Ruling or Ruled: the Future of Poland in a New Type of European Empire

Ostap Kushnir

Abstract


The article addresses current trends in the European transformation and compares the structure which is being built to ancient and medieval empires. The imperial order appears to be productive for the EU, due to it easily embraces the heterogeneity existing within the Union, as well as contributes to the strengthening of the EU institutional legitimacy and efficiency in global governance. The ongoing EU transformations, promoted by the German-French lobby and supported by the authorities in Brussels, are indirectly leading to the emergence of an imperial structure, which is secured by a soft power, instead of a rule of sword. Taking all this into account, an attempt is made to define the role of Poland, the largest post-2004 enlargement state, in the new structure. To make this attempt sufficient a brief analysis of current Polish foreign policy and economic growth is provided.

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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17951/k.2014.21.1.55
Date of publication: 2015-05-15 15:19:44
Date of submission: 2015-05-15 12:49:56


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