Research

Being refugee: a European narrative, (2017-2018), expert: Christopher Lash PhD

Being refugee: a European narrative is a project funded by the European Union under the Europe for Citizens Program, Action 1: European Remembrances. The project is scheduled for 18 months and will begin in January 2017. It will be carried out by the Austrian Academy of Sciences together with six European partners. One of them is Lazarski University, on behalf of which Christopher Lash PhD is participating in the project. Although the project focuses its attention mainly on the 20th and 21st centuries, its role is to show the universality of the refugee experience in Europe over the centuries. The main goal of the project is to show that Being a Refugee is a common European experience, which should shape a common European historical narrative on the subject. The expected outcome of the project will be four exhibitions on refugees in four European museums in the project partners' cities (an exhibition in Warsaw is not assumed at this time), a collective monograph containing scholarly articles by project participants, and a virtual exhibition on the project website. Christopher Lash PhD will participate in research meetings in Vienna and will submit a scientific article for the collective monograph.

STATUTORY RESEARCH:

Lord Acton and Poland, (2014-present), contractor: Prof. Krzysztof Lazarski.

Preparation of a new version of the book entitled. "Power Tends to Corrupt: Lord Acton's Study of Liberty" and adapting it for a Polish audience. The book is the first in-depth analysis of Lord Acton's thought in more than 50 years. Prof. Krzysztof Lazarski presents his work in very accessible language and focuses his attention on the concept of "freedom" in Western political thought. The book presents an impressive history of freedom and is an extremely penetrating analysis of one of the most important political minds of the 19th century - Lord Acton.

Models of Political Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, (2014 - present), by Spasimir Domaradzki, PhD.

Political transformation is the subject of a number of economic, political, sociological or cultural studies. Many authors recognize the specific mechanisms and relationships, and their impact, that determine the period of transition. However, the topical question remains: why was the transformation successful in some countries and not in others? Why is it that among countries that at the end of communism were at a fairly similar level of civilizational advancement today one can see marked discrepancies in each area? The research conducted focuses on analyzing development trends in individual countries in the region and comparing trends in political, social and economic change with other regions that have undergone transformation.

Understanding the concept of Europe's borders on the example of the European Neighborhood Policy and the Eastern Partnership, (2014 - present), contractor: Jan Grzymski PhD.

The project aims to explore the understanding of the concept of Europe's borders that can be found in the concrete political practices of the European Union, particularly in the European Neighborhood Policy and, with regard to Europe's "eastern" border, in the framework of the Eastern Partnership. The idea is to critically analyze the perceptions and specific ways of constructing various concepts of political, cultural, social borders by politicians, experts, officials from the European Union. The project assumes that these perceptions and conceptions of borders have a direct impact on the formation of EU neighborhood policy. Such a study also entails a number of other issues, most notably the problem of European identity and how the EU exerts influence on its immediate surroundings. The European Neighborhood Policy(ENP) and the Eastern Partnership(EaP) will serve as a case study for such a sweeping exploration of understanding the concept of Europe's borders.

Revolutions and political upheavals as a cause of starting military aggression and becoming a target of it, (2016 - present), by Michal Kuz PhD.

With reference to the political science literature on revolutions, the starting point of this project is the assumption that within five years of a revolution, the probability that a country will engage in military conflict increases dramatically. However, this literature lacks a clear statement regarding the probability of whether a country will be the aggressor or the target of an attack. The goal of this project is to examine what factors determine the specific types of military actions that countries that have undergone a revolution in the past five years engage in. The working hypothesis of this project is that geopolitical and economic factors that shape a country's regional influence play a key role. In the project, PhD Michal Kuz proposes a dual typology of revolutions. "Hegemonic revolutions" (China, Russia, France) are rarer, but if they occur then they create strong incentives for local hegemons seeking to transform a region and provoke military conflict. "Peripheral revolutions" are perceived by local hegemons as a threat to their influence and hence post-revolutionary political regimes become easier targets for military aggression.