East-Central Europe after the Cold War : Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary in search of security /

Cottey (Bradford Univ.) offers an overview of post-1989 security issues and policies in the Visegrad states (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia). Cottey's workmanlike review of secondary sources relies far too much on English-language background reports of Radio Free Europe and journalistic services. Cotty shows little familiarity with indigenous East Central European debates about security, and significant parts of the US and West European literatures are not used. He emphasizes the standard and easily recognized dilemma--how to integrate postcommunist states into the West without ostracizing Russia--yet he fails to explore important theoretical links among democracy, market, and security, focusing only on the external political-military denotation of security. As a consequence, this volume remains a competent reiteration of reports by others. More advanced discussion of the early postcommunist period may be found in East European Security Reconsidered, ed. by John R. Lampe and Daniel N. Nelson (1993). Graduate students; professionals. D. N. Nelson Old Dominion University