The idea of the Eastern neighborhood: Poland’s strategic and normative engagement with Georgia

Abstract

Poland’s Eastern policy significantly impacts the broader Eastern Policy of the whole Euro-Atlantic bloc. Recent geopolitical turmoil, namely the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, shape the strategic landscape of the whole continent and primarily that of Central and Eastern Europe. As one of the EU’s largest countries with the highest per capita military spending and the bloc’s Eastern frontier, Poland is both directly affected by and highly motivated to influence developments in this region. Its historical experience and identity grant it even more value and strategic role. While Poland’s Eastern Policy in relation to its direct neighbors, like Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, and Russia, is well-covered in academia, its relations with indirect neighbors, including the South Caucasus, remain relatively unexplored, even though this dimension has become a quite significant part of Polish Eastern Policy during the last two decades. This MA thesis addresses this gap by examining Poland’s Eastern Policy through the case study of its engagement with Georgia, incorporating theoretical analytical lenses of contesting International Relations Theories – realism, liberalism, and constructivism. MA Thesis “The Idea of the Eastern Neighborhood: Poland’s Strategic and Normative Engagement with Georgia” on the one hand seeks to explore key drivers explaining Poland’s engagement with Georgia and dynamics of bilateral relations, and on the other hand, aims to contribute to the long-lasting debate among contesting IR Theories, examining whether realism, liberalism and constructivism best explain Polish motivations in relation with Georgia and what dynamics and patterns emerge amid this debate. The research uses a mixed method. It is an outcome-centered explanatory study analyzing Polish foreign policy towards Georgia in the period between 2004-2024. The study combines quantitative analysis, analyzing the frequency of high-level meetings between Georgian and Polish officials, and qualitative content and critical discourse analysis – exploring change and continuity in discourses of those meetings. The study finds that the drivers of Poland’s engagement vary across time and administrations, reflecting a combination of liberal (liberal intergovernmentalism and institutionalist), constructivist, and neoclassical realist principles. Early engagement is primarily shaped by liberal intergovernmentalism and institutionalism, while the peak of bilateral exchange combines constructivist ideals rooted in the Jagiellonian Mission and realist strategic interests, including energy diversification and security considerations. Policy intensity and focus shifted over time and were explicitly influenced by changes in political leadership in both countries.