What To Do About Nationalism? The Recurring Dilemma of Western Policy in East Central Europe

Abstract

In the last seventy years East Central Europe has undergone fundamental political reconstruction more frequently than any other part of Europe. From the birth of the ‘successor states’ in 1918 to the emergence of the post-Warsaw-pact states after 1989, East Central Europe has been a place where ‘no peace settlement is ever final, no frontiers are secure and each generation must begin its work anew’.1 For the nations of the region, finding a secure place in Europe has been the elusive ambition of the twentieth century. For the liberal Western powers — Britain, France and the United States — manoeuvering the small and middle-sized states into the European political puzzle has been a frustrating process.