This article builds on the criticism of the international socialisation narrative which mistakenly represents compliance as socialisation and recognises agency only to the extent it fails to comply. It pertains to the argument that such a narrative can lead to stigmatisation which reinforces social orders characterised by specific hierarchies of power and spatial relations. The example of EU member states from Central Europe (CE) that went from 'star pupils of norm adoption' to 'misbehaving children of Europe' serves as a case study. The research of literature treating CE countries as socialisees and international organisations (OSCE, NATO and EU) as socialisers shows two things. Firstly, it demonstrates that CE countries internalised norms even before they complied with norm-based rules, which challenges views that (under) socialisation was (is) an issue with these states. Secondly, it shows that non-compliance of the CE countries did not have much to do with non-acceptance of norms as such. It was rather related to hypersensitivity towards specific norms and rules in a context of multiple crises with asymmetric effects for the CE countries. In this process, the EU and CE used (non)compliance to reinforce their identities, thus creating stigma (the EU) and the attempt to resist it or even wear it as the source of pride (CE).

While female representation in the top diplomatic circles was almost nonexistent during the Czechoslovak era, the number of female diplomats in the Czech Republic has steadily increased since the fall of the state-socialist regime. Women are currently solidly represented in the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), but very few (14%) reach highest diplomatic positions. This study examines the main challenges that influence the careers of top diplomats using quantitative and qualitative data, including official statistics and documents of the Czech MFA and interviews with top diplomats and officials. The results indicate that work-family conflicts are the main challenge for all diplomats. However, women are apparently affected more disproportionately because of the existing “double burden” and a specific “concept of motherhood” vested in a deeply essentialist understanding of gender roles. These barriers have origins at the personal, institutional, and state levels that are strongly interrelated and historically and politically path dependent.

At a general level, the article focuses on the relation between states and international organizations. In current era, states and international organizations coexist in international system. Their relation has been researched many times, but the question which is still rather unanswered relates to the management of membership of states in international organizations. The states nowadays participate in hundreds of different organizations. The tricky part that remains to be examined more in details is how to analyse the effectiveness of the engagement of a country in a concrete international organization. The article investigates further the case of the Czech Republic and it analyses its performance and relevance in the European Defence Agency (EDA) applying the research design which was proposed in 20122. The team of researchers proposed four criteria: objective pursued, personal representation, cost/performance ratio and activities implemented. The analysis is based on the examination of the Czech policy goals and priorities in the EDA. It also explor es the area in more details conducting semi-structured interviews with the representatives of different Czech state bodies and employees of the Agency.

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