Geopolitical and foreign policy concepts of Poland: The search for a projection for today

Abstract

This article analyzes the concepts of Polish foreign policy that originate from the historically proven Piast and Jagiellonian concepts formulated by the Polish political elite in previous centuries. These were named after the dominant royal dynasties of the Polish state in the Middle Ages – the Piast and Jagiellonian dynasties. The oldest doctrines, which go back to the heyday of the Polish state, serve as models for imitation and are projected by contemporaries onto reality. The Piast concept aims at intensified cooperation with Germany and a parallel passive or even confrontational attitude to relations with Poland’s eastern neighbors. The Jagiellonian, in contrast, focuses on active expansion in the direction of Belarus, Lithuania, Ukraine, and Russia; it professes the idea of “conquering the East” and the formation of a multinational state with its center in Warsaw. These two doctrines formed the basis of the foreign policy concepts of the Second and Third Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In the 20th and early 21st centuries, the traditions of the implementation of Poland’s policy towards Ukrainians, formed in previous centuries, were consolidated and supplemented with a new vision. They were adapted to new geopolitical realities and acquired new features of manifestation.