This article presents the impact of the changing world order on the situation of Central and Eastern Europe, paying particular attention to Poland. It looks at the geopolitical and economic conditions during the regional superpower rivalry between the United States, China, Russia, and the European Union within the emerging multipolar order, which is manifested in the 17 + 1 format and the Three Seas Initiative. Poland, trying to get out of the peripheral status resulting from the neoliberal shock doctrine, is currently losing its ability to balance between China and the United States, is antagonizing Russia in the process, and weakening ties within the European Union. Changing its peripheral dependence requires a reevaluation of its stance toward Eurasian integration and its openness to China.
Gracjan Cimek is habilitated doctor of political science and professor at the Polish Naval Academy. His research focuses on politics understood as the pursuit of the common good for developing a culture to empower a human. He sees the necessity to establish a new methodology of social research for portraying the viability of future civilization based on holistic and transdisciplinary approach. He develops the geopolitics of critical realism, which assumes the possibility of transforming the international order into a paradigm based on the principles of win-win. The last book from 2016 is entitled Basic problems of geopolitics and globalization. Email: g.cimek@amw.gdynia.pl