Bulletin n. 1/2015
June 2015
CONTENTS
  • Section A) The theory and practise of the federal states and multi-level systems of government
  • Section B) Global governance and international organizations
  • Section C) Regional integration processes
  • Section D) Federalism as a political idea
    • Perri Giuseppe
    Premesse storiche e linee di tendenza della politica polacca
    in Rivista di Studi Politici Internazionali , Volume 81, n. 4, ottobre-dicembre ,  2014 ,  563-576
    The article points out, in its first part, the historical legacy of the relations between Poland and the Ukrainian world, starting with the annexation of Galicia to the Polish Crown in the XIV century, through the long and productive historical period of Ukraine’s entire membership in the Lithuanian-Polish Rzeczpospolita, during which Ukraine enjoyed the beneficial effects of contacts with the Latin and the Renaissance culture. Then, with the traumatic break tied to Cossack uprising of 1648, the aristocratic oligarchy who led the Rzeczpospolita preferred an agreement with Muscovy and a partition of the Ukrainian territories. A strategy which, however, did not prevent Russian expansionism and the annexion, with the partitions of the XVIII century, of a large part of Poland itself. Are then examined the complex Russian-Polish-Ukrainian relationships in the Russian Empire in the XIX century, which also play an important role for the historical clarification of the current dynamics. The second part of the article, starting with the aforementioned reconstruction of the historical past, focuses on the two basic and alternatives strategies that the governments of the reborn Polish national State have adopted towards the eastern neighbour of Ukraine. On the one hand, the strategy of nationalism, that was anti-Ukrainian and in favour of a partition and a stabilization of the border with Russia; the other strategy was pro-Ukrainian, first embodied by the hegemonic neo-federalism of president Piłsudski, then reworked, in the sense of respectful of Ukrainian independence, by the circle of liberal emigration grouped around the Parisian magazine «Kultura» and its director, Jerzy Giedroyc. These strategies have alternated over time, leading at times of renewed historical contrasts between Ukrainians and Poles. The article discusses also the position of communist Poland in the international context and the mindset that spread in this period, in relation to Ukraine and its people. Since the days of Solidarnosc, and even more so since the advent of the new post-communist Poland, has finally prevailed the recovery strategy developed by the group of «Kultura» and that is an attitude that sees the freedom of Poland in close relation with the Ukrainian freedom. This is not without oscillations, made of indifference and hostility towards Ukraine, which still exist in Polish society. The new Russian-Ukrainian crisis, however, puts at risk the Polish Eastern policy as a whole and the ruling class of that country will have to take account of the multiple interferences that at this time are acting on the Giedroyc’s strategy. The article lists the interferences and ends with a critical statement about those who, directly or indirectly or in good faith, do not do anything to avoid that Ukraine will be the scene of a war that would be disastrous and contrary to every Ukrainian national interest.
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