Security Perception and Security Policy in Central Europe, 1989-2019

The book attempts to deconstruct the monolithic regional-level approach through a methodical study of Central European states. It will be useful for scholars and interested individuals who want to understand why and how individual states in the region participate in NATO and EU security and defence initiatives and policies.

Central Europe may be perceived as a homogeneous subunit: a geographic locale that shares similar cultural traits, common histories, and a linked troubled past, and one that has embarked on a joint process of European integration in the past three decades. A closer look reveals that there are significant differences hidden in the cracks and the states of Central Europe exhibit large variety in two key elements that makes regional cooperation uniquely challenging: their strategic cultures and their relations toward Russia. Two major factors determine a state's foreign policy and international ambition - its perception of the security environment and the capabilities it possesses. Policy experts provide an overview of how these two factors, and by extension state-level foreign policies, have varied in the post-Cold War era, up until 2019.

The contributing authors in this volume take a deep dive into nine Central and Eastern European states' policies: Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine. The assessments provided in this book attempt to deconstruct the monolithic regional-level approach through the methodical study of the states of the region. This approach will be particularly useful for scholars and interested individuals who want to understand why and how individual Central European states participate in NATO and EU security and defence initiatives and policies.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Defense & Security Analysis.

Autorentext

Tamas Csiki Varga is Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Strategic and Defence Studies, Budapest, Hungary. He is an alumnus of Zrínyi Miklós National Defence University and Central European University, currently working as a defence policy analyst specialized in Hungarian security policy and European defence cooperation.

Inhalt
Introduction: Security perception and security policy in Central Europe, 19892019 1. The security perception and security policy of Hungary, 19892018 2. Security perception and security policy of the Slovak Republic, 19932018 3. The security perception and security policy of the Czech Republic, 19932018 4. The security perception and security policy of Ukraine, 19912018 5. The security perception and security policy of Austria, 19892017 6. The security perception and security policy of Poland, 19892017 7. Security perception and security policy in Romania since the 1989 Revolution 8. Security perception in Croatia since the declaration of independence 9. The security perception and security policy of Serbia.