République tchèque : d'un atlantisme hésitant à un processus d' "européanisation" ?
La dernière note publiée par l'institut tchèque d'études européennes EUROPEUM, signée V?ra ?ihá?ková, est consacrée à l'étude des rapports qu'entretiennent la classe politique et l'opinion publique tchèques à l'égard des Etats-Unis.
La dernière note publiée par l’institut tchèque d’études européennes EUROPEUM, signée V?ra ?ihá?ková, est consacrée à l’étude des rapports qu’entretiennent la classe politique et l’opinion publique tchèques à l’égard des Etats-Unis.
Acknowledgement: This paper was written as part of the project « Perception of the United States in Central Europe », conducted by the Institute of Public Affairs, Warsaw and supported by the German Marshall Fund of the United States.
The CEE countries have undergone major developments since the regime change at the end of 1980´s. Their process of democratization brought about « emancipation » in international relations boosted by their membership in NATO1 and EU2 on the same footing as their Western tutors. At the same time, they have been gradually redefining their transatlantic policy balancing most notably prior to the war in Iraq between Washington and several major EU capitals. Despite the inconveniency of drawing new cleavages in Europe3 and concerns that their support could jeopardize the EU accession, all CEE countries displayed solidarity with the U.S. Yet in case of the Czech Republic, the formulation of her policy on the Iraq crisis was extremely difficult with public opinion and part of the political parties opposing any participation and support to the operations of the U.S. led coalition. Even though the Iraq case was unprecedented event in the history of transatlantic relations and Euro–Atlantic community (Král, Pachta, 2005), the European split over the issue went far beyond the merits of the military operation, it showed different approaches to the transatlantic link, namely in terms of security. One group of countries, which believes their security ultimately depends on the United States, was labeled instinctive Atlanticists4, encompassing the UK, Netherlands, Italy and the EU member states from central and Eastern Europe. The other, which includes France, Belgium and Germany, wants an autonomous European defence identity as a key to achieving a multipolar world.
This paper focuses on the perception of the United States in the Czech Republic assessing public image of the U.S., depicting significant patterns in public discourse and variables influencing the U.S.–Czech relations. It argues that the Czech Republic is instinctive but hesitant Atlanticist, her transatlantic policy is agenda–dependent and the setting of ruling government, i.e. which coalition of political parties is in power, is of key importance. It also assumes that the future relations with the U.S. are likely to be based on pragmatic choices, not history or emotional ties (Bugajski, Teleki, 2005) – despite the efforts some of the Czech elites – such as ex–President Václav Havel, evolve in order to keep the memory of U.S. assistance in eradicating communism and building democratic system.
When it comes to the hard security issues, NATO and transatlantic partnership is seen as vital. Nevertheless, the Czech Republic will try to avoid any situation similar to the crisis over Iraq. It is unlikely she would participate in any other ad–hoc coalition under the U.S. leadership since the possibility of influencing its policy is close to zero5. Even the United Kingdom, the closest ally of the U.S. in Europe, did not score any points over Iraq in this sense. This leads to the last assumption on the likelihood of “Europeanization” of the Czech foreign policy. With the EU accession, the Czech Republic increased its potential to influence the international developments in the framework of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). It is likely the Czech foreign policy will become more closely aligned with the EU counterparts. The readiness to do so depends on several variables, most notably on the future development of the European integration and CFSP as such and second, which political parties will be in power. This paper focuses most notably on the second variable. There might be a tendency to strengthen the transatlantic link after the next general elections6 in the Czech Republic, nevertheless, further “Europeanization” of Czech foreign policy is seen as inevitable.
