Jana Urbanovská

Slovakia in UN Peacekeeping Operations: Trapped between the Logic of Consequences and Appropriateness

This article analyses the motivation of Slovakia to conduct UN peacekeeping operations. This means whether Slovakia participates in these operations on the basis of the logic of consequences or the logic of appropriateness. The official rhetoric has operated with the logic of consequences (instrumental approach), which is used to justify the very broad participation of Slovakia in peacekeeping. However, the relatively non-selective territorial participation in peacekeeping operations would give evidence to actions led by the logic of appropriateness. Nevertheless, the analysis of the individual aspects of Slovak participation has shown relatively convincingly that in the actions of Slovakia in this field—after a short initial phase indicating more likely the logic of appropriateness—an instrumental approach prevailed.

Defense Co-Operation Between Germany and the Visegrad Countries

ABSTRACT The V4 or Visegrad countries — the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia — have turned to the West for many reasons, including in order to advance technologically and economically, for political and administrative models, as well to gain military and political protection. The V4 countries are aware that their active and successful engagements within NATO and the EU are only possible in close cooperation with Germany. The V4 countries and Germany have had many opportunities to develop their mutual cooperation in the sphere of defense. However, defense cooperation seems to be underdeveloped within the forum of the V4 states as well as with Germany. The V4 platform clearly remains an unattractive tool for German military cooperation with Central European countries and has shown very limited potential even for its members. Germany does not have high expectations for the V4 alliance in terms of relevance as a security institution.

Visegrad Four EU Battlegroup: Meaning and Progress

In 2011, the states of the so-called Visegrad Four (V4), i.e. the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, decided to form a joint European Union battlegroup by 2016, available for rapid deployment within ten days and within a radius of six thousand kilometres from Brussels. The intention to establish this military formation had become the first initiative of its kind within the V4 ever. The present article therefore aims to examine the content of the mutual military cooperation among the CR, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in the form of the V4 battlegroup and make readers acquainted with relevant and up-to-date information about the process of the formation of the V4 battlegroup and its importance for the military cooperation of the V4 countries. In order to achieve that, the authors introduce the previous experience of the individual V4 countries with the formation of EU battlegroups, explain the motives of the V4 countries to form a joint battlegroup, describe the path leading to the creation of the V4 BG as well as the possibilities of its deployment and the question of financing, and finally they deal with the perspectives of the V4 BG from the point of view of its importance for further development of military cooperation between the V4 countries.