This year's Workshop was the ninth supported by the Defense Nuclear Agency, and I have had the pleasure of participating in the last three--because I believe that the Workshop continues to be of great value. A central part of my Agency's operational mission is to provide technical support assessments and advice to the Commanders-in-Chief. This Workshop provides a unique opportunity for my Agency to gauge and understand the environment and the evolving requirements of the operational commanders. When the Workshop was held in Budapest two years ago, there was a feeling of anticipation that NATO might allow additional countries to become members. Since then, the Partnership for Peace framework has been widely accepted and continues to elicit the same enthusiasm that we all sensed at Budapest.

The next chapter presents the views on Partnership for Peace of Dr. Ferenc Somogyi, the State Secretary of Hungary--host country of the Budapest NATO Workshop. State Secretary Somogyi was educated at the University of Economics in Budapest. In the 1980s he served as Deputy Permanent Representative to the U.N. and then as the head of the U.N. Department in the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He is now serving in his second term as State Secretary of Hungary. During his previous term as State Secretary, Dr. Somogyi was a witness and participant in events of profound historic significance: he was a member of the small group of Hungarian political leaders who chose to allow East German tourists to cross the Hungarian border into Western Europe. Thus began a chain of extraordinary events that ultimately led to the collapse of the Berlin Wall.

In the subsequent chapter, Professor Juraj Schenk, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic, presents a Slovakian perspective on Partnership for Peace. Professor Schenk has served as the Chairman of the Slovak Sociological Society and as the Head of the Department of Sociology at the University in Bratislava. His broad scientific background includes service as Vice Dean for Scientific Research of the Faculty of Philosophy. In addition, he represents the Slovak Sociological Association within the International Sociological Association. Consequently, Professor Schenk brings to his analysis unusually broad understanding based on his years of research and international academic leadership.

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