University of Gothenburg
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  4. Pavol Jakubec

Pavol Jakubec

Doctoral Student

Department of Historical
Studies
Mail
pavol.jakubec@gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

About Pavol Jakubec

2009, MA, Charles University (Prague), History & Norwegian

Focus: International History, Diplomatic History in particular (19th – 20th Century); Nordic countries; Central Europe; Middle East (focus: Afghanistan); International Relations (IR); Exile

My project is a part of the National Graduate School of Historical Studies programme (https://www.hist.lu.se/forskarskolan/).

The thrust of authoritarian regimes, such as Nazi Germany, ruined inter-war Europe’s international structure and forced innumerable émigrés to set out for safe destinations. Among them there were political leaders and activists, intent on restoring their nation-states and a liberal international order. Their roads differed but, eventually, they most often led to London. By mid-1941, the city on the Thames hosted governments of Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Luxemburg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Yugoslavia, and several ‘free movements’, such as the ‘Free French’, speaking for millions of Europeans. A unique international society was born out of necessity, a Europe in miniature.

In my project ‘Together and Alone in Allied London: Czechoslovakia, Norway and Poland in Exile, 1939–1945’ I investigate small state foreign policy making in exile, i.e. how strategies projected to safeguard national interests were formulated and pursued in a multilateral setting, under emergency conditions. Which shape did communication between small power exiled elites take? Was a common interest an operating ʻbridgeʼ? What were the implications for post-war security arrangements and visions of Europe?