SPIS TREŚCI / CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ

“Little war” of Russia and Georgia and the start of the drone armor race

This article examines drone usage by Russia and Georgia in Five-Day War during 2008. Rapidly increasing the use of lethal drones profoundly shapes the ability of various countries and armed groups to wage war. This could have serious consequences for regional security. The rapidly increasing use of drones and robots as well as data-driven military analysis are likely to have a significant impact on the future of hostilities in military operations. In this article, the authors want to answer the most important questions related to this five-day war: what were the causes of Russo-Georgian war, who started this war, who were the winners of this war and who lost it, who helped to end this war. Authors emphasize that the war showed weaknesses in NATO and EU security systems, as they did not react effectively to the forced border change and Russia’s territory occupation of an independent state. The war also showed cracks in Europe between Western powers that wanted to maintain good relations with Russia and Eastern European Countries at the same time.

The Problem of Violations of Religious Minorities’ Rights on the Example of Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic

The armed conflict in eastern Ukraine and establishing the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Luhansk People’s Republic (LPR) resulted in many complications and tensions, both in international relations, and within the territories of those self-proclaimed republics. Violation of rights of religious minorities is one of such problems. It includes various forms of unlawful deeds, ranging from intimidation to killings. Such a situation creates grounds for legal responsibility of subjects involved in above mentioned violations. However, a crucial difficulty in this respect is enforcement of justice in practice. The difficulty results from two factors. First factor is that territories in question are beyond the effective control of Ukraine; it prevents Ukrainian authorities from taking legal steps against individuals who committed crimes. The second problem is that both self-proclaimed republics do not exist in the light of law, and thus they cannot take responsibility, also under international law. A change of this state of affairs would be possible only after ultimate settlement of legal status of eastern regions of Ukraine, and it requires a good will of all sides being engaged in the conflict.

Three-Seas - whose initiative?

The “Three-Seas area” project and the activities of the Three-Seas Initiative, i.e. the deepened cooperation of 12 Central European Member States of the European Union, which appeared in 2015, quickly gained considerable popularity in Poland. It has even been recognized as the flagship project of the Polish right wing grouped around the Law and Justice party, which took power in that same year 2015. In the “Three Seas” was seen another emanation of the idea of the so-called Intermarium, present in Polish political tradition since at least 1918. Meanwhile, the “Three Seas” project was prepared in the autumn of 2014 in the United States by the influential Atlantic Council think tank and included in a comprehensive document entitled “Completing Europe. From the North-South Corridor to Energy, Transportation, and Telecommunications Union Completing Europe”. The implementation of its assumptions would not, however, be limited to the modernization and strengthening of infrastructure connections between the aforementioned 12 states located in the NorthSouth belt from Estonia to Croatia and Bulgaria, which were planned to participate in the project. It would also mean the strengthening of their economic ties with the United States, a far-reaching weakening of their economic ties with Russia, and, most importantly, their “independence” in relation to the strong states of the “former Union” with Germany at the fore. The role of an intermediary in gaining the support of the Central European states was assigned to the new (since February 2015) president of Croatia, Kolinda GrabarKitarović, well known in the decision-making circles of the USA, NATO, and the European Union. It quickly recruited the new Polish president, Andrzej Duda, who represents the largest and most pro-American state of the Three Seas countries. These activities made it possible to establish an “organization” on September 29, 2015, during a meeting in New York, attended by 11/12 “leaders” of Central European states and 3 representatives of the Atlantic Council management. The Three Seas Initiative, defined as the “presidential platform”, is constantly expanding the fields of its activity, but it is still regarded as a relatively weak structure with an uncertain future. The sources of its relative internal weakness include, firstly, large differences in the potentials, political positions, and geopolitical orientations of the individual member states of the Initiative, and secondly - the opposing influence of external factors. The United States’ aspirations to make the Initiative “transatlantic” have been discreetly opposed since 2018 by the actions of the EU and the German authorities directed towards its “Europeanization”, that is, towards the harmonization of its activities with the position of the Union.

The People’s Republic of China’s Response to the Hybrid War in Syria

The main purpose of the paper is to present the most important determinants and dependencies characterizing the policy of the People’s Republic of China towards hybrid war in Syria since 2011. The paper starts with the definition of hybrid war and its most important determinants. In next part of the article, the role Syria that plays in China’s political strategy has been described. At the outset, relations between Beijing and Damascus during the Cold War and immediately after its completion have been analyzed, when the Chinese side approached with a considerable distance to wider involvement in the Middle East, including Syria, having own internal difficulties, tense relations with the United States and the pro-soviet and then pro-russian position of Damascus. Next, Beijing’s views on the outbreak of the war in Syria have been mentioned, pointing to the most important determinants of the Chinese politics and the ideas for resolving it proposed by the Chinese Communist Party. In addition, goals that the Middle Kingdom wants to achieve in Syria have been presented in the global and economic aspect. The attitude of the communist power to the problem of rebuilding Syria has also been put into account. In conclusion, it has been addressed whether in the era of China’s growing assertiveness on the international arena, a modification of the Chinese position, should be expected.

“The Gateway to Europe”. The Discourse on Poland in the Chinese Press (2015–2020)

The aim of the article is to present the results of the survey on the structure of the discourse on Poland present in the content of various Chinese newspapers and magazines. In the first part, we provide an overview of the history, characteristic and development trends of the Chinese newspaper market. In order to construct the collection of messages about Poland and Poles, a query was carried out in 172 journalistic materials published in 2015-2020. The first step of analysis performed in this research was the lexical analysis of the Chinese print media gathered in the text corpus of app. 160 thous. words. Additionally, the authors of the article used text mining analytics software to extract the main concepts. The next phase of the survey was the computer assisted content analysis. For the research purposes 150 categories dictionaries were created. Those dictionaries consisted of the set of words gathered on the same semantic basis. The unit of the analysis in this phase of the research was a single paragraph (N=2465 units) and the results of this analysis were the hierarchy and key-ness of collective symbols, themes, actors and places present in the press discourse on Poland. In the last part of the research—as a result of factor analysis—the structure of the discourse on Poland in the Chinese press was reduced to 9 strongest factors determining which different (detailed) categories have the tendency to co-occur and that is why they create easily distinguishable configurations.

Polish Theatre on Chinese Stage - a short introduction

In the second decade of the 21st century the number of Polish theater pieces in China increased in comparison with previous years. Polish plays and performances raised a great interest of Polish art among Chinese theatrologists and the theatre circles, forming an excellent reputation for Polish culture in artistic and opinion-making circles. The dynamic and effective promotion of the Polish culture in China depends on the economic and political relations of both of the countries. From the Polish side, the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, the Adam Mickiewicz Institute (IAM), the Polish Institute in China (part of the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Beijing) and various Polish theater groups effectively show the initiative to present the best of Polish theater art to Chinese audience. In the recent years Polish theater appears at major theatre festivals in China, books on Polish theater are being published and there are new translations of Polish drama, which proves that only in a few years Polish theater became familiar to Chinese theatregoers.

The image of Chinese and Japanese Theatre in selected popular and artistic press printed in Poland in 1930s.

Journalists who described Oriental theatres usually based their narrative on personal experience. Both specialist, mass and popular press paid particular attention to elements that distinguished Japanese and Chinese theatre from their European counterpart. The length of performance, innovative technical solutions, different acting style were the elements that received most attention. Nonetheless, sometimes it was impossible to explain the origins of those differences. Furthermore, the above-mentioned differences usually spoke against Chinese theatre. It was criticized for different music, moveable stage scenery, exaggerated acting that was hard to understand. Such attitude was the result of lack of understanding of Chinese opera’s conventions. On the other hand, press eagerly commended the richness of Chinese actors’ costumes and ,,shadow puppet theatre”. Moreover, Polish press also stressed that both classical and modern Chinese theatre enjoyed immense popularity among Chinese people. Polish press went easy on theatrical art in Japan depicting differences that were in many cases the same as in Chinese theatre as something neutral, even positive as it gave the play magical touch. Sometimes it was emphasized that Japanese theatre could become a source of inspiration for its European counterpart. It was praised for masks, costumes, moveable stage scenery and music. It is interesting that in the last two instances Chinese theatre was looked down on. Polish press also spoke favourably of puppet theatre and ,,Takarazuka” performances. On the other hand, magazines’ opinions on acting varied.

Between aesthetics and politics. The works of Radwa Ashour as an example of committed literature

The article discusses committed literature in the contemporary Arab world on the basis of the works of Radwa Ashour (Raḍwà Āšūr, 1946-2014) and its role in shaping social opinion and attitude. Based on the concept of Jacques Rancière, the author analyzes the life and oeuvres of Radwa Ashour in terms of her commitment in the current problems of Egypt and the Arab world, putting forward the thesis that practically from the first to the last works, Ashour consciously uses literature as a sensitive instrument for diagnosis of the condition of Arab society on the one hand, and as an effective tool for shaping attitudes towards specific phenomena on the other hand - often in opposition to the official state discourse. Where direct criticism of government policy due to political censorship and the lack of freedom of speech is not possible, space opens up for an indirect form of discourse offered by literature and art.

On security in cyberspace

[book review Bezpieczeństwo w cyberprzestrzeni. Wybrane zagadnienia]

О безопасности в киберпространстве

[рецензия книги Bezpieczeństwo w cyberprzestrzeni. Wybrane zagadnienia]

Different faces of security

[book review Państwo w obliczu współczesnych wyzwań. O cyberbezpieczeństwie i innych zagrożeniach na przykładzie wybranych państw azjatyckich]

Разные стороны безопасности

[рецензия книги Państwo w obliczu współczesnych wyzwań. O cyberbezpieczeństwie i innych zagrożeniach na przykładzie wybranych państw azjatyckich]

Regional problems of the Middle and Far East

[book review Współczesny regionalizm Bliskiego i Dalekiego Wschodu]

Региональные проблемы Ближнего и Дальнего Востока

[рецензия книги Współczesny regionalizm Bliskiego i Dalekiego Wschodu]

A look at the Chinese art of abstract ink painting

[book review Breaking the Ink: Abstract Ink Art in Mainland China]

Взгляд на китайское искусство абстрактной живописи тушью

[рецензия книги Breaking the Ink: Abstract Ink Art in Mainland China]

Выступление Е. П. господина Нгуен Хунга, Чрезвычайного и Полномочного Посла Социалистической Республики Вьетнам в Республике Польша по случаю 76-й годовщины Дня национальной независимости (2 сентября 2021 г.)