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Discussion
of Case Study Themes
Both
Strasbourg and Slovakia grapple with political and territorial
issues. Transnational issues -- ethnic, economic, and
political - also dominate contemporary affairs in each
place. Relative location helps explain their cultural
landscapes. In addition, rivers act as important natural
boundaries, transport arteries, and providers of energy
in both Strasbourg and Slovakia.
Case
Study 1 -- Strasbourg: Symbol of a United Europe
Strasbourg
is Central to the Region
In a little more than a century, Strasbourg has gone
through five changes of nationality and three wars,
two of which involved the world powers. For centuries,
the frontier city has been a conquest objective of
both France and Germany, and the Rhine River has always
served as the interactive link between the inhabitants
of the German Rhineland and adjacent French areas.
Strasbourg's
central location relative to the counties of Western
Europe has played a major role in the formation of
the European Union (EU). One facet of this union is
discussed through an interview with the Deputy General
Secretary of the Council of Europe. He explains the
council's promotion of democracy and supranational
issues in Europe. The council also addresses the economic,
cultural, and political concerns of the European Union.
Supranational
Cooperation Shapes Strasbourg
Strasbourg has always been the "city of the roads
that cross," located on the routes from Central
Europe to the Atlantic Ocean and from the British
Isles to the Mediterranean Sea. The city is part of
a zone of development that starts in London and includes
Belgium, France's Alsace region, the Rhineland, and
Switzerland before ending in Milan.
Strasbourg
is the site of three supranational organizations:
the European Parliament, an elected legislature of
the European Union; the European Court of Human Rights,
a humanitarian and legal rights institution; and the
Council of Europe, a forum for the promotion of political
democracy throughout Europe.
Border
crossings no longer require customs control near Strasbourg
and among the other members of the European Union.
Strasbourg, then, serves as a symbol of a peaceful
and contiguous Europe.
While
the city is vibrant economically, political changes
outside the country threaten its position. Alsace
represents the only French provincial area connected
to the region, and it is an important component in
the French economy. The opening of Eastern Europe
now threatens to displace this region as development
increases in the former Communist bloc.
Case
Study 2 -- Slovakia: New Sovereignty
Nation-State
Boundaries: The Impact of Spatial Division
In 1993, the newly elected prime ministers of Czechoslovakia
and Slovakia decided that the two states should separate
peacefully for two basic reasons: so that Slovakia
could aid the Czech Republic by serving as a buffer
between the Republic of Ukraine and the Baltic states
and because Slovakia did not agree with the decision
by the Czech state to conform their economy to Western
European norms.
There
are mixed feelings among the people of Slovakia; some
say the people were not consulted as to whether they
supported the separation. In Sedonia, the main road
is the dividing line, a situation that has displaced
people's property on both sides of the border. A border
checkpoint has been instituted that further divides
the people of the region.
Cultural
Diversity Defines the Region
For the Czechs, the abolition of German domination
and the liberation of Slovakia from Hungary were centripetal
forces that gave birth to the common state at the
end of World War I in 1919. Freed from Nazi control
at the end of World War II, Czechoslovakia came under
Soviet domination and the power of a Communist regime.
With the end of the Cold War, these forces are now
obsolete, and the Czech Republic is turning itself
toward Western Europe even as Slovakia, due to its
geographic position, naturally aligns itself with
Eastern Europe.
Centrifugal
forces now threaten both the European Union and the
new state of Slovakia. The Hungarians are accusing
the Slovaks of displacing the border between the two
states. In Western Europe, the notions of territory,
state, and nation have been clearly defined for centuries,
but in Central Europe they are still unclear. Slovakia
also faces the threat of irredentism from Hungarian
minorities who live along the north bank of the Danube
River.
There
are about 560,000 Hungarians living in Slovakia, and
the people inhabiting the region peacefully coexist.
In towns, parents can chose to send their children
to the ethnic school of their choice, and about two-thirds
of the children are enrolled in Slovakian schools.
Again, mixed feelings arise regarding cultural diversity.
Hungarians and Slovaks claim to be compatible, though
both groups still discriminate against the Romani,
or Gypsies.
During
the Communist era, the government dealt with minority
problems by denying their existence. Now that the
country is in the process of adapting to a market
economy, some in the government are tempted to designate
scapegoats to mask real problems.
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