Dariusz Zalewski
Description
Faced at the outset with obstacles of the international system of states and of domestic politics, Poland embraced the tasks of accession to NATO. In
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this effort, no road map existed for what was an unprecedented situation. Thus, Poland had to resolve domestic and international tasks of accession with national means as well as guidance from the alliance and its members. Poland had to structure a new defense policy in an alliance context. The country had to reform the national security decision-making apparatus, which, in its most dramatic dimension, required the fashioning of democratic civil-military relations. The latter process, also, involved input from the domestic arena as well as those from the alliance members. This process took time as the alliance itself figured out the path forward and there were difficulties in Poland because of the possibility that Poland might fail. Nonetheless, these problems aside, Polish society and politics held sure to the sole aim of accession to NATO. This thesis argues that, with the successful accession to NATO, Poland secured its place in the West, which the events of the 20th century had denied this nation heretofore. Thus, Polish security rests on the stronger foundation, far greater then that possible with national means alone.
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