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Laterna Diplomatica

Laterna Diplomatica

Personal blog of Ambassador Piotr Switalski

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  • July 25, 2022July 25, 2022

Haughty isolationism, or the pride of being different

One of the key journalists of the current ruling camp in Poland has recently suggested that autarky would be the best solution for Poland, in all respects: economic, political and even cultural. Some politicians of…

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  • July 18, 2022July 18, 2022

Doctrines of self-limitation, or not always less is better

Russia unleashed the war against Ukraine under the slogans of, inter alia, neutralization and demilitarization of the country. Ukraine would itself commit itself not to joining NATO and not having significant military infrastructure. Regardless of…

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  • July 11, 2022July 11, 2022

The doctrine of non-alignment, or the degeneration of once a beautiful idea

During the vote on March 2, 2022 on the UN General Assembly resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine, 35 countries abstained from voting, including China, which is not surprising because they are politically close to…

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  • July 4, 2022July 4, 2022

Contemporary struggles with neutrality, i.e. passivity becomes “journey without a ticket”

I mentioned a week ago that after World War II, the Yalta division of Europe gave a new context to the doctrine of neutrality. Neutrality was part of the (flank) buffer between both blocks. The…

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  • June 27, 2022June 27, 2022

The doctrine of neutrality, i.e. weakness turned into a virtue

Neutrality is a state of equal distance to partners in its pure form. A lot is written and said about it again, because Sweden and Finland will abandon their neutrality status, and Russia would still…

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  • June 20, 2022June 27, 2022

Multivectorism, or dependence (even if it serves well) has its drawbacks

The balance of ties with partners is a desirable state in foreign policy. It is rarely possible in perfect form. Even the programmatic equal distance as proscribed by the doctrine of neutrality or disengagement, which…

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  • June 13, 2022June 13, 2022

The doctrine of equal distance, i.e. where is Scylla, and where is Charybdis

In the Polish history of diplomacy, the doctrine of equal distance (equilibrium) in an almost canonical form is identified with the politics of the Second Republic of Poland in the 1930s. It was Józef Piłsudski…

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  • June 6, 2022June 6, 2022

Balance in the times of hegemony, or “nec hercules …”

The phraseology of homeostasis was revived in the era of the Cold War in the notion of the strategic balance of the military potentials of the US and the USSR. Catchy terms appeared at that…

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  • May 30, 2022May 30, 2022

Balance of power, or nothing restrains like mutual fear?

Balance is a key word in international politics, a fetish word for architects of international security, a panacea on duty for the ills of coexistence between nations.  The relations of power in the international arena…

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  • May 23, 2022May 23, 2022

The Gorbachev Doctrine, or the End of the World of Socialism

Today’s post ends the story, spread over several episodes, about the foreign policy doctrines of the countries of the Soviet bloc. The end of the block is commonly associated with the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev’s…

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Recent Posts

  • Just for the Record. Entry twenty-four: catharsis
  • Just for the Record. Entry twenty-three: disasters, black swans and the limits of imagination
  • Just for the Record. Entry twenty-two: progress and reaction
  • Just for the Record. Entry twenty-one: centre and peripheries
  • Just for the Record. Entry twentieth: the thymotic revolution in international politics

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