Dela 19 • 2003 • 123-139 THE GEOPOLITICAL LOCATION OF SLOVENIA IN THE PERSPECTIVE OF EUROPEAN INTEGRATION PROCESSES Milan BUFON Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana Aškerčeva 2, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia e-mail:
[email protected] Abstract The paper will briefly present some basic political geographical features of Slovenia, particularely for what regards its ‘border’ position from a geopolitical perspective. The most evident result of the most recent geopolitical transformations is represented by a general geopolitical re-orientation of the country towards north and west, a changing territorial affiliation and mediation role, which before 1991 appeared to be oriented from the Balkans towards Central and Western Europe, and has after that turned from Central and Western Europe towards the Balkans. The paper also aims to give an analysis of the various border and contact areas in Slovenia. Key words: Slovenia, geopolitical location and re-location, borders, cross border co-operation, European integration processes GEOPOLITIČNA LOKACIJA SLOVENIJE V PERSPEKTIVI EVROPSKIH INTEGRACIJSKIH PROCESOV Izvleček Članek obravnava nekaj temeljnih političnogeografskih značilnosti Slovenije, še zlasti njen »obmejni« položaj v geopolitičnem pogledu, probleme, ki izhajajo iz novejših geopolitič- nih transformacij, predvsem v zvezi z geopolitično re-lokacijo države v smeri severa in zahoda, spremenjene oblike prostorske povezanosti ter smeri posredovanja, ki so bile pred letom 1991 pretežno usmerjene od Balkana proti Srednji in Zahodni