Külügyi Szemle - A Teleki László Intézet Külpolitikai Tanulmányok Központja folyóirata - 2005 (4. évfolyam)
2005 / 3-4. szám - DIPLOMÁCIATÖRTÉNET - Himmler Tamás: A lengyel külpolitika útjai az 1930-as években
Résumé Résumé Polish Foreign Policy in the 1930s The idea of a cooperation among the Central and East European countries is not new; there existed plans to integrate the region even in the 19th century as well. The birth of the German Empire, the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy, and the border changes after the First World War created an absolutely new geopolitical situation, which brought these ideas into the limelight again. The newly established Central European small states found themselves in an exposed position. The small states, squeezed between the German and the Soviet empires, rightly assumed that the growth of these two powers could only be realized at their own expense. Given this fact, the leading politicians of the successor states tried to join or create alliances for the sake of the future and the security of their countries which might guarantee the security of the region. The study discusses in details one of these attempts, namely, Polish Foreign Minister Josef Beck's Central Europe concept, which came to be known as Intermarium. The concept is one of the foreign political doctrines which visualized a 'Third Europe'. The idea would have provided for a north-south axis, that is, such an alliance in Central Europe which would have empowered the small states of the region to counterbalance the great power agression by the bolshevik Soviet Union in the east and Nazi Germany in the west. The plan aimed at eliminating the weakness of the small states int he face of these pressures, while it also endeavored to utilize the current power relations. The weakness of the idea was most manifest in the fact that it did not take into account the divergent interests of the small states. The primary goal of Beck's plan was to provide for approriate diplomatic and international background for the maintenance of Poland's revived independence and, at the same time, to lift Poland a regional power in Central Europe. The Polish foreign minister was convinced that it was only the fulfillment of these two goals that could provide the necessary guarantee for Poland's survival in the long run. Die Wege der polnischen Außenpolitik in den 1930er Jahren Der Gedanke von der Solidarität der mittelosteuropäischen Kleinstaaten ist nicht neuen Ursprungs, bereits im 19. Jahrhundert gab es Vorstellungen in Bezug auf die Integration dieses Raumes. Durch die Entstehung des Deutschen Reiches, den Zerfall der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie sowie durch die Grenzmodifizierungen von Versailles wurde eine ganz neue geopolitische Lage geschaffen, durch die diese Bestrebungen 2005. ősz-tél 265
