The tandem in the shadow of war How has Central and Eastern Europe changed in the presence of the weakening German-French axis?

Russia's year-long aggression in Ukraine has shifted the Franco-German co-operation out of place. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has been in this position for just over a year, has had to radically change the system of relations with Russia, in which the Germans have built their strong and profitable economy on Russian energy supply for decades. Under international and European pressure, Germany stopped the North Stream2 pipeline’s launch, started to find new alternative energy sources, but was quite reluctant in sending Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. The second time elected, bur widely unpopular French president, Emanuel Macron has failed to actively strengthen French leadership in the past year. The French reacted to the war rather cautiously, committing much less financial and defence support to Ukraine than other member states of the EU. Macron even stressed the security guarantees to be given to the Russians. Therefore, some analysts believe that France, although it could have been a leading power in the European coalition against Russia, missed its chance. In the context of a weakening tandem and a Europe at war, how did the Central European countries, which had developed close economic and political ties primarily with Germany, respond to the new, unexpected challenges? How have Visegrád relations changed? What kind of new policy responses were developed in the V4 member states? We aim find answers to these questions by putting energy policy, defence and foreign policy plus enlargement into the centre of investigation.