History of the Research Center SFPA
The Research Center SFPA is the only non-governmental professional organisation which specialises exclusively in international relations and foreign policy research and at the same time administers publicly beneficial services in that area.
First steps in a creation of the similar institution date back to the beginning of 1990s when the first Slovak foreign-political journal International Relations began to be published with the support of the then Slovak Ministry of International Relations.
In 1993 the Slovak Institute for International Studies was established as an allowance organization of the independent Slovak Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA). Constitution of the new journal as well as the first foreign political institute in Slovakia were substantially reinforced by the first director of the Slovak Institute for International Studies (SIMŠ) Svetoslav Bombík. After he tragically passed away in 1995 and after some changes in management of the Slovak MFA as well as of SIMŠ, the institute started to stagnate. Finally, in 1998 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs resolved upon the termination of its activity.
Concurrently, in 1995 the Research Center of the Slovak Foreign Policy Association was founded as an integral part of the SFPA by former employees of the SIMŠ as a second organization of this kind in history of independent Slovakia. In this way, the RC SFPA has become a follower of the tradition and quality of intelectual production of SIMŠ from the period of 1993-1995. The Research Center SFPA originally emerged to preserve continuity in the tradition of the first SIMŠ and it was supposed to operate as an academic background for the SFPA public-educational and discussion programmes. However, successful progress in the RC SFPA activities during 1995-2000 overcame all previous expectations. With the quality and number of accomplished research projects and academic outputs it achieved a placing among the most significant Slovak independent think tanks ever. At the same time, it became the only independent research institute focusing on foreign policy with a plenty of significant contacts established in that area (during 1995-2000 period the SFPA initiated co-operation with 75 organizations).
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs resolved upon a resurrection of the Slovak Institute for International Studies in 1999 due to a fact that it supposed all foreign policy institutes to be irreplaceable in the infrastructure of the foreign policy creation and because they also constitute a specific part of diplomacy. Since its reopening in 1999, the Slovak Institute for International Studies developed new programmess (annual evaluation conference, publication of yearbook of foreign policy of the Slovak Republic, etc.), which represent an indubitable contribution to the Slovak foreign policy assessment. In this context the decision of the Slovak Government number 113 of November 26, 2003 represented a crucial improvement with it creating a high-quality foreign policy think tank in Slovakia. Implementation of the transformation project allows the RC SFPA to follow the tradition of the old Slovak Institute for International Studies of 1993 – 1995 and accordingly to enrich the activities with the institute’s first-rate 1999 – 2002 programmes. In this way, the RC SFPA has consolidated personal and program capacity which has been continually built since 1993 with a support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, governmental and non-governmental sector. Since January 30, 2004, the RC SFPA is an independent institution performing publicly beneficial duties in the area of international relations and foreign policy.
Hviezdoslavovo namestie 14
SLK-81103 Bratislava
Slovakia
Tel: 00421254433151 / 004210905721265
Fax: 0042154433161
E-mail: sfpa@sfpa.sk
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