Jan served as the editor in chief of Checks & Balances in the 2019-2020 academic year, having fulfilled the role of a reporter in the year prior. Recognising the benefits of general awareness, he hopes to enrich the audiences’ comprehension of our intriguing, tightly interconnected political world through his writings. As a Czech IRIO student who grew up in Qatar, his primary areas of interest include Middle Eastern international politics, Russia-EU relations, geopolitics, and modern history with a pinch of IR theory.

A Prudent People with a Grand Legacy: The Suruí Struggle Against Deforestation in the Amazon

Fifteen thousand years ago, at the conclusion of the last ice age, the ancestors of Almir Narayamoga Suruí’s tribe settled in the Amazon basin, having traversed thousands of kilometres across

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“Just Fall – That is All” – Or is it? Sudan’s Road to Political Transition, and an Uneasy Path Ahead

Since December 2018, amid proliferating demonstrations against the 30-year reign of Omar Al Bashir, the streets of Sudanese cities have been teeming with Arabic-language banners reading “Freedom, peace and justice,”

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A Cursed Blessing: The Defining Role of Geography in Russian Foreign Policy

A train on the Trans-Siberian Railway departs Moscow, exchanging the sprawling metropolis for woodlands. It snakes through the mighty Urals, cuts across the endless Siberian steppe and winds past Lake

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A Look at New Zealand’s Māori Reconciliation Process: Beyond Biculturalism

Of the 5,000 indigenous groups worldwide, few possess traditions retaining such recognition as the Māori, whose ceremonial dance, the Haka, is recognisable far beyond the community of Rugby fans. Perhaps,

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Dhivehin Dilemma: The Story of Revived Maldivian Democracy and Indian Ocean Power Politics

The word ‘Maldives’ evokes pictures of paradise in the collective imaginary. Yet, there beyond the turquoise lagoons, coral reefs and palm tree hammocks, hidden from the tourists’ eyes, unfolds a

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