When could new “potent small states” emerge? A case of the Czech Republic Paper prepared for the 7th Pan-European International Relations Conference, Stockholm 9-11 September 2010 (draft version) Stepanka Zemanova, University of Economics, Prague Introduction More than twenty years ago, at the end of the Cold War, a book titled „ Impotent Superpower - Potent Small State“ (1988), written by a Norwegian scholar, diplomat and human rights field-worker and activist Jan Egeland,1 explored the capabilities of West European small states to develop effective foreign policies within the field of human rights protection. Based on a comparison of Norway, as an example of a small state constrained by its scarce resources and political power, and the USA that could capitalize on both political and economic strengths, it concluded that it seemed justified to ask “whether traditional assumptions of a positive correlation between economic, military and diplomatic resources on the one hand, and ability to influence external human rights situations, on the other, are wrong” (p. 3). When answering the question it brought an optimistic conclusion that, despite constraints deriving from the smallness, small states may possess a potential of promoting international human rights, be able to get results both at bilateral and at multilateral level and contribute to positive changes in various parts of the world. Since the end of the Cold War the group of states promoting human rights in their foreign affairs has not been limited to Western ones any more. Some new democracies have been trying to join their path, too. E.g. the Czech Republic has been developing human rights and humanitarian policies since the peaceful split of Czechoslovakia in 1993. In so doing she has been capitalizing on a long humanist tradition in the Czech and Czechoslovak foreign policy as well as on its own totalitarian experience, that was brought to an end by a velvet coup d’état in the late 1989. However, is the long humanist tradition combined with 1 Egeland’s career includes e. g. the service as State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Secretary General of the Norwegian Red Cross o Chair of Amnesty International in Norway, and Vice-Chair of the International Executive Committee of Amnesty International or director of the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs. Potent small states more than 40 years lasting non-democratic experience sufficient to create preconditions for successful human rights promotion and humanitarian solutions in the Czech foreign policy? Can it really help the Czech Republic to join the club of reputable “potent small states” that has been dominated by Western nations such as the Scandinavian countries and Netherlands so far? To answer these questions is the aim of the following paper. The paper consists of two main parts. Part 1(sections 1.1 – 1.3) addresses the issue of potent small state theoretically. It elaborates the concept of potency from various perspectives in order to identify its basic components that can be used for case studies. Part 2 (sections 2.1-2.4) applies the detected criteria on the Czech human rights foreign policy, discusses its strengths and weaknesses and attempt to asses whether it could become a potent small state along the lines of Norway or the Netherlands in future. 1. Potent small states from a theoretical perspective 1.1 Why is a “potent small state” “small” and “potent”? The term “potent small state” used by Egeland for the first time in an article of 1984 combines a classic concept of political science and the theory of international relations - “smallness” of a state - with a new element of “potency”. Smallness is an integral part of scholarship on states and their capabilities since the 18th century. Nowadays it is usually identified with limited resources and limited power that constrain possible foreign policy activities and choices. It may be characterized by several objective quantitative categories reflecting either physical size (number of inhabitants, size of the territory) or economic performance (gross domestic product) of a state as well as by subjective criteria including the fact whether a state is perceived or perceives itself to be small. In addition, it is possible to define small states negatively as those who simply do not fall to the category of great powers, middle powers or micro-states (Neumann – Gstöhl 2006: 4-17). As far as the main topic of this paper is concerned, smallness appears as an endogenous, predetermined and almost stable category which does not need to be a subject of a debate. The question is whether new small Central or East European democracies, such as the Czech Republic, can became “potent” or whether they can achieve such results and recognition as e.g. Norway and other Nordic states or Netherlands do in the field of human rights protection. 2 Potent small states Unlike smallness, potency is a category newly introduced by Egeland, but also mentioned by other authors under different names such as effectiveness and sufficiency, purposiveness Hasenkamp 2004: 1,336; Landmann2006: 126). Egeland defines in his book (1988: 5) potency rather implicitly when speaking about “a potential for promoting international human rights” and for undertaking of a “long-term human rights campaign for international human rights standards” that are, despite the modest small-state standards, consistent, effective and “perceived as credible and worth of support”. In his earlier article on the topic he elaborates the concept more thoroughly as “a combination of two factors: a) the most effective influence on actual behaviour where and when it is most needed, and b) the most efficient use of the global stock of material and political resources for human rights work” (Egeland 1984:208) that is “perceived as morally just and long term efficient”(ibid.: 209). Thus, it can be concluded that potency involves two basic capabilities of a small state human rights foreign policy: 1) the capability to achieve results and 2) the capability to achieve recognition. These capabilities are manifested both in decision-making and in human rights foreign policy implementation. They are closely related although any of them can be considered neither for necessary not for sufficient condition of the other. 1.2 Potency as the capability to achieve results and recognition – moving the concept forward Although it might seem easier to operationalize the capability to achieve results as an objective part of potency, the opposite is true. The development of analytical tools which would cover this area is, for the time being, at the very beginning. Of course, the analysis of human rights foreign policy making and implementation as such could draw lessons from general political analysis. However, evaluation of results shows numerous specifics and requires original approaches. Just a mere comparison of human rights foreign policy goals with its achievements (that could be termed simply the capability to meet targets) needs to cope with a range of problems. The achievements cannot be captured only from the perspective of countries taking account of human rights in their foreign policies but (above all) from the perspective of target subjects. Given that the targets are becoming parts of parallel operation of many other actors and 3 Potent small states influences, it is difficult to isolate them, to adhere to the ceteris paribus principle and to avoid the danger of post hoc, ergo propter hoc logical mistake. Moreover, the achievements of human rights foreign policy depend on the way how its goals are initially formulated. This means that with the awareness of the necessity to defend the activity in different arenas, politicians may choose the goals in such a way so that they were sufficiently legible and visible for other subjects, although they know they are not optimal for addressing problems to be solved. In addition, they may try to distort the results when presented to various national and international political entities and to the public. As obvious from the above mentioned definitions Egeland tries to avoid difficulties connected with the straightforward understanding of the capability to achieve results as the capability to meet targets with the introduction of two additional criteria - effectiveness and efficiency (1984:208). They may be accepted as useful with certain reservations. Effectiveness mirrors the adequacy of objectives. However, the question still remains who and how determines what is and what is not adequate or reasonable in the field of human rights protection or from what position to decide about it. Regardless of their actual size and economic potential,2 small states in the definition of objectives always face constraints resulting from their smallness. They cannot interfere in any urgent cases. In their struggle for effectiveness efficiency must be taken into account simultaneously in order that they concentrate their limited forces to a few niche-areas where they can capitalize on their absolute and comparative advantages based in skills, contacts, knowledge etc. From an economic point of view this means to invest the limited resources in the most promising alternatives. However, a thorough quantitative analysis is excluded for several reasons, too. First, the achievements of human rights foreign policy are usually immaterial, and therefore difficult to quantify. Second, costs of human rights foreign policy are not limited to related expenditure. They also include a non-material component of e.g. time and skills of people who implement the chosen activities. In addition, the implementation of selected targets creates the socalled opportunity costs reflecting that some foreign policy alternatives had to recede and possible losses occurring as a result of human rights foreign policy 2 These variables may vary in their values substantially as obvious from comparisons of e.g. Norway and the Netherlands on one side and the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Slovenia on the other. 4 Potent small states making, e.g. in a case when some steps lead to disturbances in economic relations. With regard to the just made reservations, the capability to achieve results could be redefined as the capability to identify goals, that really matter and that it is effective to pursue, and the capability to meet them. These variables do not offer a single insight into the foreign policy as the notion whether certain goals of ethical foreign policy may vary in relation to the character, personal attitudes and values of the observer. However discursive analysis of documents issued by governments, international organizations as well as other international and national bodies, public statements and public debates together with public opinion pools may show whether the goals are perceived as relevant and effective in various international and national fora and allow comparisons across small countries as well as across international arenas. The recognition of a small state as potent, is as subjective as the evaluation of results. The advantage of this situation is that it is detectable with the use of similar analytical tools. Especially the analysis of international and national discourses can detect whether ethical agendas of small state foreign policies seem to other actors of international relations and to domestic audience like morally just, credible or long term efficient. 1.3 How to become really potent? As obvious, potency of ethical foreign policy comprises of its real conduct as well as of its image inside and outside the relevant small state. Variables affecting the conduct or quality of ethical foreign policy have been subjects of fairly intensive scholarly inquiry. Egeland (1988: 13) distinguishes in this context “two broad categories independent variables: (a) underlying motives and interests, and (b) institutional variables such as governmental, nongovernmental, and inter-governmental sectors which are directly or indirectly involved in the decision-making process”. Underlying motives and interest can be decomposed further to three categories that include “(a) national self interest (i.e. optimization of such goals as political and diplomatic influence, economic and trade profits, and perceptions of „national security‟; (b) international, national and even group norms and principles (i.e. perceptions of what is „right‟ and „wrong‟ in foreign policy form an ethical rather than a self interest perspective); (c) knowledge and tradition (i.e. the ability to learn from past 5 Potent small states experiences, build a national „institutional memory‟, and draw upon accumulate expertise in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy)” (ibid.). In general, underlying motives are manifested at the very beginning of the decision-making process when finding is reached that human rights should become a part of a state’s foreign policy on the basis of social demand and in accordance with identity of society that lives there. At the same time it is also reflected in fundamental decisions that predetermine the nature of human rights foreign policy – e.g. what position human rights are supposed to take in the foreign policy making (Mower 1987: 2, Baehr 2000: 74). The outputs of the decision-making process, respectively, the general nature of human rights foreign policy are summarized in a monograph by Alfred Glenn Mower (1987: 2) into five crucial variables. They include: a) reason – why an ethical rights foreign policy is pursued; b) priority – how it relates to other foreign policy agendas; c) definition – which human rights it focuses on, what international instruments (treaties, declarations etc.) are considered to form the base of human rights foreign policy; d) goals – whether the policy aims only to improve the international standard of human rights protection and to help the most needy people or it tries to influence the situation in human rights breaking countries as well; e) (geographical) scope – whether the policy is oriented towards improvement in countries with severe human rights atrocities which countries is the attention paid especially to, whether it is global in its nature or limited only to a group of countries and which criteria do influence the selection of particular states. In addition, Jack Donnelly (2000: 315-320) suggests distinguishing between nationalist and internationalist attitudes to international human rights protection. The attitudes manifest themselves in two aspects – in the integration of human rights to the system of values and in a state’s reluctance or preparedness to accept international human rights pressures and to open itself to international scrutiny. States tending to nationalist attitudes are characterized by subordinating human rights under the principle of non-interference into domestic affairs and associated with refusing criticism and control executed by other states or international bodies. Simultaneously, they closely connect human rights with their national culture which usually leads to prioritizing relativist accounts. In contrast, internationalist attitudes are characterized by readiness to 6 Potent small states cooperate, primacy of human rights over state sovereignty at least in certain aspects and embedding universal human rights in ethic and values of particular society. Miao-ling Hasenkamp (2004: 283-284) and Kathryn Sikkink (2004: 10-12) emphasize tools prevailing in human rights foreign policy realization. They examine congruently whether a state prefers the level of bilateral relations with the target country instead of multilateral arenas represented especially by international organizations or it acts more likely at multilateral level or whether both levels are nearly well-balanced. Furthermore, it may be useful to distinguish between political and financial forms of human rights support. They differ as for their visibility, flexibility and intensity of the unfolded pressure. At the same time they are usually called into action with the use of different procedures and different institutions, such as ministries of foreign relations in the first case and ministries of development or economic cooperation, eventually humanitarian funds and development agencies in the later one. Egeland (1988: 14) portraits the process of ethical foreign policy as a three-step sequence comprising of interests and motives, institutional variables and actual ethical policy record with a feedback in form of ever-improving knowledge and evolving tradition. His model can be further extended with the above mentioned criteria identified by other authors as far as the nature of ethical foreign policy is concerned. This is showed in figure 1. + - Norms / principles Decision-making process State: Executive leaders, Parlamentarians, State bureaucracy NGOs: Private groups, New Media, Academia IGOs:Intergovernmental bodies / standards Actual ethical policy Self-interest Institutional variables Interests and motives Figure 2: Extended Egeland’s model of ethical foreign policy making reason priority definition goals scope nationalism / internationalism bilateral / multilateral tools Knowledge and tradition Adopted according to: EGELAND, J. (1988): Impotent Superpower – Potent Small State, Potentials and Limitations of Human Rights Objectives in the Foreign Policies of the United States and Norway. Oslo: Norwegian University Press. p. 14. Variables in italics added. 7 Potent small states The image of ethical foreign policy is given primarily by its actual conduct. As already discussed above, actual conduct reflects to some extent the capability to define and implement the policy appropriately. However, other factors are also playing an important role when the image of an ethical foreign policy is constructed. Several authors, such as Andrew Williams, Jan Egeland and Andrew Clapham, refer to coherence or consistency in this context. Williams (2005: 6-11) emphasizes the need for coherence between internal and external environment. He finds a policy to be coherent when it corresponds with the conception and interpretation of human rights in domestic affairs of particular states, does not reduce the internal notion of human rights significantly and does not diverge from their internal definitions. In contrast, Egeland (1988) pays attention solely to external affairs. Within this field he focuses especially on temporal and spatial consequences. Regarding the temporal dimension a stable conception of human rights which does not depend on such factors as the changes of governing parties is typical for a coherent approach. Spatial coherence means an application of the same criteria to all political partners. Clapham (1999: 636-640) adds consistency of particular state bodies’ activities and of available sources and conditions. Finally, as human rights foreign policy belongs to a wider complex of foreign policy agendas (whether value-based or value-neutral), consistency with other agendas may represent an important feature. The credibility in such fields such as peace-making and peace-keeping, crisis management or development assistance contributes to generally good reputation of a state which helps to open new possibilities and perspectives also for human rights foreign policy. Bad record and in some other policy field may cause image degradation and thus act as an obstacle. As contemporary debates on soft power in international relations and on the new public diplomacy tell us the image of a state does not emerge only passively but that it may be designed and cultivated also actively by public communication (Tuch 1990: 3; Melissen 2005: 7-12, Peterková 2008: 6-7). Thus, to get an international profile it is useful, that a state, whose ethical policy gets results and is not undermined by any kind of inconsistence, avoids the danger of being invisible or still considered as impotent by accompanying its policy with unambiguous and clear messages to foreign and domestic pubic. These messages cannot be reduced to a mere presentation of achievements. They have to include a great narrative (or several smaller stories) that would link the nature 8 Potent small states of the ethical foreign policy in terms of its reason, priorities, definition, goals, scope, tools and outputs, to identity, history, tradition and general foreign policy mission of the country (Leonard and Small 2003; Bátora 2005: 16). With regard to the whole set of variables introduced in this and in the previous section a comprehensive model of a potent small state ethical foreign policy can be suggested now in figure 3. achievements reason, priority, definition, goals, tools potent small state general narrative / naratives consistency Image of EFP presentation of achievements Results of HRFP features of decisionmaking process HRFP self-interest vs. norms and principles Institutional variables Interests and motives Figure 3: A comprehensive model of a potent small state human rights foreign policy (HRFP) Knowledge, tradition 1.4 What does the experience of “already potent” small states suggest? As showed in previous sections in a closer look real potency is given by the following capabilities: 1) to define human rights foreign policy with regard to internal and external constraints the state faces as well as with the awareness of its comparative advantages, 2) to capitalize on history, tradition, previous achievements when looking for attractive narratives that would informing the public on human rights foreign policy, 3) to achieve goals and to popularize achievements, 4) to be consistent and coherent in different senses of these words. 9 Potent small states Small states that have managed to exceed their limited foreign policy options and to become potent, such as Norway or the Netherlands were able to demonstrate each of them at least partially. Their human rights foreign policies were initiated by a clear mission statement, 3 regularly updated in subsequent formal policy documents. The policies have been linked to international human rights standards from the very beginning. Political and civil rights, on the one hand, and economic, social and cultural, on the other, have been considered indivisible and of equal importance. Both countries have combined multilateral approaches with bilateral initiatives. Within multilateral approaches, each has been able to define a set of thematic priorities where it has concentrated its efforts and tried to move international agenda forward. In bilateral relations where the constraints deriving from smallness are clearest, individual initiatives have been combined with joint action with other members of international society (Baehr 2000: 52-53, 61-68). Information on human rights promotion as an important part of foreign policy mission has been disseminated both at the domestic level and abroad from the very beginning. In both cases it has been possible to achieve relatively high and stable public support in the internal environment which reflects in part protestant political culture and a high degree of solidarity within society. Simultaneously, human rights foreign policy has been linked to long-term foreign policy tradition, which serves also as broader context providing great narratives of Dutch openness to the world, strong interest in events abroad and internationalist idealism or of on-going Norwegian international peace facilities. Links were established also to prominent of national history such as the Dutch lawyer Hugo Grotius or the Norwegian polar explorer and humanist Fridtjof Nansen (Baehr 2000: 50; Bátora 2005: 7; Henrikson 2006: 4-5; Weisová – Cabada 2009: 109, Zemanová 2008: 68-69). Over time the general information has been complemented with more detailed data on results of the daily work. Today they are easily accessible e.g. via the internet in form of communication to public on interim issues 4 as well as more comprehensive studies such as the regular reports on Norway’s efforts to promote human rights or Dutch human rights strategies (The Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2009: 8-9). 3 Memorandum Human Rights and Foreign Policy of 1979 in the case of the Netherlands a White Paper No. 93 (1976-1977) on "Norway and the Protection of International Human Rights“ of 1977. 4 See e.g. www.government.no – Ministry of Foreign Affairs, section Human Rights ; www.norway-un.org section The Big Issues – Human Rights; www.minbuza.nl – sezon Key Issues – Human Rights; 10 Potent small states In both cases the policy capitalizes on good results in other policy fields such as peace broking or disarmament in the case of Norway or international legal initiatives in the case of the Netherlands. Among these areas one seems to be of special importance in connection with human rights for its simplicity, clear measurability and comparability to other states. It is the official development assistance expressed as the ODA/GNP ratio that has been exceeding 0.7% for many years. Meeting the target value of this variable, declared by the UN almost four decades ago and revitalized in the context of the Millennium Goals, that appears unique even today allows both Norway and the Netherlands to present themselves as leaders in international development and solidarity although in absolute terms their contribution is of lesser importance than those of bigger states and the ratio alone does not tell anything about the real impact of ODA. Despite the fact that smaller states are generally supposed to cope more simply with conflicts of interests and ethical choices in their foreign policies (Egeland 1984: 2008-209) they cannot avoid them absolutely. Thus, both Norway and the Netherlands, although attempting to pursue a human rights policy consistent over time, always show a certain degree of incoherence. Recent Dutch domestic restrictions of political and civic rights in the context of the fight against terrorism and Islamic extremism or tightening of immigration and asylum policy are two examples of incoherence between internal and external environment. Norway’s whaling activities represent a case of human rights policy incoherence with other foreign policy agendas. This cases of incoherence, resulting in split image deteriorations, are partially compensated by explaining and advocacy within the public diplomacy framework (Bátora 2005:7; Weisová – Cabada 2009: 130-133, 157-159) 2. The Czech Republic - an emerging potent small state? 2.1 The new shape of the Czech human rights foreign policy since 1993 The Czech human rights foreign policy since the establishment of a new independent state in 1993 developed in a significantly different context than the Norwegian or Dutch ones. It was launched at the period of transition from totalitarian to democratic regime combined with transformation of underperforming economy. The lack of resources typical for a small county was perceived (and has been still perceived) more urgent than in the two later cases. As a consequence, it could not benefit from a high degree of solidarity and postmaterialism of domestic society. 11 Potent small states In external affairs Norway and the Netherlands had to adapt their already established policies to new (and of course more favourable) international context. For the Czech Republic (and former Czechoslovakia until 1992) the end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Eastern communist block meant fundamental transformation of its foreign policy including human rights agenda. In its previous policy within this field, nationalist attitudes, aimed at preventing international pressures and criticism for violations of political and civic rights, dominated. The new internationalist direction chosen with the aim to return to democratic Europe, to which the former Czechoslovakia belonged in the interwar period and shortly after World War II., lead first to a broad formal and practical acceptance of international human rights mechanism and international scrutiny. Of course, this happened in accordance with the most fundamental foreign policy goal – the return of the country to the elite club of European democracies and the confirmation of its belonging to transatlantic civilization circle, symbolically expressed with country’s accession to relevant international structures such as the NATO, Council of Europe, OECD or the EU. The pressure of these organizations, especially of the Council of Europe, where the acceptance of European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms is an assumption of full membership, and of the EU, that included respect to human rights into the Copenhagen criteria of new member admission, supported the change significantly, but were not the only factor in play. The linkage of the new political elites, and the last Czechoslovak and the first Czech president Václav Havel as its head, with human rights issues, which had played an important role in the formation of Czech dissent since the late 1970s, strengthened the Czech ambitions. The Czech Republic could not satisfy with a role of mere recipient of international commitments who repeatedly tries to prove its improving domestic record at the international stage. There has always been also a struggle for an active participation in international human rights protection at the multilateral level which lead gradually to an active involvement in international monitoring bodies and their political and legal initiatives. The combination of the need to response to new incentives from international organizations and of own engagement formed the first thematic priorities of the Czech Republic – minority rights, fight against racism and the Roma question, torture and cruel, degrading and inhuman treatment, improvement of human 12 Potent small states rights monitoring mechanisms and thematic procedures in human rights protection etc. In bilateral relations specific initiatives were limited by the already mentioned lack of. Thus, human right promotion in external relations of the Czech Republic (and Czechoslovakia to 1992) were dominated by support to human rights defenders such as Dalai Lama or persecuted people such as Salman Rushdie and episodic public criticism and condemnation of non-democratic regimes (Šedivý 1997: 100-102). In the late 1990s a significant territorial issue was added through the engagement in Cuba. Here the Czech Republic emphasized probably for the first time its own transition experience that should form the base of its specific contribution to human rights protection in the following years. It also tried to capitalize on the above average knowledge of the domestic environment in Cuba and long ties and interpersonal contact established at the time when Czechoslovakia was the most active economic partner of Cuba among the soviet satellites. The discrete support to opposition movements in Cuba was combined with initiatives at multilateral level, e.g. with co-sponsorship and sponsorship of resolutions on situation of human rights in Cuba in the former UN Commission on Human Rights (Pštross 2004: 216; Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2001). However, as obvious from the official Czech foreign policy concepts of 1999 and 2003 (Government of the Czech Republic 1999, Government of the Czech Republic 2003) human rights principles together with basic principles of modern West European democracy were understood rather as a general value framework of the Czech foreign policy than as a separate agenda. The still limited active human rights foreign policy, therefore, lacked clear mission statement and in its emerging bilateral dimension also precise definition of objectives and instruments. This changed first during the following decade, especially thanks to the creation of the so-called TRANS programme. 2.2 The need of an active small state foreign policy and the Czech transition promotion programme As a full member of key (formerly West) European organizations since 2004 when the process of its return to Europe finished on 1st May 2004 with the first wave of the Eastern enlargement of the EU, the Czech Republic has been forced to define its place in relation to other members of these organizations and to search for the roles it could play here in future. As a small state with an open 13 Potent small states economy it has been struggling particularly with a problem of visibility and attractiveness for its foreign partners (Peterková 2008: 7; Bátora 2005: 7). At the same time it has been facing the fact that it finds itself in a new reference group and is compared with other states than before. Prior the accession it belonged to a limited group of candidate countries. Here it could from the position of a more advanced and more rapid one in the ongoing transition. Today (although it is still distinguished between the old members and the new members) it must keep pace with many more advanced states, better established on the international scene. Visible foreign policy success that can be achieved inter alia in the field of human rights foreign policy appears almost as a necessity. The new trend could not be recorded in foreign policy concepts as the latest one for the years 2003-2006 was adopted in 2003 and a new one has been missing since then. However, the regular reports on the Czech foreign policy published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs classified this policy repeatedly as one of the Czech priorities. In 2005 the Czech Republic expressed its readiness to develop its human rights foreign policy agenda with the creation of a new financial tool, the so-called transition promotion programme (TRANS). The programme logo is recorded in figure 3. Figure 3 – The Czech Transition Promotion Programme – logo Source: Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2010a). Available at: http://www.mzv.cz/jnp/cz/zahranicni_vztahy/lidska_prava/transformacni_spoluprace_1/koncepce_transformacni _spoluprace.html (1.9.2010). . After five years of programme operation it is possible to say that the programme represents the specific Czech contribution to bilateral human rights protection, although not uncontroversial. As stated above, the comparative advantage or value that the Czech Republic could add in the field of human rights was first formulated in relation to Cuba as support to democratization processes with possible transmission of specific Czech experience. Together with the creation of TRANS programme it was extended to a set of priority countries including 14 Potent small states (next to Cuba) Belarus, Moldova, Ukraine, Georgiea, Iraq, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Burma/Myanmar.5 As obvious, the general targets of the programme exceed the area of internationally protected human rights as they include democracy promotion. This leads to clashes with the binding international legal norms of respect to sovereignty and non-interference into domestic affairs. One could admit that the norms have been already partially broken as far as a set of basic human rights is concerned. However this is not true in regard to the change of the nature of domestic regime. Thus, the policy is accepted by countries that undergo transition processes and need help but not by those still under totalitarian rule. As indicated by Bílková and Matějková (2010: 126) there are reservations both inside the Czech Republic and outside – e.g. within the EU, although similar agendas are included also in other member states human rights policies and foreign aid – especially in the British and Swedish ones (ibid: 141). This situation forces the key actors of transition promotion, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and non-governmental bodies involved in the programme implementation, to search for its authorisation and legitimization. Paradoxically, the thematic priorities of the transition promotion are defined in a more narrow way and, in principle, they correspond with major topics of current Czech human rights policy in multilateral fora. Most of them could be easily linked to current international human rights standards. The include: - civil society and human rights defenders, free and independent media including internet, rule of law and principles of good governance, free elections, equality and non-discrimination (Ministry of Foreign Affairs 2010b: 4-6). The reservation to human rights policy could be alleviated with the development to the EU’s Agenda for Action on Democracy support in EU external Relations that was adopted under Swedish presidency in November 2009. Despite the just mentioned problems it may be concluded that the Czech Republic has proven the capability to define human rights foreign policy with regard of its constraints and that is also succeeded in identifying its comparative 5 According to an up-dated vision of the transformation co-operation concept of 2010 priority countries include the states of Eastern Partnership of the EU (Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine), Western Balkan (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Kosovo) Burma/Myanmar and Cuba (Program transformační spolupráce 2010: 1). 15 Potent small states advantages. The current shape of human rights is summarized in figure 4 with the use of the above described analytical tools. Figure 4: The Czech human rights foreign policy Human Rights Foreign Policy reason priority definition scope nationalism / internationalism tools past totalitarian experience, new presence in democratic European structures not discussed intensively, human rights considered to be in accordance with security interests, sometimes clash with economic needs of the Czech Republic rhetorically both political and civic rights and economic, social and cultural rights, in practice more political and civil rights, special emphasis on civic society, human rights defenders, free media, free elections... small group of priority countries internationalism bilateral + multilateral, financial + political 2.3 Vulnerabilities of the Czech human rights foreign policy Looking back to almost two decades of the Czech human rights foreign policy a long list of achievements could be completed. They reach from successful initiatives in international bodies over active participation in international negotiations on new human rights instruments to concrete case of financial support to students from priority totalitarian countries at the Czech universities. However, the real impact of the Czech foreign policy within the human rights area is difficult to evaluate. Even the method of discursive analysis, which has already been suggested as a possible analytical tool to assess effectiveness, fails because the discourse is limited to small groups of professionals somehow participating in human rights foreign policy making and implementation. A broader public debate on human rights foreign policy or transformation promotion has been missing (Bílková – Matějková 2010: 139-140).The persisting need to explain and justify the policy suggests that the external degree of acceptance is low. The same could be concluded from several Czech unsuccessful candidacies to international human rights bodies such as the 2001 candidacy of an outstanding Czech specialist in human rights and international law Dalibor Jilek to the UN Commitee on the Rights of the Child. 16 Potent small states One of the possible reasons of this state may be the insufficient promotion of the Czech human rights and transition policies. The information disseminated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic in its publications and via World Wide Web pages is predominantly of technical nature. Unlike the earlier examples of Norway or the Netherlands, there is in not any public promotion and no everyday reporting on human rights issues solved by the ministry or the government. Furthermore, there are only two medium-sized stories explaining the origins and evolution of the Czech human rights foreign policy – one links it to the past totalitarian experience and the other emphasise the commitment to human rights within the former Czech dissent. The Czech Republic has not been able to exploit its long humanist tradition of the Czech nation that offer linkages e.g. to medieval Bohemian king George of Poděbrady and his proposal of peaceful coalition of European Christian or the father of modern education John Amos Comenius who, next to his pedagogical work, also theorized on perpetual peace in the world (Kumpera 1999). In addition, various types of inconsistence contribute to the unsatisfactory image of the Czech foreign policy within the field of human rights, too. Reports of human rights monitoring mechanisms as well as of non-governmental organizations involved in human rights protection discover the incoherence between internal and external affairs e.g. in the Roma question that, despite considerable efforts of the Czech administrative, continues to be a sensitive political and social issue. The inconsistence of state bodies and their activities could be demonstrated on several examples of tension between the government, the president and the parliament. Within the field of human right protection they include the reluctance to ratify some treaty instruments – recently The Rome Status of the International Criminal Court (Hasenkopf 2009). The image of human rights policy is also endangered by controversial activities of some representatives also in other agendas and areas – the questioning of the global warming by the Czech president Václav Klaus or the fall of the Topolánek government caused by internal political strives that sharply damaged the Czech EU presidency in 2009. Of cause, in some areas the record of the Czech Republic seems to be smooth. The Czech human rights foreign policy shows both temporal and spatial consistency, although double standards cannot be fully avoided. There are also 17 Potent small states other foreign policy agendas that could contribute to good reputation of human rights foreign policy, such as the achievements of the Czech anti-chemical defence specialist in international peace-keeping mission and war operations or the deployment of the Czech whippers and specially trained fire-fighters in the aftermath of natural catastrophes, their extent seems to be still rather limited. Unfortunately, unlike the above discussed potent small states of Western Europe, the image cannot be improved by excellent record in official development assistance. Before the fall of socialism in Central and Eastern Europe, former Czechoslovakia provided its development assistance to many countries of the third world. In 1970s and 1980s it belonged to prominent donors in the Eastern block. In accordance with the logic of the Cold War it clearly prioritized socialist states or non-aligned ones. After the collapse of the communist regime the ideologically burdened aid programme, discredited both in the West and in the eyes, of the Czech and Slovak public was ended. As a transition economy Czechoslovakia became a recipient of official assistance provided both by international organizations on a multilateral base and at bilateral level by highly developed Western states. Around 1992 the government considered the revitalization of the ODA programme. However, the initiative was interrupted by the dissolution of federation (Jelínek 2003, Czech development agency S.l.). In March 1995 the government of the Czech Republic adopted a resolution concerning renewal of the Czech ODA. It envisaged a conceptual approach to ODA reflecting the urgency and relations between potential recipient countries and the Czech Republic and emphasising either countries verging on democracy and the full respect to human rights as well as on market economy or countries where the reorientation in this direction may be effected positively by foreign assistance (Government of the Czech Republic 1995: enclosure, articles 6,8) Yet, in practice the fragmentation of the ODA organizational base hampered the realization of such approach. Particular governmental departments implemented especially smaller isolated project with limited contribution to improvement of economic and social situation in target states (Plešinger et al 2005, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic 2002). An assessment of the Czech ODA achievements carried out and discussed by the Czech government in September 2001 detected several shortcomings almost in all phases of ODA realization. They occurred already in the phase of planning and project preparation in a form of the lack or unified methodology and 18 Potent small states permeated also financing (falling behind planed volumes), statistics and evaluation. Furthermore, the geographical scope of the Czech ODA including more than 40 countries was too large in the conditions of a relatively small transition state. The system was fragmented also in term of sectors it covered. The ministry of foreign affairs appeared insufficient in fulfilling its coordinating role both vis-a-vis other governmental bodies and the nongovernmental sector and unlike NGOs it did not manage to win wider awareness and support of the Czech public, too (Government of the Czech Republic, 2001). In a response to the analysis the government acknowledged a new concept of the Czech ODA for the period of 2002-2007 based on the principles of partnership (instead of the outworn donor – recipient approach), effectiveness and transparency. Simultaneously the reform proposal reflected a shift of global development paradigm from the liberal export oriented Washington consensus guiding the development policy since the late 1970s to a human oriented one understanding the development as expanding individual capabilities, increasing quality of life an extending real freedom of people inhabiting particular countries of the third world. Further changes were envisaged in the Guidelines of the foreign development assistance after the Czech Republic admission to the EU (Government of the Czech Republic, 2004) approved by the government shortly before 1 May 2004. However the Guidelines did not succeed in improving the inconvenient organizational base of the Czech ODA, especially in overcoming its fragmentation. In 2007 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic announced a transformation of the Czech official development assistance (ODA) system, which is still ongoing. From the qualitative point of view this was a new step in a sequence of arrangements carried out with the aim to change the way of providing the development assistance. The former ones, initiated during the years 2002 and 2004, were merely reforms in their nature although the conception of development assistance for the period of 2002-2007 pointed out numerous shortcomings in the functioning of the system with the lack of effectiveness and transparency on their top. However, actual results of the transformation are for the time being difficult to assess. In 2005 the Czech Republic graduated within the system of the World Bank from a recipient to a donor country. At the end of 2007 similar graduation followed within the European Bank for reconstruction and development. By that time the Czech ODA/GNP ratio oscillated around 0.1% which is (despite the 19 Potent small states rapid increase from 0.017% in 2000 – Czech Development Agency S.l.) one of the best results among the new EU member states (but not significantly better than e.g. Slovak or Slovenian ones). The outlook in the incoming years is not optimistic because the Czech Republic currently carries out a series of saving measures in order to restore healthy state finance. Any substantial increase in the ODA/GNP ration cannot be expected for the time being. 2.4 The Czech Republic as a future potent small state? From the perspective of four capabilities forming potency, the current record of the Czech Republic is mixed. The only criterion that has been fulfilled completely is the capability to define human rights foreign policy with regard to internal and external constraints. Relatively good performance as far as the capability to meet targets is deteriorated by the insufficient public presentation of results. Presentation and communication with the domestic and foreign public fails also in the overall popularization of the Czech human rights policy and in its support by great historical narratives despite the fact that the Czech humanist tradition offers several narratives directly applicable. The coherence and consistence are problematic to some extent. The Czech human rights policy shows relatively high stability in its thematic priorities, territorial scope as well as available sources. However, these strengths are undermined by reluctance and missteps in other policy fields often caused by internal political frictions and disputes between state authorities. Key findings regarding four capabilities are summarized in figure 5. Figure 5: Basic Components of Potency: Czech Balance Capability define human rights foreign policy with regard to internal and external constraints the state faces as well as with the awareness of its comparative advantages capitalize on history, tradition, previous achievements when looking for attractive narratives informing the public on human rights foreign policy, achieve goals and to popularize achievements be consistent and coherent in different senses of these words. Czech record + +++- 20 Potent small states As far as the process of human rights foreign policy making and implementation are concerned, institutional variables, respectively, the futures of the decision making process represent the most serious weakness, too. As already mentioned the Czech Republic sometimes faces also the conflicts of self-interests and principles and norms in its foreign policy and in some cases these conflicts are solved at the expense of the later. However, as the Norwegian and Dutch examples show this is a natural phenomenon in foreign-policy making and such behaviour is tolerated by international community to some extent. The strong and weak points of the Czech human rights foreign policy are summarized in figure 6. Figure 6: Strengths and weaknesses of the Czech human rights foreign policy achievements presentation of achievements general narrative / naratives Image of HRFP HRFP reason, priority, definition, goals, tools Results of HRFP features of decisionmaking process Institutional variables Interests and motives self-interest vs. norms and principles ? knowledge, tradition strengths weakness What has not been discussed so far but should be added undoubtedly when dealing with the Czech human rights policy and its potency is that the Czech Republic has not cleared its intention to become a potent small state with an ethical foreign agenda. It has referred to human rights as to a value framework of its foreign affairs or as a priority. Nevertheless, it never declared that it should be a profile agenda highlighting the Czech Republic as a small state at the international stage. This is a crucial difference from Norway and the Netherlands, whose intensive engagement started, as already mentioned, with clear mission statements. In current world where the soft power plays increasingly important role it may be a mistake. Indeed, as Joseph Nye (2004: x) suggests: “When you can get others to admire your ideals and to want what you 21 Potent small states want, you do not have to spent so much on sticks and carrots to move them in your direction. Seduction is always more effective than coercion, and many values like democracy, human rights, and individual opportunities are deeply seductive.“ Conclusion If one asks, after a more detailed insight into the Czech human rights policy, whether the Czech Republic is a potent small a state at present, no must be answered inevitably. During the last two decades (and especially in the last decade) the Czech Republic did much within this area and built a solid base of the objective components of potency. Of course, it is necessary to continue and to remove remaining gaps but the perspective seems to be good in this regard. What appears as a crucial shortcoming today is the lack of interest in the subjective component. The effort to be recognized as a potent small state is limited which constraints the further development of the policy overall. It cannot capitalize on its long traditions and the tradition itself does not guarantee success. If the question is whether the Czech Republic could become a potent state, it is possible to say yes with certain reservations. Future shape of the Czech human rights foreign policy and its image will derive from the developments in internal affairs, especially on the degree of political consensus and the reduction of tensions between various institutions. It will also depend on economic performance which determinates available resources of the policy. Last but not least, it will go hand in hand with the improvements of the Czech public diplomacy and with better communication strategy of governmental bodies responsible for the human rights foreign policy making. Within the framework of these activities should explicitly declare its aspirations that may be deduced from a series of sub-references in foreign policy documents and statements today but lacks an unambiguous and clear background. To estimate when the state could joint the club of potent small countries is, on the contrary, a heavy task. The experience of Norway or the Netherlands shows that it is a long process. However, saying that the Czech Republic would achieve full membership in this imaginary institution in ten or twenty years would be mere guessing. 22 Potent small states The author greatefully acknowledges funding from Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic and the Faculty of International Relations, University of Economic Prague (research plan MSM6138439909). Štěpánka Zemanová, PhD holds a Ph.D. degree from the University of Economics, Prague. She is currently an assistant professor at the Jan Masaryk Centre of International Studies and senior research fellow at the Department of World Economy (both Faculty of International Relations, University of Economics, Prague). Her research interests cover European integration and political and economic aspects of international human rights protection. She is the author of Europeanization of human rights foreign policy (Oeconomica, 2008) and editor of Human Dimension of International Politics (Oeconomica, 2004). In addition, she has published numerous articles on international human rights protection, Europeanization, sanctions policy of the EU and the Czech EU presidency. 23 Potent small states References BAEHR, Peter R. (2000): Trials and Errors: The Netherlands and Human Rights. In: FORSYTHE, D. P., ed. (2000): Human Rights and Comparative Foreign Policy. Tokyo: United Nations University Press, pp. 49-86. BÁTORA, Jozef (2005): Public Diplomacy in Small and Medium-sized States: Norway and Canada. Discussion Papers in Diplomacy. The Hague: Netherland Institute of International Relations Clingendael. Available at: http://ccges.apps01.yorku.ca/old-site/IMG/pdf/13_Batora.pdf (28.8.2010). 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