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Syndicated News from PolandEmergency face transplant successfully performed in PolandDate Added: Wed, 22 May 2013 14:59:08 GMT
Oaktree Says Banks Stifling Corporate Bond Market: Poland CreditDate Added: Wed, 22 May 2013 07:50:30 GMT
Poland Delays Tax to Prevent More Exits by Shale Gas ExplorersDate Added: Wed, 22 May 2013 20:00:04 GMT
Polish man gets quick face transplant after injuryDate Added: Wed, 22 May 2013 15:54:50 GMT
New EU climate policy unlikely before 2015: PolandDate Added: Wed, 22 May 2013 20:51:55 GMT
Boston marathon bombs 'triggers wave of Chechen immigrants to Poland'Date Added: Wed, 22 May 2013 15:23:20 GMT
Poland Seeks PLN0.13/Share Dividend from PGNiGDate Added: Wed, 22 May 2013 11:55:15 GMT
Muslim religious leaders meet with Holocaust survivors in PolandDate Added: Tue, 21 May 2013 23:18:32 GMT
Pressing Poland On Holocaust Restitution Presents Dilemma For US, Jewish ...Date Added: Wed, 22 May 2013 14:09:36 GMT
Poland to Chihuahua, they seek Council seatsDate Added: Wed, 22 May 2013 20:15:04 GMT
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Poland HeadlinesResults Page:POLAND AS A GLOBAL PLAYERDate Added: Wednesday, June 25th, 2003Contributed by: RCN Administrator
It came as quite a surprise two weeks ago when Washington
offered Warsaw a leading role in administering a military zone in postconflict Iraq. The sensation was compounded by Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski’s invitation to Germany and Denmark, Poland’s partners in a joint NATO corps stationed in Szczecin, to contribute troops to the Polish-led stabilization force in the Polish "occupation zone" in Iraq. In an arresting display of diplomatic theater, Germany declined the proposal, saying that it would not consider any military role in Iraq without a UN mandate. The Danes reportedly answered that they are going to commit their troops to a British sector. Poland’s remarkable appearance on the global stage took place against a backdrop of sour relations between Washington and two important EU countries, Germany and France, which have taken a tough anti-U.S. stance on Iraq. It is no wonder, therefore, that Washington’s favoring of Poland is generally seen as a sort of punishment for the "old Europe" that does not want to back U.S. foreign-policy interests. This fact will hardly make Poland’s mission in Iraq any easier. Szmajdzinski announced on 12 May that the Polish stabilization force in Iraq will be deployed in a sector between Baghdad and Al-Basrah, that is, between a British-administered sector in the south and a U.S.-administered sector in the north. "We have made a decision, and as a result the Polish division is to operate in the upper southern zone. We have just begun negotiating with our potential partners in this zone," Szmajdzinski said. He added that the negotiations over which countries are to participate in the Polish sector will continue until 22-23 May, when a conference on the issue is to be held in Warsaw. Szmajdzinski said Warsaw has asked NATO to provide support for its mission in Iraq, recalling the trans-Atlantic alliance’s involvement in the 4,500-strong International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan. "It is a normal and a natural thing for Poland to ask allied countries, to have informal talks about the possibility of making use of instruments that the alliance has -- to provide help with the shaping of the operational plans for setting up communications systems and sharing the intelligence of the allied states.... Should these instruments be made available to us, this would mean the acceptance by the 19 states of such actions," Szmajdzinski said. The Polish military sector in Iraq will encompass an area of some 80,000 square kilometers with 3 million inhabitants, although U.S. military command has not yet set the precise borders of the Polish zone. Poland is reportedly planning to send 1,500-2,000 service personnel to Iraq. General Andrzej Tyszkiewicz, Poland’s former envoy to NATO, has been named commander of a multinational division in the Polish sector in Iraq. The division is to comprise 6,000-7,000 service personnel, although it has not been reported which countries will contribute to this force. Szmajdzinski said it would be better for Poland if there were a UN Security Council mandate for its mission in Iraq, but he added that the mission must be carried out even without such a resolution. "We cannot liberate the Iraqi people and then say: ’There is no resolution so we leave things as they are and pull out.’ The point is to make it possible for the Iraqi people to take responsibility for their country in a democratic and sovereign way," he explained. While many Poles feel pride in their country’s unexpected role as a major international player, some Polish and international commentators warn that Warsaw’s Washington-fuelled "global ambitions" might backfire in the European Union, which Poland is expected to join in a year. First, since Poland’s staunch backing of the United States so irritates EU heavyweights Germany and France, these two countries might prove less keen to dole out EU aid to Poland. Commentators point out that in 2006, the EU is scheduled to renegotiate its regional-subsidies policy to accommodate new members. They suggest that Poland might find it hard to remain a net recipient of EU subsidies, particularly since Germany is the principal contributor to the EU budget. Polish commentators also argue that while Poland made the right strategic decision in siding with the United States in the Iraq war and should justly expect political and economic benefits from this, Warsaw should not necessarily associate itself with all U.S. global interests. In particular, some analysts argue that Washington’s purported intention to erode the German-French anti-U.S. stance on Iraq with the help of Warsaw will prove unsuccessful and will only bring Poland trouble. The daily "Rzeczpospolita" wrote on 12 May that Poland’s European choice requires that the country become unambiguously involved in the building of the EU’s common foreign-policy and security system, which in turn implies that Warsaw must seek rapprochement with Berlin and Paris. A step in this direction was made last week by Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski, who met with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac in Wroclaw, within the so-called Weimar Triangle format. The summit did not produce much of substance, but one thing did not pass unnoticed in Poland. Both Schroeder and Chirac declared that they want to see Poland as an equal partner in the EU. It was also noticed that neither Berlin nor Paris wants Warsaw to be a broker in dealings between Europe and the United States. "I do not get the impression that we need a bridge between the EU and the United States," Chirac told journalists in Wroclaw. Even if Poland’s involvement in the Iraq war has contributed to a significant elevation of the country’s international profile, it has simultaneously brought a host of additional problems -- diplomatic, financial, military, administrative, and so on -- with which Warsaw must immediately and successfully cope if it wants to build on its surprising political standing. It should not be forgotten that Poland remains a country in transition, plagued by nearly 20 percent unemployment and ruled by a minority government with approval ratings barely over 10 percent. There seems to be no immediate concept of how to translate the country’s bold and successful international policy into an equally bold and successful domestic one in order to boost the morale of its disappointed citizens. At the same time, any failure on the part of the government to live up to its present international challenge might not only be fatal for the government itself, but could also exacerbate public disillusionment with the country’s postcommunist transformation.Results Page:
Date Added: Monday, June 23rd, 2003 |
