A Predictable Failure

Abstract

There was a very widely shared idea among the Polish exiles in Britain and the United States that, after the defeat of Germany, a new order should be established in Central East Europe to enhance the region’s security, economic development and social progress. A number of organisations and pressure groups were established by the exiles to promote this idea. At least as important in this respect was the wholehearted commitment, during the Second World War, of the Polish government-in-exile under Prime Minister Wiadysiaw Sikorski to bring about a new supranational authority in Eastern Europe to protect the region from the imperialism of its neighbours, Germany and the Soviet Union. From the Polish perspective, this regional federation would comprise one of the building blocks in a postwar federation of the whole of Europe. It seemed preferable to construct a number of regional federations first rather than to create at the outset an all-European entity. All that the states of Central East Europe could do initially was to build up their collective economic and military strength in order to deter any future German ambitions in their region.