International Institute for Political Studies

As in previous years, the activities of the International Institute for Political Studies in the year 2000 focused on the development of conference and publishing activities, the majority of which was conducted with the support of its two major foreign partners: The Konrad Adenauer Foundation (Germany) and the Het Parool Foundation (The Netherlands).

At the end of March, the Institute launched a series of seminars (spread over several months) called ”The Year in NATO”. Its objective was to inform professionals and the public on various aspects directly or indirectly related to the involvement of the Czech Republic in NATO. The series included, among others, the following papers: "The Diplomatic Agenda of NATO" (Petr Mooz, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic), "Common European Foreign and Security Policies, the Prospects of Relationships between the EU and NATO" (Radek Khol, the Institute of International Relations, Prague), "Czech Political Parties and the Kosovo Conflict" (Miroslav Mareš, The Department of Political Studies, SchSS MU) and "Slovak Candidacy to Join NATO" (Pavol Lukáš, Slovak Society for Foreign Policy, Bratislava).

In March, the Institute, together with the Department of Social Studies of the SchSS MU, played host to Miklós Vörös from the University of Chicago who on this occasion held a lecture at SchSS on Identities and Identity Politics: Perspectives in Anthropology and Cultural Studies.

In mid-May the Institute, together with the Cabinet of the Integrated Genre Typology at the Institute of Slavonic Languages of FA MU, organised a two-day conference, The Theory of Area Studies in the European Context, the aim of which was to evaluate the prospects of establishing a new inter-disciplinary subject linking political, social and culture studies and philology.

On 30 May, a conference was held under the title Ethnic Minorities and Minority Policy in the Czech Republic, generally following the conference held in 1999 related to nationalist political parties in Europe. The conference, which was met with interest not only from professionals but also minority organisations, focused on the conceptual changes in minority policies in the Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria and Slovakia in the 90s.

In June, the Institute organised a course, Integration of the Czech Republic in the European Union, designed as one of the projects focused on the education of staff in state and local administration as well as courts in terms of European integration. The course focused on explaining basis topics such as the development of European integration, institutional foundations of European Communities, and the individual pillars of the EU as described in the Maastricht and Amsterdam Agreements. The course was met with considerable interest particularly from the representatives of district authorities who appreciated it as a suitable tool for educating the staff working in departments which, in the future, will be in charge of contacts with EU bodies.

This course was followed by a one-day seminar, Structural Funds of the European Union, at which German speaker, Dr. Gotthard Sonntag from the Saxon Ministry of Economics and Work informed participants about the experience of the former East-German countries and the use of EU regional policy tools.

On 29-30 September, the IIPS organised, together with the Czech Society for Political Sciences, The First National Congress of Political Scientists in the Czech Republic which, in terms of its extent, represented a unique event in the Czech Republic: almost one hundred political scientists and other professionals from related fields presented papers at the congress, not only from the Czech Republic but also from Slovakia, the Netherlands and the US.

At the congress, the Institute celebrated its 10th anniversary. In his opening speech, Head of the Institute, Associated Professor Petr Fiala, briefly summarised the Institute’s activities from its establishment in 1990 and remembered the merits of its founders, Dr. Bohanes, Professor Gaďourek (the Netherlands), Dr. Kessler, Dr. Novák and Professor Povolný (USA).

In November, the institute participated with the Department of Institutional Law and Political Studies of the MU Faculty of Law, in organising a conference called Basic Human Rights and the Rule of Law in the Constitutional Cord Case Law. The objective of the conference was invite prominent specialists from the Czech Republic and Slovakia to carry out an implicit comparison of the differences in the judicature of institutional courts in the Czech Republic and Slovakia from the point of view of the application of legal doctrines on the application of basic human rights and individual concepts of the rule of law.

In 2000, the Institute continued to publish the quarterly Politický časopis (Political Journal) and the bi-monthly Politika v České republice (Politics in the Czech Republic). It further developed the concept of the first reviewed Internet journal of political studies entitled Středoevropské politické studie (Central European Political Studies Reviews).

The Institute also published various materials in its various editions. The Proceedings Edition included Dančák, B. - Šimíček, V (eds.): Fundamental Human Rights and the Rule of Law in the Judicature of Institutional Courts, Dančák, B. - Fiala, P (eds.): Ethnic Policy in Post-Communist Countries. The Monographs included: Fiala, P. - Holzer, J. - Mareš, M. - Pšeja, P.: Communism in the Czech Republic, and the Studies included Holzer, J. (ed.): Communist Parties in Post-Soviet Party and Political Structures; Strmiska, M. (ed.) “Armed Opposition”. A study of Subversive Terrorism; and Baňouch, H. - Fedorko, M. (eds.): International Organisations.