Department of International Relations and European Studies (EN)

• doc. Šárka Kolmašová, Ph.D.
  - Head of Department
  

  sarka.kolmasova@mup.cz

  Education & Work Experience

  • Doc in Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University
  • PhD in International Relations and European Studies; Metropolitan University Prague and Institute of International Relations
  • Specialization: Human rights, security, international relations

  Involvement in Other Institutions

  • 2020 – present: Board Member of the European Initiative for Security Studies
  • 2021 – 2022 (September - January) Visiting Research Scholar at the Department of Political Science and Legal Studies, Suffolk University, Boston
  • 2010 – 2016: Research Fellow; Institute of International Relations, Prague

  Expertise

  • Norms
  • Social networks
  • Human security
  • Central and Eastern Europe region
  • Anti-gender radicalism

  Major Publications and Projects

  • 2025–2027 Principal Investigator of the standard research project funded by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR), titled “The Transmission of Anti-Gender Radicalism among Right-Wing Parties, Movements, and Communities in V4 Countries,” project no. 25-15513S
  • 2025-2028 Working Group Leader in EU COST Action CA23149 “Democratization at stake? Comparing Anti-Gender Politics in CEE and NME countries (Antigender-Politics)”
  • 2020-2022 research project funded by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR), titled “Dynamics of Social Norms in International Order”, grant no. 20-07805S
  • Kolmašová, Šárka (2024) The Czech Republic: Human Rights Defender, Yet No R2P Champion, Nordic Journal of Human Rights, online first.
  • Kolmašová, Šárka (2023) How individuals shape informal institutions: Analyzing contending norm promotion in the Global South. Journal of International Relations and Development 26, 557–578 (2023) (with Michal Kolmas)
  • Kolmašová, Šárka (2023) Redefined, Repackaged and Redeployed: Diffusion of Citizen Security by the Inter-American Development Bank, in Kolmasova, S. and Reboredo R. (eds.) Norm Diffusion Beyond the West Agents and Sources of Leverage, Springer, pp. 145-164 (with Arlene B. Tickner)
  • Kolmašová Šárka (2023) Advocacy Networks and the Responsibility to Protect: The Politics of Norm Circulation, London: Routledge.
  • Kolmasova, S. (2022) Global Assemblage of the Responsibility to Protect, Globalizations, online first, DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2022.2065724
  • Kolmasova, S. and Krulisova, K. (2020) Vulnerable women and barbaric rapists: legitimisation of UN interventionism in Mali, African Security Review, 29(2), pp. 175-201.
  • Kolmasova, S. (2019) Competing Norms and Strategic Visions: A Critical Appraisal of V4 Security Potential, Europe-Asia Studies, 71(2), pp. 225-248.
  • Kolmas, M. and Kolmasova S. (2019) A ‘pivot’ that never existed: America’s Asian strategy under Obama and Trump, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 32(1), pp. 31-79.
  • Kolmasova, S. and Krulisova K. (2018) Legitimizing Military Action through “Rape-as-a-Weapon” Discourse in Libya: Critical Feminist Analysis, Politics & Gender, 15(1), pp. 130-150.
  • 2020-2022 Chief Investigator of the Standard Project “Dynamics of Social Norms in International Order”, grant no. 20-07805S, Czech Science Foundation.
  • 2016-2018 Researcher of the Standard Project “Anatomy of Revisionism and Its Impact on (Sub-) Regional Institutionalisations and Alliances”, grant no. 16-02288S, Czech Science Foundation.
• Ricardo Reboredo, Ph.D.
  - Deputy Head of Department
  

  ricardo.reboredo@mup.cz

  Education & Work Experience

  • 2020: PhD in Geography; Trinity College Dublin
  • 2014: MA in Geography; University of Miami

  Expertise

  • Geopolitics
  • Political Geography
  • International Political Economy
  • Global China
  • African State Formation and Transformation

  Major Publications and Projects

  • Gambino, E and Reboredo, R. 2024. Infrastructure, Time, and Labour: Movement and Suspension along the Abidjan-Lagos Corridor. Territory Politics and Governance.
  • Reboredo, R. and Carmody, P. 2024. Between Energy and Politics: Ruin, Renewal, and the Contours of State Power in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space.
  • Kolmasova, S. and Reboredo, R. 2023. Norm Diffusion Beyond the West: Agents and Sources of Leverage. Edited Volume. Springer.
  • Reboredo, R. and Gambino, E. 2022. Connectivity and Competition: The Emerging Geographies of Africa’s ‘Ports Race’. Area, Development, and Policy.
  • Reboredo, R. 2021. Rebuilding Hegemony: Passive Revolution, State Transformation, and South Africa’s Steel Sector. Review of African Political Economy.
  • Reboredo, R. 2021. Disaggregating Development: A Critical Analysis of Sino-African Megaprojects. Progress in Development Studies.
  • Carmody, P., Kragelund, P. and Reboredo, R. 2020. Africa’s Shadow Rise: China and the Mirage of African Economic Development. London: Zed Books Ltd.
  • Reboredo, R. and Brill, F. 2019. Between Global and Local: Urban Inter-Referencing and the Transformation of a Sino-South African Megaproject. China Perspectives. (4):9-16.
  • Owusu, F., Reboredo, R. and Carmody, P. 2019. Trumping Development: Selective Delinking and Governmentality in US-Africa Relations. Africa Today. 66(1): 2-27
• Ing. Vít Beneš, Ph.D.
  

  vit.benes@mup.cz

  Education & Work Experience

  • Ph.D. in International Relations, University of Economics, Prague
  • Master degree (Ing.), University of Economics, Prague

  Involvement in Other Institutions

  • Institute of International Relations Prague, researcher, editor-in-chief, journal Mezinárodní vztahy
  • Institut für Politische Wissenschaft, Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg, external lecturer
  • CERGE-EI Prague, external lecturer

  Expertise

  • political and institutional aspects of European integration, theories of European integration, methodology of political science research

  Major Publications and Projects

  • Beneš, Vít – Harnisch, Sebastian (2015): Role Theory in Symbolic Interactionism: Czech Republic, Germany and the EU. Cooperation and Conflict, Vol. 50, No. 1, s. 146-165.
  • Beneš, Vít (2016): Evropský rozměr české zahraniční politiky. In: Michal Kořan a kol.: Česká zahraniční politika v roce 2015: Analýza ÚMV. Praha: Ústav mezinárodních vztahů, 43–66.
  • "Czech EU Policy in the Light of the Role Theory". Postdoctoral project of the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic No. P408/12/P905.
• doc. Mats Rickard Braun, Ph.D.
  
  

  mats.braun@mup.cz

  Education & Work Experience

  • Named Associate Professor in political science – Södertörn University, Stockholm, Stockholm 1 November 2017.
  • Named Associate Professor in territorial studies – Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague 1 March 2017.
  • 2003–2008: Postgraduate studies in Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University Prague, dissertation defended: 30.6.2008,
  • 2002: Master of Political Science, Södertörn University College, Stockholm, Sweden

  Involvement in Other Institutions

  • Director of Institute of International Relations, Prague
  • 2017–2020: Senior Lecturer, Södertörn University, Sweden
  • Spring 2016: Lecturer, Dalarna University, Sweden
  • Fall 2015: Visiting Scholar - Cornell Institute for European Studies, Ithaca, US
  • 2005–2014: Senior Research Fellow, Institute of International Relations, Prague
  • 2010–2013 and 2013–2016: Member of the Executive Council of the Central and East European International Studies Association (CEEISA)
  • 2006–2013: Lecturer, the Anglo-American University in Prague
  • 2004–2007: Lecturer, Charles University, Faculty of Social Sciences, Prague
  • 2007–2014: Editor of Perspectives – Review of International Affairs

  Expertise

  • Comparative regionalism; European integration; the institutional structure of the EU; international relations of the environment; norms diffusion; socialization, subregional integration

  Major Publications and Projects

  • 2023-2025 Jean Monnet Chair in European Studies (101085454 — TSEW)
  • Braun, M. (2024). The European Union and the Eurasian Economic Union – three rationalities of interaction and the problem of non-democratic regionalism. Journal of European Integration, 1–20. Published on-line: September 2024. (Link)
  • Gromilova, A., & Braun, M. (2024). Competing Narratives of the Eurasian Economic Union. Europe-Asia Studies, 76(10), 1621–1643. https://doi.org/10.1080/09668136.2024.2420926
  • Kovaleska, O.; Braun, M. 2023. The EU's Green Peace Narrative and Russia: Russia's War in Ukraine in the EU's Climate Narrative. Czech Journal of International Relations. Vol. 58, issue 2. (Link)
  • Braun, M.; Gromilova, A.; Melnikovová, L. 2023. Understanding Economic Integration in the Eurasian Economic Union–the Relevance of Integration Theories. Journal of Contemporary European Studies. Published online: Mar 2023. (Link)
  • Gromilova, A.; Braun, M. 2022. The unwrapping of various understandings of statelessness in Latvian media discourse. New Perspectives. Vol. 30, issue 3, 210-229. (Link)
  • Research grant - 2021-2023: Integration within the Eurasian Economic Union from a post-functionalist perspective, Czech Science Foundation, Nr GA21-14665S (principal investigator)
  • Braun, M. (2021) The Politics of Regional Cooperation and the Impact on the European Union, A Study of Nordic Cooperation and the Visegrad Group. NEW HORIZONS IN EUROPEAN POLITICS, Edward Elgar Publishing, UK, pp.169, ISBN: 978 1 78990 645 5
  • Braun, M. (2021) The Czech Republic’s approach to the EU 2030 climate and energy framework, In: Climate Politics in Small European States, pp. 125-143, Routledge, UK. ISBN: 9780367639969
  • Braun, M. (2021) Why nationalism is not the right doctrine to combat climate change – A Central European perspective, New perspectives, Vol. 29(2), pp. 1-11, DOI: 10.1177/2336825X21100910
  • Braun, M. (2020) Postfunctionalism, Identity and the Visegrad Group. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 58(4): 925– 940. https://doi.org/10.1111/jcms.12994.
  • Braun, M. (2019) The Czech Republic’s approach to the EU 2030 climate and energy framework, Environmental Politics, Vol. 28(6), pp. 1105-1123, DOI: 10.1080/09644016.2019.1625139
  • Braun, M. (2014) Europeanization of Environmental Policy in the New Europe: Beyond Conditionality. Farnham: Ashgate.
  • Braun, M. (2014) ‘EU Climate Norms in East-Central Europe’. JCMS: Journal of Common Market Studies, 52(3), pp. 445-460.
• Mgr. Kateřina Březinová, Ph.D.
  

  katerina.brezinova@mup.cz

  Education & Work Experience

  • Ph.D. in History and Latin American Studies at Charles University in Prague.
  • El Colegio de México. Mexico. Department of International Studies. Diploma in international relations.
  • Institute of Latin American Studies. University of Texas, Austin, USA. Master’s programme in cultural anthropology & regional studies in Latin America.
  • Instituto Universitario de Investigación Ortega y Gasset, Spain:  postgraduate  programme  “Máster en América Latina Contemporánea”.

  Involvement in Other Institutions

  • 2007- now: “Transculturalidad, mestizaje y mundialización en la Época Contemporánea” at the Universidad Complutense, Madrid, I +D project of the Spanish Ministry of Culture and Innovation, Spain. Position: Research fellow.
  • 1997- now: European Union – Research and expertise. Within a number of EU projects in the developing countries: The Russian Federation, Mexico, Brazil. Focus on minority rights, diversity policies; international migration. Position: Researcher and key expert
  • 1999 – 2006: Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain. Position: Associate professor
  • 1998-1999: El Colegio de México, Mexico. Position: Professor-Research Fellow
  • 2011: Member of Latin American Studies Association,professional association for individuals and institutions engaged in the study of Latin America.

  Expertise

  • International relations with a territorial specialization in the Americas;
  • Latin America, Mexico, Brazil, USA;
  • International migration;

  Major Publications and Projects

  • Březinová, K: El imaginario chicano. La iconografía civil y política de los mexicanos en Estados Unidos de América 1965-2000. Monograph based on a research analyzing U.S. Mexican population’s identity politics. Upcoming by Charles University Press, Karolinum, 2014
  • Březinová, K: Turbines and Weapons for Latin America: Czechoslovak documentary film propaganda in the Cold War Context 1948-1989, in Cejiss 7:3 2013: Central European Journal of Security Studies. ISSN: 1802-548X Part of an ongoing research project on Czechoslovakia’s political and cultural engagements in Latin America in the second half of the 20th century.
  • Březinová, K.: Disrupt Thought and Destabilize Vision. Toward the representation of the Yanomami between art and anthropology in Fernandez del Campo, E., Riviere, H. (eds.): “The Ark of Babel. Artistic Theory and Practice in a Transcultural Perspective”. Madrid: ABADA Press, 2013.
• Ing. Anna Gromilova, Ph.D.
  

  anna.gromilova@mup.cz

  EDUCATION & WORK EXPERIENCE

  • PhD in International Relations and European Studies; Metropolitan University Prague
  • Exchange programme for PhD students; Université de Rennes 1, Faculté de droit et de science politique
  • Master’s Degree in International Politics and Diplomacy; University of Economics in Prague

  INVOLVEMENT IN OTHER INSTITUTIONS

  • 2014 – Traineeship; Institute of Geography at the University of Neuchâtel
  • 2013 – 2014: Visiting Research Associate; Queen’s University Belfast
  • 2012 – Program Coordinator, KU Leuven

  EXPERTISE

  • Post-Soviet space
  • Identity & norms studies
  • Minority rights
  • Political geography

  MAJOR PUBLICATIONS AND PROJECTS

  • Gromilova A. (2017). “Promoting Cyber Security: Estonia and Latvia as Norm-setters”, Analele Universităţii din Craiova. Istorie, Anul XXII, Nr. 1(31)
  • Braun, M., Avdic, A., Gromilova, A. & Ozel Volfova, G. (2017). "The EU’s Normative Impact on its Neighbourhood", Central European Journal of International and Security Studies (CEJISS). Vol 11, Issue 2: Red Lines, 2017, ISSN: 1802-548x
  • Gromilova, A. (2016), “Understanding the internalization of the EU’s minority rights norm in Estonia” in Braun, M (ed.) The diffusion of EU norms: minority rights, democracy and good governance in the EU and beyond, MUP Press;
  • Gromilova, A. (2016), "Resolving the Russo-Estonian Border Dispute in the Wake of the Ukrainian Crisis", Revista de Ştiinte Politice. Revue des Sciences Politiques, No. 51, 2016, (Online) - ISSN 2344 – 4452; ISSN–L 1584 – 224X;
• Emily Julia Hanson, Ph.D.
  

  emily.julia.hanson@mup.cz

  Education & Work Experience

  • 2020: PhD in Social Psychology; Washington University in St. Louis
  • 2014: MA in Psychology; Wake Forest University

  Involvement in Other Institutions

  • 2024-Present: Assistant Professor, Psychology Department, Charles University Faculty of Humanities
  • 2023-Present: Researcher, Charles University Environment Centre

  Expertise

  • Political Psychology
  • Social Identity
  • Gender-Based Violence
  • Public Policy

  Major Publications and Projects

  • 2025–2027 Investigator of the standard research project funded by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR), titled “The Transmission of Anti-Gender Radicalism among Right-Wing Parties, Movements, and Communities in V4 Countries,” project no. 25-15513S
  • Hanson, E., & Reboredo. R. (2024). From Disparity to Sustainability: Social Identity, Perceived Fairness, and Climate Cooperation. Czech Journal of International Relations.
  • Lambert, A., Eadeh, F., & Hanson, E. (2019). Anger and its Consequences for Judgment and Behavior: Recent Developments in Social and Political Psychology. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology.
  • Peak, S., Hanson, E., Eadeh, F., and Lambert, A. (2016). On the light versus dark side of empathy: Implications for intergroup dynamics in a diverse society. In W. Tate IV, N. Staudt, & A. Macrander (eds) The Crisis of Race in Higher Education: A Day of Discovery and Dialogue.
  • Campbell, J.B., Jayawickreme, E., & Hanson, E. (2014). Measures of Moral Personality. In G. Boyle (ed.). Handbook of Personality and Social Psychological Constructs. New York: Elsevier.
• prof. PhDr. RNDr. Nikola Hynek,
  M.A., PgDip Res, Ph.D.
  

  nikola.hynek@mup.cz

  Short bio

  Prof. Nik Hynek, PhD (Bradford), is a social scientist working across the range of disciplines, topics, and methods. His full professorship is in Political and Cultural Geography; habilitation in Theory of Politics; and PhD in Security Studies. He has background in social and natural sciences, namely political science, international relations, global security and development, geography, biology and psychology at the Masaryk University, the University of Plymouth, and the University of Bradford. For more than 15 years, he has worked at Metropolitan University Prague and Charles University in Prague. In the past, he worked within the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a researcher and established there a research centre on security. He was a visiting research scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at the Columbia University in New York; The London School of Economics and Political Science; Australian National University; PRIO; Carleton University in Ottawa; and Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto. His articles and books have appeared in many top-ranked scientific publishing houses. He has led many Czech and international externally-funded scientific grants.

  Prof. Hynek’s scientific articles and citations can be found on scholar.google.com

  Visit also Prof. Hynek’s Amazon Author Page (Monographs and Edited Volumes)

  Education and Qualification

  • 2019: Faculty of Science, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic, Full Professor (Prof. - Profesor), Full Professorship in Political and Cultural Geography, appointment by the President of the Czech Republic
  • 2013: Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia, Associate Professor (Assoc. - Docent), Habilitation in Theory of Politics.
  • 2008–2011: University of Bradford, UK, Ph.D. in Security Studies and International Politics - Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
  • 2009: Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia, PhDr. - Philosophiae Doctor, Doctor of Philosophy.
  • 2009: Faculty of Natural Sciences, University of Ostrava, Czech Republic, RNDr. - Rerum Naturalium Doctor, Doctor of Natural Sciences.
  • 2007–2008: University of Bradford, UK, Graduate School, PgDip Res - Postgraduate Diploma in Research Methods, with distinction.
  • 2005–2006: School of Sociology, Politics and Law, University of Plymouth, United Kingdom, M.A. - Master's Degree with Distinction, Global Security and Development
  • 2003–2005: FSS Masaryk University in Brno - B.Sc. - with distinction, in International Relations, European Studies and Political Science.
  • 1997–2003: Faculty of Education, Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, MSc (in Czech: Mgr.) - Master's degree with honours in Geography, Biology and Psychology and Pedagogy (Teacher Education, joint degree), red diploma.

  Professional experience (sample)

  • 9/2012–10/2012: Australian National University (ANU) - Research Stay at the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy
  • 2011–2016: Journal of International Relations and Development (JIRD), published by Palgrave Macmillan, WoS journal, official journal of the Central and East European International Studies Association, Co-Editor
  • 9/2008–9/2009: Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies (SIWPS), Columbia University in the City of New York, U.S.A., Position: Visiting Research Scholar (collaboration with Prof. Robert Jervis on nuclear deterrence)
  • 1/2008–1/2009: The London School of Economics and Political Science, United Kingdom, the BIOS Centre for the Study of Life Sciences and Society, Position: Visiting Research Fellow
  • 9/2008–10/2008: Ritsumeikan University, Japan - "Visiting Research Fellow", Faculty of International Relations, & Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), research stay connected to Japanese Human Security and Peacebuilding
  • 5/2007–5/2010: University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom, Department of Politics and International Relations; Position: Honorary Research Assistant
  • 4/2006–5/2006: Carleton University, Canada - "Visiting Research Fellow", Department of Political Science, & Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), Canada, research stay connected to Canada's New Security Typifications
  • From 9/2007 onwards: The Metropolitan University Prague, Czech Republic, Department of International Relations and European Studies, Position: Lecturer, 2013-2019: Associate Professor, since 2019: Full Professor
  • From 9/2008 onwards: Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, School of Social Sciences, Department of Security Studies, Graduate Programme in Security Studies, Position: Lecturer, 2013-2019: Associate Professor, since 2019: Full Professor
  • 1/2008–2/2013: Institute of International Relations (IIR) at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Prague, Czech Republic, Position: 2008-2010: Research Fellow; 2010-2013: Founder and Research Leader of the Centre for International Security (CIS IIR)
  • 9/2006–9/2008: Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, Department of Political Science (Strategic and Security Program) and Department of International Relations and European Studies, Position: Lecturer
• Marko Stojić, Ph.D.
  

  marko.stojic@mup.cz

  Education & Work Experience

  • PhD in Contemporary European Studies, School of Law, Politics and Sociology, University of Sussex, UK
  • MA in International Relations and European Studies, Department of International Relations and European Studies, Central European University, Hungary

  Involvement in Other Institutions

  • 2015-2017: Lecturer, Department of International and Economic Relations, University of New York in Prague
  • 2013-2016: Lecturer, Department of International Relations and European Studies, Masaryk University, Brno
  • Since 2015: Research Fellow, Europeum Institute for European Politics, Prague

  Expertise

  • European integration, EU enlargement, political parties in the Western Balkans, party-based Euroscepticism

  Major Publications and Projects

  • Anchoring or undermining democracy: The European People’s Party and democratic backsliding in Serbia, Journal of Common Market Studies 62(2), pp. 546-563 (2024)
  • Contesting the EU on the periphery in times of crisis: party-based Euroscepticism in Serbia'', East European Politics, 38(3), pp. 358-381 (2022)
  • Party responses to the EU in the Western Balkans: Transformation, opposition or defiance?, Palgrave Macmillan (2018).
  • Between core and peripheral politics: Opposing Europe in the Western Balkans, Europe-Asia Studies, 69(5), pp. 728-753 (2017)
  • Transformation or defiance: The impact of the European People’s Party on Serbian and Croatia parties, Czech Journal of Political Science, 2(15), pp. 147-167 (2015)
• Ing. Břetislav Tureček, Ph.D.
  

  bretislav.turecek@mup.cz

  Education & Work Experience

  • 2024 - PhD., cultural anthropology, Palacký University, Olomouc
  • 1988–1993 - Technical University of Transportation, Žilina, (Czecho)Slovakia

  Involvement in Other Institutions

  • 2013– - Permanent contributor for Lidové noviny newspaper, Czech Radio and Czech TV
  • 2008–2013: Permanent correspondent of the Czech Radio in the Middle East, Jerusalem
  • 2003–2007: Department of Middle Eastern Studies, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Western Bohemia, Plzeň
  • Member of the Academic Society of Alois Musil

  Expertise

  • Modern history, society and political development of the Middle East

  Major Publications and Projects

  • Mezi mýty a minarety (Between the Myths and Minarets, Jan Rovenský a kol., Filosofia 2018)
  • Blízký východ nad propastí (The Middle East on the Verge of Abyss, Knižní klub 2016)
  • Stíny minaretů (The Shadows of Minarets, Ondřej Beránek, Bronislav Ostřanský, eds., Academia 2016)
  • Labyrintem Íránu (Through Labyrinth of Iran, Knižní Klub 2013)
  • Nesvatá válka o Svatou zemi (Unholy War over the Holy Land, Knižní klub 2011, 2. edition Universum 2018), Egon Erwin Kisch Award for extraordinary non-fiction books)
  • Světla a stíny islámu (Lights and Shadows of Islam, Knižní klub, 2007, 2. edition 2017)

External Academics