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PSSI Security Scholar Exchange with Taiwan: The Visit To Taipei in November 2009

01.12.2009

As part of a three-year program of scholarly exchanges between PSSI and the Foreign Ministry of Taiwan (represented by the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Prague), the Institute selected Alice Savovova for the 2009 Taiwan visit. Ms. Savovova has a distinguished academic background, including having been accepted into the prestigious Security Scholars program of PSSI in 2004. She received her Master’s Degree in European Integration from University of Economics in Prague and later served as Managing Director of the Association for International Affairs (AMO). She had visited Taiwan earlier when coordinating a Czech-Taiwanese student exchange.
    For the purpose of this visit, Alice chose to research the comparative approaches of former Taiwanese President Chen Shuibian and the current President, Ma Ying-jeou, to the country’s priority security challenges. Ms. Savovova examined a number of dimensions of Taiwan’s security portfolio in her comparative analysis, among them: differing perceptions of the principal threats faced by Taiwan; the policy positions of these distinctly different Administrations to membership in international organizations, cross-strait economic relations, the regional context of Taiwan-Mainland relations, as well as the management of the Taiwan-EU relationship.
    On November 3, Ms. Savovova presented a lecture at Tamkang university on the successes and shortfalls of the Czech Presidency and Czech relations with regional neighbors. The Taiwanese students posed a number of questions, including concerning the evolution of the Czech Republic’s transition to democracy over the past two decades. PSSI benefited significantly from Ms. Savovova’s candid and thoughtful outline of her findings on this visit.
    PSSI believes Ms. Savovova’s visit contributed significantly to the kind of productive exchanges PSSI has enjoyed with our partners at TECO Prague over this period. Alice has been a both credit to PSSI and the Czech Republic in this regard.