Europe’s centre of gravity is shifting towards Poland

The President of the United States of America flies into Poland this month. Not to Germany or France or even the UK. There is great symbolism in this gesture, which goes further than Washington merely showing solidarity to the front-line states in Russia’s war against Ukraine. It is emblematic of a trend which has seen Europe’s geopolitical fulcrum shift eastwards.

Once upon a time Europe’s centre of gravity was west of the Elbe. This was underlined by the reality of the Cold War, by economic might, by western Europe’s military ascendancy reinforced by the United States’ physical presence, and by the western focus on European integration.

This remained so in the early post-Cold War era with central and eastern European states flocking to join the European communities. The asymmetry was reinforced culturally as an increasingly hegemonic western-led European Union spread its integrationist and progressive values across central and eastern Europe with little regard for national traditions, cultures and, more importantly, local peoples’ wishes.