The phenomenon of commitment is a cornerstone of human social life. Commitments make individuals’ behavior predictable in the face of fluctuations in their desires and interests, thereby facilitating the planning and coordination of joint actions involving multiple agents. Moreover, commitments make people willing to perform actions that they would not otherwise perform. For example, an investor may be willing to purchase government bonds because a central banker has made a commitment to maintaining that country’s currency. In general, social objects and institutions such as jobs, money, government and marriage depend for their origin and stability upon the credibility of commitments. Despite the crucial importance of commitment for characteristically human forms of sociality, it is not well understood how people identify and assess the level of their own and others’ commitments. The SENSE OF COMMITMENT will develop a theoretical framework for research on commitment, and create a suite of experimental paradigms for testing predictions generated by the theoretical framework. By focusing on joint actions involving pairs of agents, it will illuminate the fundamental mechanisms underlying large-scale human social phenomena. The SENSE OF COMMITMENT will generate basic scientific knowledge that will be relevant to many disciplines in the social sciences, cognitive sciences, and humanities. The insights gained will create a new perspective for: 1) social robotics, by specifying factors that will be useful in designing robots (e.g. for senior citizens’ homes and rescue operations) that participate in commitments with humans; 2) research on pathological conditions such as borderline personality disorder, in which individuals find it difficult to commit to or to rely upon others; 3) identifying factors relevant in sustaining people’s commitment to beneficial long-term programs (skills training for workers, exercise or rehabilitation programs for patients, etc.).

The Model of the Visegrad Group was the second year of the same project which took place in March and April 2016 in Prague. The youth exchange lasting a week was dedicated to university students from Central European countries (in a formate of the extended Visegrad Group). Twenty eight participants from the following countries attended the exchange: Czech Republic (12), Slovakia (6), Austria (4), Hungary (3), Germany (2), and Poland (1). The students were selected based on online application call. The aim of the project was to promote a common understanding of democratic processes, to facilitate an example of a real diplomatic decision making in the extended Visegrad Group (V4 +) and to ultimately improve soft skills of the participants. The activities included interactive seminars, workshops, discussions and games. The most important element of the project was a four-day diplomatic simulation of a summit of the Visegrad Group with Austria and Germany that dealt with current issues. Students acted in the roles of diplomats and represented interests of individual countries.The project aspired to support participants in their professional and personal development. They could try speaking at the public, improve their rhetorical, presentation and argumentation skills or learn how to properly search and critically analyse the data. Thanks to the gathering with their counterparts from other countries, participants received feedback from different perspectives, developped new international contacts and learnt more about the culture of neighboring countries. We consider the raising awareness of international and regional organizations and their functioning crucial in today's globalized world. By participating in the project and peer-learning, students are better able to express their opinions and attitudes and become more proactive and more responsive to their surroundings.Joint meeting on March 3 - April 5, 2016 was divided into two parts: the first three days took place in the premises of the Prague District 2 and were intended for getting to know each other, seminars and discussions with experts, and development of soft-skills. This part included city walks in the Prague centre. In doing so, we used various methods of non-formal education. The following days were dedicated to the diplomatic simulation in the framework of the Prague Student Summit (PSS), the largest project of its kind in Central Europe. The V4 + simulation amended three international organizations that are being simulated traditionally - the United Nations, the European Union and NATO - and became the first ever, which is designed for international participants. The opening ceremony for 400 people at the Ambassador Hotel in the centre of Prague was attended by prominent guests (politicians, ambassadors, experts, and journalists). The participants delivered their opening speech in front of them. In next days, diplomatic negotiations continued in the Prague Congress Centre.The real current issues that are on the tables of real diplomats were discussed. Their selection was carried out based on the official program of the Czech Presidency of the Visegrad Group. It included digital agenda, security and defense cooperation and energy security. Debates and negotiations were based on the rules of procedure and the organizational team played a role of a facilitator who also checked compliance with the rules of conduct, maintain a list of speakers and, if necessary, advise to those in need. The form and substance of negotiations were granted to a group of participants.The project in its essence filled the priority of the program aimed at youth - it supported its active participation in the development of civil society, enabled it to gain new skills and experiences, provided opportunity for meeting young people from different countries and cultures, encouraged them to express their opinions or ideas and the courage to change the world around them, to be proactive and learn from each other.The projekt was coordinated by the Czech NGO Association for International Affairs (www.amo.cz).

The Erasmus Mundus Masters Program in Public Policy - Mundus MAPP directly responds to the educational needs created by the rapidly changing global environment and new public policy challenges. Mundus MAPP equips graduates with the conceptual knowledge and hard skills that are necessary for understanding and decisively intervening in contemporary transnational policy problems, from climate change to international terrorism or financial regulatory failure. It provides a detailed and systematic understanding of how political institutions, processes and public policies operate and interact from the global political economy through to national and local levels with a direct focus on European engagements at these levels of governance.Four leading European universities joined forces to deliver Mundus MAPP: Central European University in Budapest (Hungary), Institut Barcelona d’Estudis Internacionals (Spain), the International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University in the Hague (Netherlands), and the University of York (UK). The consortium also includes a small number of prestigious think tanks as associated partners. Inter-disciplinarity and practical application of conceptual knowledge through internships are hallmarks of Mundus MAPP. Building on Mundus MAPP’s successful track record, the integrated curriculum provides a uniform core of policy studies as well as modules specific to particular mobility tracks, drawn predominantly from the fields of International Relations, European Studies and Development Studies. The four mobility tracks allow students to specialise in Political Economy and Development, Governance and Development, and European and Global Public Policy, respectively. Each mobility track includes a field trip to a relevant public sector organisation and an internship. Graduates of the program receive a joint degree “Erasmus Mundus MA in Public Policy” from the two consortium universities they attend.Mundus MAPP’s unique combination of strong conceptual foundations with practice and policy-oriented learning will provide graduates with all necessary transferable skills and subject-specific knowledge for embarking on or furthering professional careers as policy-makers, policy-analysts and advisors in the civil service, international organisations or the corporate and non-governmental sectors, and for enrolling in doctoral programs in a range of relevant subjects. They will have unsurpassed knowledge of European policy making milieus and solid institutional and personal networks that will take them forward to leadership roles and constructive future engagements within Europe and the rest of the world.