Hungary in the Context of the Central European Regional Security and Possibilities for the Cooperation with the Slovak Republic for Strengthening Regional Security

Abstract

At the beginning of the 21st century, three security threats have affected Central Europe as well as other European regions. First of all, it was the “Arab spring”, which evoked migration from the “Arabic world” to Western Europe and caused a refugee crisis. The second significant security threat was the “reunification” of the Crimean Peninsula to Russia and the breakaway Luhansk and Donetsk People’s Republics’ proclamation. The third security threat was the emergence of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levante (ISIL/Daesh), followed by a wave of terrorist attacks in Europe. Another security threat is a global world order changing from bipolar to present unipolar world order, which has been continuously shifting to the multipolar world order, resulting in the national and geopolitical interests coming to the fore on the global and regional environment. Multiple Central European countries reacted to the security threats changes, evaluated the current security situation, and adopted new national security strategies to reflect changes in the new security environment. Hungary and the Slovak Republic are neighbouring Central European mid-size countries without considerable military power. The author of this article evaluates - in practice - the new Hungarian National Security Strategy and indicates possibilities for the cooperation between Hungary and the Slovak republic on the military security field.