scholarly journals European Regional Integration in the Drafting of the Eastern Pact in 1934–1935: Interests of the Baltic Entente and the Little Entente

2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-56
Author(s):  
Dalia Bukelevičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
The Common ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
European Regional

This article follows the interests and actions of the countries of Baltic and Little ententes with regard to the projected Eastern Pact, which raised marked interest in East-Central Europe in 1934-1935. It seeks to give an answer to the question whether the negotiations over the Eastern Pact brought the interests of the Baltic states closer to those of the Little Entente. It highlights that the progress of negotiations made it clear that each country was more concerned with its security than the common security of the entire bloc, even though both the Little Entente and the Baltic Entente were established for the sake of safeguarding security of their member states and harmonising their foreign policy in this respect. Both regional security bodies declared their agreement to the Eastern Pact but the key difference was that the Baltic Entente was expected to participate in the Eastern Pact directly, whereas only Czechoslovakia was singled out from among the members of the Little Entente. The analysis concludes that Lithuania and Czechoslovakia were the two countries which were most actively concerned with the conclusion of the Eastern Pact.

scholarly journals DECLINING SYSTEMIC TRUST IN THE POLITICAL ELITE IN THE EU’S NEW MEMBER STATES: THE DIVERGENCE BETWEEN EAST-CENTRAL EUROPE AND THE BALTIC STATES

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Attila Ágh
Keyword(s):  
Social Capital ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Political Elite ◽  
Baltic States ◽  
Member States ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
New Member States ◽  
Systemic Trust ◽  
The Baltic

In the last decade there has been a process of rolling-back Europeanization efforts in the EU’s new member states (NMS), a process intensified by the global crisis. This de-Europeanization and de-democratization process in the NMS has become a significant part of a more general polycrisis in the EU. The backslide of democracy in the NMS as a topical issue has usually been analysed in terms of macro-politics, formal-legal state institutions, party systems, and macroeconomics. The most significant decline of democratization, however, is evident in the public’s decreasing participation in politics and in the eroding trust. This decline in systemic trust in political elites in the NMS has been largely neglected by analysts. Therefore, this paper concentrates on this relatively overlooked dimension of declining trust and social capital in the NMS. This analysis employs the concepts of governance, trust, and social capital to balance the usual formalistic top-down approach with a bottom-up approach that better illustrates the divergence between East-Central Europe and the Baltic states’ sub-regional development.

Fragmentation in East Central Europe

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Klaus Richter
Keyword(s):  
Central Europe ◽  
Social Exchange ◽  
First World War ◽  
World War ◽  
East Central Europe ◽  
East Central ◽  
The First World War ◽  
New States ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
First World

The First World War led to a radical reshaping of Europe’s political borders like hardly any previous event. Nowhere was this transformation more profound than in East Central Europe, where the collapse of imperial rule led to the emergence of a series of new states. New borders intersected centuries-old networks of commercial, cultural, and social exchange. The new states had to face the challenges posed by territorial fragmentation and at the same time establish durable state structures within an international order that viewed them at best as weak and at worst as provisional entities that would sooner or later be reintegrated into their larger neighbours’ territory. Fragmentation in East Central Europe challenges the traditional view that the emergence of these states was the product of a radical rupture that naturally led from defunct empires to nation states. Using the example of Poland and the Baltic States, it retraces the roots of the interwar states of East Central Europe, of their policies, economic developments, and of their conflicts back to deep in the First World War. At the same time, it shows that these states learned to harness the dynamics caused by territorial fragmentation, thus forever changing our understanding of what modern states can do.

scholarly journals Poland and New Trends in Central European Regional Configuration

2021 ◽  
Vol 101 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-61
Author(s):  
Maria Rusakova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Baltic Sea ◽  
Central Europe ◽  
Regional Integration ◽  
The Baltic Sea ◽  
Central European ◽  
Eastern Partnership ◽  
Carpathian Region ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Baltic ◽  
European Regional

The article examines Warsaw's attempts to expand its influence in Central Europe by initiating various regional integration projects: cooperation with the Baltic sea countries participation in the development of the Carpathian region the newest format – the Lublin Triangle. The content of the Lublin Declaration signed on July 28, 2020 by Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine is analyzed in detail. Having been convinced by the example of Ukraine that the Eastern Partnership policy does not allow for quick results, as well as in connection with the events in Belarus, Poland decided to create a regional initiative that can be considered as a continuation of the Eastern Partnership policy. The Lublin Declaration opens up a wide range of potential areas of cooperation, however it is still too early to say how successful this project will be. Initially it was planned that Belarus would also join the Lublin Initiative, but later Minsk refused to participate. This seriously limited the project, but does not exclude the possibility of future innovations in its format. The author concludes that the Lublin Triangle is one of the Warsaw's instruments to realize the idea of Intermarium

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