Przegląd sytuacji międzynarodowej - aspekty globalne i regionalne
AN OVERVIEW OF THE STRATEGIC SITUATION - REGIONAL AND GLOBAL ASPECTS

Summary/Abstract: 2014 was a bad year in international relations. There are two dramatic events, twowars, behind such an unequivocal assessment. Criminal, bloody activity of the socalledIslamic State was the first one. IS has to be seen as a long-term consequenceof the US war against Iraq and the wrong strategy used by the West in the conflict inSyria. However destructive and destabilizing for the area, its impact is simply a humanitariandisaster, and the cause of another wave of displacement and migration. Itcan be contained by governments from the region with a little support of the West,if the latter avoids the traditional sins and errors typical of its military interventionsover the last 15 years. The second important event – the Russian aggression againstUkraine - is of strategic nature. Russia has been violating not only the UN Charterand undermining the logic and structure of the Euro-Atlantic order, based on the principlesof the Helsinki Final Act, Paris Charter of New Europe, but also the whole texture of agreements, channels of cooperation and partnerships between the West (EU,NATO) and Russia, developed after the Cold War. In its bid to reconstruct a Sovietlikezone of influence, Moscow has been politically sliding back into the first half ofthe 20th century. It is worrying that the West, the EU in particular, is performing badlyvis-à-vis this spectacular challenge to its own values, norms, and geopolitical interests.The much needed containment 2.0 policy is not working due to the climateof appeasement and the wish of many Western capitals to continue business as usual,which results in deep divisions within the EU as to how to cope with the “NewRussia”. On the other side of the globe, China has been calmly and wisely advancingon its path to a superpower status.

• Details
• Contents