Window of Opportunity

The environment unites – even across a closed border. The global easing of tensions between East and West at the end of the 1980s opened a window of opportunity for regional exchange between South Moravia and Lower Austria. The shared environment provided a platform for cooperation in rural renewal, nature conservation, and addressing pollution. The book highlights the key role of local actors, the continuity of development before and after 1989, and the reasons why the intensive cooperation of the early 1990s did not evolve into a permanent connection between the regions. It expands the transnational history of late socialism and the transformation period with a regional and environmental perspective.