Dylematy polityki zagranicznej Polski na początku XXI wieku
Dilemmas of Polish Foreign Policy at the Beginning of 21st Century

Contributor(s): Katarzyna Czornik (Editor), Miron Lakomy (Editor), Mieczysław Stolarczyk (Editor)
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Political economy
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Polish Foreign Policy; Dilemmas; International Environment; National Interests; Evolution.
Summary/Abstract: Polish foreign policy may be regarded, as in case of any other country, as the ability tochoose particular aims as well as means and methods to fulfil them. These choices shouldbe adjusted to national interests recognised and pursued by the successive governments. Atevery stage of implementation of foreign policy the decision‑makersface many dilemmasunderstood as difficult choices between at least two different options.The present collection contains transcripts of papers delivered and discussed during theacademic conference titled: “Dilemmas of Polish Foreign Policy in the Context of Evolution ofInternational Environment at the Turn of the First and the Second Decade of the 21st Century,”organized by the Departament of International Relations — celebrating its 40th anniversary —at the Institute of Journalism and Political Science, University of Silesia. The conference washeld on 23rd—25th September 2013 in Ustroń and it was attended by the representatives ofnearly all academic and politological centres around the country.The present study aims at diagnosing the most significant of the new tendencies andphenomena that may be observed in Poland’s closest and broader international environmentand at illustrating their impact on the continuation or modification of the hitherto prevailinginterests and priorities of Polish foreign policy. The main dilemmas connected with foreignpolicy of our country at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century have alsobeen subjected to analysis.This edition contains twenty‑eightarticles and is devided into seven parts concerningrespectively: the evolution of Poland’s international environment at the turn of the first andthe second decade of the 21st century; some determinants, aims, means and methods of Polishforeign policy; the most important dilemmas entailed by Polish‑Germanrelations; dilemmasof Poland’s policy towards East, especially Russia; challenges and dangers which the policy ofPolish national and international security has to face; implications that the crisis in Eurozonecarries for Polish doctrine and integration policy in relation to non‑Europeancountries. Themain criterion for the division into parts (excluding the first and the second part) were themost important directions in Polish foreign policy at the beginning of the second decade of21st century both in bilateral and multilateral relations.As the author of one of the essays infers, new elements in the Poland’s internationalenvironment at the turn of the first and the second decade of the 21st century have notsignificantly changed the aims and directions of Polish foreign policy. As a consequence ofintroducing these elements, however, people responsible for making decisions concerningPolish foreign policy were faced with difficult choices between continuation and modificationof the so far prevailing policy. New emphases in Polish foreign policy, in the discussed timeperiod, were the result of this modification.The events discussed in particular articles do not relate to the time period after September2013 — the date the conference was held. Thus, except for few cases (eg. Ryszard Zięba’sarticle), the authors of essays which have been included in the volume do not refer to thedilemmas which occured later, including such important problems for the Polish policy ofsecurity and foreign affairs as these connected with the crisis which started in Ukraine inNovember 2013, and with its consecutive stages, one of them being incorporation of Crimeainto Russia.

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