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Laterna Diplomatica

Laterna Diplomatica

Personal blog of Ambassador Piotr Switalski

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  • May 16, 2022May 16, 2022

The Brezhnev Doctrine, or the Curse of Historical Materialism

The doctrine of intervention under the red flag was originally formulated in an article by Sergey Kovalev published in Pravda in September 1968 under the title “Sovereignty and international obligations of socialist states.” In the canonical…

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  • May 9, 2022May 9, 2022

The alliance of peace and socialism, or the iron grip of the emperor

Continuing the historical excursion into the past, today I will describe the military-political dimension of the so-called class solidarity, i.e. the functioning of the camp of socialist states as a military bloc. The Warsaw Pact…

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  • May 2, 2022May 2, 2022

Mutual assistance doctrine, or why the lose-lose formula stuck to the socialist camp

“Mutual assistance” was the notion used to define the essence of economic relations between the states of the socialist family. It is hard to find a more solidarity-based term, despite the fact that the disproportions in…

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  • April 25, 2022November 11, 2023

Proletarian internationalism, or the moral failure of a passionate ideology

Kinship may not only have a linguistic, ethnic and religious dimension. It can reject ethno-cultural tribalism as such and replace it with other social links and divisions, for instance based on class. Such were the consequences of…

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  • April 18, 2022April 18, 2022

Russkij Mir, or the masks of geopolitics

“Vot vam russkiy mir”, “Prishol k nam russkiy mir” – one could hear such comments from Ukrainians on videos depicting the atrocities of the Russian army during the invasion of Ukraine. The Russian attack revealed…

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  • April 11, 2022April 11, 2022

Francophonie and cooperation between countries of other Romance languages

The idea of Francophonie as a cultural community of people and institutions using the French language was born quite a long time ago. This term was supposedly invented in the 1880s by Onesime Reclus. But the term…

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  • April 4, 2022April 4, 2022

Anglosphere, or nothing unites (although sometimes divides) more than a common language

Speaking a common language, cultural similarities, a common past (not necessarily a rosy one), even with ethnic or religious differences, are a natural factor in developing special relationships. The most recognizable community in this regard is the…

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  • March 28, 2022March 28, 2022

Pan-Germanism and the age-old fears of “German” Europe

Pan-Germanism is an outdated pan-nationalist political idea. But it has always generated fear among neighbouring nations. Today, in an operetta, sinister and bizarre form, these fears are reflected in the perception of European integration as the German…

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  • March 21, 2022March 23, 2022

Pan-Slavism, or the great game of an ordinary ambassador

Pan-Slavism as a doctrine of foreign policy has never been officially endorsed. It emerged, however, as an ideological cover for the external actions of imperial Russia, and even, though fleetingly and inconsistently, of the policy of…

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  • March 14, 2022March 14, 2022

The doctrines of kinship in the neighbourhood of Europe: Pan-Arabism and Pan-Turkism

Blood kinship drives the human instinct for political action. People linked to us by blood ties always occupy a privileged place in our social activities. In the tribal dimension, this is reflected in the special treatment of…

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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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