Dr. Irena Kalhousová

Monographs

Chapters in monographs

• Kalhousová I. (2024). Israel and Central Europe. Routledge Handbook on Israel's Foreign Relations (pp. 328-339).
• Kalhousová I. (2016). Unwilling to Succeed: The Czech Position on U.S. Missile Defense - Between Strategy and Public Political Debate. Arms Control and Strategic Stability in the Middle East and Europe (pp. 63-79).
• Kalhousová I. (2021). Írán: skryté soupeření a hybridní operace. Za zrcadlem: Hybridní válka jako staronový fenomén mezinárodních vztahů (pp. 340-356).

Articles

• Kalhousová I. (2019). Ženy v izraelské společnosti: Sionistický mýtus o rovnosti pohlaví versus patriarchální realita. Nový Orient, 74(3), 50-60.
• Kalhousová I. (2015). Relations between Israel and the Czech Republic: From Sentiment to Pragmatism?. Strategic Assessment, 18(3), 93-104.
• Kalhousová I., & Rubínová S. (2020). The Visegrád Group and Its Voting Patterns on the Israeli-Arab/Palestinian Conflict in the UN General Assembly. Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, 14(3), 457-475.

Contributions in the conference proceedings

2024 Miloslav Petrusek Prize for Presentation and Promotion for long-term development of the third pillar of the university through activities in the media, participation in public discussions and lecturing activities in high schools, Rector, Charles University

2023 A Special Recognition of the Dean for commentaries on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the media, Faculty of Social Science, Charles University

2024, 2023, 2021 Golden Course Faculty Teaching Award for the best undergraduate course, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, CZ

• Israel: Politics and Society
• The Israeli-Arab/Palestinian Conflict
• Israel’s Foreign Policy 
• History, Memory, and Politics: Central Europe and Israel  

Israel, Central Europe/EU/USA and Relations with Israel, Contemporary Conflicts in the Middle East

2022-2026 PRIMUS: A four-year research grant, Charles University, CZ
Interdisciplinary research at the intersection of foreign policy and memory politics focused on how traumatic events affect international relations of European states.
- Primary Investigator: Lead an international, seven-member research team.
- Topic: “The Past is Present: The Use and Misuse of Traumatic Historical Events in Foreign Policy.”
- Budget: $490.000

2020-2023 e-NOTE: European Network on Teaching Excellence, funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Framework Research focused on “teaching excellence” in Higher Education in the EU. In cooperation with six universities across Europe.
- Research Fellow: Develop best practices in the field of online and offline teaching

2020 – to date Peace Research Center Prague, Charles University Center of Excellence Focused on the prevention, management, and transformation of conflicts in world politics.
- Research Fellow: Write academic papers and analyses on Israel and Israel and Europe.

Irena specializes in Israel, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and in relations between Central European countries and Israel. In her PhD thesis (LSE 2019), she looked at relations between Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Israel. Using IR theory which builds on constructivism, historical analysis, and politics of memory, she analysed historical roots of foreign policies of the three Central European countries towards Israel. In her current research (PRIMUS) she compares how politicians in Central European countries use and misuse traumatic past experiences to justify foreign policy positions.

Israel, Middle East, Central Europe and Israel, Foreign Policy, Nationalism, Politics of Memory, Constructivism in IR