Francja w polityce bezpieczeństwa Polski
France in Poland’s security policy

Summary/Abstract: The purpose of the article is to show the place and importance of France in Poland'ssecurity policy. The undertaken analysis is an attempt to verify the hypothesis that France holds an important place in Polish security policy due to the convergence of strategic security interests of both countries and the concentration of these interests in Europe, however each country chooses different means and ways of conducting its security policy. The analysis is carried out from a neorealist perspective, which involves examining the strategic security interests of Poland and France against the background of the evolving international system. For more than 100 years the mutual relations between France and Poland have been dynamic. Initially, the bonding element was a sense of threat from Germany. Accordingly, during the interwar period, France and Poland were bound by the 1921 Treaty of Alliance. However, both countries lost their independence during World War II, and the alliance was not renewed after the war. During the Cold War split, convergence and divergence of security interests were also evident. After the 1989 breakthrough, Poland joined NATO and the EU and, together with France, found itself in the Western security community. Poland wants to strengthen its position in Europe, but fears the threat from Russia, and to neutralize it seeks support, most recently from the US. France, on the other hand, pursues a strategy of making the European Union a global player and – being nominally a great power, a permanent member of the UN Security Council – does not abandon its global ambitions (mondialisme). Due to these convergences and differences in the understanding of their own security interests, the relations between France and Poland are meandering, volatile and even complicated, as can be seen in their changing dynamics throughout the post-Cold War period. The basic research method is the analysis of documents and critical analysis of the literature on the subject as well as the comparative method. This analysis is carried out from a neorealist perspective, which assumes the study of the strategic security interests of Poland and France against the background of an evolving international system.

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