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Since the unexpected collapse of the Soviet Empire in 1989-91, Central and Eastern Europe have experienced fast and far-reaching transformations. Attracting most attention was the crumbling of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON), which had arranged the trade between the former communist countries, and the dismantling of the Warsaw Pact, the military-treaty organization. What also struck the eye was the dismantlement of multi-nationalist federal states such as the Soviet Union, Czecho-Slovakia and Yugoslavia. If we compare the political maps of Central Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in 1989 and in 1999 we soon, after some counting, become aware that the number of independent states in that period grew from nine to twenty-seven. Most of these countries, however, soon flocked together in new forms of cooperation. Former Soviet Republics, for example, established the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), and some of them set up the Eurasian Economic Community. Other countries, especially the former satellites but also some former Soviet Republics, switched alliances. They applied for membership of the European Union and partnership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). In 2004, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia entered the European Union, followed on 1 January 2007 by Romania and Bulgaria. Today Croatia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia are candidate countries. Nine of the former Warsaw Pact allies are now member states of NATO. The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined NATO in 1999 followed …