On 26 April 2019 Collegium Civitas in Warsaw will host a conference examining Poland and the UK in a Post-Brexit World. Poland and the UK have often had positive and significant relations within Europe, each trying to keep Germany and France in check at key moments, and both assertive in their postures towards Russia. All of this is achieved through communication - through diplomacy, signals and gestures. But with the UK likely to leave the EU, this leaves Poland alone to try to balance against a French-German axis and it leaves Britain to find a new voice outside of Europe and with which to speak to Europe.

At the conference, Ben O’Loughlin will consider how debates and strategies around UK soft power in the past five years indicate what voice and role the UK would most usefully find.

If you are in Warsaw, do join!

Programme:

A New Footing? Poland and the UK in a Post-Brexit World

26 April 2019

Łazarski University, ul Świeradowska 43, 02-662, Warszawa

(Room 273F)

(Contact: kerry.longhurst@gmail.com Collegium Civitas)

10am Opening Remarks

Martin Dahl (Faculty Dean, Łazarski University)

Alister Miskimmon (Queens University, Belfast)

Stephen Steele (UK Embassy, Warsaw)

Katarzyna Szczepaniak (The British Council, Warsaw)

11.00 – 12.30

Jan Grzymski (Łazarski University) ‘Brexit and the Limits of Europe’

Quincy Cloet and Kerry Longhurst (University of Wales, Aberystwyth and Collegium Civitas) ‘Domestic Leakage and Polish Foreign and Security Policy’

Vahan Hunanyan (Krzysztof Skubiszewski Foundation) ‘Poland’s Eastern Policy’

Alister Miskimmon Chair (Queens University, Belfast)

LUNCH

14 – 15.30

Marcin Zaborowski (Łazarski University) ‘Implications of Brexit for Central and Eastern Europe’

Ben O’ Loughlin (Royal Holloway University of London) ‘British Soft Power in a Time of European Disintegration’

Agnieszka Nitza (Collegium Civitas) ‘Exploring the Idea of Soft Power – Applicable Concept or Non-Starter?’

Spasimir Domaradzki Discussant (Łazarski University)