The Little Entente in History and Politics. Discourses and Politics for Overcoming Smallness

• Applicant: Privatdozent Dr. Dietmar Müller
• Subject Area: Modern and Contemporary History
• Term: since 2026
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 569333576

Focussing on the Little Entente – a regional pact between Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Yugoslavia in the interwar period – this project asks why and how this security cooperation spilled over in political, cultural, and economic domains and to what extent such spill-overs were driven by their self-perceptions of smallness. While current research examines the Little Entente from its end - either as the failure of an initially promising idea caused by external factors, or as a regional pact doomed from the outset - the proposed project looks at the Little Entente from its time, taking seriously the open horizons as they appeared to contemporary actors. Using new cultural-historical approaches, it asks about the possibilities and limits of promoting the Little Entente as a way of overcoming the "smallness" of three medium-sized states in a new post-imperial East- Central Europe. In doing so, it sheds new light on the history of the Little Entente, its potentials and internal shortcomings, and contributes to a more general discussion on "smallness" in international relations.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: Czech Republic
• Cooperation Partner: Professor Dr. Adrian Brisku