Recently, Spain has been paying particular attention to its presentation abroad and national image, taking into consideration the conceptual as well as financial and personnel point of view. The thesis analyses three different components that form the national image - cultural diplomacy, public diplomacy and nation branding - and puts them into the Spanish context. Furthermore, it identifies the main actors in these areas of Spain's foreign policy and examines their working methods. The thesis also presents the national project Marca Espana (Brand Spain) with both its benefits and weak points. In addition, it evaluates the overall Spanish approach to the formation of its national reputation and suggests possible future improvements.

The diploma thesis aims to analyze the online communication of the Czech Centres and propose a new strategy of its online communications. The theoretical part is focused on the usage of different internet marketing techniques, popular online communication channels and new trends in this field. Principles of cultural diplomacy are explained briefly to reveal the background and the mission of the Czech Centres. The core of the work is in the detailed description of the institution's online communication mix and analysis of its main competitors -- Slovakian, Polish and Hungarian Institutes. Research conducted by the author explores the attitude and opinion of employees on related topics. The thesis is concluded with the SWOT analysis and proposal for a new strategy of online communication. It sets goals, target groups and based on that suggest changes in the usage of online communication channels. The thesis strives to answer where the current position of the Czech Centres in the online world is and suggests improving it by strategic use of online channels, web redesign and increased activity on social networks.

Diploma thesis "Czech Cultural Diplomacy in Italy" is build on the project entitled "The Analysis of activities of Czech Centre Milano" which was written based on the author's experience obtained during the four-month internship in Czech Centre Milano - the main protagonist of Czech cultural diplomacy in Italy. The first part of the thesis focuses on the concepts of public diplomacy, nation branding, but primarily on cultural diplomacy. These terms are explained, compared to each other and set in historical context. In the theoretical part of the thesis, the author also focuses on the main protagonists of Czech cultural diplomacy, primarily on Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic and its departments. Theoretical knowledge of the cultural diplomacy acquired in the first part of the thesis was used for creating the second part of the thesis, which already focuses specifically on the effectiveness of Czech cultural diplomacy in Italy. The author set up a hypothesis saying that the "Czech culture is perceived positively in Italy because Czech Republic is actively and successfully engaged in the field of cultural diplomacy on Italian territory". This statement would be confirmed/disproved by analysing the current situation in the Czech Centre Milano and by the success or failure of the Czech participation at EXPO 2015 Milan. Whether Italian citizens themselves perceive Czech culture positively and Czech cultural diplomacy to be successful would come up from the information obtained from Nation Brand Index by Simon Anholt and from the results of author-made survey entitled "Czech culture in the eyes of Italians". Valuable opinion on the effectiveness of Czech cultural diplomacy was also provided by the person who directly influences the activities in the field of Czech cultural diplomacy in Italy - the director's assistant of Czech Centre Milano.

The cultural diplomacy represents a crucial tool how to promote the state abroad. Currently the cultural diplomacy becomes more important and plays a significant part in foreign policy. This master thesis studies a potential strategy of cultural diplomacy on the european level and aims especially at the activities of EUNIC Global.

The objective of the Master Thesis is to outline the possibilities of improvement and extension of public diplomacy activities of Mexico. In order to achieve the objective the thesis is divided into 3 parts. The first one summarizes existing theoretical knowledge in the course of study, thus characterizes the terms of public diplomacy and briefly cultural diplomacy and nation branding as well. The following chapter determines particular actors of Mexican public diplomacy and their activities, determines the country's initial conditions in public diplomacy, focuses on the public diplomacy activities in the foreign policy program and analyzes how the country fulfils the basic requirements of public diplomacy strategy. The last chapter depicts Mexican public diplomacy in the United States of America, where a significant decline in positive perception has been seen in recent years, and outlines the possibilities of improvement and extension of public diplomacy activities to reverse the trend.

This diploma thesis aims to identify the instruments of cultural diplomacy of the Czech Republic in the form of institutions and consequently methods that are used by these institutions. In the theoretical part, the author defines the basic concepts of public and cultural diplomacy and cultural policy. Next chapter of the theoretical part will focus on the institutional promotion of cultural diplomacy and will subsequently define methods and forms, which are used in cultural diplomacy. Essential parts of foreign policy are international agreements between states and in the field covered by the Ministry of Culture these arrangements are primarily the so called Cultural Agreements. The theoretical part of the thesis will describe cultural diplomacy in practice. In the empirical part the author will use the comparative method of analysing the differences in the specific example of cultural policy instruments of Czech Centres in London, Berlin and Kiev. Comparisons will be made on the basis of quantitative data from 2011. The sources for this comparison are the internal statistics of the Czech Centres.

This diploma thesis provides a detailed overview of actors of Czech cultural diplomacy that operate in Germany in order to support Czech-German diplomatic relations and build cultural understanding. The core of this thesis is focused on the cultural institute Czech Centres, their status and their practice in Germany. The principal aim of this thesis is to provide a complex of information about the organisation, initiatives and activities of Czech centres in Germany and analyse the differences in the practice of Czech Centres in Berlin, Munich and Düsseldorf. Furthermore, this thesis seeks to define the main factors for determining the efficiency of Czech centres and analyse their strengths, limits and opportunities.

Although cultural policy and cultural diplomacy are just some of various forms soft power, there is a lack of research between the EU and Morocco despite an increased interest from the EU in various Southern Mediterranean countries. There is a general research gap in the academic world regarding the evaluation the EU’s external cultural policy in Morocco, which this research paper seeks to contribute to fill in the soft power and global context. This paper seeks to examine the role that cultural diplomacy has in the soft power process, specifically with the case of the EU and Morocco.From this research paper it was found that although culture has generally played an increasing role in EU and Morocco relations, when examining EU-Morocco cultural relations pertaining to their soft power potential, it was unveiled that the EU and Morocco are not fully utilizing their soft power abilities in relation to their cultural policy practices. For instance, in relation to EU-Morocco cultural policy there is a distinctive lack in clarity in government objectives which negatively impacts soft power potential. In EU cultural documents, there is also a clear and different role in internal and external relations also affecting cultural relations with Morocco. However, despite these shortcomings, the EU and Morocco continue to build on their relations with future plans to deepen their agreements. It is in the interest of the EU and Morocco to invest and refine their cultural policy in order to fully utilize the cultural opportunities and benefits for both states in these future agreements. The specific benefits and motivations for the EU and Morocco are also discussed. The theoretical outline for this paper involved power, especially Nye’s conception of soft power, along with public diplomacy, cultural diplomacy, as well as cultural relations. The focus of analysis of this thesis included EU documents such as, treaties, joint agreements, declarations, conclusions, and so on will be the main source of document analysis for this paper in order to trace the evolution of EU-Morocco cultural policy and relations. Additionally Chodubski’s framework derived from the political science field was used alongside critical political discourse analysis.

This thesis focusses on contemporary China. It examines the role the dominant ideology plays in determining the kinds of texts and narratives that are translated for export as part of government-sponsored translation projects. The literary magazine Pathlight, launched as an instrument of Chinese cultural diplomacy, is at the centre of this research project. At the turn of the 21st century, the Chinese government stepped up its funding of cultural diplomacy activities in efforts to disseminate Chinese traditional culture and Chinese discourse internationally. This move was fuelled by mounting criticism and negative reporting from the Western mainstream media on China, and China’s declining image worldwide. As part of this, the Chinese government initiated a number of projects to enhance the country’s image and discursive power through cross-cultural exchanges and cultural diplomacy, and thus forge its own narrative on China in the international community (K. Zhao, 2016). Drawing upon notions of patronage and ideology from Lefevere’s rewriting theory and anchoring on previous research on similar translation projects, this study applies qualitative content analysis methods to pinpoint the recurring themes and narratives in the English translations exported in Pathlight from 2011 to 2019. It searches for links between these recurring themes and narratives and current Chinese mainstream ideology as expressed by “the Chinese dream.” The findings of this dissertation reveal that, although the dominant ideology in China does put certain limitations on what kinds of stories and narratives are selected for translation and export in government-sponsored translation projects, compared to years prior to the economic reforms of the 1980s, the variety of stories and narratives translated and exported has greatly increased. Arguably, this could be explained by the changes in the country’s dominant ideology over the past 30 years, and by how the Chinese government is turning to “softer” methods of control.

Mirakyan, N. (2021). EU Cultural Relations with Partner Countries: Case Study of Armenia [Master's Thesis]. Supervisor: Mgr. Eliška Tomalová, Ph.D. Charles University. Abstract International cultural relations are a key area in the EU external relations and, thus, have gained salience in recent research. There is a growing body of constructivist literature that recognizes the importance of this area. However, there is still uncertainty in the literature regarding the views and attitudes of the partner countries toward the international cultural relations policy of the EU. In this vein, the current thesis project studies the sources and trajectory of the development of cultural relations between the EU and Armenia are from 2014 to 2020. Furthermore, the suitability of the international relations theory of liberalism is revisited in the light of cultural relations with the partner countries when these countries have concluded politico-economic agreements, and it is namely the Comprehensive and Enhanced Partnership Agreement (CEPA) in the case of Armenia. The conceptions of cultural relations are critically analyzed in relation to the theories of international relations in order to develop a normative hypothesis while excluding common conceptual fallacies and unintentional assumptions. The normative...