21 hours Ago By Special to National Post
Article content While browsing social media, I recently came across a map showing all the countries with higher per capita gross domestic product than Poland in 1990 and 2018. The difference was striking. While 35 years ago there were quite a few such countries — not only in Europe, but also in South America, Asia and Africa — in time, their number has significantly decreased.
In 2018 there were no longer any South American or African states highlighted on the map. By 2025, the group has shrunk even further. According to International Monetary Fund data, Poland’s GDP in 1990 was a mere $6,690 in current dollars.
By 2024, it grew almost eight-fold, to $51,630. All that in just one generation. And it goes on.
The European Commission forecasts that Poland will be the fastest growing large economy in the European Union in 2024-25. How did this happen? Apart from the hard work of our citizens, two major factors — or, to be more precise, two institutions — contributed to Poland’s economic success: NATO and the European Union. NATO, which Poland joined in 1999, provided security guarantees and helped overcome decades-old divisions between eastern and western Europe.
The EU, which we joined five years later, took the process of easing long-standing disparities one step further: it granted new member states access to so-called cohesion funds, but most importantly to the common European market. After the fall of communism in Poland in 1989 and the return of messy democratic politics, despite all the day-to-day political squabbles, one thing remained constant no matter who was in power — Poland’s determination to join the two aforementioned organizations. Why? We are a great nation but a medium-size country.
We cherish our long history, but our population is much smaller than that of Beijing and Shanghai combined. Poland needs allies to boost its potential on the international stage. What worked for Poland might also work for many other so-called middle powers in Asia, Africa and South America.
These countries often need what Poland desperately needed 35 years ago and still profits from: good governance, foreign investments with no strings attached and, above all, political stability, the rule of law and a predictable international environment with neighbours that are eager not to wage wars but to work together for mutual benefit. In fact, these factors can benefit every country, no matter its level of GDP. Today, the international order is being challenged on multiple fronts.
Sometimes for good reasons. Decades-old institutions — including the United Nations and its Security Council — are unrepresentative of the global community and incapable of dealing with the challenges we face. What they need, however, is to be thoroughly reformed, not entirely rejected.
To those desperate for change, the use of force might sound appealing. But it would be a mistake. Abandoning forums for international dialogue and resorting to violence will not get us very far.
Take Russia’s unprovoked aggression against Ukraine. According to the Kremlin’s propaganda, it is a justified reaction to western imperialism, which allegedly threatens Russia’s security. In fact, it’s a modern-day colonial war against the Ukrainian people who — just like us Poles 30 years ago — want a better life and realize they can never achieve that goal by going back to being subjugated by Russia.
That is what they are being punished for: an effort to free themselves from the control of a former colonizer. The Kremlin’s aggression is the desperate struggle of a failing empire to restore its sphere of influence. A Russian victory — may it never come — would not create a more just global order.
It wouldn’t benefit countries that are dissatisfied with where things stand now. It wouldn’t even bring about a more just and prosperous Russia. War is hardly ever a shortcut to prosperity.
Over the last millennium, Poland experienced its share of invasions and uprisings against occupying forces. What finally brought us prosperity was three decades of peace, predictability, international co-operation and political stability. That is why, upon assuming the presidency of the Council of the European Union, Poland made its priority clear: security in its many dimensions, from military, through economic to digital.
A Europe that is safe, prosperous and open for business can benefit not only Europeans, but the larger global community — just as it benefited Poland over the last three decades. It may sound dull, but it worked. Just look at the numbers.
National Post Radosław Sikorski is Poland’s foreign minister..
