As a part of international economic relations, development cooperation is a relatively new issue area of the Czech foreign policy. In spite of the strong Czechoslovak cooperation with the pro-socialist Third World countries during the Cold War, the country quickly abandoned delegitimized development activities only to restart them in the mid-1990s. This time, the policy was induced mostly externally by the international and EU commitments to provide aid to developing countries. Building on James Ferguson's concept of 'anti-politics machine' and the Bourdieusian concept of illusio, this dissertation argues that (i) the apparatus of the Czech development cooperation deals with development as a technical matter and leads to the depoliticization of the Czech relations with the South; and (ii) the low public awareness of the policy and the dependence of the civil society on government funding tones down their criticism and facilitates the use of the policy for the particular interests of the Czech implementers instead of contributing to poverty reduction in the South. The second chapter justifies the interdisciplinary approach adopted in the dissertation. It argues that in the same way as multidimensional poverty cannot be reduced to mere income, a holistic analysis of development cooperation must extend beyond the neoclassical economic approach and include social, cultural, political and environmental aspects of development. The third and fourth chapters analyze accordingly the discourses (historical and legal sources, political and social context, government strategies) and practices (content of bilateral cooperation, its effectiveness, actors and interrelations between them) of the Czech development cooperation. The following chapters extend from the narrow topic of development cooperation to gender as a cross-cutting issue and further to the problem of policy coherence. While gender has gained serious credit on the international development research and policy agenda, it is reflected in policy and operational documents only formally, making bilateral cooperation projects gender blind, and hence detrimental to women. Finally, the Czech discourses and practices of the formally institutionalized policy coherence for development are analyzed in cases studies on migration, trade and agriculture. The chapter argues that slight changes in other government policies may have greater impact on developing countries than any substantial reforms of development cooperation. Overall, the dissertation advocates for a repoliticization of the development agenda and its return to the public space. So far, it was mostly the European Union funding that incited the civil society to raise new policy issues and question the effectiveness of the Czech development cooperation in reducing global poverty, but it is crucial to involve political parties, civil society at large, media and academia in the process as well. An annex lists a range of detailed policy recommendations for development cooperation generally, in particular its gender dimension, and its coherence with the Czech migration, agriculture and trade policies.

This dissertation investigates the history of the World Council of Indigenous Peoples (WCIP) and the broader movement of Indigenous internationalism. It argues that Indigenous internationalists were inspired by the process of decolonization, and used its logic to establish a new political identity. The foundation of the WCIP helped create a network of Indigenous peoples that expressed international solidarity between historically unconnected communities. The international efforts of Indigenous activists were encouraged both by personal experiences of international travel and post-secondary education, and by the general growth of international non-governmental organizations during the late twentieth century. The growing importance of international non-governmental organizations helped the WCIP secure funding from international developmental aid agencies, a factor which pushed the organization to increase its focus on apolitical economic development relative to the anti-colonial objectives which inspired its foundation. This dissertation examines how Indigenous international organizations became embroiled in the Cold War conflict in Latin America, and the difficulties this situation posed for both the WCIP and the International Indian Treaty Council. Finally, it examines how the prominence of the World Council faded, as major international bodies like the United Nations began to acknowledge the importance of Indigenous peoples, and as Indigenous organizations sought to participate directly in new international fora rather than contributing through the WCIP.