Castle on a Hill: The Visegrad Group, Regionalism, and the Remaking of Europe

This recasting of modern European history offers new insights into the Visegrad Group’s significant role in changing political mind-sets and refashioning the continent

Rick Fawn has written the first book-length account of the Visegrad Group of states, which consists of the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic, Poland, and Hungary. Named after Hungary’s Visegrád Castle, the group’s significance includes changing international perceptions of Central Europe since the fall of communism and securing membership in NATO and the European Community. It plays an ongoing role today in regional solidarity and politics within the European Union and NATO.

Castle on a Hill is built on years of uniquely obtained oral and written sources and on the author’s sustained engagement in this region. Fawn examines Visegrad’s origins and major accomplishments, and what makes it a unique regional organization. In addition to its positive contributions, Fawn identifies Visegrad’s weaknesses, oversteps, and missteps, including its controversial propulsion to international fame for successfully derailing the European Union’s plans to resettle non-Europeans during the 2015 ＂migrant crisis.＂ This book also offers insights for the wider study of the phenomenon of regionalism in international relations.

Castle on a Hill shows how the Visegrad Group has changed Central Europe, largely for the better, and it will appeal to scholars and policymakers interested in international politics, European history, and the study of regions and regionalism in international relations.

Rick Fawn is a professor of international relations at the University of St. Andrews and the author or editor of several books, including The Czech Republic: A Nation of Velvet (2000) and International Organizations and Internal Conditionality: Making Norms Matter (2013).