Pavel Mráz

My interest in international relations dates back to my first spontaneous meeting with Madeleine Albright, Czech compatriot born in Smíchov who later went on to become American Secretary of State. To this day, I remember vividly how I accidentally stumbled upon her lecture in a small bookstore downtown Denver during my high school exchange in the US. She was a fascinating bridge between two different worlds, Czech as much as she was American, former Secretary of State as was as political refugee. She spoke passionately about the Czech-American friendship as much as she talked about the global problems awaiting my generation. She inspired me not only to understand that some challenges we face require truly international solutions, but also to appreciate that good neighborly relations among nations are often build upon friendships of personal nature. Because of this profound experience, I started dreaming about working for the United Nations. The following years of studies of liberal arts and humanities at Charles University in Prague, European studies at Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and political science at McGill in Canada only reinforced my belief of the UN’s indispensability in our rapidly globalizing world. At first, the goal of getting a job at the UN seemed almost unreachable. And yet, the financial support I received from the Bakala Foundation has allowed me to begin my PhD studies at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva as well as to start an internship at the Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic in Geneva.