Pulaski Policy Papers

Recently Tokyo announced three key security-related documents, which – if implemented – would deeply change Japan’s military capabilities and its position in a geostrategic landscape of Asia.

It has been eleven months since the start of the Russian large-scale invasion of Ukraine. The almost year long period of open warfare has taken its toll on the armed forces of both sides.

In March 2022 the Ukrainian government estimated that up to 20 000 individuals applied to join that country’s “International Legion.”

The 24th February marks a turning point in many areas of German politics. Eastern policy is one of the key ones. Although in this area the most discussed aspect is the attitude towards Russia, it is vital to recognise the evolutionary approach towards Ukraine.

9 months into the invasion, the Grain from Ukraine summit took place in Kyiv. Western leaders gathered there, while commemorating the victims of Holodomor, have finally acknowledged the need for secure and reliable transport schemes to and from Ukraine.

It has been nine months since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. During this time an unprecedented number of battles and engagements could have been observed.

The explosion of Nord Stream gas pipelines became a breaking point in the energy war between Russia and Europe. Handling Nord Stream as a commercial project rather than the Kremlin’s geopolitical tool, Germany’s energy policy lived on as a double-edged sword, which sharpened in today’s European energy crisis.

The United States 2022 midterm elections have in the past been of little interests to the majority of global publics. This is because they were both predictable (the U.S. Congress usually falling into the hand of the party opposing the sitting President) and inconsequential for the general direction of U.S. foreign policy (which over the last three decades enjoyed a large bipartisan consensus).

Pulaski Policy Paper no 25, November 11 2022 In October 2022, nearly two years after the Joe Biden administration took power in the United States, a new National Security Strategy

Press reports, circulating in October 2022, about the Russian use of weapons obtained from Iran were, on the one hand, perceived as a sensation and a surprise.

Since its commencement in February 2022, the Russo-Ukrainian war has posed what some deem the most severe challenge to Europe since the Yugoslav War of the 1990s. Alongside diminishing security levels, Europe has seen the onset of a humanitarian disaster which continues to disproportionately affect Ukrainian women and girls.

The recent ceremony at the Kremlin when V. Putin announced annexation of four Ukrainian regions was as futile as it was emblematic of the current state of affairs in Moscow.

Recent expansion of terrorism and the political-military destabilisation indicate a breakdown in the security structure of the Sahel region, even though we can hardly name it a structure.

Latest clashes between Armenia and Azerbaijan are part of the protracted conflict between these two countries. Though the main reason of it is the status of Artsakh, it also concerns Syunik province and never demarcated border between these two countries.

There is no doubt that the information about the invasion of Russian troops on the site of the nuclear power plant (NPP) in Zaporizhia provoked an emotional reaction not only in Europe but in the whole world.

One of the consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Western sanctions that followed has been deteriorating economic situation in Kaliningrad Oblast. The Russian semi-exclave on the Baltic, already affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, has suffered from disrupted supply deliveries, closure of external markets and peaking transportation costs.

On June 23rd, 2022, at the EU summit in Brussels Ukraine has been granted the EU candidate status. The decision was fully supported by the European Parliament, which has approved it with an overwhelming majority that has voted in favour of Kyiv (529:45, with 14 abstentions).

The Russo-Ukrainian war, which started on 24 February has been the most significant armed conflict in Europe since the II World War. Alongside the traditional fight with artillery, tanks and ground troops’ fighting, it is also the first time when a cyber component is used on the wider scale by both sides. Many theoretical works have been published predicting how the war in cyberspace may look like but the war in Ukraine delivers actual answers to some questions bothering the experts and also brings important lessons for Poland.

Started on 24 February 2022, Russian invasion ended a “hybrid” period of armed aggression against Ukraine’s independence, democracy and policy of integration with EU and NATO.

Since the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine in late February 2022, numerous NATO and EU member states – particularly those from Central and Eastern Europe – have started actively  support Ukraine with a direct aid – not only humanitarian, but also military one. This assistance gave the Ukrainian military a much – needed lifeline and a capacity first to halt the Russian advance and then to push an aggressor back from Kyiv.

The North Atlantic Treaty is like the constitution of an organisation, inviolable and containing more universal and indisputable content.

With the current Russian aggression and virtually total blockage of the original fuel supply routes and the destruction of domestic fuel production capabilities, there is a need to reroute Ukrainian fuel supply chains via alternative routes.

Poland was also depicted by Russian disinformation as a Russo phobic country, which wants to provoke a war with Russians and tries to pull out the West into it. Unfortunately, some Western experts were vulnerable to these claims and repeated Russian propaganda on this subject.

On March 19, the Russian Federation attacked a Ukrainian aerial ammunition depot, located in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, using aeroballistic KINZHAL missiles. Since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, Russia has also used ballistic and cruise missile systems. These missiles were mainly used in the initial phase of hostilities against Ukraine’s military infrastructure, although it seems that their sheer scale of use was far from sufficient from a military point of view. It is therefore worth asking what conclusions can be drawn from the use of such systems in the first three weeks of the conflict.

Pulaski Policy Paper no 5, 2022, March 10 2022 The "Special Operation" of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in Ukraine was to be (according to the original assumptions

The Ukrainian authorities, however, clearly indicate that the Russian air superiority is the main problem in their defence campaign, which is well reflected in attacks on defence positions as well as civilian facilities in the defended Ukrainian cities. Hence, the Ukrainian authorities are calling for the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukraine.

On 24 February this year, the Russian Federation, after a phase of increased political-military pressure lasting several months, launched military aggression against Ukraine. After the fourth day of Russian offensive actions there are already clear conclusions as to the probable plans and military objectives of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation.

“Comrades – we have been standing on the edge of a precipice. I am glad to say that we have made a great step forward”. This pun from a sketch performed by the Cracow-based cabaret in 1960s was mocking the absurdity of inept propaganda of the Polish communist rulers at the time.

Russia has conducted Zapad-2021, the latest instalment of its quadrennial joint military exercises with the Republic of Belarus. They lasted from the 10th until the 16th of September 2021. A large part of the exercise took place on the territory of Belarus, requiring a significant number of Russian military units to be transported into the former Soviet republic, where they carried out the various manoeuvres that the Zapad-2021 set of operational objectives required from them.

Pułaski Policy Paper no 7, July 1, 2021 An unfavourable series of events over the past few years for the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) has left the country once

Pulaski Policy Paper no 6, 2021, 23rd of June 2021 In recent months, nuclear energy has been an increasingly debated topic on the Polish political scene. This growing popularity of

For years after the Cold War invading one its neighbours had been deemed largely unthinkable.  That is, until Moscow’s military rolled across the border of Georgia in August 2008 and seized two provinces which it still occupies today. A similar land grab of Ukrainian territory was fraught with horrendous consequences. In 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded both Crimea and the Eastern Donbas regions. To this day the latter remains a war zone with massive devastation throughout and more than 13,000 persons killed – 25 per cent of those being civilians.

Pulaski Policy Paper no 4, 2021, May 5, 2021 In March this year, it was six years since the outbreak of civil war in Yemen. This conflict has until recently

Pułaski Policy Paper No 3, March 24, 2021 In the first quarter of 2021, Chinese media reported further successes in modernising the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), such as the

The Ukraine defence-industrial complex, usually referred to by the Russian acronym (transliterated) as OPK, was at one time a sprawling and multi-faceted – as well as vital – component of the former Soviet Union’s empire of factories, design bureaux and military R&D centres. Ukraine’s contribution to building Moscow’s massive war machine was considerable and involved several areas of specialisation:

Pulaski Policy Paper no 1, 2021, March 8, 2021 According to the arrangements formulated as part of the Strategic Defense Review, the Armed Forces of the Republic of Poland should

Pułaski Policy Paper no. 12, 2020, 8 December 2020 The 2010 Strategic Concept adopted in Lisbon, a sort of signpost defining the directions in which NATO member states should move in

Current global energy consumption forecasts indicate that although renewables are set to expand by 50% between 2020 and 2025, they will not fully replace fossil fuels in our lifetimes. However, if recent geopolitical, economical, and sociological factors are taken into account, this prediction becomes obsolete. The world is about to enter a period of rapid energy transformation.

Although the legal and political battle over the final outcome of the US presidential elections is not yet over, it is almost certain that it is the Democratic candidate –

Pulaski Policy Paper No 7, 2020. August 20, 2020 As far as the first goal is concerned, Donald Trump has been using a business-like approach to foreign affairs and security

Pułaski Policy Paper No 5, 2020. 28 May 2020 On February 10, 2020 the US President Donald Trump submitted the 2021 defence budget proposal to the Congress in compliance with

Paper No 9, 2019. 24 December 2019  On December 3-4, 2019, the North Atlantic Council held a summit meeting in London to commemorate the 70thanniversary of NATO founding treaty as well

The death of Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi – the self-proclaimed Caliph Ibrahim and the leader of the Islamic State (IS) that had been hiding in Idlib province in northwestern Syria – triggered a number of analysts to announce a major breakthrough in war against the caliphate and the Islamic extremism in general.