Transition Experience 2.0

After twenty-five years of independent foreign policy making, the Central European countries must rethink their post-communist experience. The Transition Experience 2.0 narrative links the relatively successful development of the region not only to the political rights gained after 1989 but also to the social rights inherited from the socialist era. The application of Transition Experience 2.0 can mobilise the limited foreign aid resources by enlarging the scope of the supported human rights groups abroad to social and environmental movements as well as by applying the rights-based approach to their development cooperation programmes and emphasizing their political dimension. Further impacts can be achieved by coordinating strategies and applying one public diplomacy brand to human rights and development policies without merging them and by using Transition Experience 2.0 as a starting point for a serious discussion on policy coherence for development.