Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

How the Trump Era divides Germany and Poland
ECFR ^ | Dec 2018 | P. Buras, J. Janning

Posted on 01/15/2019 7:07:00 AM PST by CondoleezzaProtege

Berlin and Warsaw have very different ideas about how to respond to the challenge Trump’s presidency poses to Europe. While Germany emphasises the need to strengthen Europe’s resilience and unity, the Polish response has been to embrace the opportunities of the new political reality and enhance its bilateral partnership with the US.

...Furthermore, the 2018 US National Defense Strategy defines Russia as a “strategic adversary”, in line with threat perceptions in Warsaw. In fact, the Polish government is much more enthusiastic about the direction of Washington’s current policy than that under Trump’s predecessor, Barack Obama, who attempted to “reset” American-Russian relations.

Germany and France criticise American unilateralism for threatening the West’s unity, but Poland has other concerns. In Warsaw, political elites’ fear that America will betray Polish or European interests is weaker than their concern about the consequences of loosening transatlantic bonds. In other words, pushing European sovereignty as the medicine for the transatlantic crisis is seen as more dangerous than the disease it intends to cure. This scepticism about the direction of the western European debate about Trump and transatlantic relations only enhances Poland’s eagerness to strengthen its bilateral relationship with the US and position itself as Washington’s best ally in Europe.

(Excerpt) Read more at ecfr.eu ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: europe; germany; nato; natp; poland
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-24 last
To: NativeSon

well, to be fair - FDR sold out the Poles in 1945 and Churchill acquiesced.


21 posted on 02/06/2019 2:47:36 AM PST by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Pearls Before Swine
The 1939 carve up of Poland between Germany and the USSR was the fourth time that happened -- in 1770 the Prussians and the Russians and the Austrians carved up parts of Poland and did it twice again in the next 20 years, finally wiping Poland off the map for 123 years until 1918

however Poland-Lithuania at one point was the largest European state in size and wsa the only power to ever conquer Moscow and seat their King as Tsar (1610)

22 posted on 02/06/2019 2:49:47 AM PST by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: FreedomPoster

That was true in 1939 but no longer. To the south Poland has the Carpathian mountains. To the north the Baltic sea. To the West the Oder-Neisse river borders. To the east Belarus and Western Ukraine are bulwarks. The Russian attacks on the Ukraine have ended up making Western Ukrainians as fervently anti-russian as they were anti-Polish. So a buffer state. And the Belarussians want to balance themselves between Mosccow and Europe


23 posted on 02/06/2019 2:51:49 AM PST by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: mrmeyer
Poland's idea in 1920 under Marshall Pilsudzki was Miedzymorze - or intermarum, a union of non-german and non-russian states of central europe

If he had succeeded then the eastern bloodlands might not have happened

pilsudski was harking back to the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth (1410-1791) which covered much of these lands. He himself was of Lithuanian origin but considered himself a Pole

24 posted on 02/06/2019 2:53:53 AM PST by Cronos (Obama's dislike of Assad is not based on his brutality but that he isn't a jihadi Moslem)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-24 last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson