“The West has to arrange itself with the fact that in today’s world, there exist different concepts of political systems and the West will not be the leading example anymore telling the rest of the world what to do and how to behave”- said Dr. Bonikowska, president of the CIR, in RzeczoPolityce by Rzeczpospolita [04.01.2023]

4 January 2023

In the media

Asked to identify the most crucial changes going on in the current world, Dr. Bonikowska responded that the biggest challenge firstly is to understand that there are two proposals on the table for states to choose from regarding their political systems. On the one hand, there is a liberal system with a democratic foundation that the West has been practicing and developing for decades.

On the other hand, however, there is Chinese proving that a state can be successful, powerful as well as rich whilst being authoritarian at the same time. Secondly, this forces the West to address the question of how to defend our democratic world and values since, for example, the Russian aggression has shown that some actors are simply not interested in respecting international rules and are prepared to use force in order to achieve their political goals or to intrude into our world.

Asked about where Poland could be situated between these two competing systems, Dr. Bonikowska stated that, despite that, there are changes needed and voted for, there is no doubt that what is happening in Poland, but also in other European countries like Italy and France, still takes place on a democratic footing.

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“Croatia is a small economy, so it is simply a strategic choice. But it is also based on tourism, so Croatians exchange kuna for euro anyway. They should be appreciated for the fact that, despite the changes in cabinets, Croatia was able to meet all the conditions” – Dr. Bartłomiej Nowak on Croatia’s accession to the eurozone [10.01.2023]

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