Perspektywy Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej w globalnym ładzie międzynarodowym

This paper considers Central and Eastern Europe’s (CEE) situation as a region in the future global order. The article has been inspired by the declarations of the political leaders of the Three Seas Initiative to improve their member states’ international position. The purpose of the article is to scrutinize conditions and opportunities of improving CEE’s position. Internal variables analyzed in the paper include CEE’s regional integration, demographic and economic factors and the problematic of nationalism. External variables are related to four global centers of power: the USA, China, Russia, and Western Europe considered as a relatively well-integrated part of the European Union. The influence of those four centers on CEE results from their relative development, rivalry/cooperation between the centers, as well as ideological factors such as perception of globalisation. The paper identifies long-term demographic and economic trends, uses methods of historical analogies and interregional comparisons, and considers the consequences of global polarity on CEE.