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.

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.

Celem artykułu jest analiza i ocena współpracy między Polską i Stanami Zjednoczonymi w zakresie wdrażania w życie Inicjatywy Trójmorza. We wprowadzeniu zarysowano specyfikę i cele TSI oraz główne założenia metodologiczne artykułu. Dwie pierwsze części poświęcono odpowiednio geopolitycznemu i gospodarczemu znaczeniu TSI dla Polski oraz dla regionu Europy Środkowo- Wschodniej i USA. Zasadnicza część artykułu koncentruje się na wspólnych działaniach Polski i Stanów Zjednoczonych na rzecz promowania i wdrażania TSI. Problem badawczy zawiera się w dwóch pytaniach badawczych: Czy zainicjowanie przez Polskę TSI zwiększyło jej znaczenie w polityce zagranicznej i bezpieczeństwa USA? Czy Polsce skutecznie udało się włączyć USA do współpracy na rzecz rozwoju TSI? Dzięki inicjatywie Polska umocniła w USA wizerunek lidera regionu, a administracja Donalda Trumpa zdecydowanie poparła i zaangażowała się w projekt. Istnieją szanse dalszej współpracy w ramach TSI, ponieważ podejście administracji Joego Bidena do tego projektu jak dotąd jest pozytywne. Podczas badań skorzystano z metody analizy źródeł tekstowych.

W wyniku rozpadu bloku wschodniego wiele państw uzyskało niepodległość i suwerenność, w tym zdolność do prowadzenia samodzielnej polityki naukowej. Celem artykułu jest odpowiedź na pytanie, czy podział geograficzny uwzględniający państwa europejskie i azjatyckie różnicował poziom ich aktywności naukowej (z wyłączeniem Federacji Rosyjskiej). Wyniki przeprowadzonych analiz wskazują, że państwa europejskie mają istotnie wyższy udział wydatków na badania i rozwój oraz zatrudniają znacznie większą liczbę pracowników w sektorze R&D (ang. research and development) niż państwa azjatyckie. Jednocześnie autorzy afiliujący w państwach azjatyckich mają nieznacznie wyższy udział publikacji pisanych we współpracy z autorami o afiliacji z innych państw, co może wskazywać na przyjęcie strategii intensyfikacji międzynarodowej współpracy naukowej.

Russian private military companies and their role in domestic and foreign policy

Russia’s use of private military companies has strengthened in recent years, reflecting lessons learned from past actions, an expansive mindset and a desire for economic, geopolitical and military benefits. Military operations in Ukraine, starting from 2014, were one of the first tests for PMC. Since then, the Russians have perfected their model of operation. Even though the activities of private contractors are illegal under the Russian Constitution, they play an important role in pursuing Russian interests, mainly abroad. They weaken US influence and support Russia’s geopolitical, military and economic interests. They are present in as many as 30 countries on four continents. The purpose of this article is to define the role of Russian private military companies in the internal and external policy of the Russian Federation.

The external and internal geopolitical prerequisites of revolt of 1916

In is article the authors consider geopolitical situation which developed at the time of revolt of 1916 in Central Asia, raising questions of collision of political interests of the Russian and British empires.

According to W. Lutosławski, every nation has its language/tongue, its historical past, but none of these features alone or in whole, does not determine the nation. He notices, that “only an existing national type, the kind of the ego is creating its language, its history and is impersonating the certain race”. The amount of such types is, according to W. Lutosławski, limited and not every people speaking the different language are a nation even if it has the racial distinction/separatness and the political history. His further statement is not entirely understandable, that “the real nation in its being isn’t limited to one planet, but has its representatives in the entire universe, although on the different planets they are not speaking the same language and have a various history”. The language, the race, the history, the custom – they aren’t creating the nation the more so that everyone can speak foreign languages. A nation isn’t the entire mass of people speaking one language but a slim circle of spirits, which are conscious of their separateness amongst the other nations. “The national awareness is an awareness of the existence of the ego fundamentally similar to our ego and whereby differing in the equal way as we do from the other egos we come across”. This way W. Lutosławski seems to be one of the precursors of the researches about the identity, also the national one. A nationality is an outside word of the invisible existence which a nation is, and it won’t be possible to reduce the contacts of the individual with the nation to such elements as language, tradition, custom. So there is/exists a serious difference between the nation and the nationality. The people living at present are only a material for nations. The state, compared with the nation, is a lower-level existence, dependent on time and space The work of Wincentego Lutosławski is located in a current of the Utopian social-political novels of the turning point of the 19th and 20th century. It is worth the attention on the account of the role which, according to this author, the Poles should play after the world war, which burst in four years after publishing this book by him. It is worthwhile noticing the similarity of some, or even a majority, of his political ideas with the views of Polish conservatives. However what must strike the today’s reader is an inconsistency of the arguments of the author, the numerous repetitions, returning to the topics/threads/trains that seemed to be already closed, the lack of historical reflection, not to say factual mistakes in this area. There is no doubt that the philosophical knowledge of Wincenty Lutosławski turned out to be insufficient for making an effort of supporting the framed vision of the future with the historical material. However very interesting are the accurate predictions concerning the growth of industry, the trade, the transport – albeit the current state of affairs still does not fulfill the forecasts of W. Lutosławski.

Znaczenie Kaukazu Północnego dla bezpieczeństwa Federacji Rosyjskiej

The article is dedicated to the dilemmas of post-imperial statehood in the context of Russian Federation security, with the particular emphasis on the fundamental alternative: to maintain the polyethnic (quasi-imperial) model of state or to build a nation state. The Author defines the concept of „empire” from the point of view of three determinants: the concentric structure based on center-periphery dichotomy, orientation towards the external mission and imperial idea. From this point of view, Russia is an imperial state (contrary to Tsarist Empire and USSR), neither is a typical nation state. The Author tries to prove that The author tries to demonstrate that the abandonment of federal, multinational state model would be tantamount to the loss of strategically important North Caucasus, which would deprive it of a regional power status. The study contains a multi-faceted exploration of the North Caucasus (which is a highly turbulent region) as a key territory for the global dimension of geostrategy. The Author analyzes potential threats to North Caucasian security and actions taken by Moscow in order to prevent them. He pays attention to the growing popularity of slogans about the necessity of separation of Caucasus and Russia. In his opinion, Caspian-Black Sea Region would become a zone of global destabilization, posing a threat to the world peace.

Russian “historical policy” towards Poland. The “Anti-Katyń” issue

The Russian Federation ruled by Putin seeks to rebuild the superpower position of the USSR, formerly the Russian Empire. A certain difficulty for her is Poland’s attitude and its eastern policy. Hence the use of information warfare means to combat it, including a specific “historical policy” whose origins date back centuries. Due to the need to admit to committing the Katyn massacre, in order to weaken its meaning, the “Anti-Katyń” issue was promoted, based on the alleged genocide of Poles on Russian prisoners of war in 1919–1920. This is a propaganda invention not confirmed by historical facts.

The Russian-Ukrainian conflict as an example of war on the internet

From the beginning of his scientific activities, the author has been devoted to the affairs of Eastern Europe, with particular emphasis on Russia and Ukraine. From his bachelor’s thesis to his doctoral studies, the author’s particular attention was drawn to the issue of possible conflicts in this region of the world. Taking up this geographical area as an interest is related to the geopolitical pragmatism of the author of the text. He devotes all his scientific activity to a didactic approach to understanding the location of the Republic of Poland on the map of Europe and the world, so it seems logical that issues beyond our eastern wall seem more important.

Status and importance of the Three Seas in construction of contemporary global security architecture

This article covers a cross-sectional and updating reflection on the phenomena taking place in the security sphere of the region, the so-called Three Seas. The research subject of the article is the Three Seas Initiative format as a potential subjective keystone of the security of Central and Eastern Europe, treated taking into account historical and current events, as one of the foundations of not only the European or Euro-Atlantic, but also the global security architecture. The priority research goal was to present and analyze the progress and integration and institutional perspectives of the Three Seas Region, and thus an attempt to search for the status arrangements of this format, by analyzing this geopolitical space in the light of, above all, the concept of regional security complexes (but also, among others, geopolitical wedges, the influence of superpowers of the global balance of power). The findings presented in these investigations signal both attempts to comprehensively bind the region with interdependence, attempts at far-reaching rapprochement and co-creation of soft security architecture – in the form of development-progressing infrastructure, as well as pragmatic and conservative behavior, resulting from both the geopolitical dynamics and current national calculations of the Three Seas countries.

Research objective – The aim of this article is to analyse the specifics of Russian information warfare. Starting from the definition of the concept of political strategy, the author tries to show that information warfare is one of the key instruments in the confrontation with Western states, and that the war in Ukraine has intensified Russia’s activities in this area, also towards Central European states. The means and tools used are an instrument for influencing the political and social processes taking place in other countries. Methodology – The study used a comparative method, collecting and analysing historical data and comparing theoretical approaches to categories such as political strategy, information warfare and hybrid warfare. Findings – The correlation analysis of Russian geopolitics and information warfare confirms that it is a dangerous weapon: a means of achieving the state’s goals in international, regional and domestic politics, as well as of ensuring its geopolitical superiority regionally and globally. Practical implications – This study aimed to organise and expand the available literature on the analysis of the specifics of Russian information warfare.