Külügyi Szemle - A Magyar Külügyi Intézet folyóirata - 2010 (9. évfolyam)
2010 / 3. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Eiroa San Francisco, Matilde: Spanyolország Közép- és Kelet-Európa-politikája, 1939-1975
Matilde Eiroa San Francisco Résumé Spanish Foreign Policy towards Eastern Europe, 1939-1975 Based on a broad selection of Spanish and Hungarian archival material and a large body of academic literature, the paper provides a thorough survey of Spanish foreign policy planning and practice towards the East European countries of the Soviet Bloc. The paper fills a gap in the historiography of Spanish foreign policy since, as the author indicates, the volume of existing research on this subject is very limited. After an introductory chapter presenting the political contexts of the two regions before and after the Second World War (1939-1959), the author presents, in great detail, the process during which the Spanish government initiated a slow aperture towards the Socialist governments of the region in the 1960s. The paper dedicates special attention to the factor of economic relations that made this rapprochement both desirable and viable. As a result, a score of commercial representations of the Eastern European countries had appeared in Madrid by the end of the decade. These legations, with the characteristics of a standard embassy including often the appointment of a diplomat in the rank of ambassador, prepared the re-establishment of official diplomatic relations between Spain and the Eastern European countries in 1977. 96 Külügyi Szemle
