Poland & Central Europe

Short description:

The lecture has to be devoted today’s geopolitical situation of Poland and Central Europe in the face of deep shift in the world politics. The relative weakening of the European Union and the United States, emerging of new economic powers  of China and India, the menaces connected with Kremlins politics,  increasing energy  and ecological  problems, issues of new technologies,  world politics demographic and migration problems finally financial crises  – these are factors of those world transformations which apply to the analysis  of geopolitical situation of the region.

Topics:

The lecture will bring up the following topics and questions:

The various definition of CE. Symbolic and historic geography.

The description of the chosen countries of CE: Slovakia, Czech, Hungary, Romania

The borders of CE: Belorus, Ukraine;EU- neighbourhood policy

CE and Germany

CE and Russia

Demography of CE

The scenarios for Poland 2015-2030.

The lecture will be connected with discussion on newest books on world politics and political science (not yet translated into polish).

Selected literature:

Derek Sayer, The Coast of Bohemia. A Czech History. Princeton 1998.

Levesque Jacques (1997): The Enigma of 1989. The USRR and the Liberation of Eastern Europe.

Kontler Laszlo: A History of Hungary (2009).

Cartledge Bryan: The Will to Survive. A History of Hungary, London 2006.

Marc Leon: What’s so Eastern about Eastern Europe? Twenty Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall, (2009)

Mazower Mark: The Balkans (2000).