“We are in a very, very grave period in the world”, Henry Kissinger warned us a few years ago. And he was right: the global order is in a time of transition. Central and Eastern Europe is both clearly affected by the processes of change and influences European affairs in an unprecedented way. New political and social phenomena have emerged in the region, such as the decline of approval for liberal values and the rise of illiberal democracy. Meanwhile, it is also an area of competition among the great powers, with Russia’s continuous efforts to undermine European integration, and the need for a  reconsideration of the Western powers’ role in the region.

The project aims to deal with a reinforcement of the US-German alliance and the potential repercussions for the region. Therefore, it will research the possibility of the Americans passing the responsibility for the region to Germany to become a stabilizing force in the area. It will also answer the question of whether the Biden administration is able to consolidate Central and Eastern Europe again as a united pro-US alliance, and how the US disengagement in Central and Eastern Europe may affect their relations with competing powers. The project will look into the case studies of Poland, Hungary and Romania in the context of great-power competition, so as to analyse possible political scenarios for the region.

Marcin Fatalski graduated from the Faculty of History at the Jagiellonian University. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the Jagiellonian University and works there at the Institute of American Studies and Polish Diaspora. His research focuses on the modern history of international relations, U.S. foreign policy, and nation-building/state-building policy. He has lectured at, among others, Radboud University Nijmegen, the University of Barcelona, Roma Tre University, Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Budapest, and the University of Veliko Tarnovo. He has conducted his research in the Central Archives of Modern Records (Archiwum Akt Nowych), the Polish Institute of International Affairs, and the Library of the John F. Kennedy Institute in Berlin.