Poland’s securitization of Russian threat: a case study from annexation of Crimea to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine

Abstract

The study focuses on how the securitization narratives of Polish leadership developed and intensified in response to the Russian aggression in Ukraine, including the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the full-scale invasion in 2022. The study employs the Copenhagen School's Securitization theory as its main theoretical framework, combined with Vouri's developed methodology of Five Strands" Framework for analyzing securitization speech acts, to examine the discourse of the Polish Prime Minister and President during the periods of 2014-2015 and 2022-2023. The study shows that the Polish leadership's securitization became more intensified from 2014-2015 to 2022-2023. During the period of annexation of Crimea, Polish leadership discourse securitized Russia as a threat to Ukraine's sovereignty, Poland's regional eastern flank, and ultimately the Euro-Atlantic region, and for these threats, Polish leadership focused on extraordinary measures such as imposing sanctions against Russia and the militarization of NATO and the presence of the NATO forces on the eastern flank. However, after the full-scale invasion, Polish discourse became more intensified and presents that Russia is the greatest threat to the whole civilization and the peace of Europe and the world. Therefore, Europe and the international community should take extreme, extraordinary measures to completely defeat Russia in this war. Among the extraordinary measures, supporting Ukraine to acquire arms, and NATO should call for additional measures such as tough and strong economic sanctions, a permanent presence on the eastern flank, and the NATO border should be extended to the southern part as well.