Suchergebnisse

This article aims to analyze the phenomenon of African piracy from the beginning of 90's until nowadays. The beginning of the article is dedicated to a detailed overview of piracy and the number of piracy attacks in previous decades. The following part is focused on the relationship between security challenges in an African context and the phenomenon of piracy which represents one of the many security problems that Africa now faces. The last part aims to present some strategies of selected regional African key players which have taken up a fight against piracy, trying to eliminate it through their own actions. The African Union has been selected as the most influential Pan-African organization in leading African counter-piracy politics; Southern, Eastern and Western African regional organizations have also been selected as key players in building their own counter-piracy strategies in their regions.

This text aims to analyze security cooperation in the Southern African Development Community. The article is based on two theoretical approaches, the first one is a concept of security community, the second one is a human security. Both theories have become widely accepted in the early 1990s because of their ability to cover wider international changes. The Southern African Development Community is seen as a regional integration plan which aspires to become a security community in Karl Deutsch's sense. Beside the both mentioned theories, the text deals with the history of security cooperation in the south of Africa and its changes. The main discussed question is wheher the SADC could be understood as a newly emerging security community.

This study deals with the issue of development relations between China and Africa in the context of the Beijing concensus. It attempts to provide an analysis of Chinese foreign policy since the beginning of the 90's. The text is divided into three basic parts. The first contains discussion on the theories of development, including the main features of the (post)Washington concensus based on liberalism, decentralization and privatization, followed by the Beijing concensus representing the counter-paradigm. The second focuses on the historical roots of bilateral relations since the beginning of the 20th century until the end of the Cold War. TAZARA, the Tanzania-Zambia railway built by China is chosen as the most representative example of Chinese foreign policy during the Cold War period. The last part deals with current relations influenced by Chinese oil diplomacy and the so-called one-China policy. Sudan and Angola are chosen as significant examples of African states in which China is involved.

However obsolete it may appear in the environment of the post-1989 Czech Republic, dissident activity has left its imprint on Czech society and politics. In Czech foreign policy, there is something like a dissident tradition, which dissidents themselves seem to uphold. In the Czech foreign policy process, there exists an explicit mechanism that has incorporated the dissident tradition, which, in quite a few cases, has affected policy outcomes. The introduction of the dissident tradition into Czech foreign policy was facilitated by the dissidents' great concern for foreign policy and for human rights issues, and, in particular, for human rights issues outside the Czech Republic. We present evidence that dissidents have been concerned with foreign policy and with human rights issues by analyzing the membership of parliamentary committees of both chambers of the Parliament as well as the dissidents' activities in the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. Significantly, when activities tied to the dissident tradition emerge in the Parliament, the initiators of such activities are always (although not exclusively) dissidents; the opponents, always nondissidents.

The article presents a critical evaluation of the concepts of human development and weak statehood and outlines the relationship between them. It is argued that weak statehood has a very significant impact on the success of development strategies even if they stem from human development goals. For example, weak statehood has a direct effect on the provision or non-provision of public goods by the state. Therefore, connecting these concepts provides a perspective for analyzing various issues linked to implementation of development strategies. In conclusion, the article presents the concept of 'functional networking' as a tool for development in the anarchic environment of weak statehood. Functional networking is based on placing unmistakable emphasis on the development of individuals (daily livelihood of families), acceptance of Amartya Sen's condition of the freedom of individuals in terms of decision and opportunity, and the involvement of civil society.