Central Europe Thirty Years after the Fall of Communism: A Return to the Margin

(Hardback)

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Description

This book examines the politics and international relations of Central Europe (the Visegrd Four) three decades after the fall of communism. Once bound together by a common geopolitical vision of "returning to the West," the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia now find themselves in a more ambiguous position. The 2015 European migration crisis exposed serious normative differences with Western Europe, leading to a collective V4 rebellion against the European Union's migration policies. At the same time, as this book demonstratesdespite this normative rift with Western Europe and despite the democratic backsliding in some of the V4 statesthey remain deeply dependent on the West in both symbolic and material terms. Furthermore, ways in which individual Central European states position themselves vis-a-vis the West exhibit notable differences, informed by their specific political and cultural legacies. The author examines these in separate country chapters. This book also contains a chapter that analyzes the effect of the COVID-19 crisis on political discourses in the V4.

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What is the meaning of the idea of 'Central Europe' in the twenty-first century How have European crises of the last two decades transformed this meaning How important is post-communist trajectory of the 'Visegrad Four' in understanding the political future of the EU These are only some of the questions that Aliaksei Kazharski discusses in his important and provocative book.

Author Bio

Aliaksei Kazharski is researcher and lecturer at Charles University in Prague and Comenius University in Bratislava.