ABSTRACT

In Western academia, power has been defined and measured in a straightforward way. At the heart of most measurements is an understanding that certain attributes and resources spawn power. Poland sees things differently. It has to. Its leaders remain painfully aware that it lacks – for reasons of history and geography – the resources of its more powerful neighbours. Its positioning as part of Europe's squeezed Mittel between Germany and Russia only underlines its continued lack of power, at least, when measured in coercive terms. Poland thus sees the European Union as the means to escape its history and its geography. It needs a system which allows it to build its potential without this causing tensions with its large neighbours, especially when it comes to demography, natural resources and economic development. The compatibility of European Union-style Kantian potentia and United States-style Hobbesian potestas has long been a source of contention for philosophers and theorists.