| dc.description.abstract | The article describes and compares strategic cultures of selected member states of the Three
Seas Initiative (Poland, Romania, the Baltic states, Hungary and Croatia) by indicating both
their convergences and divergences. The author has focused on the following three elements
of strategic culture: the direction of transformation of armed forces, the preferred direction of
foreign policy cooperation (Atlantic vs. European), and relations with the Russian Federation.
The research methods comprised analysis, synthesis, comparison and generalisation. The author
has paid special attention to analysing a range of documents and reports describing the
national security strategies of the selected countries, their military strategies and operational
concepts, including the following: The National Security Concept of Estonia, The Polish Foreign
Policy Strategy 2017–2021, The Military Strategy of the Republic of Lithuania, The Republic of
Croatia National Security Strategy, The Croatian Armed Forces Long-Term Development Plan
2015–2024, The Military Strategy of Romania – Modern Armed Forces for a Powerful Romania
within Europe and Around the World, The Defence Concept of the Republic of Poland, and The
National Defence Strategy of Estonia. In developing this paper, reference was also made to
publications released by other authors researching strategic cultures, including Marion
Smith, Andrew Korybko and Jacek Bartosiak.
The presented research results indicate that strategic cultures of the selected member
states of the Three Seas Initiative exhibit more similarities than differences. Similarities
were identified as regards transformation of armed forces, foreign policy inclinations and
threat perception, while differences were found to refer mainly to relations with the Russian
Federation. The conclusions formulated in the article can serve as the starting point to further
investigations into the relevance of cooperation within the Three Seas Initiative. | en_EN |
