Chinese narratives and foreign policy at wartime: IIR's successful projects in the GA ČR competition

Foreign policy in Central Europe during wartime

Míla O’Sullivan’s project, entitled Feminist Foreign Policy Analysis in Central and Eastern Europe at Wartime, will examine changes in foreign policy during the ongoing Russian military aggression in Ukraine, comparing four countries: the Czech Republic, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia. The project builds on studies in the emerging subfield of Feminist Foreign Policy Analysis (FFPA), which, however, focus mainly on countries of the global North. The aim is therefore to create a research and knowledge center directly in countries that are affected or influenced by the war and which, due to their different historical development, have specific experience with the implementation of human rights policies. The project responds to a situation in which human rights policies have become one of the dividing lines in today's polarized societies and have been reflected in various ways in foreign policy doctrines. The project will focus on analyzing these.

A unique contribution of the project is its perspective on the development of foreign policies during ongoing armed conflict. Although securitizing and militarizing rhetoric is much more prominent under the pressure of the threat of war, the insight into societies offered by feminist analysis of foreign policy can provide a much deeper and more comprehensive picture of socio-political developments in countries confronted with war. The project will focus on the roles of various types of actors, from government representatives to the non-governmental sector and international organizations, and will take into account national and supranational factors that influence foreign policy-making.

How does China control its narratives abroad? Analysis from the perspective of the Swedish diaspora

Researcher Jan Švec has been successful with a project that will enable him to undertake a research internship at Stockholm University. The aim of the project, entitled International Authoritarian Narrative Control: China’s Messaging on Domestic Repression and its Reception among Diaspora Audiences, is to examine how China’s authoritarian regime attempts to shape its international image by controlling narratives about human rights violations in China. Specifically, it will focus on the narratives that China creates about the issue of the Uyghur ethnic minority for the Chinese diaspora living in Sweden. What exactly are these narratives? How are these narratives disseminated? How are they perceived by its members and are they "successful"? Do members of the diaspora accept Chinese propaganda, and if so, is this passive or active conformity?

The project will be carried out in several phases and will focus on analyzing the narratives themselves, the ways in which they are disseminated, and their reception by members of the diaspora. It will use media discourse analysis, social media data analysis, questionnaires, and in-depth interviews. The project also aims to contribute to a broader theoretical debate on the efforts of authoritarian regimes to control narratives abroad, including how they succeed in persuading audiences living in other countries and how these regimes seek to protect their international image and strengthen their legitimacy through these tactics.