Tag Archives: Poland
EU Institutions vs. Democracy
The Eurocrats no longer pretend that democratic legitimacy is necessary. It is enough that the club outvotes the people, who remain disenfranchised on the sidelines. In this manner, the Tusk affair sheds perfect light on the inner machinations of the … Continue reading
Brexit Happened for a Reason: EU Members Like Poland Ought to Reassess
Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydło wrote a curiously desperate letter of last resort to the European Union to prevent the re-election of her Eurocrat predecessor, Donald Tusk. She appealed to democracy and national sovereignty. This must have sounded like a … Continue reading
Reviving the V4 alternative in Central Europe
Many Western Europeans ask: Why antagonize Moscow, thereby sacrificing comfort and relatively cheap natural gas, by defending second-class Europeans? But the answer is that, together, the V4 countries have 64 million inhabitants, which puts them in the same ranks as … Continue reading
Moscow’s Synchronized Themes and Techniques
Learning Russia’s strategic communications themes and techniques is indispensable to countering them. Otherwise, our approach to the Kremlin’s narrative will continue to be one of confusion and surprise Continue reading
Warsaw NATO Summit: One Step Forward, One Step Back
The true paradox of this summit is that the NATO policy moves a step forward and a step back, at the same time. While being truly insightful about the geopolitical threats outside NATO, the final summit document introduces solutions giving non-NATO institutions access to vulnerable information. Meanwhile, Europe is a continent steeped in history that has its own dynamics. It is good to remember that before any cooperation between NATO and EU institutions is tightened. Continue reading
The NATO Summit and Obama’s Much Ado Over a Polish Court
It is too bad President Obama apparently skipped his constitutional law classes while at Harvard. Firm grounding in the American constitutional tradition would help him understand the complexities of Poland’s struggle against the poisonous legacy of totalitarianism in its court system. Continue reading
Russia’s Opposition to U.S. Missile Defense in Romania
Moscow’s disinformation campaign is a form of psychological warfare intended to influence Romanian public opinion and ultimately government policy. Such PSYOPS are targeted squarely at Romania’s membership in NATO and the European Union, intertwining the factual with the fabricated, hoping to cause great anxiety among the populace. The narrative goes something like this: The West won the Cold War with the sacrifices of the East European patriots and nationalists. The God-fearing nationalists, however, were excluded from sharing in the fruits of the victory. Instead, the Godless internationalists are preferred by America and the West. In this way, Russia is trying now to turn the tables and attract those who perceive themselves abandoned by the West. Continue reading
Ushering in Poland’s Reagan Democrats
The leaders and followers of the populist conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) consider a symbolic litmus test of international relations the previous center-left government’s egregious manhandling of the Smolensk Polish presidential plane crash in April 2010. They reject the echo-chamber consent of Warsaw’s incumbent liberal regime for Moscow’s ukaze that no foul play was involved in the plane disaster that killed Poland’s president, Lech Kaczyński. They would like an international investigation. This seems to be non-negotiable because the deceased president’s twin brother Jarosław Kaczyński is the head of PiS. Continue reading
Ukraine, Russia, and the EU: Between Scylla and Charybdis
Ukraine’s decision to forego the signing of a “free trade” agreement with the European Union in favor of the Russian-dominated Eurasian Customs Union came as a shock, but only to those who haven’t been paying attention to the larger geopolitical trends in Central and Eastern Europe. Not surprisingly, supporters of European “integration” are irked and disappointed by this admittedly significant setback to the EU’s…
Ignorance is bliss … especially in the Smolensk case
Ridicule is probably one of the oldest tools in the arsenal of political warfare. Making fun of an opponent serves to both undermine his credibility, and even to provoke him into angrily over-reacting. One method to discredit one’s political enemies is to mock them as “conspiracy theorists,” thereby implying that the targeted group is paranoid and psychologically unbalanced. Such a tactic requires little to no intellectual effort and allows one to conveniently avoid addressing the other side’s arguments.
The United States and Romania: Security Arrangements and Mutual Interests
STRATFOR is a professional electronic publication that deals with geopolitical issues and global intelligence. Its founder and chairman, George Friedman, is well-informed and aware of contemporary Eastern European affairs.
The Smolensk Report summarized: findings of the Macierewicz Commission
April 10, 2013 marked the third anniversary of the Katyn memorial flight that mysteriously crashed in Smolensk, Russia killing the President of Poland, his wife and 94 members of his pro-American government.
Smolensk: An inconvenient tragedy
Three years have passed since the suspicious Smolensk Plane Crash of April 10, 2010. During this time, new developments in the case occurred and evidence continued to surface. Most disturbingly, these findings have anything but dispelled doubts about the veracity of the official, FSB/KGB-manufactured Moscow-Warsaw “pilot error” line.
A former anti-communist dissident and the “clash of civilizations” in Poland
On November 23, 2012, in a grave miscarriage of justice, Polish parliamentarian and opposition politician, Antoni Macierewicz, was by a post-communist/left-liberal coalition in Poland’s lower chamber. What terrible offense did Mr. Macierewicz commit to warrant such punishment?
