Václav Havel’s Regional Polygamy and Neglect: Reconsidering the Death and Resurrection of Visegrad Cooperation

The paralysis and death of Visegrad, the post-communist region’s most successful inter-state cooperation format, between 1994 and 1998 is conventionally attributed to the break-up of Czechoslovakia, and the anti-regional policies of Czech Premier Václav Klaus and Slovak Premier Vladimír Mečiar. By contrast, Czechoslovak and Czech President Václav Havel remains credited certainly as a major, even the primary figure in Visegrad’s creation and life. This article disputes these views, claiming that for all his indispensable and admirable foreign policy innovations, Havel shares responsibility for Visegrad’s collapse. The article contends that Havel engaged in what is here termed ‘regional polygamy’, precisely when Visegrad needed help to endure, and that he then engaged in ‘regional neglect’, a view substantiated by his lack of contributions to Visegrad during its paralysis and then to its relaunch at the end of the 1990s. That re-launch ensured Visegrad’s continued and successful existence despite Havel. These arguments may also complement analyses identifying other paradoxes in Havel’s writings, actions and even personality.