With Donald Trump taking over the presidency of the White House, the need to ensure that Europe copying with the Russian aggression against Ukraine can guarantee its security has been dramatically renewed. The far right and left-wing nationalists are gaining ground in Europe and America. A broad support for Ukraine is being undermined by disinformation and the promotion of a so-called ‘pacifist’ approach that enjoys Kremlin support. These threats need to be responded by development of an innovative strategy involving military and civilian institutions.
We present to you a report entitled “Poland, Germany and Ukraine at a Turning Point: Making or Breaking the Western Alliance” edited by Adam Balcer, in which you will find a collection of essays by experts from Poland and Germany on contemporary key security challenges.
Maria Domanska‘s essay “Western cognitive bias vis-à-vis Russia: how to fix it?” shows weak points in the approach of the Transatlantic community towards security threats emanating from Russia and addresses ways to change it.
Julia Friedrich, in her essay “Partners from the “Global South”: a way towards new alliances for Ukraine?” describes attitudes of non-European powers to the Russia-Ukraine war, and points to the reasons for their specific approaches to the conflict.
“The same but different? Poland and Germany’s perspectives on EU – NATO cooperation in light of the Russian war in Ukraine” written by Monika Sus, analyses similarities and differences in the Polish and German approaches to the priorities of European security cooperation, especially in relation to the EU and NATO.
The essay “No strength attached? Civil defence as a (trans)national challenge” by Cornelia Juliane Grosse shows positive changes in the German civil defence system taking place since 2022 but also underlines difficulties in regard to developing a comprehensive defence system.
Piotr Kocyba in his essay “A poster boy of support for Ukraine. Struggling with the normalization of war and raising enemies within in Poland” diagnoses the reasons for the decline of support for Ukraine among Poles stemming from historical and economic tensions instrumentalized by many Polish politicians, particularly abused by radical right.
Finally, Rebecca Pates in her essay “German anti-establishmentarianism and the Russian war in Ukraine” analyses the waning support for Ukraine in Germany, as well as the strengthening of anti-establishment parties in the East of the country, paying a special attention to upcoming national elections.
The report was produced as part of the project “Poland and Germany in Eastern Europe”, run by the College of Eastern Europe since 2019. Its implementation takes place in cooperation with the German NGO Austausch. Financial support is provided by the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation (FWPN) and the Heinrich Böll Stiftung Warsaw (HBS). The main objective of the project is to establish a German-Polish platform for dialogue about Eastern Europe. The German-Polish Round Table held annually at the Castle on the Water in Wojnowice sets the course for the project.
Poland – Germany – Ukraine – Turning Point – download report
