The security and geopolitical vacuum that arose in Central Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union was used meaningfully by the countries in the region, as they managed to accede the most important integrationist structures of the West, namely NATO and the EU. From a geopolitical point of view, the countries of Central Europe are now in a much more comfortable situation than in the 1990s, but this does not mean that there is no risk of them slipping into geopolitical experiments.
The article has two main goals. Firstly, it analyses five Central European countries (Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia), with the aim of identifying risk factors that could lead to questioning of their foreign policy orientation. Two criteria that might serve as identification for the geopolitical orientation of a particular government are the support for Ukraine and position towards a broadly defined ‘Brussels.’ The support for Ukraine is understood in political terms as the support for the aims and objectives of the president Zelensky and his administration, as well as in practical terms, as all types of assistance provided to Ukraine, including military aid. Another criterion is the compliance with the EU policies and procedures (with particular attention paid to the attitude towards the maintenance of veto in decision making on the EU level) and constructive attitude towards the EU and its leadership.
Secondly, the article examines the impact of the changing geopolitical reality on three different formats of regional cooperation in Central Europe. Besides the Visegrad Four (V4), which is a format with the longest track record, the Slavkov Triangle (S3) as an example of a minilateral initiative among comparable size countries is examined. Last but not least, the focus is also on Three Seas Initiative (3SI), which declares itself as a regional grouping oriented predominantly on sectoral cooperation. The hypothesis is that all examined regional cooperation have been influenced negatively the changes of the governments in Central European countries, though to a different extent. The governments therefore look for alternatives, which include the creation of new formats, revitalization of the old ones or preference of ad hoc coalitions with other countries.
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