Bulwark, bridge, or periphery? : polish discourse on Poland and Europa cHege Haaland

Abstract

The theme of the thesis is the preconditions for Polish European policies. The thesis bases itself on theories of identity formation and constructivism and investigates the process of how Polish foreign (European) policies stand in a mutually constitutive relationship to Polish identity. Doing this it applies the methodical approach of discourse analysis as the Copenhagen School has developed it. It is assumed that discourse conditions what can be meaningfully said and done and that what conditions Polish European policies are representations of state, nation, and Europe.

The thesis focuses on the Polish discourse on Poland and Europe in the period from 1989 to 1999 with a particular focus on the debates on EC/ EU association/ membership. However, it is argued that the discourse of today is influenced by discourses of the past. The second chapter goes back to the pre-history of the Polish discourse on Poland and Europe and looks into how state, nation and Europe has been represented in Poland throughout history. The Communist period is treated in particular because it is believed that this period has particular influence on the present discourse.

In the third chapter it is argued that there are mainly two constellations of Polish representations of state and nation. One constellation is called culture nation/ power state, and seems to be the dominant one. Another challenging constellation is called political nation centralized state. When the culture nation/ power state relates to representations of Europe it is argued that power and/ or culture as a way of self-expression on the international arena is either strengthened or weakened. One constellation relates to a representation of Europe as a meeting place of values and de-emphasizes both power and culture. Another relates to a representation of Europe that is under constant threat and involves the rearticulating layer one in terms of culture as a way of self-expression. The third relates to a representation of Europe as decadent and in decay. This activates both power and culture. The fourth relates to a representation of Europe in terms of power, something that activates power as a way of self-expression. The political nation centralized state relates to a representation of Europe as the cradle of modernization and development and established a relation to Europe as one where Europe teaches Poland how to become European.

The fourth chapter of the thesis is a through analysis of statements from Polish debates on Europe from 1989 to 1999. Polish parliamentary debates on EC/ EU association and membership are treated in particular. Throughout the analysis it is pointed out how the actors mobilize rhetorical weapons by representing historical facts and events, how they attempt at conserving and/ or creating unity with the past in their argumentation, how the constellations of state/ power, nation/ culture, and Europe make themselves known in the argumentation, and it is shown what shapes of Europe and what kind of Polish place in Europe this allows for. It is argued that there are mainly five policy positions that emerge from the relational layer that are called bulwark, bridge, periphery, island, and Middlesea. It is also argued that there is a variant of one of the positions that is called island redefined. This variant has emerged in the course of the last years and it is argued that it has developed as the result of a redefinition of the value of sovereignty as a means of self-expression.

The thesis rounds up by arguing that none of the Polish European policy positions are dominant, but that the positions called bulwark, bridge, and periphery, probably are stronger than the island and the Middlesea. There are, however, some traits that seem to unite across some of the different positions. Europe is usually promoted as a project that conserved the nation and/ or the state as primary units. It is not likely that Poland will promote a federative Europe. Europe also primarily includes the East and the primacy of an all-European political project in underlined. All positions in one way or another represent Polish identity as a European identity. The final conclusion is that the results of the analysis, although based on some post-structural assumptions, do not challenge the modernist assumption that the state is the central actor on the international scene.