Suchergebnisse

Transitions, democratization and recent democratic backsliding in CEE provide
a rich context for examining the meaning and shifting of civic activism and how people
participate and organize in civil society today. This article offers a fresh and comparative
analysis based on empirical data on the question of what motivates formal and informal
activism, and the potentially transformative role of civil society that has recently faced
such challenges as democratic backsliding, shrinking public space and polarization. It
looks specifically at the responses of Polish and Hungarian activists and advocacy CSOs
to these new challenges. Their strategies bring an important lesson on how civil society
actors can adapt, continue their mission, or even turn challenges into opportunities.
These new trends indicate that civic space in CEE is shifting which is further influenced
by the reactions to new forms of social, economic and political crises. It is argued that
this shift and the new trends in civic activism require not only fresh empirical data, but
also a revision of normative and methodological approaches that have so far been used
in civil society and social movement research.

The following editorial offers a reflection on the situation of Central and Eastern Europe with a special focus on the European Union's Eastern Neighbourhood and Russia. In the past few years, we have witnessed the divisive impact of neoliberalism, economic recession, Britain's departure from the EU, the refugee and migrant crisis which further shattered societies along cultural lines, the aggressive expansionism of Russia exploiting the weakness of the West, and more recently, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with an unprecedented impact on societies, global health and economy. The editorial reflects on how Central and Eastern Europe scores among the imaginative geographies and how these imaginative geographies translate into geopolitics concerning hard and soft power application in the Eastern European Neighbourhood.

The Conference on "Recovering Forgotten History" is one of the oldest attempts undertaken in the III Republic to defend Poland's (and East- Central Europe's) image abroad, especially in the US. From 2006, the Conference has organized its seminars, originally bi-annually and now annually, to provide a forum for discussions between the authors of English-language history textbooks and monographs, and Polish historians who review those publications. Arguments are scholarly, grounded in evidence of primary sources and historiography, therefore, they are convincing in combatting Western prejudices and clichés about Poland and East-Central Europe. Additionally, the Conference provides opportunities for sightseeing of Poland's historical places. As a result, the work of the Conference leads not only to the removal of countless mistakes and misinterpretations in the reviewed books but also to a change of guests' attitudes toward this part of Europe. For the most part, they are academic teachers, who can also influence students through their classes. The Conference achieves all of this while having very modest means at its disposal.

The aim of the article is to present the proposal by France as the initiator of the development of the strategic autonomy of the European Union and the politics of France before and after Russian aggression in Ukraine. The idea of the European Union's involvement in the defence sphere has been with us for years; however, the concept of strategic autonomy is differently understood in the Member States of the European Union. For this reason, the following research questions were formulated: How is the strategic autonomy of the European Union understood in the politics of France? What is the position of France in reference to developing a "Europe of defence" for the European Union's security and defence policy? How does Russia's aggression in Ukraine affect the development of the European Union's strategic autonomy in France's policy? How does Russia's aggression in Ukraine affect France's position on the spread of the EU's strategic autonomy? It would seem that the outbreak of the war in Ukraine constitutes an existential test for strategic autonomy.

Aus polnischer Sicht

During the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the Fifth Republic, the longevity and vitality of the Constitution was explained by its ability to adapt to all political situations, such as the alternation of right and left or cohabitation. The fundamental issue highlighted by the authors of the study is to guarantee the continuity of public policies and thus the effectiveness of public action. They show the evolution of institutions, the nuances of political practices, raise numerous questions, but do not question the legitimacy of maintaining France's system under the Fifth Republic.

The aim of the article is to analyse the possibility of establishing a regional gas transmission and trade center in Poland, the so-called gas hub. The gas hub is described in many strategic documents adopted by the Polish authorities in recent years. For its creation, several key elements must be met. First of all, a strong, competitive, and diversified (energy sector, heating sector, industry, individual customers) natural gas market should be established in Poland. The natural gas distribution and transmission network should be able to balance supply and demand. Domestic production of natural gas should be supplemented by stable and diversified supplies. The domestic gas markets in the region should be integrated and the connection between the systems (interconnectors) should enable the gas transmission in both directions (import/export). The purpose of this article is to verify the possibility of establishing a regional natural gas transmission and trade center in Poland and to define the potential for cooperation with selected countries of our region. Keywords: natural gas, gas hub, gas infrastructure, regional cooperation Streszczenie: Celem artykułu jest analiza możliwości utworzenia w Polsce regionalnego centrum przesyłu i handlu gazem ziemnym, tak zwanego hubu gazowego. Aby koncepcja, która opisana jest w szeregu strategicznych dokumentów przyjmowanych przez polskie władze w ostatnich latach, mogła zostać zrealizowana, musi wystąpić kilka kluczowych elementów. Przede wszystkim powinien powstać w Polsce silny, konkurencyjny, zróżnicowany (energetyka zawodowa, sektor ciepłownictwa, przemysł, klienci indywidualni) rynek handlu gazem ziemnym. Sieć dystrybucji i przesyłu surowca powinna móc równoważyć popyt z podażą surowca. Krajowe wydobycie gazu ziemnego powinno być uzupełnione przez stabilne i zdywersyfikowane dostawy. Krajowe rynki gazu w regionie powinny być zintegrowane, a połączenia między systemami (interkonektory) powinny umożliwić przesył surowca w obie strony (import/export).

This article identifies the political challenges for Central Europe resulting from the Russian Federation conducting competition below the threshold of war. The main research methods, both inductive and deductive, were analysis and a survey of the existing literature. There is still aggression in international rivalry, and its level is deliberately regulated so as not to cross the threshold of open armed conflict as defined by international law. The contemporary rivalry of the Russian Federation takes on an unlimited scope and goes beyond the physical sphere: the main emphasis in its application is on non-military and non-lethal forms of influence that can be easily combined with kinetic ones. The exploitation of the space between the binary borders of war and peace was practically verified both under the Tsarist Russia and the Soviet Union. It has been confirmed that a great deal of importance in Russia is now attached to unconventional activities and that their application offers great opportunities to achieve strategic objectives without the need to resort to direct military confrontation.

The Treaty of Trianon (hereinafter Trianon), the enormous losses of territory and co-ethnics, and the shaking of Hungary's status as a dominant power in the Carpathian Basin imputed a tragic understanding of contemporary Hungarian history on the Hungarian society, invoking the idea of a trauma lasting even today. Trianon's understanding became a divisive issue for political parties after 1989, highlighting the ever-deeper divisions between right and left-liberals, since 2010. Its "overcoming" is a flagship project of the government's politics of identity, with modest success so far. Thus, the 100th anniversary was a crucial moment as a test case for a self-professed nationalist, traditionalist, conservative political force for manifesting a comprehensive politics of memory. In the light of the newly built monument at the heart of Budapest, with the Hungarian names of all localities on the territory of pre-1918 Hungary inscribed on its wall, a cautious shifting back to territorial revisionism was expected. In this article, I will argue that even with such tendencies being, obviously, present, the official commemorations were crafted with a surprising message, that attempts to turn the canonical understanding of Trianon upside down and reframe it into a common catastrophe of Central Europe. Doing so places the consequences in the context of the decolonization of history, the present decline of empires, and the emergence of nation-states while combining it with important tropes of the traditional, anti-liberal and revisionist Trianon discourse. Nevertheless, the result is a transparently political message that is not only driven by easily visible actual political goals (V4 and Central European), but one that detaches the politics of memory from historical references and legacies and creates a set of shallow symbols for utter instrumentalization, to recombine at will, in a vulgarised sense of post-modernism.

The article surveys the domestic and international determinants of the collapse of the Soviet Union and its implications for Poland's external relations and the role it has been playing in Central and Eastern Europe. It demonstrates geopolitical shifts underway at that moment in history and their impact on the reorientation of Polish foreign policy at the turn of century. It addresses a number of research questions and tests hypotheses pertaining to the collapse of the Soviet Union, with the key assumption that the collapse of the USSR was induced not only by domestic factors, but also developments in Europe and globally, including the "Autumn of Nations". The analysis shows that after the fall of the USSR, Polish foreign policy was conducted in accordance with the country's raison d'Etat and weighed heavily on the region. It was premised on the Euro-Atlantic system and close relations with Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Central and Eastern European countries. The research draws on classical realism, theories of foreign policy as well as constructivism. The following research methods were employed: review and critical analysis of documents and state-of-the-art literature. Polish and foreign published documents, books, articles, and reports, as well as press and Internet sources.