This article deals with public, political discourse over One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative in Poland. OBOR has recently become very popular in Poland as it encapsulates the noticeable fascination on China and on geopolitics among parts of Polish society. This article describes this phenomenon and delaminates the mainstream political discourse over OBOR into two main strands: great geopolitical and/or geoeconomic chance (pro-OBOR discourse) and security threat (anti-OBOR). The advocates of the former see the project as a great geopolitical and economic opportunity for Poland; the supporters of the latter find it a threat to Polish security and/or economic interests. This discourse echoes internal divisions within current Polish government on its China policy and can be observed against the background of China’s dynamic enter to Central and Eastern Europe, particularly to Czech Republic, Hungary and Serbia. 

2014 was a breakthrough year. Ukraine’s crisis of 2013–2014, February 2014 revolution which removed Viktor Yanukovych and his government, annexation of Crimea by Russia, war in Donbas caused changes in the geopolitical map of the world. The crisis had many effects both domestic and international. Author argues that the crisis is a part of the wider changes on the geopolitical map of the world. The main effect of the crisis is that Ukraine was transformed into shatterbelt – regions that are both deeply divided internally and caught up in the competition between Great Powers.

The Armed Conflict in Ukraine and its Representation in Contemporary Ukrainian Literature. Margaryta Surzhenko’s АТО. Історії зі Сходу на Захід.

The essay examines Margaryta Surzhenko’s novel АТО. Історії зі Сходу на Захід (2015). In the context of the ongoing fighting in the Donbass area, this type of narrative brings reflection to the national identity of the inhabitants of Eastern Ukraine and their escape from the war zone. The author focuses not only on the migration but also on the information space (pro-Russian) under the influence of which the inhabitants of Donbass lived their whole lives. Ordinary people suddenly found themselves in the center of a dangerous armed conflict. Such a course of the situation needs to be analyzed in the context of the long-term coexistence of Russians and Ukrainians, as well as the influence of power in those areas. Changing the balance of power in the region affected ordinary residents, often forcing them to escape.

This paper deals with the concept of political topology in the light of geopolitics and hybrid warfare. Traditional geopolitics can be regarded as a point of departure for the search for better tools for political decision making. Comparison and confrontation of different, theoretical and practical, concepts of hybrid warfare can be heuristically inspiring and lead to a compact system of politically relevant knowledge – to political topology.

The transformations of the North Atlantic Alliance in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and its mission in Afghanistan have proceeded hand in hand with the redefining of security interests in individual member states. Poland and Germany have also been affected by a polarization of views, particularly on the nature, place and role of NATO in today’s world. The countries’ geopolitics and their varying visions of European security have significantly affected their positions.

This paper presents some remarks on the situation of Poland in NATO. The problem of ‘predictability’ is analysed on the basis of a simple scheme (system, its environment, their interactions). The geopolitical analysis of this dynamic model leads to the conclusion that the future cannot be described as highly predictable, although some long-term scenarios seem to be relatively plausible and may be used in the construction of more realistic global and national/ regional strategies. The results of this analysis suggest global cooperation and regional integration.

This article is concerned with the research on Polish geopolitical codes following 1989. The problem has not yet been the subject of broader scientific studies or publications. In this aspect, the research is of particular importance for the analysis of foreign policy of Poland, which had to redefine its place in Europe and to fundamentally rebuild external relations, that is also to define the new geopolitical codes. The code system used in this text is based on Colin Flint’s definition, with the key division into allies and enemies. Based on the analysis of discourse, it can be stated that the most important allies of Poland in these codes are the USA, the European Union, Germany, and the enemy is Russia. In general, the fundamental change of Poland’s geopolitical codes following 1989 – from the east side to the west – can quite easily be seen in the electoral programs: the enemies of the People’s Republic of Poland’s period became allies, and the forced ally became an enemy. However, their concretization is generally not original and rather schematic. The Polish geopolitical codes have been exerted with strong influences of the hegemonic geopolitical codes of the West, mainly those of the United States. On the other hand, the last geopolitical code, the attempt to explain to the public the geopolitical imaginations of our elites, has been the weakest. This largely confirms the authoritarian dimension of Polish top-down transformation as well as the dominance of the elites over the society.

The article aims at identifying key elements of Russia’s strategic culture and drivers for its change. It starts with a short theoretical overview of the strategic culture concept and different approaches within various theoretical frameworks (liberal, constructive, and post-modern). It focuses on most important determinants of Russian strategic culture, namely history, ideology, geopolitics, systemic issues, and religion. It examines the extent to which Russian policy reflects these determinants.

The article deals with the issue of the development of geopolitical imagination of Polish political elites following 1989. The source database of the text are the most important official documents regarding the foreign policy of the Third Polish Republic: the policy statements of subsequent prime ministers and the so-called small policy statements of the ministers of foreign affairs. Discourse analysis and system analysis were used to analyse them, treating them as a social construct. Geopolitical imagination placed Poland in Europe, in the dangerous zone between Germany and Russia and on the border of the two civilizations. The escape from this “fatalism of geography” was the main goal of the elites of the Third Polish Republic. Hence the orientation towards the West, to ensure the exit from peripherality, security and development. To justify such a remodelling of their representations, the elites put forward an idealized image of the West. It facilitated the acceptance of the geopolitical choice made by the society and the associated severe limitation of Poland’s geopolitical and economic autonomy. The vehicles on the way to the West were bandwagoning towards the USA and Germany, which justified clientelism towards them. In various combinations, the representations about Poland’s key role in the post-communist region re-emerged following 1989 to strengthen its position in relation to the West and the East. As for the eastern direction, Poland’s goal was to move the imaginary borders of the West towards our eastern neighbours, mainly Belarus and Ukraine. This must have led to the negative reaction from Russia, which considered this area its sphere of influence. Russia was imagined by us to be an alien and enemy, and the change of this state of affairs would be a consequence of the Westernisation of Russia so desired by the Polish elites. It seems that in the years 1989–2015, one could speak of a certain interpretative community, which the LaJ (Law and Justice/Prawo i Sprawiedliwość) governments broke down following 2015. The LaJ foreign policy has become a hostage of those undermining the liberal democracy of internal political system changes. Their criticism in the EU states isolates and pushes towards servility to Washington. In turn, the Three Seas Initiative is too divided and weak to leverage Poland’s position. It seems that re-approaching the EU’s core may give us some freedom and better protection in external policy.

International identity consists mainly of geographical, demographic, historical, political, military, economic, ideological, cultural and psychological factors. After the collapse of the USSR, Russia returned to tradition, not only in the sphere of political, social and philosophical ideas and ideologies, but also in the sphere of culture and religion. In the 1990s, the geopolitics revived. It became the basis for the development of the concept of foreign policy, the National Security Strategy and the Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation. The aim of the research is to analyze geopolitical perspectives in the identity of the Russian Federation and its impact on foreign policy concepts and sources of development of geopolitical concepts in Russia. The post-Soviet area is important for the security of the Russian Federation. Russia perceives armed conflicts in this area as an element of political ‘game’ in its strategic area.

Markets, countries and politics. Selected political and economic problems of the Middle East in the modern world

Control and access to resources and trade routes have always conditioned and determined the position of a given country on the world stage and its wealth. For many centuries, the Middle East region has been one of the most important regions in the world, both due to its geographical location, as a link between East and West, and natural resources available to individual countries. Despite the enormous diversity of Middle Eastern countries and the danger of over-generalization, it is worth looking at the whole area, which in the future may become an important center in the global economy and an important point of world politics.

This article reviews the academic literature on the regional security complex of the South Caucasus, which has been drawing the attention of the academic community for a long time. The paper aims to examine the security dynamics in the South Caucasus with a focus on Azerbaijan and a way in which domestic security is interconnected and linked to the region`s neighborhood and global arena. The conceptual framework for the paper is the regional security complex theory, elaborated by Barry Buzan and Ole Wæver. South Caucasus is an unstable region with several secessionist conflicts and interstate wars, exposed to the influence of its neighbors, which shape the regional security environment. Besides, the region is riven by geopolitical fractures as regional states have various foreign policy orientations, which hampers the resolution of regional conflicts and complicates cooperation. The research is carried at three levels of analysis - the domestic level, reviewing internal vulnerabilities and state to state relations, interregional level, examining dynamics between regional and neighboring states, and the last level - global, considering the interplay between regional and the world-leading powers. Correspondingly, sections of the paper study internal challenges and threats of the regional states, examine relations between Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, and their neighborhood - Turkey, Iran, Russia, as well as global powers - the EU and the US to analyze similar and conflicting interests and patterns of influence. The article concludes that the South Caucasus security environment is unstable, hampered by the failure of democratic transformation and unresolved conflicts, namely Nagorno-Karabakh, which Russia uses as a tool to keep Caucasian states in a sphere of its influence. It is evident that Azerbaijan plays a vital role in the production and transit of hydrocarbons from the Caspian region to Europe. Therefore, it is crucial to eliminate threats coming from the region and to ensure the security of energy infrastructure, carrying energy resources westwards.

The article deals with the problem of national security in the contemporary world which is greatly influenced by the process of globalization and digitalization. The paper highlights the role of national security in modern state building. The following issue has been of great interest to many outstanding scientists worldwide especially since the beginning of the XXI century. However, the subject matter of national security in the system of public administration has not been clearly defined yet. Therefore, the paper analyzes the approaches to define national security and points out its distinctive features. Moreover, it emphasizes the fact that at the level of national, regional and global relations the concept of national security is often associated with security strategies. Thus, the article puts emphasis on the predominant characteristics that help to distinguish between these two concepts. In addition, the research clarifies the characteristic features of national security as well as state security. Security, like many other categories of social sciences, does not have a conclusive definition. What is more, the category of security has an interdisciplinary significance. Therefore, scientists define it in accordance with the subject matter and the specifics of cognition and research. Nevertheless, many outstanding scholars view security as an anthropocentric category related to man’s socialessence and value. Accordingly, security presupposes having freedom from the risk, danger and the threat of change to the worse. Most scientists agree that security is a constituent of every aspect of human life. Consequently, security issues consideration is of great significance. All in all, nowadays it is greatly important to achieve a state of security as our globalized society frequently leads to different challenges and dangers. The results of the research contribute to better understanding of the issue and make it possible to introduce effective mechanisms of public administration in the field of national security.

A Concept of “Intermarium” in the Foreign Policy of Poland

The paper tackles the problem of the most important Polish geopolitical concept - “Intermarium” (“Międzymorze”). The attention was paid to the historical roots, the evolution in the mid-war period and after WWII. It also discusses the current state of this conception and its links with a project “Three seas’ initiative”, actively run by Polish authorities since 2016. The paper consists of four main chapters. It starts with presenting scientific roots of the “Intermarium”, that was developed at the beginning of the XX century by a famous geographer Eugeniusz Romer and included in Polish political discourse in the mid-war period. The “Inermarium” was planned to be an alliance of Central European countries to oppose the influences of stronger neighboring countries - the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. Then the paper discusses the concept of “ULB”, that in the period of “cold war” to some extend revived the concept of Intermarium”. Authors of the “ULB” Jerzy Giedroyc and Juliusz Mieroszewski paid particular attention to the reconciliation and mutual understanding among nations of Central and Eastern Europe. Consecutively, the paper discusses the current state of “Intermarium”. Under the national-conservative government of the Law and Justice Party, since 2016 this concept is for the first time in its history implemented as an official part of Poland’s foreign policy. However, there are significant changes in the concept, starting with its name - “Three seas initiative”, that refers to Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas. Within the concept, Poland is strengthening relations with other countries of Central Europe. Therefore, it can be understood as a new “North-South” geopolitical axis, that, to some extent should replace an “East-West” geopolitical axis, that for ages has played a crucial role in Polish foreign policy. The final conclusion of the paper is that currently Poland’s geopolitical interests are evolving into the North-South axis and the Eastern direction is losing its previous importance. Nevertheless, the future success or failure of the implementation of the concept will depend on the involvement of other Central European countries as well as of the interests of external political actors (USA, Russia).

China as a Strategic Economic Partner in the Concepts of Russian Foreign Policy in the 2020s

The article presents an idea of the possible Russian - Chinese strategic economic partnership at the beginning of the 21st century. The author indicates the main factors influencing Russian Federation foreign policy towards China from the perspective of a neoclassical realism.The author stands that according to J. Rosenau, the main factors determining the Russian foreign policy are idiosyncratic and role. Then he analyses the Russian documents of foreign policy, economic data and geopolitical ideas. On that ground, he makes a simple analyse using the neoclassical realism model, that’s integrates Foreign Policy Analyse and International Relations Theory, joining independent and intervening variables, to support the article’s hypotheses. That hypotheses say that, firstly, The Peoples Republic of China (PRC) plays a role of diversification of Russia’s international economic ties; and secondly, The PRC status as a Russia’s strategic partner is at issue, despite the official declarations of both sides.

From Economic to Geopolitical Policy: The Middle East on the Silk Road

The article aims to present and evaluate the activities and politics of the People’s Republic of China in the Middle East, and to define its objectives through the Silk Project. It will provide an overview of the most important changes in the Chinese foreign and political policy, and the importance of the Middle East, particularly the Silk Road to China, and it will try to answer the following questions: How important is the Middle East for the Silk Road? Will the Chinese project bring stability to the region in light of the fierce competition between the great powers? The article adopted the hypothesis that China’s involvement in the Middle East will deepen the conflict between the countries of the region among themselves, and thus become a fertile ground for international conflicts to the international conflict.

Socio-political Reforms in Uzbekistan during the Presidency of Shavkat Mirziyoyev

The paper aims to present various aspects of the reform process initiated and implemented by Shavkhat Mirziyoyev, the president of the Republic of Uzbekistan, since 2016. The main subjects of consideration are vectors of political change in the spheres of institutions of political power, economy and foreign policy in the broader context of the legacy of the first president Islam Karimov’s reign and the heritage of the Soviet period. The fundamental reforms have embraced democratization of political system, fight against corruption, extension of civil rights and abandoning of isolationism in international relations, and are sometimes decribed as the „Uzbek Thaw”. However they seem to be very meaningful, one will be able to evaluate their significance for the statehood of the independent Uzbekistan only from the perspective of future decades.

Russia’s intervention in Syria in 2015 marked the Russian Federation (RF) return as a key player in the Middle East and North Africa. In this context, the relations between Russia and the UAE are of utmost importance for both entities, for the region, and globally. This article seeks to fill a gap in scholarly knowledge by answering questions about the nature of the emerging cooperation between Russia and the UAE. How Russia seeks to use the UAE to expand its sphere of influence in the MENA region and how the UAE uses this cooperation to achieve its foreign policy goals. The article applies protocooperation (an analogy to the ecological relationship) as a model for the Russia-UAE partnership. The RF is strengthening its position in the MENA regarding the UAE as a key partner for regaining its political, economic, and military influence in the MENA region. Russia-UAE’s partnership aims at achieving conjunctural geopolitical interests benefiting from diminished Western, mainly the US, presence in the region.

The article analyzes the Polish reason of state in changing international order understood as the loss of hegemon position by the United States. The author defines the reason of state as an analytical operant and relates it to the security and sovereignty of a state in the international environment. The text also outlines possibilities of development of Poland's reason of state in the region and global geopolitics.

This paper uses the case of Kyrgyz Republic to analyze two competing views concerning the role of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). The realist view claims that the EAEU is a tool of Russian hegemonic power over its region of infl uence and interprets is as a primarily political rather than economic organization designed to serve Russia’s national interests at the expense of those of other members. The liberal institutionalist view, on the other hand, sees the EAEU as a new regional organization of economic integration that is benefi cial for all members. Analyzing the case of the participation of the Kyrgyz Republic in this union makes it clear that it is still too early to determine which perspective is correct as there is evidence in support of both.