Latest Articles about Poland
The Black Sea Region: NATO’s Exposed Sector on the Eastern Flank (Part Two)
*To read Part One, please click here. Newly entrenched on the Crimean peninsula, Russia has appropriated the title to large parts of Ukraine’s continental shelf and exclusive economic zone (EEZ). According to the treaty on Crimea’s accession to Russia (a constitutional act in Russia), “the... MORE
The Black Sea Region: NATO’s Exposed Sector on the Eastern Flank (Part One)
Aspirationally at least, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is transitioning from reassurance measures to a more serious deterrence posture on the Alliance’s “Eastern flank” vis-à-vis Russia. Decisions in this regard will be finalized down to the wire of NATO’s summit in Warsaw (July 8–9).... MORE
Polish Natural Gas Projects Threaten Gazprom’s Position in Central and Eastern Europe
On May 17, Polish state-owned natural gas pipeline network operator Gaz-System S.A. published its updated strategy for 2016–2025. A noteworthy new element in the document is the plan to create a natural gas hub in Poland, aimed at establishing a regional gas market in Central... MORE
Putin Commits to Countering New Strategic ‘Threat’ to Russia
The ceremony of opening the United States’ missile defense base in Deveselu, Romania, last week (Thursday, May 12), was greeted by a barrage of condemnation and criticism from Russian officials (see EDM, May 12). The next day, President Vladimir Putin turned these denouncements into state... MORE
Izborsky Club Says Moscow Must Block Alliance of Baltic–Black Sea States
Twenty-five years ago, Moscow’s massive nuclear weapons stockpile could not prevent the Soviet Union from falling apart, because of a conjunction of domestic problems and opposition from abroad, the influential Izborsky Club says. Today, Russia has recovered from the disasters of the 1990s; but the... MORE
Belarusian Identity and Rapprochement With the West
Not too long ago, Belarusian identity used to be a topic of purely academic interest. But today, publications devoted to this subject appear like from a horn of plenty. Not only do they show up frequently (see EDM, June 18, for two earlier examples), they... MORE
Belarusian Foreign Minister Makei: ‘We want to be friends with everybody’
In his lengthy and informative May 19 interview to the Washington Post, Foreign Minister of Belarus Uadzimir Makei responded to four variations of one and the same persistent question: Should Belarus develop its relations more with the West or with Russia? Makei stood his ground,... MORE
Russia’s Hybrid War Against Poland
In early April 2015, the Polish Internal Security Agency’s Governmental Computer Security Incident Response Team (also known as CERT—Computer Emergency Response Team), released its annual report on cyber security in Poland (Cert.gov.pl, April 3). According to the report’s findings, Poland came under a record number... MORE
From East-West to North-South: Moscow’s Actions in Ukraine Reignite Talk of a Baltic–Black Sea Union
For most of the last half-millennium, the lands between Moscow and Berlin have thought of themselves and been thought about by others almost exclusively in terms of an east-west axis, as a battleground between the Russian state and European countries. But before that, they were... MORE
NATO’s Steadfast Jazz 2013 Exercise: One Step Toward Fully Credible Common Defense in the Baltic Region
Steadfast Jazz 2013, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) exercise just held in the three Baltic States and Poland (see accompanying article), marks the start of rebalancing the Alliance’s missions: from an disproportionate concentration on distant, low-intensity though resource-absorbing, and politically ineffective wars (epitomized by... MORE