Discerning Poland’s Contemporary Strategic Culture: An Analysis of the 2020 National Security Strategy of the Republic of Poland

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.18.2021.75.14

Keywords:

strategic culture, Poland, national security strategy, security policy, NATO, European Union, Three Seas Initiative

Abstract

The article analyses the Polish government’s recently published National Security Strategy in an attempt to discern the broad outlines of the strategic culture within Poland’s strategic community. The article adopts a ‘fourth generation’ approach to the conception of strategic culture, which posits that there are often rival subcultures within strategic communities, which can often result in dramatic shifts in a state’s security policies over time. There is a brief discussion of how conflicting subcultures can be identified in Poland’s foreign policies in the past before the article discusses what Poland’s current Strategy reveals about the strategic culture of today’s decision-makers. It broadly argues that there are obvious continuities in Poland’s security policies, notably in terms of how the Russian Federation is regarded as a hostile state and the degree to which NATO and the EU serve to strengthen Poland’s security. It is also possible to see more minor shifts in Poland’s security policies in recent years, such as a renewed emphasis on territorial defence and a willingness to align itself with several states which are relatively antagonistic towards the EU.

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Author Biography

Christopher Reeves, Jesuit University Ignatianum

Is a lecturer at the Jesuit University Ignatianum in Krakow. His research interests include International Relations and European Security, particularly Poland’s foreign and security policies.

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Published

2021-12-16 — Updated on 2022-03-11

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How to Cite

Reeves, Christopher. (2021) 2022. “Discerning Poland’s Contemporary Strategic Culture: An Analysis of the 2020 National Security Strategy of the Republic of Poland”. Politeja 18 (6(75):283-305. https://doi.org/10.12797/Politeja.18.2021.75.14.

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Demography and Security