From Intervention to Retrenchment: Poland's Strategic Culture and the 2011 Libyan Campaign

Abstract

The willingness of successive Polish governments to support and participate in US-led multilateral military interventions—such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq—has been explained in terms of Poland's prevailing strategic culture. Yet in 2011 Poland opted to exclude itself from participating in the NATO campaign against Libya. It is argued that this was not a counter-cultural decision, but was instead a case of one strategic subculture supplanting another. The support that the government received from opposition politicians and the press can be taken as evidence that the policy did not represent a radical departure from Poland's strategic culture.

Notes

1 See Hollis and Smith (1991, pp. 57–61) for a discussion of Kuhn's ideas and how they may relate to the social sciences and international relations in particular.

2 White Book on National Security of the Republic of Poland (Warsaw, National Security Bureau, 2013, p. 127).

3 White Book on National Security of the Republic of Poland (Warsaw, National Security Bureau, 2013, p. 127).

4 White Book on National Security of the Republic of Poland (Warsaw, National Security Bureau, 2013, p. 73).

5 It should be noted, of course, that the research was undertaken in 2007; in the wake of the Russian annexation of Crimea and its support for the insurgency in the eastern provinces of Ukraine, and allegations regarding Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, elite concerns in Western Europe regarding Russia have significantly increased.

6 ‘Is Poland America's Donkey or Could it Become NATO's Trojan Horse?’, The Economist, 8 May 2003.

7 ‘Poland not to Take Part in Military Action in Libya—Premier’, BBC Monitoring Newsfile, 20 March 2011, available at: https://search.proquest.com/docview/857771177?accountid=11664, accessed 18 May 2016.

8 ‘Polish Foreign Minister Pledges Humanitarian Aid for Libya at London Conference’, BBC Monitoring European, 30 March 2011, available at: https://search.proquest.com/docview/859032826?accountid=11664, accessed 18 May 2016.

9 ‘Poland Has Energy Prospects, Interested in Libya Reconstruction’, BBC Monitoring European, 2 September 2011, available at: https://search.proquest.com/docview/887026892?accountid=11664, accessed 18 May 2016.

10 ‘Doktryna Komorowskiego’, Biuro Bezpieczeństwa Narodowego (undated), available at: www.bbn.gov.pl/download/1/…/DoktrynaKomorowskiego-zalozenia.pdf, accessed 25 May 2015.

11 White Book on National Security of the Republic of Poland (Warsaw, National Security Bureau, 2013, p. 15).

12 ‘Interview with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk: “I’m Incapable of Getting Angry with Angela Merkel”’, Spiegel Online International, 8 April 2011, available at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/interview-with-polish-prime-minister-donald-tusk-i-m-incapable-of-getting-angry-with-angela-merkel-a-755965-2.html, accessed 15 March 2015.

13 ‘Interview with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk: “I’m Incapable of Getting Angry with Angela Merkel”’, Spiegel Online International, 8 April 2011, available at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/interview-with-polish-prime-minister-donald-tusk-i-m-incapable-of-getting-angry-with-angela-merkel-a-755965-2.html, accessed 15 March 2015.

14 Israel may be a partial exception in this instance because the state's national security policies are largely formulated within its military establishment (Libel 2016, p. 144).

15 Sprawozdanie Stenograficzne z 87 Posiedzenia Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, 16 March 2011, p. 10.

16 Sprawozdanie Stenograficzne z 88 Posiedzenia Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, 25 March 2011, p. 163.

17 Sprawozdanie Stenograficzne z 88 Posiedzenia Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, 25 March 2011, p. 165.

18 Sprawozdanie Stenograficzne z 3 Posiedzenia Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, 15 December 2011, p. 263.

19 Sprawozdanie Stenograficzne z 3 Posiedzenia Sejmu Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej, 15 December 2011, p. 265.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Christopher Reeves

Christopher Reeves, Institute of Politics and Administration, Jesuit University Ignatianum in Cracow, ul. Kopernika 26, Krakow 31-501, Poland. Email: [email protected]