Third Europe ─ Polish Federalist Thought in the United States 1940-1970's

The genesis of the federalist thought that the book discusses is the project beginning in the fall of 1939 about the idea of combining Poland's and Czechoslovakia's war efforts. It soon developed into federalist concepts, leading, in turn, to particular political gestures: the Polish-Czechoslovak Declaration of November 11, 1940; a joint project of a constitution of a future Polish-Czechoslovak Federation; and, finally, the Declaration from January 1942. Poles and their Central European colleagues in exile cooperated with the American Committee for European Reconstruction during the war and later with the National Committee for a Free Europe. The goal of the political federalist thought was to offer the best solution to the situation in which Poland found itself after World War II. A populous and militarily strong Central European federation would be able to fight off the aggression of powerful neighbors, which at that time were Germany and the Soviet Union. Federalism lost momentum with the gradual withdrawal of United States support in the second half of the 1950s.