https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5336-6733
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Abstract
In 2015 and 2017 the Czech Republic adopted two strategic documents that were aimed to support Czech nationals in positions within international organisations (IOs). In this article, we explore the rationale of the Czech government in doing so. Considering the Czech Republic as a small state, we approached the question from the perspective of status-seeking and observed the mechanisms of personnel support in selected IOs. We argue that the policy of promoting nationals in the ranks of prioritised IOs was intended to enhance the country’s international status and also formed part of domestic legitimation games.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank Tomáš Doležal, Zbynek Dubský, Zuzana Kasáková, Katerina Kocí and Anna Lukešová for their input.
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Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
Notes
1 The committee is a platform within the Office of the Government presided over by the prime minister. It meets weekly and formulates instructions and mandates for all Committees of Permanent Representatives (COREPERs) and meetings of the EU Council of the European Union at ministerial level and summits of the European Council. Compared to other EU member states, the coordination of EU policy in the Czech Republic is highly centralised; thus, the Office of the Government is directly interested in the personnel policy of EU institutions (Šlosarčík & Weiss Citation2020, pp. 25–6).
2 ‘Česká republika má ucelenou strategii podpory Čechů v institucích EU’, Office of the Government, 2 March 2015, available at: https://www.vlada.cz/cz/evropske-zalezitosti/aktualne/ceska-republika-ma-ucelenou-strategii-podpory-cechu-v-institucich-eu-127584, accessed 23 June 2021. The official title of the document is ‘Strategie na podporu Čechů v institucích EU’, available at: https://www.dataplan.info/img_upload/7bdb1584e3b8a53d337518d988763f8d/usneseni_6_strategie_podpory_cechu_instituce_eu.pdf, accessed 23 June 2021.
3 The title of the strategy was updated to ‘Strategie podpory Čechů v institucích EU: Nová koncepce pro období 2018–2020 a Revidovaný akční plán’, available at: https://www.dataplan.info/img_upload/7bdb1584e3b8a53d337518d988763f8d/usneseni_11_cesi_inst_eu_zprava_15-17_nova_koncepce_18-20.pdf, accessed 23 June 2021.
4 The official title is ‘Strategie pro uplatňování českých občanů v mezinárodních organizacích’, available at: https://apps.odok.cz/attachment/-/down/IHOAAQNHDFNA, accessed 23 June 2021.
5 The priority IOs are the United Nations (UN), the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Council of Europe (CoE), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Health Organization (WHO), the International Labor Organization (ILO), the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, World Heritage Fund and Intangible Cultural Heritage Fund (UNESCO), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank Group (WB), the International Criminal Court (ICC), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
6 Národní kontaktní místo (NKM), available at: https://www.mzv.cz/jnp/cz/o_ministerstvu/prace_v_mezinarodnich_org/index.html, accessed 20 September 2022.
7 The selected cases include the European External Action Service (EEAS), Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), European Court for Human Rights (ECHR), International Criminal Court (ICC), United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), International Olympic Committee (IOC), International Monetary Fund (IMF), Organization for Cooperation and Economic Development (OECD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
8 On postmodernism in international politics see Cooper (Citation2000).
9 ‘2010/427/EU: Council Decision of 26 July 2010 Establishing the Organisation and Functioning of the European External Action Service’, available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=celex%3A32010D0427, accessed 23 June 2021.
10 See the Appendix for details about interviewees. See also Formuszewicz and Kumoch (Citation2010).
11 Interviews 1 and 2, Czech nationals in the EEAS, Brussels, 24 September 2018; Interviews 3 and 4, Czech nationals in the EEAS, Brussels, 25 September 2018.
12 Interview 3, Czech national in the EEAS, Brussels, 25 September 2018.
13 See also Šůsová (Citation2020).
14 This has been a slogan of Czech political parties ranging from the right-wing Civic Democrats (Občanská demokratická strana—ODS) to the centrist, techno-populist ANO (Akce nespokojených občanů) and the left-leaning Social Democrats (Česká strana sociálně demokratická—ČSSD).
15 ‘Hybášková je šéfkou delegace EU v Iráku’, Česká televise, 25 February 2011, available at: https://ct24.ceskatelevize.cz/domaci/1282478-hybaskova-je-sefkou-delegace-eu-v-iraku, accessed 23 June 2021.
16 See the EEAS human resources reports 2014–2019, available at: https://eeas.europa.eu/headquarters/headquarters-homepage/3618/eeas-human-resources-reports_en, accessed 4 July 2022.
17 Interview 6, civil servant, Czech Permanent Representation, Brussels, 26 September 2018.
18 For example, African states have often been critical of the International Criminal Court, as noted in Ainley (Citation2011, pp. 319–23).
19 See the CJEU judgment C-284/16 Achmea, available at: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=199968&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=29109, accessed 23 September 2022; or the CJEU opinion 2/13 on the accession of the EU to European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, available at: https://curia.europa.eu/juris/document/document.jsf?text=&docid=160882&pageIndex=0&doclang=EN&mode=lst&dir=&occ=first&part=1&cid=35513, accessed 23 September 2022.
20 Interview 9, civil servant, EU Law Department of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prague, 29 January 2019.
21 Interview 10, civil servant, Department of International Law of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prague, 7 February 2019.
22 Interview 10, civil servant, Department of International Law of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prague, 7 February 2019.
23 ‘Strategie pro uplatňování českých občanů v mezinárodních organizacích’, available at: https://apps.odok.cz/attachment/-/down/IHOAAQNHDFNA, accessed 23 June 2021.
24 Interview 12, Vice-president of Czech Olympic Committee (ČOV) representative, Prague, 10 January 2019.
25 See Czech Tourism Strategy, #CzechTourism, available at: https://www.czechtourism.cz/cs-CZ/O-nas/Zakladni-informace/Strategie-a-koncepce, accessed 23 September 2022.
26 Interview 11, Head of Czech delegation, Permanent Delegation of the Czech Republic to UNESCO, Paris, 4 December 2018.
27 See, https://www.olympic.org/ioc-members-list, accessed 23 June 2021.
28 See, Global Sport Political Power Index, 2019 edition, available at: https://www.dif.dk/en/politik/nyheder/powerindex, accessed 23 June 2021.
29 Interview 11, Head of Czech delegation, Permanent Delegation of the Czech Republic to UNESCO, Paris, 4 December 2018.
30 Interview 14, Czech diplomat, Permanent Mission in Geneva, 28 November 2018.
31 Interviews: 13, senior Czech diplomat at the Permanent Mission in Geneva, 29 November 2018; 14, Czech diplomat, Permanent Mission in Geneva, 28 November 2018; 15, former Czech diplomat, Permanent Mission in Geneva, 29 November 2018.
32 The Czech contribution to the WTO budget stands at approximately 0.7% of the total (World Trade Organization Citation2018, p. 200).
33 Interviews: 13, senior Czech diplomat, Permanent Mission in Geneva, 29 November 2018; 14, Czech diplomat, Permanent Mission in Geneva, 28 November 2018; 15, former Czech diplomat, Permanent Mission in Geneva, 29 November 2018.
34 ‘České sklo v Ženevě’, 30 October 2017, Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations Office and other International Organisations at Geneva, available at: https://www.mzv.cz/mission.geneva/cz/svetovy_obchod/ceske_sklo_v_zeneve_2.html, accessed 23 June 2021; ‘České sklo získalo další zakázku pro mezinárodní organizaci’, Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the United Nations Office and other International Organisations at Geneva, 21 November 2018, available at: https://www.mzv.cz/mission.geneva/cz/svetovy_obchod/ceske_sklo_ziskalo_dalsi_zakazku_pro.html, accessed 23 June 2021.
35 Interviews: 19, former Czech representative, constituency office of the IMF, Prague, 17 September 2019; 20, email correspondence with Czech employee (managerial level), IMF, 3 September 2019.
36 Indeed, one respondent spoke of a ‘Chinese Wall’ separating the staff and constituencies. Interview 21, email correspondence with Czech employee (researcher position), IMF, 5 September 2019.
37 Interviews: 20, email correspondence with Czech employee (managerial level), IMF, 3 September 2019; 21, email correspondence with Czech employee (researcher position), IMF, 5 September 2019.
38 For governance purposes, IMF member states are organised in 24 single- or multi-member groups called constituencies, each of which appoints one of the Fund’s 24 Executive Directors. At the time of writing, the Czech Republic was a member of the Central and Eastern European constituency together with Austria, Belarus, Hungary, Kosovo, Slovakia, Slovenia and Turkey.
39 The authors would like to gratefully acknowledge the contribution of Tomáš Doležal who carried out the original research on Czech nationals in OECD structures (see also Kočí et al. Citation2021). Interviews: 26, former Czech employee (managerial level), OECD, Prague, 19 March 2019; 27, Czech diplomat, telephone, 28 November 2019; 28, Czech employee (expert level), OECD, telephone, 7 July 2019; 29, former Czech employee (managerial level), OECD, Prague, 25 June 2019; 30, former Czech employee (expert level), OECD, Prague, 21 June 2019.
40 Interviews: 26, former Czech employee (managerial level), OECD, Prague, 19 March 2019; 27, Czech diplomat, telephone, 28 November 2019; 28, Czech employee (expert level), OECD, telephone, 7 July 2019; 29, former Czech employee (managerial level), OECD, Prague, 25 June 2019; 30, former Czech employee (expert level), OECD, Prague, 21 June 2019; 31, Czech official formerly seconded with the OECD, Prague, 22 May 2019.
41 For instance, interview 31, Czech official formerly seconded with the OECD, Prague, 22 May 2019.
42 Interviews: 26, former Czech employee (managerial level), OECD, Prague, 19 March 2019; 27, Czech diplomat, telephone, 28 November 2019; 28, Czech employee (expert level), OECD, telephone, 7 July 2019; 29, former Czech employee (managerial level), OECD, Prague, 25 June 2019; 30, former Czech employee (expert level), OECD, Prague, 21 June 2019.
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Notes on contributors
Jan Hornát
Jan Hornát, Department of North American Studies, Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Pekařská 10a, 158 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic. Email: [email protected]
Ivo Šlosarčík
Ivo Šlosarčík, Department of European Studies, Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Pekařská 10a, 158 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic. Email: [email protected]
Eliška Tomalová
Eliška Tomalová, Department of European Studies, Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Pekařská 10a, 158 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic. Email: [email protected]
Jan Váška
Jan Váška, Department of European Studies, Institute of International Studies, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Pekařská 10a, 158 00 Prague 5, Czech Republic. Email: [email protected]