The nexus between domestic politics and foreign policy: Poland's (de) Europeanization

Abstract

Starting from the fall of communism, Poland underwent various changes in its domestic and foreign policies. The country's desire to strengthen ties with the West through EU and NATO membership has changed traditional concepts, systems, and norms. This thesis aims to show Poland's transformation from Europeanisation to de-Europeanisation by testing the de-Europeanisation theory in an EU Member State. With an application of de-Europeanisation theory, this thesis aims to demonstrate whether there is a link between de- Europeanisation domestically and foreign policy behavior. By using primary, and secondary sources as well as semi-structured elite interviews, I divitle Poland's recent political history into two distinct periods. Therefore, I demonstrate both the existence ofa Europeanization effect from the 1990s until 201 O and a de­Europeanization effect following the coming to power of the PiS and the global fınancial crisis and multiple Euro crises. The fırst part (1990-2010) adopted two cases; the 1997 Constitution and EU-NATO membership, while the second part (2010-2020) tested the theory with the anti-abortion bill and the Syrian refugee crisis. Hence, this thesis has two fundamental aims; depicting the extent to which there is democratization and de- Europeanization in a Member State of the EU and demonstrating through the case studies, (Poland's de-Europeanisation) that the nexus between these domestic policies feeds into foreign policy behaviour.