Jiri Vykoukal – författare

The book analyzes the concept of asymmetry in international relations on the example of United States and Mexico. This bilateral relation is introduced within wider historical, economic and political context. It also includes a case study on perceptions of Mexico in U.S. media. The study focuses on critical issues in bilateral relations within the context of asymmetric relations. Economic integration under North American Free Trade Agreement, extensive migration from Mexico to the U.S. and the issue of drug-trafficking and drug-control efforts are analyzed in this respect. The concluding chapter uses the findings to conceptualize asymmetric relations and presents possible applications of the key findings to complex bilateral issues.

In this book the author analyzes the phenomenon of coup d’état as a specific means of gaining state power. Though quite frequently found in practice, this phenomenon is almost completely unexplored in political theory. The author examines the concept of coup d’état itself and its various connotations and compares coup d’état with other forms of usurpation of state power, such as revolutions, rebellions, civil wars or guerilla warfare. He also deals with the technique of coup d’état. The book includes an overview of accomplished coups d’état since the beginning of the twentieth century and a list of present political leaders who came to power in this way.

This book examines the salience and role of ethno-national identities of young people in Bosnia and Herzegovina fifteen years after the end of the Bosnian War. The underlying argument is that ethno-national identities and boundaries in Bosnia are not constituted and maintained through intensive social contact as constructivists such as Fredrik Barth and Thomas Eriksen have argued, but rather through a lack of it. The author shows that cross-ethnic contact is a critical mechanism that helps, rather than hinders, the building of multiple and complimentary identities. She proposes that contrary to the constructivist arguments, the actual content of identities such as descent and religion matter for the intensity and malleability of identities. The fieldwork material demonstrates that identities can become multilayered in situations where the «other» is personalized and experienced.