Who Can Support Human Rights and Democracy Agenda in the Foreign Policy of the Czech Republic? Social Network Analysis of Potential Human Rights Proponents in the Chamber of Deputies

The goal of the paper is to identify potential proponents of human rights agenda in the foreign policy of the Czech Republic among the members of the Chamber of Deputies of Parliament of the Czech Republic. With the change of majority of MPs after the 2013 parliamentary election and the ongoing discussion about the shift in priorities of foreign policy, number of non-governmental organizations, opposition political parties and public figures in the Czech Republic asked who is willing to protect the political heritage of the past 25 years in the foreign policy of the Czech Republic. This question has reappeared with President Zeman’s controversial trips to China and Russian Federation, discussion around the economic interests of the Czech Republic abroad and migration crisis in the recent year. It has raised also practical motivations among the group of NGOs to identify potential proponents of the core democratic values who can effectively cooperate in order to support the human rights and democracy agenda abroad. As a part of this effort, the paper explores communities of potential proponents/opponents of human rights agenda (in its narrow meaning; abroad) in the Chamber of Deputies and discusses interesting relations among the MPs and their political parties. Based on MPs’ memberships in the inter-parliamentary groups, the paper analyses social networks existing in the Chamber of Deputies while considering the MPs’ potential interests and commitments in the Czech foreign affairs.