The Struggle for the Nation: The Images of Munich in the Discords about the Czech Foreign Policy

Abstract

The article is an analysis of the metaphor of Munich Agreement in the
Czech political and media discourses concerning three foreign policy issues
from the last three years: the discord about the diplomatic recognition of
Kosovo by the Czech Republic, the discussion of the conflict between Russia
and Georgia and the issue of the US radar base in the Czech Republic. The
text does not aspire to judge which usage of the analogy with Munich is
correct. Instead, it works with it as a specific frame which is intended to
mobilize a presupposed national ‘us’ for a specific political agenda. The goal
is to depoliticize the political discord – to solve it by referring to a morally
strong precedent and subordinate it to this precedent. Munich is used in
this way by the followers of very different political camps. Using the analogy
of Munich has two main modalities – the interventionist modality (it is
necessary to intervene against a dictator, not to appease him) and the
sovereignist modality (it is necessary to defend the sovereignty of the state
against an intervention or against aggressive demands of minorities). The
former is more in accord with the use of the Munich analogy by Western
politicians, while the latter corresponds more with the Czech context.