But in Slovakia, where relations with the former imperial power, Hungary, have deteriorated sharply since 2006, the mood has swung the other way. The education minister, from the Slovak National Party, has sidelined plans for a joint history textbook. That follows a decision by Slovakia’s parliament last year to endorse the Benes decrees, which legalised brutal measures against the country’s supposedly Hitlerite German and Hungarian populations in 1945-48.

Shortly afterwards, Hungary’s president, Laszlo Solyom, paid a “private” visit to Komarno, a majority Hungarian town in Slovakia. That infuriated the Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico, who said that “Slovaks cannot allow political representatives of Hungary to behave in southern Slovakia as if they were in northern Hungary”. The two countries have not spoken at a high level since. ~The Economist

Central and eastern Europe is one part of the world where the arbitrary and contradictory borders of post-WWI treaties, supposedly serving the principle of “self-determination,” have not been challenged by demands for political change.  It is hardly a secret that Hungarian minorities in Slovakia and Romania suffer from discrimination and poor treatment by the majorities of the countries that they were thrust into long ago, and it is not so hard to imagine a desire on the part of Hungarians throughout the old Transleithania turning into a demand for partition and annexation.  If it is good enough for the Albanians, who is to say that it must be denied to Hungarians or any other nationality in Europe?  This is the insanity that policies centered around self-determination encourages, and it is the kind of thing that ought to command our attention much more, since we have been in an era of resurgent nationalism since the end of the Cold War.