Research projects

Horizon Europe: The project European Hub for Contemporary China (EuroHub4Sino)

The project began on 1^st October 2023 and will run for three years (1.10.2023-30.9.2026). Horizon Europe is administered under the guidance of the European Commission.

The project is called EuroHub4Sino – the goal is to research and disseminate information about China throughout the EU, building a network and increasing knowledge. The project will seek to reach not only scholars, but also journalists, diplomats, politicians and the general public. The project will research and publish a series of policy papers on a wide range of issues concerning China’s emerging global role. The consortium, which is led by a Belgian partner called Beyond the Horizon (based in Brussels), will establish a database for synthesising information on China in one place. After three years, the database and networks of researchers will be developed so that the project can be continued into the future. Other partners in the project include Warwick University in the UK, Chatham House (London), Heidelberg University, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, and the Institute for Security & Development Policy in Stockholm, Sweden. VŠE’s part of the project is to research China’s role in global governance and multilateral institutions.

GAČR project: “China’s regionalising normative influence in Asia and Europe”

Registration number: 22-12355S

Implementation period: 1st January 2022 – 31st December 2024

Team Leader: doc. Jeremy Alan Garlick, M.A., Ph.D. (Jan Masaryk Centre for International Studies, Prague University of Economics and Business)

The project aims to examine China’s attempts to generate regionalising normative influence in the five regions of Asia and Europe central to the Belt and Road Initiative: Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Abstract: This project aims to use the concept of normative power to analyse China’s regionalising foreign policy under the umbrella of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), specifically in five regions of Asia and Europe: Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. Norm-setting attempts to shape relations with other states take the form of the introduction of regional platforms for cooperation. These regional cooperation platforms are intended to encourage the formation of a ‘community of practice’ through the recognition and renegotiation of practices introduced by China. However, the degree to which practices and norms introduced by China are accepted by regional actors is likely to vary across regions, necessitating comparative analysis to draw out the similarities and differences.

GAČR project: „The energy discourse of the European Commission and the European Parliament and its impact on the Member States“.

Registration number: 21-04317S

Implementation period: 1st January 2021 – 31st December 2023

Research Team: Ing. Zbyněk Dubský, Ph.D. (the team leader: Mgr. et Mgr. Lukáš Tichý, Ph.D. from the Institure of International Relations)

The aim of the project is to provide a comprehensive conceptual approach to the study of the transmission and convergence of energy discourses of the EU and the Member States. The project answers the main question: Why do Member States’ energy policy reforms go beyond the EU legislative framework?

Abstract: Changes in the energy policies of the EU Member States cannot be explained only by the pressure exerted by EU legislation or more generally by research into the formal powers of the EU institutions in this area. This project focuses on examining the impact of the EU energy discourse (especially with regard to energy security) on selected EU Member States (Czech Republic, Germany, France, Italy and Sweden) in the period 2014-2022 using a discourse-historical approach. We argue that the analysis of the interaction between the energy discourses of the European institutions (specifically the European Commission and the European Parliament) and the energy discourses of the Member States explains fundamental changes in Member States’ view of the need for energy policy changes (such as changes in the energy mix).

GAČR project: China’s multifaceted economic diplomacy in the era of the Belt and Road

Standard project of the Czech Science Foundation (also known as the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic, GA ČR).

Registration number: 19-01809S

Implementation Period: 1st January 2019 – 31st December 2021

Team Leader: doc. Jeremy Alan Garlick, M.A., Ph.D. (Jan Masaryk Centre for International Studies, Prague University of Economics and Business)

Team member: Gaziza Shakhanova, Ph.D. (Jan Masaryk Centre for International Studies, Prague University of Economics and Business)

The aim of the project is to examine China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) as a coordinated strategy of multifaceted economic diplomacy intended to gain geo-economic and geopolitical influence in Asia and Europe. This theoretical framework will be analysed using data obtained from selected countries of each BRI region.

Abstract: The project analyses China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI, also called ‘One Belt, One Road’ or China’s New Silk Road), President Xi Jinping’s flagship foreign policy initiative since 2013, via a theoretical framework of state-led, coordinated, multifaceted economic diplomacy in which three main strategic tools are utilised to achieve the initiative’s three primary goals. The three primary goals are: (i) expanding China’s geopolitical and geo-economic influence in developing countries across Asia and Europe; (ii) providing an outlet for Chinese companies competing in an overcrowded domestic market; and (iii) sustaining China’s economic growth and economic security. The three strategic tools are: (i) infrastructure construction by Chinese companies; (ii) loan financing from Chinese state banks; and (iii) a state-led soft power ‘charm offensive’. The framework will be applied to examination of texts and data relating to Chinese policy and investment in selected countries in each BRI region (Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia).