Read more about the article Poland’s Military Surge: Strategic Investments and Recent Developments in Polish Armed Forces
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Poland’s Military Surge: Strategic Investments and Recent Developments in Polish Armed Forces

Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Poland has been among the most active countries in supporting its eastern neighbour to halt the advance of Russian forces and to conduct its counteroffensive. This decision was consistent with Polish strategic objectives, allowing Poland to launch its modernisation project and expand its military capabilities. Although Poland’s strategic rationales vary depending on the political stance of its elites (Pawłuszko, 2022), there are three common denominators: the intent to deter Russia, the need to secure US support, and the ambition to become the Central-Eastern European region’s leading power.  Poland considers strengthening its armed forces as essential for achieving these goals. In fact, Warsaw aspires to build the most potent European land force by the beginning of 2026 (Tilles, 2023). While this objective is ambitious, the Russian invasion has catalysed the modernisation of the Polish military and its arms industry (Cucino & Scarazzato, 2023).This paper will address Poland’s recent strategic investments, aimed at developing multiple components of its armed forces, including land, air, sea, drone, and anti-missile forces, and analyse the potential challenges that such a rapid upgrade and amplification of its military capabilities entail.

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20 September 2024
Read more about the article France, Germany and Poland Propose the Weimar Triangle as a New Centrepiece for EU Defence
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France, Germany and Poland Propose the Weimar Triangle as a New Centrepiece for EU Defence

On 12 February 2024, Berlin, Paris and Warsaw pitched for the Weimar Triangle as the new centrepiece for the EU’s defence (Alipour & Bourgery-Gonse, 2024), aiming to enhance defence capability. Following these discussions, in April, the German defence minister, Boris Pistorius recommended Poland join the ‘Main Ground Combat System’ (MGCS). By June, Poland indicated its willingness to join the Franco-German projects: the ‘Future Combat Air System’ (FCAS) and MGCS projects (Alipour, 2024a). Despite this momentum, defence ministers of Poland and Germany remain silent when journalists ask for more details.In June, France also deepened its military ties with Germany and Poland (Kayali, 2024), indicating growing momentum for defence collaboration within the Weimar Triangle. By aligning national defence priorities, France, Germany, and Poland could play a more substantial role in defence and transform, at some point, the Weimar Triangle into a defence alliance. Historically, the Weimar Triangle has made outstanding achievements. However, cooperation has not been inconsistent during the last decades, with partners experiencing challenges of trust and misalignment. The evolving international landscape, characterised by the intensification of conflict in Ukraine since 2022 and the upcoming United States (US) election, has prompted new developments and investments in European defence cooperation.

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21 August 2024
Read more about the article Is the Western Support for Ukraine Beginning to Falter? – Cracks from the US and Eastern Europe
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Is the Western Support for Ukraine Beginning to Falter? – Cracks from the US and Eastern Europe

Some of the most consequential NATO member states (MSs) which have played a major role in providing financial, military, and humanitarian aid to Kyiv since the beginning of the Ukrainian war, are now reassessing their position in this conflict. Having been the leading forces in sustaining the Ukrainian military effort against the Russian military, they are now displaying a decreasing tendency to continue on the path followed until now.

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26 October 2023
Read more about the article Poland and The United Kingdom: An Increasingly Robust Partnership
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Poland and The United Kingdom: An Increasingly Robust Partnership

The UK and Poland have what is currently being described as one of the closest partnerships within NATO (GOV.UK, 2022; Martin, 2023). This research paper will examine how this relationship has developed, with a special interest in the signing of the 2017 Treaty on Defence and Security Cooperation. The 2017 Treaty encouraged cooperation between the UK and Poland in a range of areas, including multiple agreements on exchanging military equipment and training of troops. These agreements became even more relevant, and arguably essential in the context of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

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25 July 2023
Read more about the article Negotiations between Poland and Ukraine culminated in an agreement to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine
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Negotiations between Poland and Ukraine culminated in an agreement to send Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine

This Info Flash is aimed at outlining the current motions in the extremely sensible relationship between the European Union (EU) and Ukraine. The current developments are very much centred on Germany and Poland’s cooperation that is becoming more and more expressive with some of the particular military aid that these countries plan to send to Ukraine. Poland and Germany have determined that Ukraine deserves more profound military help and support from the EU and its members states (Radford, 2023). However, this hot topic about the Leopard tanks is debatable and controversial because of its urgency, and equally because of its importance in terms of its effects on EU-Russia relations.

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7 February 2023