Polacy i Niemcy wobec głównych wyzwań bezpieczeństwa międzynarodowego w XXI wieku
Poles and Germans faced with the main chalienges in 21st-century international security

Summary/Abstract: The goal of this paper is to attempt the general outlook at the conseąuences of the Iraqi crisis in the public opinion of Poland and Germany. The underlying claim is that despite the differences that cause a rift between the political elites, a very similar civic perception ofpresence of Poland and Germany in security institutions and controversies around the problem of using force in international relations related to the two is possible. To achieve this, the attitudes of both the societies to the question of the import of transatlantic cooperation and the problem of involvement in peace and stabilization missions were researched. The first part discusses the general determinants of Poles’ and Germans’ positions towards the threats to international security. Presented in this context is the influence of differently formed security cultures of the two states that determine dissimilar reactions of Poland and Germany to the American concept of solving the Iraqi crisis. Resulting from historical experience, the German aversion to use the military force, and preference of peaceful instruments in international conflict solving acquires a profound importance here. Analyzed later in the work are the Polish-German differences concerning values and qualities of transatlantic relations after the events associated with the Iraqi crisis. They primarily pertained to the significance that the citizens of the two countries assigned to the cooperation of European states within the European Union, and also to the tightening of political and military relations with the United States. Further in its analysis, the paper focuses on the opinions of Polish and German citizens conceming the military involvement in current and futurę intemational crises. It is increasingly and with an ever greater detachment and lack of trust that the two nations approach their govemments actions aimed at managing the challenges of international terrorism. This is seen primarily in the evolution of attitudes of Polish and German societies to the problem of employing military power for international conflict solving. Currently, the decisive majority of Polish and German citizens reject participation of their soldiers in such a form. Such an attitude may - in a more long term perspective - mean voluntary resignation from exerting influence on certain developments in the world policy.

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