Slovakia and international crisis management
Slovakia and international crisis management

Author(s): Samuel Goda
Subject(s): International relations/trade, Security and defense, Military policy, EU-Approach / EU-Accession / EU-Development
Published by: Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA)
Keywords: Slovakia; international crisis management; EU; NATO;
Summary/Abstract: Like all the Visegrad 4 countries, Slovakia has its own approach to international crisis management derived from its previous experiences from the “Czechoslovak era” of the Warsaw Pact and particularly from the post-1993 transition. From the outset Slovakia declared its willingness to adopt a European and Euro-Atlantic direction. Nonetheless, in 1994 the government briefly opted for an unclear, unpredictable and opaque foreign and security policy, which led to Slovakia being the only V4 country not to be invited to join the first round of NATO enlargement at the Madrid Summit in 1997. Meanwhile, however, Slovak engagement with the OSCE followed a different narrative. Slovakia joined the CSCE/OSCE on January 1, 1993, immediately after gaining independence, because the OSCE opted for a more inclusive approach. From 1994 to 1998 Slovak diplomat Ján Kubiš served as director of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Center, the most important institution within the OSCE. After that, between 1999 and 2005, he served as OSCE secretary general. However, in general Slovakia’s international fame, despite its engagement in several UN, OSCE and NATO-led missions, was an unhappy one.

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