The New National Security Strategy of Poland: Ready to Face the Challenges of the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

It gives me distinct pleasure to welcome the first meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Security Study Group held in Poland. Krakow, which was the seat of Polish kings in medieval times, may be considered a fitting venue for such an event. This city used to be a hub of Poland’s activities on a regional and international scale, and as in the past, today it continues to serve as Poland’s foremost place of scholarship and intellectual debate. Meeting here, amongst a gathering of distinguished guests from more than a dozen countries in Europe and North America, I recall this tradition of multilateral relations and learning, convinced that the proceedings of the Euro-Atlantic Security Study Group will also help to stimulate a lively debate on issues of import to the international community. The Institute of Strategic Studies, on behalf of which I welcome all of you here, would not have missed an opportunity to involve itself in cooperation with the PfP Consortium of Defense Academies and Security Studies Institutes. Poland has traversed a long road, from being a NATO partner state, then a PfP member, finally moving towards full membership in the Alliance in 1999. As deputy defense minister, I pushed strongly for the extension of friendship and cooperation to countries that did not yet belong to NATO. This effort has not been in vain. In retrospect, some remarkable changes have taken place in the neighborhood of the Euro-Atlantic Community. A lot of countries of Central and Eastern Europe have been brought into the fold of the North Atlantic Alliance and in a matter of months will enter the European Union. Through conferences, publications, and research programs organized under the auspices of the Institute of Strategic Studies, we have sought to map and analyze the transformation that has been ongoing in the geostrategic arena. The meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Security Study Group is further evidence of the strong engagement of the Institute in these activities, which, let me emphasize, have an intentionally strong orientation towards the policy dimension. The topic of the Krakow meeting of the Euro-Atlantic Security Study Group is crisis management in the context of contemporary and future security challenges. The relevance of this topic speaks for itself when we reflect upon the Allied operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, as well as the continuing peacekeeping missions in the Western Balkans. Poland has taken part in these missions led by the awareness that security is indivisible and, hence, we must all face up to any challenges that distort peace and instigate conflict. However, like other countries in the world, we have had to adjust to the new breed of challenges and threats to security, which were demonstrated in full