So Far, So Close

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From the mid-16th Century to the late 18th Century, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was a European power that dominated Central and Northeastern Europe while pioneering democratic models of government.

Poland has been at odds with Russia ever since. In 1610, for example, Polish-Lithuanian forces occupied Moscow and engineered the appointment of a Polish-Lithuanian prince as the new Russian czar. In the late 18th Century, however, Austria, Prussia – the core of what later would become Germany – and Russia partitioned Poland, bringing the country’s golden age to an end.

The modern era hasn’t always been kind to Poland. Soviet forces invaded the country in the early 1920s, for example, in an attempt to export their communist revolution to Europe, York St John University historian Peter Whitewood wrote in the Conversation. They failed. But in World War II, the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Poland. The Soviets then controlled the country until the Berlin Wall fell in the late 1980s. After that, and even after the country joined the European Union in 2004, its people have felt like second-class citizens on the continent.

This history explains why Poland is working hard to become a leading military power in Europe today.

In recent years, Poland has more than doubled its army from 95,000 to 200,000 soldiers, including almost 150,000 fighting personnel, and recruited almost 40,000 reservists who can fight in the event of war, reported the Times of London. The country aims to deploy 300,000 soldiers, which would become the largest land army in Europe. The Polish navy, which historically has been weak, is also expanding to become a force in the Baltic Sea and beyond, added the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Poland is also devoting 4 percent of its gross domestic product to defense, more than any other NATO member, while it has also served as a logistical hub for military and humanitarian aid shipments to Ukrainian forces across the border fighting Russia, according to the Center for European Policy Analysis.

Prime Minister Donald Tusk has also been vocal about Europe moving too slowly to rearm in the face of Russian aggression, the Moscow Times reported. Further, he has been critical of Hungary and other friends of Russia in Europe for not supporting Ukraine enough, the Anadolu Agency wrote.

These defense policy changes come as Tusk has sought to reverse the domestic policies of his predecessors in the conservative Law and Justice political (PiS) party that ran the government before Tusk’s Civic Coalition won the elections late last year. As World Politics Review explained, PiS is a populist, anti-immigrant, pro-Catholic, Euroskeptic party while Tusk is a former president of the European Council, the policymaking branch of the European Union.

That means that currently, Poland’s main battles are at home. The transition from a right-wing populist government to a center-left government following October’s elections hasn’t been smooth, with a conservative president in power blocking legislation, missteps dismantling the controls put on media outlets and delays regarding the repeal of legislation passed by PiS that undermined the rule of law.

As Politico wrote, Tusk promised his backers a revolution, but it turns out that rapid change is hard in a deeply divided country: “Rhetoric, meet reality.”