The European Security System: A Polish Viewpoint

Abstract

In studying problems of foreign policy of any state or any group of states, researchers in the socialist countries deem it necessary to analyse, to consider carefully and to weigh all factors which exert influence on the formation of the nature and aims of their foreign policy, as well as upon the hierarchy of these aims and the methods employed to achieve them. The foreign policy of a state is determined, in the final analysis, by the interests of the social forces (or classes) which are in power in that state. At the same time, various concrete foreign policy actions taken by the state can be and often are influenced not only by internal factors (as well as by specific features of the historical, socioeconomic and political development of the country), but also by the general situation in the international arena and the balance of power operating therein.