Mental Background to Geopolitics and Geostrategy in Modern East-cCentral Europe

Abstract

After Hungary had joined the EU in 2004, the problem of defining the term ‘nation’ developed a new angle and gave us the opportunity to revisit the geopolitical, social and cultural position of East-Central Europe. In this region, questions about the future of minor nations are on the agenda for two hundred years and political decisions could not avoid addressing mutual relationships of local nations in almost all political periods. In the 19th century, ethnic groups struggled expressing their wishes and find their own way in the arena of dynastic politics. The fight of great powers set the scene for the 20th century where these nations tried to influence their fate and set the quality of their life – with less or more success. Four events were fundamental for the geopolitics of the region over these two hundred years: the Congress of Vienna in 1814-1815, the Treaty of Versailles in 1919, the Yalta Conference in 1945 and regime changes in Easter Europe in 1989- 1990. This study depicts the mental background to emerging geostrategic and geopolitical opportunities in East-Central Europe over the last hundred years, a topic less researched compared to economic and political dimensions of the same period.