News & Publications

There is a corrosive effect on the democracy that does not meet its foreign or internal challenges from violent extremists.   This paper was delivered in 2002 at the Bangladesh Institute of International & Strategic Studies and the American Center, US Embassy, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Copyright (c) 2002 by BIISS Journal.

In Poland, the Americans have been one of the most popular nations. Many Poles reflexively attach positive connotations to the United States. It is enough to remember the gratitude of most of them for having facilitated Poland’s accession to NATO. Before 1989, the Poles hoped that “America” would help them shake off the Soviet yoke.…

Many a scholar strives to expound his thoughts in harmony with modern concerns. Thus,Dariusz Stola depicts an important Jewish nationalist leader and Polish politician as a precursor of the modern-day multiculturalist. Although this approach is perhaps quite valid, the author has fortunately limited such theorizing largely to the conclusion of Hope and Holocaust: Ignacy Schwarzbart…

The story of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 is grim. Over 200,000 Poles died, most of them civilians. The Polish independentist elite (which was anti-Nazi and anti-Communist) was decimated, in particular its youth who fought and sacrificed in the hopeless endeavor to regain the nation’s independence. The capital was in ruins, methodically blown up block…

This paper was presented as the First Dekaban Memorial Lecture delivered at St. Mary’s College of Ave Maria University on March 3, 2002. A human being virtually always has a choice of how to conduct himself. Depending on the circumstances and conditions, a man can choose to behave actively or passively, atrociously or decently, and,…

"I returned to the town where I was a childand a teenager and an old man of thirty.The town greeted me indifferentlybut the streets' loudspeakers whispered:don't you see the fire is still burning,don't you hear the flame's roar?Get out.Find another place.Search for it.Search for your true homeland."  So goes the amazing poem by Adam Zagajewski,…

There is a growing danger that the two most important global "ships," the United States and the European Union, might pass each other in the night. As evidenced by President George W. Bush's two summer tours of Europe, and the media frenzies that preceded them, the sources of contention between the two world powers are…

Did you know that the Magna Carta predated the Act of Cienia (safeguarding laws at the expense of the monarch's power) by thirteen years only? However, Poland's Neminem Captivabimus preceded England's Habeas corpus by over 150 years. Easily accessible nuggets of the Polish past come in handy if one teaches, as I do, Western Civilization…

When I resolved to write about Polish contributions to the intellectual heritage of humanity, I imagined the skeptics rolling their eyes expecting yet another futile exercise of “The Elephant and the Polish Question” genre. What does one’s origin have to do with one’s creativity? The answer is, well, quite a bit but on many unexpected…

Recent polls indicate that America faces deep hostility in the Arab world. After faltering in attempts to recast its image, America should now focus on soft power and public diplomacy to reverse this antagonism.