Zahraniční politika polistopadového Československa jako součást vyrovnání se s minulostí
Foreign policy of post-November Czechoslovakia as part of dealing with the past

Summary/Abstract: The paper deals with the foreign policy of Czechoslovakia following the restoration of democracy in the country after the end of the Cold War from the end of 1989 to the division of Czechoslovakia late in 1992. With direct internal political and economic radical transformations, the need emerged for a fundamental departure from the past also in terms of the international status of Czechoslovakia and its foreign policy. The first tangible results of Czechoslovak diplomacy were the withdrawal of Soviet occupation troops from Czechoslovakia and the termination of Soviet hegemony in the satellite countries of Central Europe by the dissolution of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Pact. On the other hand, equally significant was the renewal of friendly relations with Western countries,particularly with Italy, France and the Federal Republic of Germany. However, the Czechoslovak effort to stop the bipolar bloc arrangement in Europe by establishing a new security structure - the European Security Commission - was unsuccessful. Due to the increasingly difficult situation in Europe as a result of the war in Yugoslavia and the collapse of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovak foreign policy was faced with two new challenges in order to ensure the prosperity and security of the state - accession to the European integration and security structures in the form of the European Community and NATO. These tasks, in a fundamental contrast to the international position of Czechoslovakia in the past, have already been fulfilled by both the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic as independent states. In 1999 and 2002, the two countries joined NATO and in 2004, jointly also the EU.

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