Bezpečnostná politika SR 2007
The Security Policy of Slovakia in 2007

Author(s): Tomáš Valášek
Subject(s): Politics, International relations/trade, Security and defense
Published by: Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association (RC SFPA)
Keywords: Slovakia; 2007; foreign policy; security; defense; NATO; Afganistan;
Summary/Abstract: It has become a certain cliché to describe the security situation of Slovakia and Europe as relatively calm but at the same time changeable and hardly predictable. However this cliché is based on reality. It is true that Slovakia is not facing an existential threat. However on the other hand, Europe is being periodically startled by new forms of vulnerabilities which make the entire concept of security much more complex: cyber attacks – for example those which targeted Estonian servers in 2007 or the threat to energy security posed by interruptions in natural gas supplies like in Ukraine in 2006 (and again in 2008). Furthermore we can observe the growing doubts about the development in Russia whose foreign policy can probably be best described as a ‘soft’ confrontation with the West. In Russia’s closest neighborhood, for example Georgia, Moscow has already used military force against an independent state.

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