The Analysis of Poland’s Foreign Policy through the Individual Level

of Analysis Approach to the Issue of Crimean Annexation by Russia

Agung Tri Putra and Radityo Dharmaputra

International Relations Department, Faculty of Social and Political Science, Universitas Airlangga

Keywords: Annexation of the Crimea, Individual Level of Analysis, Poland, Psycobiography, and Ukraine.

Abstract: Relations between Russia Federation and western countries are heating up again due to the Russia-Ukraine

conflict related to the annexation of the Crimean region. Russia made an attempt to the annexation of

Crimea precisely in 2014, it turns out this annexation effort is supported directly by the Crimean community

that many belong to the ethnic community of Russia. Crimea for the Federation of Russia is a strategic place

to expand its influence in Europe, especially Eastern Europe. Clearly, the effort to annex this region has

been heavily criticized internationally including Poland. At present, the Polish state has become one of

Russia's greatest critics in its many controversial policies. Including in 1968 although the new Polish state

was founded in 1989, resistance to Russia was already present at that time. The author on this occasion uses

a Level of Analysis (Individual) approach with the Psycobiography method in reviewing Polish foreign

policy towards the Russian-Ukrainian conflict by tracing the temporal study of the elected president (2010-

2015), Bronislaw Komorowski of this country from childhood to president. Leaders are the key to a

country's foreign policy, this trend is enormous and can be used as a basis for foreign policy making of a

country. The author's judgment in many policies issued by Poland in addressing the Crimean conflict in

2014 has been somewhat influenced by the personal life and values held by its leaders.

1 INTRODUCTION

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine escalated

in 2014 when the NATO commander observed that

Moscow’s army had entered Russia on 12 November

2014 (BBC, 2014). But its early history was when

President Viktor Yanukovych won the election in

2010, so after the elected president had run the

government, Yanukovych severed ties and

agreements with the EU to further improve relations

with Russia. Though Ukraine itself has been away

and tends to have no relationship with the Russian

Federation during the reign of the previous

president. This political maneuver by Yanukovych

tends to be very dangerous, because Russia is

basically desperate for Soviet Union countries to be

reunited on behalf of the Russian Federation. But at

this moment if it is reviewed in terms of economics

and the objectives desired by President Viktor

Yanukovych to get help from the Russian Federation

are welcomed by President Putin by providing

sustainable economic policies one of them by

purchasing debt of Ukraine of fifteen billion US

dollars and reducing the price gas supply to one-

third. Eventually the protest against this policy

began to enlarge until in December of 2010

protesters controlled the Capital of Ukraine that is

Kiev with a mass of about eight hundred thousand

people (BBC, 2014).

The masses continued to dominate the Ukrainian

capital and continued to grow in line with the

president’s policies that were not in accordance with

the wishes of the people until finally the

demonstrators decided to occupy the office of the

presidential office of Ukraine. Subsequently on

February 22, 2014, the Ukrainian parliament decided

to overthrow or impeach President Yanukovych who

could not be located back then and make the

situation was no longer under control. This condition

lead to a wave of protests. Right after it was reported

by the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin held a

limited meeting which essentially said that the two

governments actually have a good will and the

agenda was not supposed to cause much protest,

Putin then decided to resume control of the Crimea.

This decision is also based on the demographic

condition of the Crimean region, that the people who

reside there are the majority of ethnic Russians, and

it is the responsibility of the Russian Federation to

make them prosperous marked by the Russian

422

Putra, A. and Dharmaputra, R.

The Analysis of Poland’s Foreign Policy through the Individual Level of Analysis Approach to the Issue of Crimean Annexation by Russia.

DOI: 10.5220/0010278200002309

In Proceedings of Airlangga Conference on International Relations (ACIR 2018) - Politics, Economy, and Security in Changing Indo-Paciﬁc Region, pages 422-427

ISBN: 978-989-758-493-0

parliamentary agreement to allow President

Vladimir Putin to do whatever required including the

use of military force in protecting the interests of the

Russian Federation (BBC, 2014).

Then the annexation was done successfully based

on the results of the referendum conducted by the

Crimean society, this referendum resulted in 97

percent of the Crimean community saying it wants

to rejoin the Russian Federation (BBC, 201). The

attempts by Russia to restore the Crimea in its

territory certainly receive many criticisms and

threats from around the world (Europe and the

United States) including Poland. Poland has become

one of Russia’s greatest critics in the Crimean

phased annexation issue. The Polish president stated

that what Russia is doing at the moment is cruel and

has not been seen since the Second World War

(Telegraph, 2015). The annexation of the Crimea is

an act that violates international law according to

Polish authorities, whereas in its policy, Ukraine

seeks to draw closer to the European states, seeking

to live a more normal life without the shadow of

Russia. According to Bronislaw Komorowski, the

war that occurred in Ukraine is an act that is not

praised by Russia and violate the rule of law in the

relationship between countries. Whereas in the past

years Russia was very cooperative with countries

trying to stand on its own feet including Poland,

Bronislaw Komorowski added that Russia’s Red

Army freed its country from the Nazi population, but

now does not at all uphold these values.

President Bronislaw Komorowski’s statement

goes that Poland has very good relations with Russia

before, but in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Poland

tends to be very opposed to the attitude of Russia.

Relations between the two countries were never

good after the end of the Soviet axis of 1989

(Bernstein, 2005). The Polish population based on

the exposure of analysts assumes that the behavior

of Russia is always bad especially regarding

Ukraine. Russia always has the trait to dominate the

small countries around it like Ukraine and Poland.

But in the days of the Crimean annexation by the

Russian Federation is the worst. The Polish

government through its president has made many

connections to pressure Russia in order to relinquish

the Crimea, even President Bronislaw Komorowski

condemned the actions taken by Russia at the annual

meeting of countries in the world through the UN.

1.1 Individual Level of Analysis

To explain the problems and typical policies issued

by Poland against the annexation conflict

perpetrated by Russia against the Crimea, one of the

administrative regions under the authority of

Ukraine, the author decided to use the Individual

Level of Analysis (LoA). Because however the

policy is made, in it will definitely contain the

values brought by the formulater. As Stephen (2004)

has pointed out in Stephen Benedict Dyson that if

you see the British invasion of Iraq strongly

influenced by the authority of Anthony Charles

Lynton Blair, even if it were not for his influence

there would be no one in the plains wanting to fight

with Bush (Dyson, 2006). Blair tends not to take any

pressure in joining the US coalition in attacking Iraq,

even in the view of Naughtie (2004) in Dyson

(2006) Tony Blair is advised to withdraw from the

coalition shortly after being subjected to domestic

pressure by British society, but he is not listening.

Moreover even according to the news circulating

despite the many losses it generates and many

opportunities also to withdraw its involvement in

statehood to support the United States, Blair

remained in its stance, not wanting to withdraw.

Through the understanding of Dyson can be

formulated that it turns out one leadership with other

leadership tend to have different patterns of

decision-making depending on the values owned by

the person. Because according to the psychologist

everyone will learn through dominance, comfort,

resistance, punishment, persuasion, strategy, stress

levels, and control it has (Hudson, 1990). Every

experience in his life will be very influential in the

steps to be taken. In the formulation of foreign

policy, it is very often the researchers illustrate that

the influence of personal is very large, the tendency

of this decision-making style born of the values,

decision styles and perhaps life (Greenstein, 1967,

Winter 2003) in Dyson, 2006). Of course, a series of

paradigms that influence small or large leaders will

influence the spaces of faith, personality, emotions,

perceptions and decision-making processes.

The author uses psychobiography methods in

explaining Polish policy-making phenomenon of

Crimean case. Psychobiography is a method that

develops self-portraiture as a political judgment, in

which it contains the cultural, historical, and

political context of how the personality of the next

leader is formed and the context in politics. The

purpose of this psychobiography is to identify or

translate the pattern of repeated actions to the leader

(Post 2003). Man through his journey of life can be

called an agent who can become the main actor in

the formation of a national identity by combining the

historical experience of the state and the logic that

they have based on self-understanding (Hudson,

The Analysis of Poland’s Foreign Policy through the Individual Level of Analysis Approach to the Issue of Crimean Annexation by Russia

423

2013). The use of psychobiography combines past

life patterns of leaders (elites) that can be fully

explored in psychology. Focusing on consciously

opposed behaviors and through appropriate means,

for example, the policy is not rational in the wider

public’s view but still done by the leader (Post

2003). Running an assessment mechanism of

empathy and detachment is then combined or

combined through awareness of the leader’s

emotional reaction. Then how is the operation? The

Operationalization is to use the tracking of the origin

and dynamics of the leader’s life from his childhood

life, how his steps in going through various

problems or issues in the direction of adulthood,

their early experiences and their personal

psychological development.

1.2 The Personality of Bronislaw

Komorowski

To illustrate the psychobiography of a Bronislaw

Komorowski it is necessary to have a thorough

observation of his life from childhood, his

development in adolescence, and his life in politics

and ideologies adopted by him. It is important

because life in the past is a reflection of future

action, and is the basis for the policy of refusing

annexation of Crimea by Russia. Here is the life of

Bronislaw Komorowski from childhood, youth or

adolescence and his adult life to his political

constellations and ideological views while in the

circle of government of the predecessor presidents in

Poland.

1.2.1 Childhood

President Bronislaw Komorowski was the fifth

Polish President in history after a series of changes

in state forms and conflicts involving the country.

Komorowski was a child raised by an aristocratic

family, in other words he was a noble child of many

landowners in Poland at the time (Britannica, 2017).

He was born on June 4, 1952, precisely in Oborkini

Slaskie region, Poland. The existence of the

communist regime in his country makes his family

very depressed psychologically and economically.

This is not unreasonable, but as the author has

explained earlier that a Komorowski was born of a

noble family to become an object isolated in the

communist regime. Komorowski’s family often

moved from one place to another due to the

communist government's provocation. His parents

had to move after the communist government

decided to expel him from the current territory of

Lithuania (Zoznam, 2015). Bronislaw

Komorowski’s childhood experience was

characterized by scout activities he inspired as a

survival practice, he spent much of his time in the

scout as one of his childhood activities. Young

Komorowski has been very active in anti-communist

opposition activities since he was in high school

(Britannica, 2017). Furthermore, young

Komorowski tends to be close to a democratic

understanding of the communism that he expressed

during school.

1.2.2 Adolescence

President Bronislaw Komorowski was involved

several times in demonstrations such as the March

1968 protests and in 1971 imprisoned for the first

time by local authorities (President, PL, 2017). The

protest in March 1968 was a foundation of Polish

opposition to communism as a governance tool

(Chmielowski, 2011). Students including

Komorowski decided to take to the streets against

the inhuman communist government regime at the

time. His hate in the communist regime at that time

was hateful, evident from his actions during his

college years, his joining to support the solidarity

movement led by the then Polish President Lech

Wales in the 1980s (Zoznan, 2015). Lech Wales,

formerly a technician for the field of electricity,

made and became the brain of a strike movement

against the communist government in Poland in

1980, a demonstration lasting for weeks, with the

allowance for an initial raise of basic labor (BBC,

2017). But eventually it developed into a solidarity

action to improve the lives of the workers and

coupled with the freedom of speech and the release

of political prisoners by the government at that time.

Subsequently he also worked with the Committee on

the Protection of Workers’ Rights and movements to

defend human rights and other civil rights also took

part in many demonstrations to defend his country.

The young Komorowski has also processed himself

as a chief editor of the Freedom and Solidarity

magazine that voices workers’ rights and freedoms

in their work (News Week, 2015). In the years of

Polish communist state government at the time

Bronislaw Komorowski was often arrested and

victimized by government discrimination. The

young Komorowski’s life is very much a struggle

and a hatred of communism and its values. Even in

the years of martial law declared in 1981 it was

interned by the then prevailing authorities because it

was perceived as endangering to the stability of

peace and state security (France 24, 2010).

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1.2.3 Adulthood

In an interview with local media Bronislaw

Komorowski said that in his father’s mind,

Bronislaw was his soldier, his father mobilized

against Bronislaw in a series of actions and often

asked how quickly the uprising would be done,

advised to go to join the guerrilla forces (News

Week, 2015). In addition to a martyr in opposition to

the communist government, Bronislaw Komorowski

is also one behind the spread of anti-government and

anti-communist leaflets, journalists and distributors

and the underground press (Blisko Polski, t.t). After

his release from prison, in 1977 Komorowski

worked at the PAX press group, in 1982 becoming

an independent magazine editor (ABC - Adiatik -

Baltic Black Sea). During the emergency period

until 1989 until Polish freedom from Communism,

Komorowski taught a variety of education in

Niepokalanow. After the destruction of communist

politics in Poland, Bronislaw Komorowski was only

considered to have an important role, then began his

first political career at the Council of Minister

(Britannica, 2017). His political career in the 1990s

was in the direction of liberal democrats in the

Democratic Union and Freedom Union positions

quite convincing in the party that he had served as

secretary-general in both parties (Revolvy, t.t).

Komorowski became a candidate for the

parliamentary seat of the Republican Union party in

1991 and 1993. Through his career in politics it was

clear that a Bronislaw Komorowski was a very

liberal man and in his life he hated Communism

very much. The point is that his life-time is so dark

against the existence of psychological communism

has made Komorowski become very anti against

communism, let alone the factors that cause very

strong as his family who lived moved during the

occupation of communism, by his father was

advised to fight the regime, never do direct action,

joining newspapers to resist information disclosure,

joining many anti-communist movements since the

early days of his youth in high school, was once

considered a threat by the military government after

the martial law was finally interned in certain areas

so as not to damage stability. In behavioral

psychology, it should not be wrong when

Komorowski decides in his political policy not to

support the Crimean annexation movement by the

Russian Federation which has the direction of the

communist state, the ideological enemy of

Komorowski from childhood, to having a political

ideology as a democrat high freedom to argue.

1.3 Identity Construction and Politics

(Fear towards Communism)

Bad experience is an important editorial for a person

to learn and try not to repeat it back in the future. In

the view of Cindy Dietrich (2010) past experiences

can have an impact on future decisions. The reason

is that when a decision produces something good or

positive one is more likely to do more and to make

the same damage by treatment. As for a bad

experience running an unfavorable mechanism, one

tends to avoid decisions that will lead the situation to

a bad thing and repeat the same mistakes (Sagi and

Friedland, 2007 in Dietrich, 2010). Even a mouse in

a proverb says that the rat will not eat the same

poison in its life, or even fall in the same place. Man

as a most perfect creature equipped with the mind

will tend to think like so that the decisions that will

be taken by humans will be created the same pattern.

In addition to the role of past human experience, it

turns out that in decision-making there are also

influential cognitive biases such as trust,

dependence, backward and others (Dietrich, 2010).

Komorowski was a very anti-communist because

he was confronted with an uncomfortable past with

communism. Since childhood Komorowski’s life

was haunted by communism that dominated the

Polish landscapes and caused his family to live

nomadic, often moving around to avoid repressive

attitudes of authority. Even from his early years of

high school education, he had been incorporated into

anti-communist movements, his spirit of nationalism

burning to free Poland from the influence of

communism. It is quite clear that this hatred is

present because a Bronislaw Komorowski belongs to

a noble lineage early in his life, forced to submit to

the rules of communism. His family lands were

usurped by the regime and his wealth was entirely

on the state’s behalf, in the above concept it should

have been the bitter experiences of Komorowski to

direct his political steps away from and condemn the

actions of communism from all sides because it was

so detrimental to him that embraced the values of

liberty and liberalism economy. Moreover,

Bronislaw Komorowski’s political background is

from the democratic party, although at the end of his

government in 2015 he tends to be independent. It is

not surprising, therefore, that Russia’s annexation of

the Crimea in 2014 was thoroughly opposed by

Komorowski as it would revive the influence of

communism in the European region, including

Poland, and potentially jeopardize regional stability

and threaten Poland’s sovereignty in the end.

Because in history Russia has had a strong influence

The Analysis of Poland’s Foreign Policy through the Individual Level of Analysis Approach to the Issue of Crimean Annexation by Russia

425

on European politics, including in Poland. Bad

memories will repeat automatically if Poland returns

under Russian rule.

Bronislaw Komorowski as President of Poland

said in the United Nations General Assembly forum

before all world leaders that the international

community and the countries of the world must

recognize that the Russian occupation of Crimea and

the efforts of the Aggression against Ukraine is a

very necessary to be addressed for violating

international law and its standards, the Crimean

annexation done militarily is not justified by the

concept of human rights (President, PL, 2017). The

dominance of the Russian Empire will be even

greater if not addressed seriously, the surrounding

countries are poor and have no great influence in

terms of the military will continue to be pressed all-

out to obey the regime of Eurasian communism.

Komorowski believes that the only organ capable of

punishing Russia is the UN Security Council, but the

fact is that at present is not sufficiently useful and

functioning well against the Ukrainian conflict, the

tendency of the surrounding countries to fall deeper

will be even greater and disrupt international

stability. In his speech also President Bronislaw

Komorowski expressed his sadness for communism

is very messy and incompatible with the life of the

state, experiencing himself in his youth, he also said

that there was excitement in Poland related to the

twenty-five year warning of the country’s escape

from the influence of communism. Poland is a

country vulnerable to security issues because its

history has always been occupied by enemies from

Europe such as Germany and the east like Russia.

Poland has been trying for 25 years to establish good

relations with the West, to properly restructure its

government and to build a better and new society

visibility without the interference of communism

(The Guardians, 2015).

2 CONCLUSION

Based on the explanation of psychobiographic study

of Bronislaw Komorowski above, it can be

concluded that behind the decision or policy of the

Polish State besides the instinct of the action of

annexation against the Crimea violates international

law and the conceptions of the sovereignty of a state,

it is also the role of a president is quite central in

making that decision. Psychbiography incorporates

both the implicit and explicit facts ever undertaken

by the perpetrator or research subject to conclude

that actions taken in the past have implications for

future actions. As a president who has a family

background of landowners during the communist

occupation of polish, anti-communist activists, and a

state historian can reasonably be considered

reasonable in the policy-making. Moreover, his

involvement in several demonstrations to overthrow

the communist government, it is hinted at his hatred

of communism.

Until the 1980s he was exiled to a territory for

his actions against the government. Time and time

again Komorowski went out in jail. Because the

memory of the past that has never been good with

communism especially when associated with the life

of his family who is a family of landowners (feudal)

is considered a threat to the poor by the communist

government. Finally this segmentation shaped the

psychological life of Bronislaw Komorowski to hate

communism until it brought him into a political

ideology, Komorowski began his political career and

possessed a democratic-liberal political path which

he brought forward as one of the parliamentarians.

The values it brings up are freedom of expression,

prosperity for all Polish citizens and other

democratic policies.

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