Bezpieczeństwo
teoria i prakt yka
security
theory and practice
e-ISSN 2451-0718 2023
ISSN 1899-6264 No. 3 (LII)
Tomasz Pawłuszko
PhD, University of Opole
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5572-3199
The conict between Russia and Ukraine:
Thecauses of the war, security studies and the
formation of an epistemic community in Poland
Introduction
The aim of this article is to link three research problems. The first issue is the escala-
tion of the war between Russia and Ukraine. The second issue is the reception of this
war in the Polish community of experts in the field of security studies. The third issue
is the process of developing acertain community of experts dealing with the problems
of this war. To link these three issues, the concept of epistemic community was used.
1
What are epistemic communities? An epistemic community is anetwork of pro-
fessionals with recognized knowledge and competence in agiven field of state policy.
This concept – as Peter Haas states – is based on the pre-war ideas of the Polish sci-
entist Ludwik Fleck, who in the 1930s published works on the ‘thought collective.’
2
This term denotes agroup of scholars who have developed acommon ‘thinking
style.’ As Haas notes, experts may be characterized by (1) similar intellectual
1
See: E. Adler, P. Haas, Conclusion: Epistemic Communities, World Order, and the Creation of
aReflective Research Program, “International Organization” 1992, vol. 46, no. 1: Knowledge,
Power, and International Policy Coordination, pp. 367–390.
2
The work was originally published as: L. Fleck, Entstehung und Entwicklung einer wissenschaft-
lichen Tatsache. Einführung in die Lehre vom Denkstil un Denkkolektiv, Benno Schwabe und
Co. Verlagsbuchhandlung, Basel 1935; Iused the Polish post-war edition: L. Fleck, Powstanie
irozwój faktu naukowego. Wprowadzenie do nauki ostylu myślowym ikolektywie myślowym, Wy-
dawnictwo Lubelskie, Lublin 1986.
DOI: 10.48269/2451-0718-btip-2023-3-001
Received: 31.03.2023
Accepted: 10.06.2023
