Veszélyzóna, avagy geopolitikai puffer? : Köztes-Európa történeti, politikai földrajzi kérdései

In the academic geopolitical and political geography literature between the two World Wars, Central Europe has been represented as a sort of danger zone, which also had a geographical role as a buffer zone. In latter decades, Central Europe registered in European culture primarily as a geopolitical buffer. The roots of these two schools of thought reach back to World War I, when the idea of Central Europe as “In-Between-Europe” first appeared as a category of natural geography. Starting in 1917, a comprehensive debate developed in the German academic literature about the use of this geographical term, and due to this discussion, a new understanding of the term developed in the following decades. The history of the 20th century followed by the events at the turn of the millennium have confirmed that the essence of “In-Between-Europe” and its position within the European geographical relations system can only be captured on the basis of both above-mentioned academic points of view. “In-Between-Europe” as an element of spatial structure is primarily a category of history and historical geography. It represents certain areas of territories, regions of historical geography, as well as state areas of various time periods. From a standpoint of natural geography, its particular regions reach over to Central Europe, while some of its areas belong to Eastern Europe. This means that “In-Between-Europe” is a transitional zone, whose most significant feature is its complexity of natural and human geography. Its multifaceted relations system is also due to the fact that it encompasses a number of regions and territories riddled with conflicts, such as the Carpathian-Balkan region, the Balkan Peninsula and the Baltic region. Throughout history, this geographical entity has generally been shifting eastward, while several power centers, such as the Anjou Empire, the Habsburg Empire, later the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Polish-Lithuanian state, also arose in the area. In certain periods, this region had even greatly influenced the politics of Europe and their age. “In-Between-Europe” has become a region of quite small fractured states by now, which has lost its previous political significance and whose geographical functions have greatly changed. Still, it has managed to retain its main functions of natural and political geography. Even though “In-Between-Europe” is looking for its place in the changing world, it still remains an element of spatial structure