NEWS

November 2019 marked the 30th Anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent events that brought freedom from communist domination to many countries of the former “Soviet-bloc.”  In Czechoslovakia, public demonstrations, spearheaded by student movements, sparked the relatively peaceful downfall of the communist government and began the country’s “return to the West,” […]

On Tuesday, November 12, 2019, a forum titled Velvet @ 30: A Legacy to Uphold was held at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. The forum was co-sponsored by the Czech and Slovak Embassies in collaboration with Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.  The event featured welcoming remarks by Joel Hellman, Dean of the Walsh […]

FOS Board members and others in the Washington foreign policy and Slovak-interest communities participated in a roundtable featuring former Slovak Ambassador Martin Bútora and his spouse, sociologist Dr. Zora Bútorová.  The ambassadorial couple served in Washington, DC from 1999-2003 and had a significant impact on Slovak-U.S. relations, as well as opening Slovakia’s new embassy building […]

The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 had a significant impact on Eastern Europe’s political scene. In Czechoslovakia, the Communist regime was replaced by a democratic revolution, which was led by student movements and dissidents. November 2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution, a non-violent transition of power with demonstrations against the […]

FOS made an appearance to cheer on our young Team Slovakia at the 2017 international robotics competition hosted by First Global and held at the DAR Constitution Hall in Washington, DC.  The annual competition aims to boost passion and engagement for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math in youth around the world.

The Slovak AeroMobil was presented to an appreciative audience at the Slovak Embassy EU Open House on May 9 by Peter Kolesár of the Business and Innovation Unit. Friends of Slovakia procured a scale model of the AeroMobil and will sponsor its display for the next three years as part of a traveling exhibit aimed […]

As the world’s economies seek economic growth and jobs, emphasis is increasingly placed on the key role played by innovation.  A recent Washington Post op-ed by Fareed Zakaria noted, “Innovation is partly about entrepreneurship but also about technology.”  And there are some, such as billionaire Peter Thiel, who argue that, despite the hype, we don’t […]

On February 11, 2005, a significant forum on visa issues in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) was organized on Capitol Hill by the East Europe Project at CSIS, together with Friends of Slovakia (FOS) and American Friends of the Czech Republic (AFoCR). The meeting aimed to address the impact of current U.S. visa regulations on political and public relations with the CEE countries. Forum panelists and experts shed light on the legal intricacies of the visa issue and its implications for U.S.-CEE relations, urging for a reconsideration of the status quo.