Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Age of Hybrid Threats

Research within this area focuses on linking the study of ethnicity and nationalism with the analysis of foreign interference and hybrid threats. We examine how ethnic identities and nationalist narratives are instrumentalized as tools of foreign policy influence and how states and societies adapt to foreign interference through the building of societal resilience. Our work builds on the tradition of political and cultural geography while also reflecting broader geopolitical and geoeconomic contexts. Empirically, we focus primarily on the post-Soviet space and Southeastern Europe, while also paying attention to other regions such as Indo-Pacific Asia and the Horn of Africa.

Research Teams and Staff Involved:

  • doc. Vincenc Kopeček,
  • doc. Tomáš Hoch,
  • Dr. Andrea Peinhopf,
  • Dr. Vincent Artman,
  • Dr. Martin Solik,
  • prof. Vladimír Baar,
  • Dr. Lukáš Laš,
  • Dr. Kateřina Ženková Rudincová,
  • Dr. Adam Kočí.

PhD students:

Ondřej Elbel, Dita Sutterová, Viktor Heinz, Jan Graf, Alina Younis, Dalibor Velký

Major projects over the last five years:

  • Operational Programme Research, Development and Education (OP JAK, CZ.02.01.01/00/23_025/0008692):Foreign Interference of Great Powers in the Context of Contemporary Geopolitical and Technological Changes (INTERFER), Principal Investigator: doc. Michal Smetana (Charles University, Prague), Duration: 1/2025–12/2028
  • Technology Agency of the Czech Republic (TAČR, TQ01000204): Expert Network for the Analysis of Strategic Global Trends, Principal Investigator: Dr. Martin Laryš (Institute of International Relations, Prague), Duration: 9/2023–12/2025
  • Czech Science Foundation (GAČR, 22-13347S): Where Have All the Natsmen Gone? Ethnic Minorities in the Post-Soviet Space, Principal Investigator: doc. Vincenc Kopeček, Duration: 1/2022–12/2024
  • Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership (2021-1-PL01-KA220-HED-000023034): M.O.R.D.O.R. Project – Mapping and Organizing Research on Dictatorships, Open Access Repository, Principal Investigator: Dr. Jeroen van den Bosch (Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland), Duration: 1/2022–12/2024

Significant publications:

  • HOCH, T. (2025): Identity Narratives of Megrelians in Georgia Since the Dissolution of the USSR. The Soviet and Post-Soviet Review (aop), 1-25.
  • KOSIENKOWSKI, M., ŽENKOVÁ RUDINCOVÁ, K. (2024): Client De Facto States and Quasi-Patrons: Insights from the Relationship Between Somaliland and Ethiopia. Ethnopolitics (23)2, 152-172.
  • HOCH, T., HEINZ, V. (2024): Higher Education in Northern Cyprus: The Path from Isolation to Oversaturation. Comparative Southeast European Studies 72(2), 207-231.
  • PEINHOPF, A. (2023): Crossing the conflict divide: de facto borders, state belonging, and the changing dynamics of enemy relations in Abkhazia. Ethnopolitics 22(3), 253-270.
  • HORÁK, S., HOCH, T. (2023): The fate of sacred places in Nagorny Karabakh as a symbol of unsuccessful conflict transformation. Bulletin of Geography. Socio-economic Series no. 59, 25-40.
  • ELBEL, O., KOPEČEK, V. (2022): I Thought That Everyone Perceived the Situation Similarly to Me.” The Czech-Polish “Cieszyn-Silesia” Region as a Case of a Polysemic Border. Mitteilungen der Österreichischen Geographischen Gesellschaft no. 164, 145-168.
  • SOLIK, M., GRAF, J., BAAR, V. (2022): Hybrid Threats in the Western Balkans: A Case Study of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Romanian Journal of European Affairs 22(1), 5-23.
  • WELLISCH, S., LAŠ, L. (2022): Media discourses of territorial disputes in Japan. Asian Geographer 39(1), 1-19.
  • KOČÍ, A., BAAR, V. (2021): Greenland and the Faroe Islands: Denmark’s autonomous territories from postcolonial perspectives. Norwegian Journal of Geography 75(4), 189-202.
  • PEINHOPF, A. (2021): The curse of displacement: Local narratives of forced expulsion and the appropriation of abandoned property in Abkhazia. Nationalities Papers 49(4), 710-727.

Updated: 10. 06. 2026