of European integration along with the political and economic support of the US, including clear security guarantees, has contributed significantly to maintaining peace and prosperity. Since the end of the Cold War, however, the geopolitical situation in the world has evolved to the detriment of Europe.
A key interest is to preserve the influence of Europe
Member States of the European Union have adopted the Lisbon Treaty with a view to strengthening their global influence, to face the current challenges of a globalising world and to play their rightful role in it. European and the Euro Atlantic community integration cannot be seen as an end in itself but rather as a tool which, in the current international environment, serves the interests of all Member States and their citizens. It is against this backdrop that the Czech Republic will continue its activities in order to develop and promote its goals and priorities.
The newly emerging global conditions restrict these ambitions in many ways. Maintaining the influence of Europe and the entire Euro Atlantic community in shaping the international order and strengthening their economic development and competitiveness is a major objective for the Czech Republic and the whole of Europe.
This European interest, reflected in virtually all areas of contemporary world politics, including international organisations, provides a framework for Czech interests. To a significant extent, it affects the formulation and implementation of Czech foreign policy, albeit within the context and limits of the Czech Republic’s possibilities.
Objectives of the Foreign Policy of the Czech Republic
The basic aim of Czech foreign policy is to ensure the security and prosperity of the Czech Republic and its citizens and to protect the interests of Czech entities abroad. To achieve this, Czech foreign policy is active in three basic areas: political, security, and economic.
Maintaining sovereignty as well as the specific identity of the Czech state, its continued prosperity and welfare of all its citizens are natural interests of the Czech Republic. In a broader sense, Czech policy must promote and defend clearly defined and shared objectives while taking further inalienable values into account: those of human dignity, consciousness of duty towards others, and respect for human rights and civil society. Czech foreign policy is governed by the interests and values of the Czech state in accordance with its constitutional principles.
The Czech Republic pursues its objectives and interests as a member of the European and global family of democracies. It is ready to contribute to the protection and development of the shared natural, cultural, material and spiritual wealth as an integral part of European heritage. It is determined to follow all the time tested principles of the rule of law in the broader context of a peaceful, unifying, stable, secure and prosperous Europe and the entire international community.
The Czech Republic implements its foreign policy mainly within the context of the European integration process, the solid Euro Atlantic alliance and through its bilateral relations. The aim of its foreign policy efforts is to foster a level of political and economic cooperation that allows for peaceful and sustainable development. In this respect, Czech foreign policy relies on the traditional values of Czech democratic political thought, which are based on the usefulness of dialogue, integration and the need to understand the complexities of the contemporary world.
CR and the current international environment
The Czech Republic approaches international relations as a democratic and politically, economically and socially stable state in Central Europe which pursues not only its own interests, but also assumes joint responsibility for the development of Europe, the Euro Atlantic area and the entire international community.
Based on its size and population, the Czech Republic is one of Europe’s moderately sized states. A country with an open economy and a high proportion of exports and services in its gross domestic product but lacking important raw materials, it is heavily reliant on external relations and the quality of international cooperation. It promotes its interests both individually and through its membership in larger groupings. The Czech Republic’s NATO and EU memberships are crucial to its further development.
The fact that it is a member of these organisations shows that it has met its key strategic priorities identified after its establishment as an independent state, and that it has numerous avenues at its disposal for promoting its interests.
Safer but more vulnerable
The security environment in which the Czech Republic implements its foreign policy results from an interaction of numerous factors and is undergoing a process of dynamic change. Security threats, their sources and agents come from certain states, but also have an increasingly nongovernmental and transnational character. Certain trends in the global environment contribute to the growth and potential of asymmetric security threats and allow them to spread from relatively remote areas.
Among the trends and factors worth noting are the ambitions of new global and regional players, the phenomenon of failed states, exploitation of globalisation by dubious non state actors, uneven population growth, scarcity of energy resources, raw materials, food and water, migration pressures and climate change. The swelling ambitions of new global and regional powers have a serious impact on the balance of the international environment. Some states are trying to build spheres of influence through a combination of political, economic and military pressure. These trends increase the risk of erosion of political and legal commitments in the field of European security.
As a member of numerous international organisations, the Czech Republic has made security commitments to its allies. Current threats which the Czech Republic is directly or indirectly facing include terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems, cyber attacks, instability and regional conflicts in and around the Euro Atlantic area, organised crime and corruption, negative aspects of migration, threats to critical infrastructure, disruption of supplies of strategic raw materials and the consequences of natural disasters and industrial accidents.
These phenomena are significant in shaping security and foreign policy. A comprehensive approach that combines military and civilian instruments – including diplomatic and economic measures that make use of all international mechanisms – is becoming increasingly important.
