The Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland serve to protect the independence of the state and the integrity of its territory and to ensure the security and inviolability of its borders. [...] Opponents of expansion would have to publicly acknowledge that Article 10 of the Washington Treaty (stating that the parties may invite “any other European State in a position to further the principles of this Treaty and to contribute to the security of the North Atlantic area”)11 and the provisions of the Paris Charter12 about the right of every country to freely choose its alliances did not appl. [...] The goal was generally to bridge the differences in the treatment of (respectively) Eastern and Western Europe, and in particular to prevent preferential treatment of the USSR, and later Russia, compared to the states of the former Soviet bloc. [...] These include the impact of the Russian factor on the attitudes of NATO’s then-members, the radical shift in Germany’s approach to enlargement, and the implications of the Balkan wars on NATO’s open-door policy. [...] Today, as one of the main candidates for the presidency of the US openly questions the credibility of Article 5 and the threat of a new war in Europe is no longer considered hypothetical, the cohesion of Polish elites and society in actions to strengthen NATO is as crucial for Poland’s security now as the consolidation for membership was in the 1990s.
Authors
- Pages
- 12
- Published in
- Poland
