Poland's cooperation with the U.S. brings internal and diplomatic disapproval | ICIJ - May 24, 2007 |
Investigators also suspect that Poland, part of what former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld termed "New Europe," supportive of the Iraq war and U.S. counterterrorism efforts, has allowed the CIA to use Stare Kiejkuty, a Polish intelligence center that's a 15-minute drive from the Szymany airport, as a detention center for terrorist suspects.
If the allegations are true ― Polish officials deny them; American officials won't comment ― Szymany and Stare Kiejkuty represent just two of the ways Poland and the United States have worked together in the post-9/11 world.
- In the three years post 9/12, the total was nearly tenfold: more than $300 million, mostly in Coalition Support Funds as reimbursement for expenses incurred by Polish forces in Iraq, according to ICIJ's database of military training and assistance.
- Poland spent close to $500,000 annually influencing American public opinion in the three years after 9/11 through lobbying, public relations, and trade promotion activities regulated and disclosed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
- With Polish support, the U.S. is pressing to place an anti-missile system in Eastern Europe ― with radar based in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles based in Poland ― in the event Iran develops missiles and fires them at the U.S. or Europe.
The Polish government is under pressure domestically for its support of an unpopular war in Iraq and for its alleged involvement in the CIA's trafficking of terrorist suspects.
Six out of 10 Poles opposed the proposed American missile sites, according to an August 2006 poll. Diplomatic tangles abound. To Poland's east, U.S. anti-missile plans have drawn increasingly harsh responses from Russia. Poland, once a Communist country under Moscow's influence, has gained membership in NATO and the European Union with U.S. support. To Poland's west, the country's close relations with the U.S. have led to strains with "Old Europe," including France and Germany, which opposed the Iraq war from the start.
Trump Warsaw visit and Three Seas Initiative summit in July 2017 ...
Speech on US Ties with New Europe | July 6, 2017 |
On Trump's first meeting, I understand he came in through the back door as there was no crowd to greet the great leader from ascross the Atlantic. At the Thee Seas Summit he promised to deliver LNG to Eastern Europe and oust Russian gas. Great timing for the GCC blockade of Qatar and the world's largest gas deposits in the Persian Gulf.
Quite an amazing quick turnabout after the failure to conquer Syria and the opportunity for gas transport lines.
Poland likes Trump, how about Hamburg? | DW News - July 6, 2017 |
Trump was to hold a major speech in Warsaw's central Krasinski Square.
Organizers expect thousands, or even tens of thousands, to attend. Many of them will have been bussed in for free by Poland's ruling Law and Justice party (PiS), according to Polish news reports.
As opposition protesters and MPs continued to lay siege to Poland's parliament, the highest court was paralyzed by internecine war and the European Commission accused the country of violating the EU's democratic principles, President Andrzej Duda put the blame for the political and constitutional impasse in one place: the political opposition.
Polish president tells opposition, Brussels to back off
The Polish leader also asserted that the most senior judge in the country, who stepped down earlier this week, broke the law and rebuffed the Commission's warnings about backsliding by Warsaw, saying that Brussels had "overstepped" its authority.
Anti-globalization protests in Hamburg as G20 leaders gather
The Brussels Consensus: economic disaster in EU candidate countries (III) | May 7, 2013 |
The Visegrad Group as an Ambitious Actor of (Central‐)European Foreign and Security Policy | 2018 |
Mainly from the perspective of Central European political science, the Visegrad Group is one of the most significant regional groupings functioning in contemporary Europe or the European Union. In addition to groups (past and present) such as the CEFTA initiative, the Three Seas Initiative, and to a certain degree European macro‐regional strategy, which is strongly reflected in Central and Central‐Eastern Europe (cf. Walsch 2015; Cabada - Walsch 2017), the V4 is the bearer of active policies and engages in a number of issues independently both within the EU and outside the Union's area and agenda.
This impression is made stronger by the emphasized presentation of accomplished goals that were defined during the group's foundation in 1991, i.e. membership in the North Atlantic Alliance and full‐fledged membership in the EU. This impression was also strengthened by a perception of the group as the leader of the countries of Central‐Eastern Europe, whether these countries were EU members or still at‐ tempting to gain membership. Self‐presentation of the V4 as a successful model that should be followed by other countries of Central‐Eastern and Southeast Europe is one of the basic starting points of the V4 member states' foreign and development policy toward the region of the Western Balkans or the group of countries engaged in the Eastern Partnership (EaP) program.
In addition to building its position as a model and mediator of "Europe‐ anization" and European policies toward the group of candidate countries of the Western Balkans, the Visegrad Group has attempted in the last decade to promote itself as an alternative or - neutrally speaking - an additional group of countries that introduces agenda within the EU and profiles itself as a signifi‐ cant collective actor. For instance, according to Czech political scientist Michal Kořan (2012: 208-209), after 2009 the V4 changed its rather defensive style and began to offer significantly more proactive stances "when it emphasized its ambition to become one of the needed and energizing factors in the project of European integration as its goal."
In this context, Kořan points out that the V4 is characterized by three clearly declared goals that are incorporated into V4 policy: 1) the support of the Eastern and Southeastern direction of EU enlargement; 2) the support of the Eastern dimension of European neighborhood policy; and 3) a shared vision of regional energy policy. All three topics are reflected in the individual contributions brought together in this collective monograph, which deals with the security, foreign and European policy of the Visegrad Group and of its member states.
[...]
The ambition to modify various European policies or promote its own priorities - of which energy policy has seemed in the past and present to be crucial, as well as policies concerning further EU enlargement and the EU's relationship toward Eastern neighbors located between the present EU and Russia - has thus been degraded. This includes the risk that rational V4 propositions will be refused due to the fact that they are being promoted by countries that are seen as problematic by the European mainstream. As Hungarian political scientist Boglárka Koller pointed out at a debate on Central European cooperation at the 23rd annual conference of the Central European Political Science Association (CEPSA) in Wrocław (September 14-15, 2017), Western Europe sees the V4 as "laggards" while the countries of Central Europe see themselves as "pioneers".
Trump to send more troops to Poland | DW News - June 12, 2019 |
The US and Polish presidents agreed that the US would deploy 1,000 additional US troops. Military hardware and LNG sales were agreed, and Trump mooted Nord Stream 2 sanctions to protect Germany from Russia
US President Donald Trump welcomed Polish President Andrzej Duda to the White House. The visit, Duda's second within a year, was ostensibly to deal with two issues: Poland's desire for an expanded US military presence and the US' desire to sell natural gas to Poland. During the meeting, Trump also touched on the possibility of sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 project and warned Germany not to be dependent on Russian energy.
Addressing reporters in the White House Rose Garden after a day of meetings, Trump announced a memorandum of military co-operation, saying, "As the declaration makes very clear, the United States and Poland are not only bound by a strategic partnership but deep common values, shared goals and a very strong and abiding friendship."
Trump also praised Poland's commitment to NATO, singling it out for meeting spending aims, unlike Germany, whom he also singled out.
During the Trump presidency, he lit up the Trump Heights illegal settlement on Syria Israel's Golan Heights. US talking UN Charter, borders and sovereignty. Ambassador John Bolton 🤥 🤥 😡
Furthermore, his close partnership with Poland was to the detriment of building Trump Towers on the Red Square in Moscow. FOB Fort Trump in Poland ...
'We won't let Brussels dictate us': Eurosceptic populism in Hungary and Poland | Paper by Csehi and Zgut - Jan. 2020 |
As a result of various crises, the European Union (EU) witnessed the rise of Eurosceptic and/or populist parties in its member states. However, the link between Euroscepticism and populism remains under-theorized, and the East-Central European (ECE) region is still surprisingly under-studied.
This paper aims to fill these gaps by studying the development of Eurosceptic populist narratives in Hungary and Poland. Connecting the literature on Euroscepticism and the ideational approach to populism, it is shown through Orbán's and Kaczyński's discourses how (1) the EU is equated with 'the corrupt elite' that stands in conflict with 'the pure people', the Hungarians and Poles, and (2) how the EU is claimed to act against the notion of popular sovereignty.
While the article highlights differences between the Eurosceptic populist narratives of the two party leaders, a politically driven 'anti-imperialist' theme prevails in both cases, which differentiates them from their Western-European counterparts as well.
NATO's Battleground Ukraine v. Russia | Nov. 8, 2021 |
In retrospect, despite the Ukraine war, the former chancellor believes her Russia policy was the right one
Published on Zeit Online
Merkel once again defended her Russia policy. She described the efforts to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine after the annexation of Crimea in 2014 as part of the so-called Minsk process as correct. "I stand by these diplomatic attempts," Merkel said. She said she "worried with the greatest intensity" about Ukraine. "To my great chagrin, there were quite a few who weren't that interested." In the European Council, for example, Germany and France had made efforts to settle the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
"Diplomacy is a necessity"
Regarding the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year, Merkel said: "I tried to prevent this situation with what I had at my disposal. The fact that it didn't work is no proof that it wasn't the right thing to do attempt." Diplomacy is a "necessity," said the former chancellor.
My earlier diary on first interview with Chancellor Merkel after her retirement from active politics ...
Merkel's Explosive Interview Die Zeit | Dec. 25, 2022 |
Biden and Stoltenberg can mince words and tell the world "we are united" .... that's total hogwash. Usual neocon war narrative, repeated, repeated, until it sinks in you dumba$$ 😡
The Elites in Brussels, London and Washington D.C. ...
Car ownership and house ownership for the happy few only ... social democracy of the 20th century overturned by US purity of capitalism ...
