The diploma thesis introduces the term public diplomacy and examines it in the context of Czech Republic. The aim of the thesis is to explore, describe and evaluate Czech Republic's practice in the field of public diplomacy. The study also focuses on the term nation branding and brand image of countries. A whole chapter is dedicated to the "brand Czech republic". The last part of the diploma thesis analyzes the Czech presidency of the Council of the European Union in the first half of 2009 from the view of its presentation and communication.

Public diplomacy helps to promote the state in the world and achieve its interests. Every state approachs in different way the public diplomacy. The thesis focuses on Italian public diplomacy, how is created, if it is a part of Italian foregin policy and which are their actors and instruments. At the end of the thesis is an analyse of concrete project of Italian public diplomacy.

Cultural diplomacy has always been playing an important role in international relations. It is a phenomenon which has been becoming more and more actual recently and which has been permanently growing in significance. There is a huge probability that cultural diplomacy will play a crucial role in international relations of 21th century. This part of diplomacy should not be thus underestimated and it is certainly worthwhile to pay more attention to it. Significance of cultural diplomacy is growing in connection with the growth of importance of "soft power". The theory of "soft power" has been developed by Joseph S. Nye Jr. In his book Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics, Joseph S. Nye Jr. calls for strenghtening of intercultural dialog as a reaction on 11th September 2001.

The Master's Thesis introduces the definition and scope of term public diplomacy and deals with its dimensions, types and implications. The second chapter describes the system of public diplomacy in the Czech Republic. In particular emphasis is put on actors that participate in public diplomacy, the instruments they dispose of and the strategy they follow. The evaluation of the functionality of Czech public diplomacy system is made based on results of questionnaire which was distributed among foreigners.

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.

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.

Master´s thesis aims at giving an overview of public and cultural diplomacy used in the middle-sized countries such as Austria and the Czech Republic. The thesis explains what does the public and cultural diplomacy mean, as well as what are contributions for countries which participate either in bilateral or in multinational cooperation. The thesis is focused on national foreign cultural policy made by different actors, as well as on common foreign policy and common projects which these two states have worked on. The very last part of the thesis summarizes effectiveness and successes of promoting a national culture abroad, what sort of diplomacy is used to do so and which institutions are the most important ones.