Słowackie elity polityczne wobec organizacji Traktatu Północnoatlantyckiego w latach 1993‑2004

The article elaborates on Slovakia’s entry into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). It analyses both internal and external factors which impacted on the process and introduces the main political actors in the “NATO or neutrality” debate. Particular attention was paid to the domestic factors, mainly political rivalries between the People’s Party – Movement for a Democratic Slovakia (HZDS) and the rest of the political scene. The author argues that the quest for NATO membership was sacrificed for the sake of current political struggle, which resulted in Bratislava’s exclusion from the first group of Eastern European invitees. Therefore, the concept of neutrality and the idea of balancing between East and West were created for ad hoc reasons, rather than being a genuine geopolitical alternative formed by Slovakia’s political elite.