Foreign Policy of the Slovak Republic - the Impact of Socio-cultural and Institutional Factors

The authors of presented publication are focused primarily on the analysis of partial aspects of the activity of civil, state and supranational institutions in the field of foreign policy and international relations. The studies examined their impact both on the formulation of a long-term foreign policy vision of individual countries and on the actual pursuit and accomplishment of its objectives. The presented publication takes into account also the volatility of power and economic conditions in the global system of international relations. In this context, the authors focused on the following theoretical problems associated with the qualitative analysis of foreign policy and national interest in complex and structured environment of international relations. Their analysis is conceptualized not only in terms of dissecting foreign policy into its components, concepts and processes as well as effects of different environments, but also with regard to its psychological dimension. Complementarity of and interaction between domestic and foreign actors on the one hand and their behavior on the other is actually the subject matter of foreign policy. In their analysis, the authors attempted to reveal a deeper purpose behind the foreign policy concepts and to define how the actors involved mature in the process of their interaction.