ABSTRACT

This chapter examines the interaction of the triple transition and the international environment in the Czech and Slovak cases. For the Czech and Slovak Republics, as for contemporary European countries generally, foreign policy looms large in state management. However, the central foreign policy relationship for the Czech Republic is clearly with Germany; Germany is simultaneously the country's leading trading partner, the leading foreign investor, and the primary champion of Czech integration into Western institutions. The chapter emphasizes the fact that the Czech and Slovak economic transitions are deeply embedded in the broader European context, shaped particularly by the ultimate goal of admission to the European Union. As the protracted discussion of the international context of Czech and Slovak transformation efforts has made clear, the foreign policy strategies of the two new states must be measured against a larger, more encompassing conception of security than any narrow, conventionally defined, military conception.