East Central European Foreign Policy Identity in Perspective : Back to Europe and the EU’s Neighbourhood

I would like to thank the Institute of International Relations (IIR) in Prague, led at that time by Petr Drulák, for hosting the post-doctoral research project which allowed me to write this book, as well as the colleagues from the IIR for their support and comments on this project. The team of the Centre for EU Enlargement Studies of the European University Institute (CEU ENS), led by Peter Balázs, also provided great support in terms of research assistance during my short research sojourn there in May 2010. This allowed me to have discussions with outstanding people and access to Hungarian literature on the topic. I want to particularly thank András Deák for his help. I would also like to thank all the civil servants, diplomats, NGO members, experts and analysts who took the time to discuss with me on an anonymous basis several aspects of this book and to provide me with important information and documents. I hope that this book will also be of interest to them and contribute to a better understanding of East Central European foreign policies. The participants who contributed to the special issue on identity and solidarity in the East Central European foreign policy towards the East of the journal Perspectives (published in 2011) and to the subsequent edited book on the same topic by the same publishing house have contributed to deepening my knowledge of East Central European foreign policies and thus to sharpening my insights for this book. I would like to thank them and name them here: How have countries in the EU that were previously under Communist rule influenced the creation of a European policy towards other Post-Soviet nations? This study explores countries including the Czech Republic and Poland and shows how they have helped develop a coherent policy based reconciling political and historical foreign policy identities. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, countries that previously formed part of the Eastern Bloc have worked on their 'return to Europe' through their accession to traditionally West European supranational institutions such as the European Union and NATO. The book investigates the political and historical foreign policy identities of six of these countries and shows how, despite a clear policy oriented towards the West, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovenia have participated in a differentiated manner in the definition of a European policy towards the Eastern and South-Eastern neighbours. Through analysis of evidence from an original and broad data set, this study highlights that the coherence of EU policy towards the East is mainly linked to its members' capacity to reconcile their political and historical foreign policy identities. The book will be of particular interest to policy-makers, students and specialists of the EU and East Central Europe, as well as to the larger public interested in European integration Front Matter....Pages i-xiii Introduction: The ‘Return to Europe’ and the Rediscovery of the East....Pages 1-20 Front Matter....Pages 21-24 The ‘Return to Europe’: Redefining ECE Political Identities after 1989....Pages 25-83 Defining the Historical Self....Pages 84-111 East Central European Solidarity and Responsibility Towards the Post-Communist Neighbourhood....Pages 112-145 Front Matter....Pages 147-150 Participation in EU Policies as a Turn in ECE Foreign Policies....Pages 151-184 Foreign Policy Consistency Through the Presidencies of the Visegrád Group and of the EU Council....Pages 185-219 Between Solidarity, Responsibility and Interests: Assistance Policies and Economic Ties....Pages 220-275 Conclusion: The Dilemmas in Interpreting Foreign Policy Identity....Pages 276-280 Back Matter....Pages 281-326 Review: 'Looking across cases from East Central Europe and focusing on neighbours to the east and in the Western Balkans, Tulmets provides an impressive and valuable contribution to our understanding of not just how post-communist foreign policy identities have been forged but also how states have moved beyond a 'return to Europe' to redefine their foreign policies since becoming EU members.' David Phinnemore, School of Politics, International Studies and Philosophy, Queen's University Belfast, UK Investigates the political and historical foreign policy identities of six countries that were part of the Eastern Bloc and shows how, despite clear policy oriented towards the west, their participation in the definition of a European policy towards their neighbors has varied, depending on their political and historical foreign policy identities