Slovakia is one of the least known countries of Central Europe, although it is easily accessible to the western visitor: its capital city, Bratislava, is only an hours drive from Vienna. As the country's accession to the EU draws near, it becomes vitally important to close the knowledge gap, and supply a diverse audience with balanced information about Slovakia as an independent state. The book begins by outlining the history of Slovakia over the last hundred years, and explains the importance of it's Hungarian roots, as well as its development in a common sense with the Czechs. It then examines Slovakia's political development since independence in 1993, and traces the elements of democratic stability which were a backdrop to the more dramatic and turbulent events of the 1990s. Henderson looks at independent Slovakia's international relations, and traces its path to Euro-Atlantic integration amidst the diversions of squabbling with it's neighbours and summarises Slovakia's economic progress, looking at underlying positive trends as well as the more sensational aberrations in its rapid construction of a functioning market economy. This book breaks through the stereotypi portrayal of Slovakia as a 'problem case' among the four Visegard states of East Central Europe. It prevents not just fact but also analysis designed to enable academic, professional and general audiences to evaluate the Slovakia Republic as an actor in the new united Europe, and also to understand its future role in the development of the continent. It portrays Slovakia as a complex, modern state, where a multitude of domestic and external influences interact to produce a fascinating picture of conflict and consensus. Slovakia should be of particular interest to students of East Central Europe, EU eastward enlargement and post-communist democratisation.