Abstrakt
The article seeks to analyze key conceptual and methodological challenges, obstacles and possible caveats of researching strategic culture of small states. While the strategic cultural approach typically treats its main concept as a relatively stable independent variable, a question arises whether such a presumption makes sense in the case of small countries subject to challenging geopolitical or otherwise volatile external conditions.
On the case of the members of Visegrad Four, the research tests not only the relevance of 'smallness' but also specific 'temporal' conditions arising from radical historical reconfigurations of the basic tenets on which strategic cultures typically rest. The paper first introduces the concept of strategic culture in its various forms, adopting a modified 'holistic' approach close to the classical perspective of Colin S.
Gray. After fixing its ontological, epistemological and methodological tenets, the paper turns its attention to the specific issue of the Visegrad countries, utilizing the literature researching the topic of small states.
It then examines two intertwined yet analytically distinct hypotheses: The first focuses on the issue of 'smallness' as a specific feature making such actors likely not to develop and maintain but rather import crucial strategic cultural characteristics from the more powerful, influential actors. Secondly, the paper looks at the 'temporal' aspects of the concept, subjecting to critique the presumption that strategic cultures in small states such as V4 can be sustained as a relatively coherent system for prolonged periods of time.
Through the two hypotheses, the paper aims at contributing to the wider debate on strategic culture by testing its coherence vis-a-vis different ranks of state actors.