Special Issue: “Eastern Europe” at War: A New Kidnapping? (Kazharski A., Makarychev A. eds.) Alternatives: Global, Local, Political 2023, Vol. 0(0) 1–15 © The Author(s) 2023 Article reuse guidelines: sagepub.com/journals-permissions DOI: 10.1177/03043754231193612 journals.sagepub.com/home/alt “To Whom the Sirens Wail.” Poland’s Post-2022 Geopolitical Debates on Central and Eastern Europe Aliaksei Kazharski 1  Abstract The article conducts a social constructivist analysis of the post-2022 debate in Poland to trace how the geopolitical notions of “Central” and “Eastern” Europe have been affected by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by Russia. It shows that the attack stimulated a powerful wave of identification with Ukraine across the political spectrum rooted in Polish collective memories. New opportunities also opened for Poland’s self-positioning as a leader in Central and Eastern Europe. At the same time, this consolidation did not overcome the enduring domestic political antagonism and the rival political camps continued to promote competing imaginaries of the European order. Keywords Poland, Central and Eastern Europe, war, Ukraine, Russia, critical geopolitics Introduction This contribution maps the shifts in the Polish debate on “Central” and “Eastern Europe” following the start of Russia’ s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. It examines how major geopolitical notions have been redefined or adopted to the qualitatively new situation throughout 2022 and early 2023, and what the implications of the 2022 attack on Ukraine have been for the Polish outlook on the region and Poland’ s self-positioning in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). The analysis adheres to the well-developed social constructivist understanding of space as (re) produced discursively and embedded in various historical and cultural contexts. As opposed to the notion of physical or empty space that can be seen as objective and non-changing or reduced to the slowly changing facts of physical geography, socially constructed space is constituted through collectively shared spatial notions (“imaginaries”) that are constantly in flux and can, at times, be significantly reshaped through major political events. Among other things socially constructed space is attached to existing normative orders, thus making geonormativity a dimension of critical analysis that examines how geopolitical categories such as “East” and “West” become axiologically infused. Furthermore, as some of the foundational texts in the tradition of critical geopolitics 1 Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic Corresponding Author: Aliaksei Kazharski, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University, U Kˇ r´ ı ˇ ze 8, Prague 158 00, Czech Republic. Email: aliaksei.kazharski@fsv.cuni.cz