scholarly journals Joint Military Forces of East-Central Europe in the Light of Selected Political Concepts of the Polish Émigré Milieu

2021 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 299-312
Author(s):  
Robert Zapart

This article attempts to analyse the creation of common armed forces in East-Central Europe on the basis of selected integration concepts of the Polish émigré circles. They considered the notion of consolidating the potentials of countries sharing similar historical experiences as well as a sense of being threatened and protecting similar fundamental values to be part of a larger process of providing the Old Continent with guarantees of security and stable development. From the perspective of international relations at that time, however, none of the concepts of a common security and defence policy could have achieved success, although it could have been considered as one of the alternatives for the development of the process of continental integration, especially if it had been linked to the replenishment of the deficient assets in the potentials of other actors of international relations close to East-Central Europe in terms of development and culture.

Author(s):  
Klaus Richter

The chapter examines national policies to economically empower the titular nations and thus establish a national merchant class. It argues that these policies bore rather different results: the marginalization of minorities and the creation of states that were major economic agents. It explores how attempts of foreign powers to exploit the new Polish and Baltic states economically interacted with the emerging governments’ efforts to take control of the region’s raw materials from the disintegrating commercial monopolies of the German occupation. Using the example of timber and flax trade, the chapter retraces how territorial fragmentation spurred distinct policies that shaped states within East Central Europe, but also an international image of the region: the collapse of sovereignty spurred the commercial engagement of outside powers, which in turn contributed to domestic efforts to secure sovereignty, seal off the territory, and organize commerce within the titular nations.


Author(s):  
Jacek Wieclawski

This article discusses the problems of the sub-regional cooperation in East-Central Europe. It formulates the general conclusions and examines the specific case of the Visegrad Group as the most advanced example of this cooperation. The article identifies the integrating and disintegrating tendencies that have so far accompanied the sub-regional dialogue in East-Central Europe. Yet it claims that the disintegrating impulses prevail over the integrating impulses. EastCentral Europe remains diversified and it has not developed a single platform of the sub-regional dialogue. The common experience of the communist period gives way to the growing difference of the sub-regional interests and the ability of the East-Central European members to coordinate their positions in the European Union is limited. The Visegrad Group is no exception in this regard despite its rich agenda of social and cultural contacts. The Russian-Ukrainian conflict confirms a deep divergence of interests among the Visegrad states that seems more important for the future of the Visegrad cooperation than the recent attempts to mark the Visegrad unity in the European refugee crisis. Finally, the Ukrainian crisis and the strengthening of the NATO’s “Eastern flank” may contribute to some new ideas of the sub-regional cooperation in East-Central Europe, to include the Polish-Baltic rapprochement or the closer dialogue between Poland and Romania. Full text available at: https://doi.org/10.22215/rera.v10i1.251  


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