Politeja

Front Matter

2025-02-03T11:59:02+01:00

Strategia polityki globalnej UE (Global Gateway) – implikacje teoretyczne i praktyczne

2025-02-13T12:12:56+01:00

THE EU’S GLOBAL POLICY STRATEGY (GLOBAL GATEWAY) – THEORETICAL AND PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

This paper has analysed some aspects of the EU’s global policy. Both formal-legal and political aspects of the EU’s legal-international subjectivity are highlighted. EU global policy issues are linked to integration models and concepts and analysed in terms of the new intergovernmentalism, policy networks and external governance. Finally, the implications of this strategy and the lessons for EU and Member State foreign policy are drawn.

Kryzys na granicy polsko-białoruskiej a prawa człowieka

2025-02-13T12:12:54+01:00

CRISIS ON THE POLISH-BELARUSIAN BORDER AND HUMAN RIGHTS

The purpose of this article is an attempt to analyze the activity of the Polish state in the context of respect for human rights on the Polish-Belarusian border in the period of the migration crisis, which began in mid-2021. The article puts forward the thesis that migrants on the Polish-Belarusian border were, “stripped of their rights” and depended, among other things, on the decisions of the Polish government, which did not want to accept them on its territory. The article is divided into three parts, the first of which deals with the issue of human rights in emergency situations. In the next, an attempt is made to show the validity of the positions of H. Arendt and G. Agamben, proclaiming that human rights are granted to an individual not by being a de facto human being, but a citizen of a state. The last part of the article presents the actions of the Polish authorities and Border Guard officers testifying to violations of human rights on the Polish-Belarusian border.

Harraga

2025-02-13T12:12:52+01:00

The external borders of the European Union are becoming increasingly difficult to cross each year. Migrants deprived of legal entry into the EU still attempt to do so illegally. Neither the introduction of visa restrictions nor the closure of borders has reduced the phenomenon of illegal border crossings. The aim of this article is to investigate and describe the harraga phenomenon, which consists of the illegal crossing of the southern sea borders of the European Union by citizens of the Maghreb countries. The author will endeavour to explain the causes and motivations of migrants, with a primary focus on Algerians. In Algeria, the harraga phenomenon differs from other types of migration, and there are political and social reasons behind this phenomenon. Algerian harraga follows its own logic of circumventing restrictions and crossing borders illegally. Risking their lives to leave the country, Algerians view this as their last hope of reaching the ‘European El Dorado’. Obtaining a visa in Algeria today has become a far more challenging undertaking than the perilous crossing of the Mediterranean Sea. For young people, often coming from large working-class families, ‘burning the borders’ is the only way to reach Europe and pursue a different life, often precarious but more stable. Algerians travel to Spain, Italy and Malta, crossing the waters of the Mediterranean Sea, but their primary destination remains France – where economic and social conditions significantly motivate individuals to undertake the dangerous journey to Europe. The research methods used in the article include a literature review, data analysis, synthesis, comparison and case study.

The Exclusionary Nationalist Discourse of Radical Populist Right-Wing Parties in Contemporary Poland

2025-02-13T12:12:50+01:00

The objective of the paper is to analyse the nationalist political message of radical populist right-wing parties in Poland from 2015 to 2022. The authors apply a wide theoretical approach to the study of right-wing populism. The text exemplifies the category of ‘enemies’ of Poland and Polishness on the basis of three groups. The first analysed category is that of ‘the leftists’ and ‘cultural Marxists’, who are accused of undermining the ‘true’ roots of European civilisation. This part is followed by an analysis of a related but distinct category, namely atheists, who allegedly constitute a threat to the Catholic identity of Poles. The last group under analysis is refugees – especially Muslim refugees – who are presented in a racialised and even racist manner. The conclusions emphasise the undemocratic nature of the discourse of the Polish radical right.

Trauma „dobrej krwi” na podstawie tekstów faktograficznych na temat organizacji Lebensborn e.V. (Gisela Heidenreich i Ingrid von Oelhafen)

2025-02-13T12:12:48+01:00

GOOD BLOOD TRAUMA ON THE BASIS OF FACTUAL TEXTS ON THE ORGANISATION LEBENSBORN E.V. (GISELA HEIDENREICH AND INGRID VON OELHAFEN)

This article presents the memoir books of Ingrid von Oelhafen and Gisela Heidenreich. The authors are children of Lebensborn. Lebensborn was an institution functioning within the structures of the SS, officially operating as a welfare and charitable association. In reality, it was concerned with acquiring “good blood” for the Reich, mainly by fighting abortion and robbing children of non-German nationalities. There is a false myth in the culture about it, according to which the organisation’s houses were elite SS brothels and breeding houses. Von Oelhafen was kidnapped from her biological family as a child and subjected to a process of Germanisation. Heidenreich was born in a Lebensborn home as a child of declared Nazis. Both speak as mature women about the search for their own identity. A feeling that accompanied them throughout their lives was the shame of their own origins. Von Oelhafen and Heidenreich described their experiences of the Lebensborn organisation in autobiographical books, but emphasised that they represented not only themselves, but a whole group of people with similar life experiences. Therefore, the books will be interpreted using anautosociobiographical approach, i.e. they will be treated as the voices of a group
of people recognised by the National Socialists as representatives of the so-called
”good (Nordic) blood”, and thus as racially superior people.

The Use of Conceptual Metaphor in the Interpretive Analysis of Political Discourse

2025-02-13T12:12:47+01:00

This article considers the possibility of integrating conceptual metaphor theory (CMT), developed within the realm of cognitive linguistics, with an interpretive approach to political science. The author demonstrates that the theoretical tenets of cognitive linguistics correspond to the ontological and epistemological foundations of the interpretive perspective. Moreover, he points to the need to consider language and meaning-making linguistic processes as an important area for interpretive analysis in political science and shows how CMT can contribute to this task. Finally, the paper signals possible research objectives of such analyses and the potential areas where they could be applied.

Institutional and Legal Arrangements for the Macro-prudential Supervision Activities of the Financial Stability Committee

2025-02-13T12:12:45+01:00

The article is devoted to the Financial Stability Committee, which bridged the institutional gap that emerged after the 2008 crisis. The purpose of the paper is to analyse its institutional and legal capacity for macro-prudential supervision. The study presents its contemporary organisation, highlighting its internal stratification and the decision-making processes. An important issue addressed in the study is the role of the NBP in the composition of the Committee. This is followed by an examination of the law-making capacities of the Financial Stability Committee (FSC), which are limited. The Committee does not have the authority to issue generally and internally applicable legislation. The final part of the article is dedicated to the Committee’s ability to influence the effective stabilisation of the financial system. It employs soft law instruments for this purpose, including positions, recommendations and opinions. In the conclusion, the author presents arguments for and against the hypothesis put forward.

Libertarianizm, uprawnienia naturalne i argument estoppelu

2025-02-13T12:12:43+01:00

LIBERTARIANISM, NATURAL RIGHTS, AND ESTOPPEL ARGUMENT

The present paper analyzes Stephan Kinsella’s estoppel argument for the existence of natural rights, especially libertarian self-ownership and private property rights. The point of Kinsella’s argument is to demonstrate that because an offender cannot coherently oppose punishment, his victim must have had rights. Peculiarly, the estoppel argument does not assume the existence of the victim’s rights in order to justify punishing the offender. To the contrary, it attempts to justify the existence of the victim’s rights by the putative fact that the offender cannot coherently oppose punishment. The present paper demonstrates by way of the Hohfeldian analysis and syllogistics that the estoppel argument does not prove the existence of the victim’s rights. The main reason for that is that it fails to deny the existence of the offender’s Hohfeldian liberty to use force against the victim and other persons.

Separation of Powers Dismantled? Over-Rationalisation of Parliamentarism During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the Czech Republic, Poland and France

2025-02-13T12:12:41+01:00

This article is intended as a contribution to the research into the increasing role of the executive in modern government systems, including the use of emergency measures. In the case of the COVID-19 pandemic, we deal with an ongoing crisis of global significance. It is the prevalence of the coronavirus threat that provides a unique opportunity to make comparisons and formulate conclusions as to the newly diagnosed phenomenon of over-rationalized parliamentarism interpreted as an element of the ongoing strengthening of the executive power, and, at the same time, a potential serious threat to the already weakened separation of powers. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that during the COVID-19 pandemic, the relative balance between powers – such balance being a structural element of the principle of separation of powers in a democratic state ruled by law – becomes (to a greater or lesser extent) disintegrated. The paper claims that irrespective of the formal response to COVID-19 (such as introducing a state of emergency in the Czech Republic, creating a new state of emergency in France and applying emergency measures without declaring a state of emergency in Poland), it appears that the extraordinary measures introduced are rather similar.

Did COP26 Lapse or Not Lapse the Core Objective of the UNFCCC Under the Paris Agreement-carbon markets?

2025-02-13T12:12:38+01:00

It is widely believed that there is academic literature addressing the United Nations Climate Summit, but there is no systematic review and analysis of research on COP26 and its objectives under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. This article describes a qualitative meta-synthesis of research on COP26 that examines the extent to which evidence exists for changes in reducing greenhouse gases as a core objective of the UNFCCC. A systematic analysis and synthesis of various studies have shown that Article 6.2 (not lapsed) has undergone a significant change in relation to the core objective of the UNFCCC under the market-based approach. Several studies have found that Article 6.4 (lapsed) has hardly changed under a marketbased approach. The results for Article 6.8 under non-market-based approaches (lapsed) were similar, although COP26 did not have the opportunity to provide “Just Change Evidence”. The article concludes by identifying gaps in scientific research and suggesting additional scientific work to increase the availability of evidence for non-market approaches.

Russo-Ukrainian War’s Impact on Space Security – The Western Perspective

2025-02-13T12:12:35+01:00

In this paper, the impact of the democratisation of space on space security is investigated using the example of the war in Ukraine, with particular attention to the transatlantic community’s security concerns. It is argued that the growing reliance on space systems for security-related purposes by an increasing number of international actors has significant potential to impact the dynamics of international relations, particularly in a regional dimension. This process naturally accelerates the development of counterspace measures designed to negate spacederived, security-related capabilities. Consequently, increasing the resilience of current and future space systems – including commercial ones – is crucial if Western nations are to maintain their edge in space applications.

Strategiczna zmiana wektorów polityki zagranicznej Pakistanu w kontekście wojny na Ukrainie

2025-03-07T10:27:27+01:00

STRATEGIC CHANGE IN PAKISTAN’S FOREIGN POLICY VECTORS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE

The war in Ukraine has consequences not only for the politics of Kiev’s closest neighbours, but also for countries as geographically distant as Pakistan. It poses a serious challenge to the geopolitical situation in South Asia. In these new cir-cumstances, the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is trying to find its place. The coun-try is experiencing one of the most serious economic crises in history, which may affect the stability of the government. How the authorities and the political elite deal with this situation may determine the country’s policy for the coming dec-ades. The aim of the article is to show how the war in Ukraine affects the current situation in Pakistan against the background of previous experience.

Rethinking Future Conflicts

2025-02-13T12:12:32+01:00

This article examines the concept of the ‘grey zone’ in international conflict, with a particular focus on its application in cyberspace. The grey zone refers to non-conventional strategies employed by states to achieve strategic objectives without escalating to overt warfare. The study highlights the evolving nature of grey-zone activities, driven by technological advancements and increasing reliance on cyberspace, which has introduced novel vulnerabilities and opportunities for state actors. Adopting a neoclassical realist framework, the article argues that the unique characteristics of cyberspace – its borderless nature, lack of territorial constraints, and difficulties in attribution – render it an attractive domain for conducting grey-zone operations. By minimizing the risk of escalation while maximizing strategic impact, state actors can pursue their objectives with relative impunity. Through a critical analysis of scholarly literature, public reports, and governmental sources, this study identifies the strategic assumptions underpinning Russia’s cyber operations and assesses their effectiveness in achieving specific policy goals. The findings suggest that while Russia’s cyber activities reflect a sophisticated understanding of the grey zone, the escalation to conventional warfare in 2022 indicates a failure to meet objectives solely through ambiguous actions.

Cele rozwoju austriackiego systemu badań, technologii i innowacji przez pryzmat FTI-Strategie 2030

2025-02-13T12:12:28+01:00

THE AUSTRIAN RESEARCH, TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION SYSTEM THROUGH THE PRISM OF TFI-STRATEGIES 2030

Austria treats scientific knowledge as a public good with general obligations. Over the years, it has developed a national model of research – technology and innovation. It considers the social conditions, membership in the EU, the territorial system of the state. Austria has a solid legal framework and a good level of research funding. It ensures coherence and synergy of programs, instruments, research infrastructure. The FTI-Strategy and its supporting initiatives demonstrate a systematic approach bringing qualitative and quantitative development. With the FTI strategy and system, Austria has set a goal of joining the ranks of the best technological countries, transforming the country based on the principles of sustainable development, improving quality of life and socio-economic resilience. Austria sees its opportunity in modernization processes based on modern technologies, green social change, integrated Standortpolitik.

Racjonalizacja irlandzkiego systemu parlamentarnego – analiza rozwiązań konstytucyjnych

2025-02-13T12:12:26+01:00

RATIONALISATION OF THE IRISH PARLIAMENTARY SYSTEM – ANALYSIS OF CONSTITUTIONAL SOLUTIONS

The article deals with the phenomenon of rationalisation of the parliamentary system which goes hand in hand with the political system in Ireland. The author will explain the meaning of the term rationalization and present possible variants. Rationalization as an institutionalization of constitutional rules, pro-premier and pro-presidential orientation of this phenomenon is discussed. For this purpose, the system solutions contained in the Constitution of the First Assembly of 1919, the Constitution of the Free State of Ireland of 1922 and the Constitution of Ireland of 1937 are analysed. The author argues that the Irish model of the institution of the Prime Minister is a prerequisite for the stable functioning of the system, as it plays a central role in it. Moreover, the seemingly similar position of the Irish Prime Minister to that of the United Kingdom distinguishes the inclusion in the Constitution of provisions which particularly strengthen his role in the system. The author of this paper will therefore try to answer the question of what form of rationalisation has been and is being adopted by the parliamentary system on the example of Ireland.

Dezinformacja jako zagrożenie dla demokracji i regulacje prawne w zakresie jej przeciwdziałania w Polsce i wybranych krajach europejskich

2025-02-13T12:12:23+01:00

DISINFORMATION AS A THREAT TO DEMOCRACY – POLISH AND EUROPEAN STATES’ REGULATIONS FOR COUNTERACTING IT

Systematically conducted disinformation campaigns, which are often carried out as a part of larger hybrid operations in cyberspace, pose a significant threat to the security of states and their democratic values. Such disinformation also helps to accelerate processes such as polarisation, verbal aggression and radicalisation, which can all contribute to democratic backsliding. The aim of this article is to examine the disinformation threat in democratic societies, in particular, mechanisms that undermine the principles constituting the pillars of democracy, such as competitive and fair elections, self-determination and free public debate. The paper goes on to discuss regulations for countering disinformation in Poland and selected European Union Member States. The analysis shows that counteracting disinformation goes beyond the solutions implemented within the framework of a nation state. The Internet effectively exceeds the territorial sovereignty of the state, which makes it difficult to regulate cyberspace in the national legal order. In addition, it is difficult to provide a legal definition of disinformation and fake news that, under the guise of protecting information, will not harm the public good, limit freedom of speech, introduce censorship or reduce media pluralism. Democratic values are therefore threatened not only by disinformation itself, but also the legislation aimed at countering it.

Back Matter

2025-02-03T13:20:09+01:00

Żarnowiec, czyli pierwsza próba transformacji energetycznej w Polsce z perspektywy dzisiejszej (Piotr Wróblewski, Żarnowiec. Sen o polskiej elektrowni jądrowej. Wydawnictwo Krytyki Politycznej, Warszawa 2023, ss. 334)

2025-02-03T13:16:33+01:00

Recenzja książki: Jan Stachniuk, Nacjonalizm świecki w Polsce, wybór i wstęp Olgierd Grott, wyd. Księgarnia Akademicka, Kraków 2022, ss. 324

2025-02-03T13:18:59+01:00