Birds Of A Feather The Curious Case Of U.S. - Polish Military Partnership And Defense Reform

Abstract

I. Introduction and Thesis. In 1989, the house of cards called communism collapsed in Central Europe. Regimes and political parties that had endured nearly unopposed for 40 years suddenly ceased to be. Much like William Cowper Brann's socialites of the 1890s, these sartorial kings and pseudo-queens have strutted their brief hour on the stage, disappearing at daybreak like foul night-birds or an unclean dream....1 Standing in the ruins of this precipitous demise were the leaders of the democratic rebellious factions, who were now charged with putting their countries back together again. In the decades since, there has been much academic work published on the marvelous transformation of communist political and economic enterprises into liberal democracies with market economies. However, another remarkable revolution has taken place that scarcely is appreciated or recognized: the successful transformations of communist-era militaries from instruments of control and repression into sources of national pride and stability.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 2012
Accession Number
AD1022118

Entities

People

  • Michael S Hreczkosij

Organizations

  • Air Command and Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Counter WMD
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Central Europe
  • East Germany
  • Germany
  • Governments
  • International Relations
  • Military Education
  • Military Science
  • National Politics
  • National Security
  • Second World War
  • Students
  • Treaties
  • United States
  • United States European Command
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering
  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.