Following the events of September 11 Poland has emerged as one of the key allies of the United States—arguably its protégé in east‐central Europe. The close affinity of interests on security matters between the two states became even more apparent in Afghanistan and then more recently over Iraq, where Warsaw has proved to be a strong and highly vocal supporter of Washington's stance. The overall context to this is provided by the growing divergences between the US and Europe, but especially within Europe, towards the situation in Iraq, which has prompted endless commentary based around notions of ‘old Europe’ and ‘new Europe’ and ‘American power and European weakness’. This article will reflect upon these debates and explore Poland's position within them by addressing the notion that Poland is becoming a regional leader. The ‘instinctive’ Atlanticism within Poland's strategic culture drives Warsaw's security policies and is evident across a range of examples. Focusing on the missile defence initiative and ESDP as key issues where there has been a clear set of interests between Poland and the US, it will be demonstrated that Warsaw has always opted for Atlantic as opposed to European solutions and institutions to meet its security needs. A question remains, however, as to whether Poland can continue to be America's protégé and whether Warsaw has the political will and capacity to assume the role required of it by the US, or a regional provider of security in the longer term. This article proposes that to assure this, Poland's eastern policies require not only a more focused and consistent line but also that its security thinking needs to be ‘modernized’ and should be led by a ‘security’ rather than a ‘traditional defence’ rationale reminiscent of the pre‐1989 era.

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This paper seeks to contribute to existing debates on the relationship between democracy and environmental quality. More specifically, we aim to provide nuance and insight into the question as to whether democratic regimes are better equipped to protect the environment. After critically reviewing theoretical arguments and providing an overview of existing empirical studies, the paper proposes an approach which consists of the use of non-parametric correlations between democracy and environmental quality, and a consideration of the interactions between democracy, government effectiveness, economic prosperity, and perceptions of corruption. Crucially, we show that, although a positive correlation can be found between levels of democracy and environmental quality, the picture is somewhat blurred if data are stratified using criteria such as government effectiveness and corruption perceptions. Consequently, the main argument the paper pursues is that, to assess the relationship between democracy and environmental quality, intervening factors and their effects need to be acknowledged and taken into account.

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