France after World War II was in a difficult situation. This involved a loss of position, not only as a superpower in the world but in Europe. Superpower, the global position of France, decided to rebuild, after the new president was elected in June 1959, Gen. Ch. de Gaulle. According to his conception of a foreign policy for France it should have a global dimension, supported by the independent French defense not only as a conventional but also nuclear power. Gen. Ch. De Gaulle took the position that France having regard to its independence in the political, military, economic and cultural center should not submit to any of the blocks. Independence in the foreign policy of France was understood as the freedom to determine their own place in the world, freely determine their fate, the defense of vital national interests and full freedom in the choice of ends, means and methods of foreign policy.

Today countries participating in space activities, share serious concerns about militarization of space. The defense of space can become an important issue in the international arena, because counteracting emerging threats will probably be associated not only with the development of technology and operational capabilities, but also with the creation of political alliances or attempts at international agreement on certain “rules of the game” for space operations. Ultimately, the growing importance of “space for defense” creates the need for “defense of space”. Individual countries remain the main actors in the field of space defense. Military strategies are defined at national level, and the development and exploitation of military space assets are managed by national organizations. Today, most European countries recognize space as a strategic area, next to land, sea, air and, increasingly, cyberspace, but they have adopted different policies and doctrines depending on their sensitivity, priorities and concerns. European space forces also have different governance structures with significant differences in the distribution of roles and responsibilities, including space agencies and private entities.

The author presents the constitutional aspects of the general duty of defense of the Fatherland in accordance with Polish law. The article is based on a comparative legal analysis of the provisions of the Constitution relating to the above-mentioned issue and, supplementarily, of the Act on the general obligation to defend the Republic of Poland. The work is theoretical and legal. At the beginning he analyzes the history and evolution of the concept of general duty of defense from the period of independence to the present day. The following part of the article presents the issue of the general duty of defense from the subjective and objective point of view. The author also presents normative acts which, apart from the constitution, regulate the issues of the general duty of defense. In addition, it indicates a number of entities that perform tasks in the field of defense, powers and competences.

The European Economic Community/European Union was born as an economy-oriented organization, which was to facilitate rebuilding of the Old Continent after WWII through extensive cooperation, particularly in trade. However, the appetites of the state leaders were growing along the progress of the integration processes; the economic success was an argument for further integration of the European countries. Due to this, the organization was given the ability to make decisions and influence decision-makers at the national level in subsequent spheres that earlier were the sole prerogative of states. Still, for many years EU members determinedly guarded their competences regarding broadly understood security, predominantly defence. Successive attempts to accelerate integration in this area were not effective enough to develop a real common defence policy. One of the last initiatives, Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), is supposed to help change this situation. It is therefore necessary to pose several questions: What is PESCO? What is EU members’ attitude towards developing this form of cooperation? What does this cooperation look like at the early implementation stages? What factors determine the involvement of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ EU member states? This article is an attempt to answer these questions.

Defense education of Polish society in the years 1918–1939

The defense education of society followed the experience of World War I and the mass participation of huge masses of people in it, as well as the blurring of the boundaries between the war zone and the hinterland. This problem was noticed and in reborn Poland. It became the analysis of military theorists among whom predominantly had war experience and engaged in forecasting the nature of future wars. Over time, it became the domain of the leadership of the Polish Army and a planned, organized and sponsored activity