Nikola Hynek is a Visiting Scholar at the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.  Hynek is also Research Fellow at the Institute of International Relations of the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Lecturer at Charles University and Metropolitan University. He is currently Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Peace Studies of the University of Bradford, UK. Nikola holds M.A. in IR and Global Security (with distinction, Plymouth), MSc in Biology, Geography and Psychology (with distinction, Brno) and B.A. in Political Science, IR, and European Studies (Summa Cum Laude, Brno). He has been Visiting Research Fellow at the London School of Economics for 2007/2008 and is Visiting Research Scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University, for the academic year 2008/2009. Hynek has largely researched on theories of international relations, humanitarian arms-control and missile defense. His publications have appeared in Journal of International Relations and Development, International Journal, or Contemporary Political Theory. Nik is currently finalizing a co-edited book on Canadian foreign and security policy for Oxford University Press.

Hynek spoke about the planned basing of ground-based interceptors (GBIs) and accompanying radar detection systems in Poland and the Czech Republic.  The lecture, based on Hynek’s research for two related papers, covered a range of issues related to the Third Site, from the reasons behind Czech and Polish agreement to house the ballistic missile defense (BMD) system and the differing motivations at play in the two countries, to the geopolitical implications of U.S. efforts to expand its BMD arsenal.

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