Our joint pilgrimage through the world of foreign and international policy doctrines has come to an end. I kept my word and for a year (with a slight excess) every week I provided a fresh portion of descriptions, reflections and personal anecdotes related to foreign policy.

Today some final comments. 

The idea to describe doctrines using the method of weekly entries (columns) arose while collecting materials for a book publication. Because originally it was supposed to be a monograph, quite serious and essential one. It was supposed to have its own solid logic and structure. And solid theses, as well as conclusions.

Only that I have done such monographic projects enough times to finally feel the motivation deficit.

Fortunately, someone asked me in mid-2021: “Maybe you would start a blog when in retirement? You would have so much to tell”. So why not? After all, this is something new, a form not practiced by me before. So a challenge that can motivate. And if it could motivate, why to wait until retirement? I had enough time and nothing to lose (or gain) months before my retirement.

However, I did not want to follow the conventional path and become another commentator on daily international events. I still have time for that.

So I divided my doctrinal descriptions into 52 (54 in total, if one counts the introduction and the conclusions) pieces. Which of course disrupted the overall presentation. The original logical framework for the presentation in five solid chapters is no longer visible. I have lost the ability to build bridges between chapters, showing how each one grows harmoniously from the previous one. Because now each entry had to function as an independent entity, without being entangled in contexts and without the need to read the blog chronologically.

I also had to give up academic ornamentation. There was no place in the blog for footnotes, quotes from borrowed thoughts, references to distinguished scholars, and polemics with the views of others. I skipped these intellectual prostheses without regret. I have limited myself to pure facts, encyclopedic (wikipedic) knowledge.

While working on the entries, new ideas appeared that threatened to spread the blog over the announced time space, i.e. the framework of one year. But some threads and doctrines have been deliberately omitted. Oh, I was tempted, for example, to describe the doctrine of “pity politics”, when the leader of the ruling party in Poland again attacked Germany on the issue of war reparations. But I gave it up, because I already wrote about this doctrine in one of my earlier books. So the parade of foreign policy doctrines in my blog is not complete.

My hand was itching to punish PiS diplomats for their political harmfulness and professional incompetence, when the thematic contexts were asking for it. Especially after my retirement. I took the opportunity several times. But I decided not to vent my emotions in general. PiS devastators of Polish diplomacy simply do not deserve comments. Also from my side, because it’s a blog about professional doctrines. How to rebuild Polish diplomacy after PiS-led demolition is a separate issue, but going beyond the subject of the blog. 

What I have omitted with regret are several dozen theses (and hypotheses) that are heavier, almost fundamental, and at the same time my own. I did it not to relieve the text of phrases that may hinder reading for non-specialists. Not to because I was afraid of their interception by plagiarists (which, unfortunately, I have experienced more than once in the past). I just wanted to keep my judgments as a bonus in case the collection was released in book form. If a book were ever to be published, it would have to contain some added value, a new quality in relation to blog entries.

Will the book ever appear? Honestly, today, i.e. in mid-January 2023, there is still nothing to suggest it. Someone would have to use quite a few strong arguments to convince me to publish it. Not only me, but also a potential publisher. Of course, I am very grateful for the positive signals that have been coming from the readers of my blog over the last year. Not only from friends and family. The blog had a constant and loyal circle of permanent readers; the circle was modest because it numbered several dozen people, usually I personally know and personally kind. Thank you very much. It is for you, above all, that I extracted photos from the archives from various stages of my diplomatic career. They seem to cover all the years from the period 1985-2019. I wanted them to show the diplomat in action in various situations, not only shaking hands with world VIPs and celebrities, but also at the negotiating table, at the international tribune, in the lobby, on missions, at receptions, dinners and cocktails, at the desk and behind the scenes, in front of a computer, among colleagues and in a crowd of ordinary people (and even on a hospital bed). And I hope these pictures reminded us of our meetings and the times we lived together.

It seems that the blog attracted only a few casual readers from the group of diplomacy adepts and students of international relations. And it was with them in mind that I wove personal anecdotes into thematic descriptions, reports on diplomatic activities in which I participated, and various professional indiscretions. It was not always about confronting the so-called theory with everyday practice, not always about illustrating encyclopedic theses with facts from diplomatic life. I admit that I was more interested in showing the aspirants that diplomacy can give them the opportunity for grateful experiences, and even adventures. That diplomacy, apart from the many inconveniences associated with it, and especially stress, the nomadic compulsion to move, working on holidays and Sundays, is a profession with a great potential for enriching experiences. Of course, under certain conditions. The first and most important is to develop the habit of abandoning comfort zones, especially the one that has become the bane of modern diplomacy, i.e. practicing the profession from behind a desk, through a computer screen, replacing the world of real personal interactions with a virtual space of correspondence and conversations. Well, and the second important condition is the willingness to act, take up initiative, show creativity, conceptual thinking. Yes, I know that sometimes it can complicate a career, alienate superiors, and expose to ostracism on the part of colleagues. I experienced it the hard way. But with stories from my own professional career, I wanted to convince you that it is worthwhile, even if opportunism, passivity and reactivity sometimes seem to be better options from the point of view of a career.

I could tell the ascending generation of diplomats that the message of my stories is simply ‘diplomacy can be fun’. And to carry this thesis further, following the Huxleyan motto, I would say: “Do not put off till tomorrow the fun you can have today”.

It is not time for me to summarize my own diplomatic career. So I did not want to endorse the anecdotes quoted in the blog with any practical advice. Besides, they are not a complete archive of my memories. As you can guess, there are situations in the work of every diplomat that are not suitable for public reporting. Sometimes, even involuntarily, a person becomes a witness of words and deeds that cannot be reported. Not always only because it is not allowed (because of the rigor of confidentiality), or it is not appropriate (because of the rigor of human decency). Sometimes they are just so unbelievable that they can qualify as confabulation. I have had a few such events. So I am not telling you about them, because nobody would believe me anyway (except for my immediate family). And my diplomatic career took place in historic breakthrough years. I saw the collapse of communism, the collapse of the USSR and the Soviet bloc, the emergence of new states and organizations, alliances rearranged, paradigms of international relations changed, revolutions, crises and wars. In a word, it was, oh, it was. The diplomats who are starting their career today can only envy us.

I wanted to develop my blog in accordance with the Enlightenment principle of “docere et delectare”, that is, to combine serious things with ephemeral things, but with the hope that the reader will learn something new. For example, enrich his/her vocabulary. Therefore, with sometimes malicious premeditation, I would stick a few words and phrases rare or foreign (mainly Latin, like the one above) into each entry. As a rule, only a few and concentrated, so that looking into the dictionary does not distract you from concentrating on reading. Mamotrept (another difficult word, but the last one on this blog) was consciously not included. Well, I did not want to serve everything on a tray. 

I have ignored the suggestions to start a podcast. I know that I have lost at least a few audiences because of this. But this is an extra effort that would need a solid rationale. No motivation yet.

Today I am finishing an important chapter in my blog, so I would like to thank my loved ones, without whose help the blog would not have been created. My son, Michał, created the entire technical and visual side, he taught me how to use my blog, load it with posts and update it. Spouse Anna popularized the blog among her friends with weekly links on FB. And son Piotr tried to expand the circle of readers also outside the country.

From February 2023, I start a new chapter. Still driven by a desire to share my diplomatic knowledge and experience. At the urging of a friend, I will be advising adepts of diplomatic negotiations on how to conduct them effectively (for a year in monthly episodes). Next post will be coming on 20 February. I emphasize – the entries will be once a month, although not necessarily longer. You will still not be able to comment on them. But you can always communicate with me in a roundabout way: by e-mail or messenger.

Until next meetings!