The Polish-American Jagiellonian Concept and the Identity of Intermarium. – english version

Wersja w języku polskim dostępna w poprzednim wpisie.

In order to meet the geopolitical changes taking place in the modern world (the environment of the Polish State), LEX NOSTRA conceptually faces strategic dilemmas at the level of culture, identity and, above all, the future on the eastern borders of NATO and the European Union. Appreciating the seriousness of the challenges faced by Central Europe, which is also largely based on American technology and Polish technical thought (LEX NOSTRA), it recognizes the legitimacy of not only entering, but above all opening a debate on the future role of Polish and neighboring countries as an important part of the defense of Western Civilization. Defence relating not only to the space of procurement, technology, armament production, but also to the construction of a friendly space between the Three Seas countries. The Three Seas Initiative, which is a broadly understood security gateway in Eurasia between Asia and Europe.

The Polish-American Jagiellonian Concept and the Identity of Intermarium

Cycle I

The full cycle includes the following references leading to the definition of the role of Polish also at the level of using cultural potentials
in the spaces of building a wider military force within the framework of cooperation with the USA:

Cycle 1. The Polish-American Jagiellonian Concept and the Identity of the Intermarium

Cycle 2. The Cultural and Identity Concept of the First Republic of Poland

Cycle 3. National identity of the Swiss Confederation

Cycle 4. The use of the process of building antagonisms in the process of management in selected regions of the world – a modified colonial „methodology”

Cycle 5. Polishness in the Second Republic of Poland

Cycle 6. Identity and Nationality of Poland after 1945

Cycle 7. The Rivalry Between the Rice Man and the Corn Man – Western Individualism vs. Far Eastern Collectivism

The national approach to European identity is now understood by the American elites, Central European countries and countries located on the Balkan Peninsula. Acceptance of difference as a value, through which, paradoxically, to the negative assessments of the supporters of the concept of „one European nation”, it builds a sense of unity based on the so-called difference grounded in individual identities.

Thus, it is worth risking the thesis that the promotion of individual identities such as Polish, American, Swiss, Czech, Slovak, Hungarian, Croatian, Romanian, Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian builds unity. What is more, it leads to the building of a community cooperating with each other as countries and nations striving to maintain independence, individual culture and distinction in the world that also struggles with the pressure of the globalization approach to understanding the so-called national spaces.

Importantly, the concept coincides with the American perception of the security zone between the two main lines of defense, i.e. the Limes and the Imes. As a consequence, keeping threats away from their own territory. Washington’s gaze may represent an important opportunity not only for providing a military „security cloak” for the aforementioned countries, but also for economic development like Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Croatia, in geographical terms (understood from the perspective of security geopolitics), have the potential to be the second gateway between „economic and military” Europe and Asia. The first is the Turkish Dardanelles, which are a natural water obstacle.

The logistics of the battlefield, securing the armed potentials from the perspective of the strategic interests of the United States of America, require openness to the creation of new opportunities for the economic development of the aforementioned countries, especially Polish, which exists (also in the geographical sense) as a natural glue of the area in question.

The Ukrainian government’s abandonment of the policy of maintaining positive relations with Poland (particularly visible from June 2026 – it was started with Zelensky speech in UN in 2023) seems to be the aim of a noticeable increase in support nullifies previous concepts, for which the reference was a geographical understanding of the importance of the so-called „Baltic-Black Sea backbone”. The foundation for the above was the location on the map of Polish and Ukraine. The authorities in Kiev present themselves as defenders of complete and uncompromising independence towards their own society, even in the face of the tragedy of thousands of Polish families who cannot bury their ancestors with dignity. However, from the perspective of the authorities in Kyiv, the fight for the election result and the possible retention of power is now more important.

For the Americans, who are striving to de-escalate the war, Kyiv’s policy is a signal that it will be difficult to build a second military-economic gateway in the middle of NATO’s eastern wall without a strong binder. Poland is such not only in the geographical sense, but also in terms of identity, culture, politics, economy and history.

Here, the tradition of the so-called Jagiellonian Europe meets the concept, which fits almost perfectly into the American Limes on the Elbe and Imes on the Bug River. Unfortunately, we are currently without Belarus, Ukraine and the Republic of Transnistria, which is not recognized by the „Western world”.

On the other hand, it includes a slightly modified space of the Baltic States of Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland (as a binder), the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Moldova and Romania.

The area characterized by a historical love of freedom by the peoples who live there. Containing the stamp of the slogan: For Our Freedom and Yours, for which the common reference is the Jagiellonian policy from the turn of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, reaching into the distant past. In addition, in the context of Latvia and Estonia, the modified concepts of Sigismund Augustus, Stephen Bathory, Sigismund III Vasa of the political gravitation of the „Common Cause of Nations” to the Baltic Sea.

From the perspective of the European Union, the described space may constitute a significant competition within the structure itself. On the other hand, the current US administration led by President Donald Trump should be given an alternative and the opportunity for a deeper and more advanced policy on the old continent.

Following the thought of St. John Paul II, the contemporary international situation may allow Poland to enter a new function, of binding Europe together. However, not as an unconscious mass that has no alternative to multiculturalism, but as a Europe of homelands built on the basis of the promotion of respect for individual cultures without an ideological context.

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Selected „identity” combinations deliberately created for administrative and conceptual needs in the space of human political activity

Since ancient times, inter alia in Eurasia and Africa, there has been a broader understanding of identity, which we could try to call national today. It did not refer only to a „one-step” understanding of one’s own identity, based only, for example, on religion or language, or even, as in the case of ancient Greece, a political structure, where, despite the multitude of states, there was a strong sense of belonging to the „Hellenic” religion, culture, mythology, way of life, principles and „place”. Similar analogies can be made, for example, to Sumer, Phoenicia, where the sense of community was associated with a broader context.

An interesting example can also be ancient Persia, which ruled a huge area, bordering the Greek states in the west. In the east, it reached as far as western India, in the north it reached the Caucasus and Central Asia, in the southwest it occupied the territories of ancient Egypt (north-eastern Africa). In such a multinational, multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multicultural state, the Persian rule was the glue. To a greater or lesser extent, imposed on individual nations by force.

The slightly more complex situation took place in the Roman Republic, followed by the Roman Empire, which was located from the northern coasts of Africa to the Rhine and Danube rivers in Europe, from the British Isles in the west to the Caucasus Mountains and Mesopotamia in the east. On the one hand, as the result of trade and military settlement, the empire carried out a more or less conscious Romanization, on the other hand, it granted selected inhabitants the status of Roman citizens. At the same time, Rome sought to create the glues that would bind the empire together. The activities contributed to the popularization of, inter alia, the Latin language, Roman law, as well as Christianity in the late period of the existence of the Western Roman Empire.

Probably one of the most famous examples of the skilful use of the dual identity of „state-ethnic” is the figure of St. Paul the Apostle. One of the founders of the Christian church. St. Paul, originally, as a follower of the Mosaic faith, a descendant of the Israelites, also had Roman citizenship. Thus, in the personal sense, he combined two Hebrew ethno-religious identities with a formal Roman one, which gave a whole range of privileges and rights. It should be mentioned that for many subjects of the Roman Empire, obtaining the status of a citizen of Rome was the „subject” of strenuous efforts.

The slightly different „multi-vector” identity also existed in the first half of the ninth century in the territory of the Frankish State ruled by Emperor Charlemagne, which considered itself to be the „reactivated” Western Roman Empire. The Frankish state referred to both the tradition of the Roman Empire and, paradoxically, also the tribal past of the Franks, while using an unusual binder, which was an extinct language, i.e. Latin, and Roman-type Christianity. The sense of belonging to the „armed state” – successively the knightly state with the use of appropriate political tools could also be conducive to the construction of cross-ethnic political identities. The binders mentioned above allowed for the combination of tribal identities, e.g. Frankish with Romanesque (near which new national identities, such as the French, were created in an evolutionary way). Thus, a subject of the Empire of Charlemagne, culturally and linguistically connected with the tribe, e.g. the Franks, in the broader context, could feel like a „part” of the reactivated institution of the Roman Empire. An undoubted success here turned out to be the Roman religious binder used in administrative contacts and church liturgy.

After the fall of the Frankish Empire, as early as the 10th century, further „complexities” appeared, referring in the „identity” sense to both the Western Roman Empire and the Empire of Charlemagne. An example is the one reactivated by the Duke of Saxony, the German king Otto I of the Ludolfing dynasty. From the very beginning of its existence, the reactivated Roman Empire (this time by the Saxons) had a multi-level identity. The person of the emperor, Latin (in the church and administration) were the binders. A resident of northern Italy could feel both a subject of the local state organism and, more broadly, of Rome, ruled by the Germanic Saxons. It should be added, however, that over the following centuries, the structure of the renewed empire underwent profound changes and new identities were created, e.g. Prussian, Bavarian, Austrian, Dutch, Swiss, Hanover, Westphalia, which were subject to two completely opposite processes related to wars, inter alia religious, peasant, dynastic. One consisted in the unification of states and lands considered German or Italian, another in the creation of states excluding their territories from the Roman Empire.

The „gradual” national identity also functioned in the British Empire. The English language was to be the glue along with the culture, the way of administration, the institution of the monarchy. The nations of the British Isles, i.e. the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish, were to be in the immediate area of influence, who, in addition to the sense of belonging to the Scottish nation, were also to be characterized by a broader British identity. Subsequently, the colonists (and their descendants) who settled in various parts of the land belonging to the United Kingdom, e.g. in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Rhodesia or Canada. They were already characterized by a much more complicated sense of identity. On the one hand, e.g. settlers from Wales could refer to the identity of their country of origin, on the other hand, this area together with the population came under the influence of the wider British identity, on the third hand, it was associated with, for example, the place of settlement, e.g. Canada. Thus, there was a need for a broader approach to British national identity in the form of a community. It is worth mentioning that throughout the history of the British Empire, one of these identities (the United States of America) broke with the British identity – the English one in the national sense. It should be added that in terms of identity, language and history, it remained a unique part of the Anglo-Saxon world. However, it should be noted that, unlike the Empire ruled by the Franks or the Saxon Ottonians, the British Empire did not have a religious system that would dominate the country and all the colonies. The state Anglican Church dominated in the decisive way, especially in England and Wales. On the other hand, Catholicism prevailed in Ireland, Calvinism in Scotland. The even more complicated situation existed in the colonies.

It is worth mentioning that today we can find interesting examples of identity among Americans, e.g. of Polish origin. Many feel a double identity on the one hand, the American one, in which they grew up, and on the other hand, Poland, which often associates it with religion, the place of origin of their ancestors.

The similar situation took place in the territory of the First and Second Polish Republics in relation to, for example, Armenians or Polish Tatars. The communities have repeatedly shown great patriotism and blood tribute for the Polish cause – the Republic of Poland. At the same time, they maintained strong religious, ritual, cultural and identity ties with their „kinsmen” scattered in various parts of the globe.

Nowadays, there is a dispute in the European Union about the „creation” of the identity of the old continent. Many political circles of the European Union promote a specific type of European identity, which would be based on a system of rights and freedoms, while rejecting the emphasis on issues such as religion, language, history, ethnicity. This kind of vision and creation of a new common European identity is opposed by circles referring to the national identities of individual Member States. Instead of „one European nation”, they postulate the maintenance and promotion of nation states, which are a component of the European Union and the foundation of the culture of the great Christian heritage of the „Old Continent” – the future of Western civilization in the form of a Europe of Homelands bound together in the sense of identity by the United States, based on the geographical potential of Polish as well.