Politics of Stigmatization

Wondering what is going on with Poland, once a frontrunner of the democratic revolutions in CEE and now among the most frequently cited democratic backsliders in the region? Look no further: this book offers a rich take on Poland's processing of international status anxieties and ontological insecurities due to its experience of stigma as a latecomer in the EU. Drawing on original fieldwork, Krasnodebska provides a thickest description of Poland's contemporary recognition struggles to date.


---Maria Mälksoo, author of The Politics of Becoming European: A Study of Polish and Baltic Post-Cold War Security Imaginaries


Krasnodebska's book offers a fresh critical perspective on the dominant approaches in IR literature on countries of Central and Eastern European. Using the case of Poland the book problematizes the usually taken-for-granted assumptions regarding the hierarchies of power and knowledge in the EU. To achieve her aim Krasnodebska develops an ambitious theoretical frame which she uses to challenge the socialization paradigm in the constructivist IR literature relying on the notions of stigmatization and ontological security.


---Tomasz Zarycki, Professor and Director of the Robert Zajonc Institute for Social Studies at the University of Warsaw


Molly Krasnodebska's book offers fresh insights into the mechanisms underlying post-communist transformation in Central and Eastern Europe, challenging the established "imitative" paradigm that for years has been the norm in political science when describing Poland's systemic transition from communism to democracy. In this important work Krasnodebska offers a new way to interpret Polish foreign and security policy choices in light of the country's strategic culture and its quest for security, while addressing the broader historical context that has shaped the region. This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand post-communist transformation in the former Eastern Bloc.


---Professor Andrew A. Michta


This book studies how the pursuit of becoming an established 'insider' in an international community shapes a state's foreign policy. It looks at Poland's response to three international crises that called for joint action of the EU and its members: the Iraq war of 2003, the Russo-Georgian war of 2008, and the Ukraine crisis beginning in 2013. The book develops the concept of strategic culture as a collection of historically informed narratives that guide a state's pursuit of ontological security, a basic sense of certainty about the state's role and place in the international environment. Building on this concept the author argues that Poland's behavior reflects the awareness of its stigma as a 'late arrival' in the EU, and more generally in the 'West' as an identity community. The study thus provides insight into how stigmatization and struggle for recognition shape international dynamics.