Polish Public Opinion on the United States Missile Defense Complex in Poland

Justyna Lipińska

doi:10.37105/sd.137

Abstract

The ongoing cooperation between the United States and Poland on ballistic missile defense has been centered for a long time solely around the construction of the U.S. missile defense complex in Redzikowo, Poland. Although the complex is going to operate as an element of the NATO Integrated Air and Missile Defense System, its origins were tied to bilateral security and defense cooperation between the U.S. and Poland. As the presence of the U.S. military forces in Poland will remain crucial for Polish security and defense, and the societal support will be vital for its sustainment, it is worth exploring how Polish society reacted to concepts and plans for fielding the U.S. missile defense complex several years ago.  The aim of this article was to explore the evolution of societal support and public opinion in Poland related to the construction of the U.S. missile defense complex in Redzikowo, Poland. The following research problem was posed: how has Polish public opinion about the missile defense complex construction changed over time? The research relied on methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis, and the primary research technique was the analysis of public opinion polls in Poland between 2004 and 2019. Public opinion has remained interested in the developments related to hosting the U.S. missile defense complex in Poland since early negotiations to the project implementation phase. The project was seen in a broader context of security and defense cooperation with the U.S. and within the NATO.

Highlights

The idea of creating a missile defense system to protect the United States against missile attacks from so called “rouge states” was authored by the President George W
For almost a decade it was an important element of the bilateral cooperation on ballistic missile defense that had been focused on the construction of the U.S missile defense complex in Redzikowo, Poland
The article tries to answer the following research question: how has Polish public opinion about the missile defense complex construction changed over time? The research has relied on the methods of qualitative and quantitative analysis, and the primary research technique was the analysis of public opinion polls in Poland

Summary

Introduction

The idea of creating a missile defense system to protect the United States against missile attacks from so called “rouge states” was authored by the President George W. Bush, who announced the plans for construction of a part of the American missile defense system in the Central and Eastern Europe. ; the U.S President Barack Obama, scaled down his predecessor’s plans of work on the missile defense, which dissatisfied the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The issue of missile defense has undergone a significant evolution both in the bilateral cooperation between the United States and Poland, and within NATO. For almost a decade it was an important element of the bilateral cooperation on ballistic missile defense that had been focused on the construction of the U.S missile defense complex in Redzikowo, Poland

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