News from AMO

The Conference Future of the Transatlantic Bond

On Thursday 13th of September 2018, a public conference Future of the Transatlantic Bond was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Czernin Palace. The aim of the conference was not only to commemorate 100 years of Czech-American relations, but to talk about their future. The conference brought together prominent experts from Czech Republic such as General Petr Pavel; President and CEO of General Electric Czech Republic and Slovakia Milan Šlapák and MEP Miroslav Poche. Foreign analysts and experts were represented by Ian Brzezinski, Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council of Washington, former deputy NATO Secretary General Alexander Vershbow, and Jack Spencer from the American conservative think tank Heritage Foundation. This event was co-organized by AMO, Konrad Adenauer-Stiftung and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic in cooperation with the US Embassy in the Czech Republic.

Ambassadors of the Czech Republic 2018 – Infographics

On the occasion of the annual meeting of Czech ambassadors in Prague in the end of august, AMO has released our regular review as an analysis of the diplomatic corps for the fifth time, including clear infographics. On this occasion, Vít Borčany commented for the Týdeník Respekt on this annual meeting. Borčany observes that although the debate on the occupation of the highest diplomatic posts is not as busy as in the past, several interesting shifts have taken place. For example, new embassy posts have been opened and certain individuals have been sent to missions without previous diplomatic experience. On top of that, the relative representation of women stagnated.

ChinfluenCE Roundtable: The Extent and Kind of China’s Influence in Central Europe

ChinfluenCE authorsMatej Šimalčík and Ivana Karásková published a briefing papersummarizing views and comments of participants of the closed roundtable held on April 20, 2018, in Bratislava, Slovakia. The event constituted of Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Polish, Serbian and Slovak NGO practitioners, academics, business analysts, journalists, and politicians, aim of which was to discuss China in Central Europe and its impact on economy, politics, media and civil society.

Digital New Deal: Researching V4’s Strategies for Society 4.0 

The new concept of a future 4.0 factory was presented at the Hannover trade fair for the first time already in 2011. It promised a new way of production that will be flexible, effective and ready to mass produce individualized products with lower demand for a human labour force. The opening research paper of the project Digital New Deal for V4 consists of four country reports with SWOT analyses identifying Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for Hungary, Poland, the Slovak Republic and the Czech Republic in regards to their transformation to Industry/Society 4.0. The report from the Czech Republic comes from our own Kryštof Kruliš.  

EVENT: Digital V4: What is the fate of our region in times of new technologies?

Association for International Affairs (AMO) with support of the International Visegrad Fund and the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom would like to invite you to the presentation of a new study focused on the impact of new technologies on the Visegrad Group states until 2030, followed by an expert discussion. This paper will be presented in all of the V4 countries starting with Prague on the 23rd of October 2018.

China, the 16+1 format and the EU

The new European Parliamentary Research Service’s report assesses recent developments in 16+1 and Chinese FDI to the region of Central and Eastern Europe. The paper mentions ChinfluenCE as a new initiative dedicated to analyzing the Chinese impact in the region.

Illiberalism in the V4: Pressure Points and Bright Spots

Study Illiberalism in the V4: Pressure Points and Bright Spots has been published in May 2018. One of the authors of this study is our Research Director Vít Dostál. The study’s is to systematically analyse and compare illiberal tendencies and patterns in the Visegrád countries mainly in Hungary and Poland but with an outlook on the Czech Republic and Slovakia as well. The main goal of the study is to identify the potential of illiberal system-building in the Visegrád countries and its limits based on the following aspects, among others checks and balances, constitutional arrangements or centralization of power.

Strategic and economic importance of sub-Saharan Africa for the United States and the West

Ivan Lukáš wrote a study about strategic and economic importance of sub-Saharan Africa for the United States and the West. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the security/strategic and economic importance of the sub-Saharan region for the United States and the West, which does not appear to be currently fully appreciated by many western policy makers and general public.