propaganda and public diplomacy during the Cold War
History of Eastern Europe
Academic Posts:
2013 – present: Senior Lecturer, Institute of Global History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University
2017 – present: Head of the Cold War Research Group, Institute for the Study of Strategic Regions (ISSR), Charles University
2011 – May 2013: Junior Lecturer, Institute of Global History, Faculty of Arts, Charles University
Education:
2008–2013: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Postgraduate Programme in Modern World History, Institute of Global History, Faculty of Arts (attained degree: PhD)
2007–2008: Northumbria University, Newcastle upon Tyne (United Kingdom), Erasmus Exchange Program
2003–2008: Faculty of Arts, Charles University, Graduate Programme in History and Political Science (attained degree: Master – Mgr.)
2003–2007: Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Undergraduate Programme in Political Science and International Relations (attained degree: Bachelor – Bc.)
Fellowships
2021: Visiting Fellow, School of Modern History, University of St Andrews, United Kingdom
2019: Academic Visitor, Oxford School of Global and Area Studies, University of Oxford, United Kingdom
2014–2015: Fulbright-Masaryk Visiting Scholar, Institute of European, Russian, and Euroasian Studies, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, United States
June 2014 – July 2014: Visiting Research Fellow, School of History, University of St Andrews, United Kingdom
July 2010: Research Scholar, Suffolk University, Boston, United States
February 2010–May 2010: Visiting Fellow, School of History, University of St Andrews, United Kingdom
International conferences and Invited Speaker Lectures
Koura, J., panelist in the roundtable “Soviet and Eastern European Intelligence in the Global South: A Reassessment”, in: Annual Meeting of British Association for Slavonic and Eastern European Studies (BASEES), University of Cambridge, 9 April 2022
Koura, J., Thinking through Cold War Connections and Divisions: Actors and Places, in: University of St Andrews, Institute for Transnational and Spatial History, School of History, 11 October 2021
Koura, J., Czechoslovak Political, Economic and Security Activities in Africa during the Cold War, in: Jimma University, Etiopie, 10 February 2020
Koura, J., Exporting Socialism: Czechoslovak Experts in Ghana in 1960s, in: Association for Slavic, East European and Eurasian Studies (ASEES), 51st Annual Conference, 26. 11. 2019, San Francisco, USA
Koura, J., An Exceptional Agent: Czechoslovak Intelligence, Ben Barka and Cold War in Africa, in: The British International History Group, 31st Annual Conference, 5 September 2019, University of Lancaster, Velká Británie
Koura, J., Pešta, M., Czechoslovak Spies on the “Black Continent”: Strategy and Activities of Czechoslovak Intelligence in Africa in the 1960s, in: The Secret Struggle for the Global South: Espionage, Covert Action and State Security in the ‘Third World’ during the Cold War: A Comparative Perspective, University of Warwick, 14 September 2018
Koura, J., “The Socialism opened the Path for Liberation”. Czechoslovak Ideological Penetration to Africa in 1960s, in: Eastern Europe-Global Area, Leibnitz Institute, Universität Leipzig, 4.-6.7. 2018
Koura, J., An Unequal Duel: The U.S. Propaganda Effort in Czechoslovakia, 1945-1950, Leiden University, 1 May 2018
Koura, J., The Cultural Cold War in Eastern Europe and the Psychological Strategy Board (1947-1953), Utrecht University, 30 April 2018
Koura, J., Toward the Strategy of Containment: George F. Kennan and Designing the Marshall Plan, in: Commemorating the 70thAnniversary of the Marshall Plan: Past and Current Challenges of the Transatlantic Alliance, Knihovna Václava Havla, 26 May 2017
Koura, J., Struggle for the Mind of the Czechoslovakian People: US vs Communist Propaganda in Czechoslovakia, 1945–1948, in: Annual Meeting of British Association for Slavonic and Eastern European Studies (BASEES), University of Cambridge, 3 April 2016.
Koura, J., S. Propaganda in the early Cold War, Russian State University for Humanities (RGGU), Russia, 1 November 2016.
Koura, J., S. Public Diplomacy in Czechoslovakia 1945–1950, Institute of History, Politics and International Relations of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University, Ukraine, 15 May 2015.
Koura, J., Political, Economic and Propagandistic Interest of Czechoslovakia in British Guyana in 1950s and 1960s, in: Cultural Cold War. Eastern Propaganda in Latin America, Metropolitan University Prague, 13 November 2015.
Koura, J., ¿Colaboración sin llevar a cabo? Partido Progresista del Pueblo de Guayana y su colaboración con Checoslovaquia entre 1950 y 1964, in: Las relaciones entre Europa Central y Oriental y América Latina 1945–1989, Charles University, 4 September 2014.
Koura, J., A Missed Opportunity? U.S. Public Diplomacy towards Czechoslovakia, 1945–1953, Visiting Scholars Roundtable Series, Institute of European, Russian, and Euroasian Studies, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, 23 October 2014.
Koura, J., Broadcasting by the Voice of America (VOA) to Czechoslovakia during the late 1940s and 1950s: Contest between Foreign and Domestic Propaganda, in: Annual Meeting of Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), Arlington, Virginia, USA, 20–22 June 2013.
Koura, J., Trumanova doktrína – počátek univerzalistického zadržování komunismu? [The Truman Doctrine – Origin of Universalist Containment?], in: XX Ogólnopolski zjazd historyków studentów [XX Annual Meeting of History Students], Uniwersytet Ślaski w Katowicach, Poland, 12 April 2012.
Research Grants
2018– Co-researcher of the project KREAS (Creativity and Adaptability as Conditions for the Success of Europe in an Interrelated World), Faculty of Arts, Charles University
2017– Co-researcher of the project PROGRES Q09, Charles University
2012–2016: Co-researcher of the project PRVOUK P12 – History in an Interdisciplinary Perspective, Charles University
2016: John F. Kennedy Library Research Grant
2014: Harry S. Truman Library Institute Research Grant
2012–2013: Grant of Faculty of Arts, Charles University (project title: “Propaganda War: Broadcasting of Voice of America to Czechoslovakia 1948–1953”)
2011–2012: Grant of the Grant Agency of Charles University (project title: “Analysis of the Role of Greece and Turkey in U. S. Containment Strategies 1946–1964”)
Tumis, S. – Koura, J. – Soukup, J. (eds.), Kapitoly z britských a amerických dějin [Chapters on British and American history] Praha: Fontes, Faculty of Arts, Charles University 2015, 347 pages, ISBN: 978-80-7308-574-2.
Chapters in monographs
Koura, J. – Waters, R. A., “They are as businesslike on that side of the Iron Curtain as they are on this”: Czechoslovakia’s relations with British Guiana, in: Muehlenbeck, P. – Telepneva, N. (eds.), Warsaw Pact Intervention in the Third World: Aid and Influence in the Cold War, London: I. B. Tauris 2018, p. 74–94.
Koura, J., ¿Colaboración frascada? El Partido Progresista del Pueblo de Guayana y su colaboración noc Checoslovaquia entre 1950 y 1964, in: Opatrný, J. (ed.), Las relaciones entre Europa oriental y América Latina 1945–1989, Praga : Universidad Carolina de Praga, 2015, pp. 127–136. ISBN 978-80-246-3089-2.
Koura, J., První konflikt studené války? Spojené státy americké a řecká občanská válka v letech 1946–1949 [First conflict of the Cold War? The United States and Greek Civil War, 1946–1949] , in: Škerlová, J. – Pokorná Korytarová, L. – Haváč, O. – Vitko, M. (eds.), Promýšlet Evropu 20. století. Konflikty beze zbraní [Rethink 20th Century Europe. Unarmed Conflicts], Brno: Matice moravská 2015, pp. 97–112.ISBN 978-80-87709-10-8.
Koura, J., Americká strategie zadržování a její počáteční formulace v letech 1946–1950. Od Kennanova partikularizovaného přístupu k univerzalismu NSC-68 [US strategy of containment and its initial formulation in the years 1946–1950. From Kennan’s particular approach to universalism of NSC-68] in: Kovář, M. – Drška, V. (eds.), Kapitoly z obecných dějin. Panu profesorovi s láskou…, [Chapters from general history. To our professor…], Praha: Fontes, Faculty of Arts, Charles University 2014, pp. 281–294. ISBN 978-80-7308-521-6.
Koura, J., Alemania despues de la guerra fría: contribución a la historia de Alemania despues de la reunificación, in: Serrano, J. M. (ed.), Juegos de poder: Relaciones Internacionales en la Era Post Guerra Fría, Medellín: Hombre Nuevo Editores 2013, pp. 31–46. ISBN 978-958-8783-19-2.
Koura, J., Vliv Trumanovy doktríny na formulaci americké strategie zadržování [Impact of Truman’s Doctrine on formulation of US containment strategy] in: Čechurová, J. – Andrš, P. – Velek, L. a kol. (eds.), Posláním historik: Pocta prof. Robertu Kvačkovi k 80. narozeninám, Praha: NLN 2012, s. 453–464. ISBN: 978-80-7422-172-9.
Studies in peer-reviewed journals
Koura, J., Czechoslovakia and the ‘Cyprus Issue’ in the years 1960–1974: Secret Arms Deals, Espionage, and the Cold War in the Middle East, in: Middle Eastern Studies 2021, https://doi.org/10.1080/00263206.2020.1860944.
Koura, J., A Prominent Spy: Mehdi Ben Barka, Czechoslovak Intelligence, and Eastern Bloc Espionage in the Third World during the Cold War, in: Intelligence and National Security 2020, https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2020.1844363
Koura, J. – Waters, R., ‘Africanos’ versus ‘Africanitos’ the Soviet-Czechoslovak Competition to Protect the Cuban Revolution, in: International History Review, 2019, https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2019.1692892.
Koura, J., Contest between Foreign and Domestic Propaganda. Voice of America Broadcast to Czechoslovakia during late 1940s and 1950s, in: The Twentieth Century, Vol. 8, No. 1, 2016, pp. 189–207.
Koura, J., Řecko mezi Východem a Západem: Spojené státy americké a řecká otázka v letech 1945–1947 [Greece between East and West: The United States and Greek Question in the years 1945–1947], in: Slovanský přehled/Slavonic Review, Vol. 100, No. 1, 2014, pp. 71–93.
Koura, J., Turkey on the Crossroad: United States Foreign Aid to Turkey in the Years 1947–1948, in: Prague Papers on the History of International Relations, Vol. 5, No. 1, 2013, s. 180–191.
Koura, J., The Truman Doctrine: Origin of Ideological Containment, in: The Twentieth Century, Vol. 2, No. 2, 2010, pp. 136–146 [citations: 3]
Koura, J., Greek-Turkish Struggle for Cyprus: United States Foreign Policy towards the “Cyprus Question” during the 1960s, in: The Twentieth Century, Vol. 1, No. 2, 2009, pp. 13–40.
