ABSTRACT
This chapter studies the bilateral cooperation between Poland and Germany in security and defence and follows a twofold aim. First, it examines whether the Polish–German bilateral relationship in this policy area constitutes a building block of embedded bilateralism. Second, the analysis uncovers whether the three explanatory categories put forward in this volume – historical legacy, interdependence and asymmetry – impact the bilateral cooperation in security and defence and whether they support or limit it. Our study shows that asymmetry has strong explanatory power, serving as an impediment to Polish–German cooperation in security and defence. Historical legacy also has explanatory sway, but mainly adds to the negative effect of asymmetry in the sense that an ‘asymmetry of historical legacies’ can be detected between the two neighbours. Furthermore, asymmetry also hinders both the resilience of the bilateral cooperation to crisis and the ability and willingness to exert joint leadership in the EU. Thus, Polish–German security and defence cooperation does not subscribe to the concept of embedded bilateralism.
