CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2014
| Author | Visnovitz, Péter |
|---|---|
| Title | Small States In Long-Distance Relationships - Hungary's Extra-Regional Partnership-Building From The Cold War To The Present |
| Summary | This thesis analyses the extra-regional partnership-building behavior of small states through the case study of Hungarian foreign policy in two distinct time periods. It attempts to explain why small states build extra-regional partnerships in the Third World, when the existing scientific literature suggests that the constraints of small states generally force them to limit their behavior to their immediate geographic arena. To explain the puzzle, the thesis applies longitudinal process-tracing, and analyses Hungary’s partnerships in the Third World between 1956-1986 and 2004-2014. In the first time period the research is based on the analysis of the archived meeting records, proposals and resolutions of the Hungarian Socialist Workers’ Party leadership. In the second time period political statements and interviews of Hungarian leaders, and strategic foreign policy documents published by the Hungarian government are analyzed. The main finding of the thesis is that although Hungary’s extra-regional activity is constrained by its small state status, special, well identifiable small state needs can explain most of these partnership-building attempts. As a small state Hungary is more dependent on external sources of security, economic prosperity and legitimacy, and the country’s extra-regional partnerships appear to be serving these special small state needs. |
| Supervisor | Jenne, Erin Kristin |
| Department | International Relations MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2014/visnovitz_peter.pdf |
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