International Institute of Political Science
The Institute draws on a long-standing tradition of political science research at Masaryk University, and via its activities it helps to cultivate and develop the disciplines of political science, international relations and European studies; it disseminates its research both to scholars and to the general public. The Institute’s active involvement in the development of these disciplines is apparent from the research projects it instigates and implements, from the research outputs it publishes in periodicals and books, and from its co-ordination and organisation of conferences, seminars and lectures on topical social themes.
The main territorial focus of the Institute’s research is the Czech Republic and Europe. Specifically, its scholarly activities are concentrated in four research areas: democracy and democratisation, European politics, international security, and electoral studies. This combination of themes has integrated the research potential of all the important political science research bodies in Brno, creating a unique space for undertaking complex analyses in political science and for understanding topical political phenomena. The international standing of the research is guaranteed by intensive co-operation with foreign partners, especially in Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Great Britain and the Netherlands.
The International Institute of Political Science has been part of Masaryk University since 1990. In its current form the Institute is the result of a merger between two research bodies: the (former) International Institute of Political Science and the Institute for Comparative Political Research. Until 2012 the first was the University’s centre for studying contemporary Czech and European politics, economics and society. It took on its international character thanks to co-operation between its Czech founders and foreign partners from the USA and the Netherlands. Between 2005 and 2011 the second was a research body for comparative political science in the Faculty of Social Studies, Masaryk University. Today the International Institute of Political Science is one of the research institutes at the Faculty of Social Studies.
