Czech diplomacy in 2012 was marked with C. Authors have criticized mainly unsufficient coordination between the key foreign-policy actors, low interest of political elites in foreign policy, and a lack of clear strategic vision and strong political leadership.

“Czech foreign policy is, on important issues, inconsistent, reactive and lacking in strategic dimension. In spite of all the documents adopted, there is really nothing to identify as a Czech grand strategy. The priorities of foreign policy are unclear because there is a failure to differentiate the essential from the less important. In other words, long-term strategic balance and political boldness are not apparent in Czech foreign policy at this time. This results in overly cautious stances, which fail to lead to any clear, visible, international initiative based on a firm domestic consensus, and manifests itself only in the occasional pouting on European issues,” claim the authors in an introduction.