Pivotal Poland Cover

COMING SOON – Pivotal Poland: Europe’s Rising Power

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine precipitated a tectonic shift in European security dynamics, ending a relatively peaceful post–Cold War phase and moving the epicenter of European security eastward, to Poland. Janusz Bugajski explores the nature and context of Warsaw’s determined efforts to shape NATO’s eastern policy and to build a strong, modern military able to resist Russian aggression.


Janusz Bugajski is a Senior Fellow at The Jamestown Foundation in Washington, DC. He hosted several long-running television shows broadcast in the Balkans; has authored 21 books on Europe, Russia, and transatlantic relations; and is a columnist for several media outlets. His recent books include Failed State: A Guide to Russia’s Rupture (2022), Eurasian Disunion: Russia’s Vulnerable Flanks (with Margarita Assenova) (2016); Conflict Zones: North Caucasus and Western Balkans Compared (2014); Return of the Balkans: Challenges to European Integration and U.S. Disengagement (2013); and Georgian Lessons: Conflicting Russian and Western Interests in the Wider Europe (2010).

Bugajski has been a Senior Fellow at the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) and was Director of the New European Democracies program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC. He has served as consultant for the US Department of Defense and the US Agency for International Development (USAID), as well as a course chair for Central Europe and South Central Europe Area Studies at the Foreign Service Institute, US Department of State. He has testified before several congressional committees, including: Helsinki Commission, Senate Foreign Relations, Senate Armed Services, House Foreign Affairs, and House Defense Appropriations. He is also a columnist or contributor to media outlets in the United States, the United Kingdom, Albania, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Kosova, and Ukraine.