Regional cooperation in Ukrainian and Polish security discourse

Abstract

The Russian–Ukrainian conflict and growing tensions in the post-Soviet area since 2014 have brought back geopolitical thinking and put security issues into central focus for Europe. The Russian aggressive revanchism, deep internal crisis within the European Union, and armed conflicts in the EU’s neighborhood affect the debate on the future development of Eastern and Central European countries and potential of regional collaboration overlooking formal EU borders. All these factors have pushed the national elites in Poland and Ukraine to seek a redefinition of regional and security cooperation. Current ideas for regional cooperation are being developed under different initiatives: the ‘Intermarium,’ Three Seas Initiative, Baltic–Black Sea Union, 16 + 1 initiative (cooperation between China and 16 Central and Eastern European countries), etc. Aiming to assess the political potential for transnational cooperation in this part of Europe, this paper takes as a starting point the identification of the main discourses on these topics that dominate among Ukrainian and Polish elites.