Abstrakt

Multilateralism and Bilateralism in Polish Foreign Policy 1923-1925

The article aims to describe the activities of two historical figures that were pivotal for Polish foreign policy in the years 1923-1925, General Władysław Sikorski and Minister of Foreign Affairs Aleksander Skrzyński. At the time, Polish foreign policy developed in the shadow cast by major international players. The years in question brought changes in the foreign policies of France, the United Kingdom and Germany. The beginning of this period was marked by a change in France’s policy towards its former enemy Germany. The end of it was marked by the signing of the Rhine Pact in Locarno. The failure of the League of Nations system of collective security, which led to the failure of such projects as the Treaty of Mutual Assistance (1923) and the Geneva Protocol (1924), made Poland address the fundamental issue: whether to act pursuant to the League of Nations system of security or to mobilise its current allies and seek new ones. Torn between the guarantees of the largest of its allies at the time, France, and the struggle to find security guarantees within the Leagues of Nations, Poland, as a newly restored country-state, wanted to maintain the status quo. Aware of its military weakness, Poland did this while being constantly exposed to the attack from the allied forces of Germany and the Soviet Union. Thus, Poland found it necessary to find allies among the countries that were at risk of the attack from the USSR and the Weimar Republic. It had to face yet another problem, namely the growing rapprochement between Germany, France and the United Kingdom and the attempts to revise the Treaty of Versailles made by Germany upon its signing of the Locarno Treaties (1925).