Contemporary Czech-German relations have been repeatedly described as “the best in history” by political representatives on both sides of the border. When challenged by a major crisis, however, the alleged stability of Czech-German relations seems to be questionable. Using the case studies of the 2015-2016 migration crisis, the 2020-2021 COVID-19 crisis and the ongoing Ukraine crisis, we aim to understand in what ways these external shocks have affected the imagination of the Other as present in the mutual perceptions of these two countries. To achieve our goal, we will explore the domestic political discourse constructed by political elites in the Czech Republic and Germany, juxtaposing the regional and state levels of governance. Building on the tradition of qualitative research, we introduce an innovative interdisciplinary framework that combines perception theory, drawing on Foreign Policy Analysis, with theories of symbolic boundaries and boundary work based in Cultural Sociology.

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Masaryk University is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which aim to improve the conditions and quality of life on our planet by 2030.

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