Abstract
This article examines the issue of ensuring raw material security as seen in the contemporary national security strategies of Poland. The temporal framework identified as “contemporary” indicates that the analysis embraced documents from the period 2003–2020, which mark a significant qualitative change in terms of defining and understanding security as an area which is not dominated by its hard, military aspect. The study aims to identify, discuss and compare various concepts of ensuring raw material security to Poland on the basis of the four strategies of Poland’s national security. The following research problems were formulated to achieve the research objectives defined in this way: to what extent is the issue of Poland’s raw material security present in the documents analyzed? What tools have the authors of the strategies employed to ensure security in Poland in terms of raw materials? What are the main difficulties in ensuring raw material security to Poland highlighted by the analyzed national security strategies? Are there any convergences in the visions of ensuring Poland’s raw material security presented in the analyzed strategies? The research questions formulated in this way served as the basis for the following research hypothesis: given an increase in non-military threats, the raw material-related dimension of security is increasingly emphasized in national security strategies. The research methods used in this article include the comparative method and source analysis. The technique of analysis was also used.
Highlights
Access to raw materials and, more importantly, the ability and means to ensure their extraction and processing into a finished product and commodity have long been one of the determinants of the significant role states play in a globalized world
It should be emphasized that the concept of raw material security is a relatively young term, both in European and Polish political discourse
Raw material security is an important element of the national security of Poland
Summary
Access to raw materials and, more importantly, the ability and means to ensure their extraction and processing into a finished product and commodity have long been one of the determinants of the significant role states play in a globalized world. The Polish state was obliged to undertake activities aimed at diversifying supplies and preparing a national structure, in cooperation with the European Union and NATO, enabling Poland to respond to adverse changes on the raw material market This was a specific response to the guidelines of the European Commission, which in 2011 published the first list of critical raw materials (CRM) that were strategic for the functioning and economic development of the European Union. The methodological approach was changed, and emphasized such factors as dependence on imports (measured in terms of global supplies and the true supply of the European Union), existing export barriers and the detailed allocation of raw material used in specific industries, thereby extending the list of CRM to twenty-seven in 2017 (Komisja Europejska, 2017). Poland and the Czech Republic are the only producers of this raw material in the whole of the EU (Instytut Chemicznej Przeróbki Węgla, 2020)
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