Prof. Ryszard Zięba is a full professor emeritus of international relations and security studies at the University of Warsaw, Poland. He has been a member of the Commission of National Security Strategic Review established by the President of the Republic of Poland, an expert of the Polish Parliament, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Regional Development, the National Security Bureau, and was awarded a Jean Monnet Chair by the European Commission. He is author of over 400 other research studies on: international security, Poland’s and EU’s foreign and security policy, the theory of international relations and security studies. The last two books he published in Springer are: The Euro-Atlantic Security System in the 21st Century: From Cooperation to Crisis (2018) and Poland’s Foreign and Security Policy: Problems of Compatibility with the Changing International Order (2020).

• Chapter 1. Introduction (Ryszard Zięba).- Chapter 2. Peripherality of the CEE region (Tomasz Pawłuszko).- Chapter 3. From Authoritarianism to Neo-Totalitarianism in Belarus (Pavel Usov).- Chapter 4. Illiberal Turn in Hungary (Andrea Schmidt).- Chapter 5. Illiberalism and Nationalism in Poland’s Politics (Ryszard Zięba).- Chapter 6. EU and NATO Eastern Policy (Ryszard Zięba).- Chapter 7. Ukraine’s Attempts to Join the West (Marharyta Blyzniuk).- Chapter 8. Russia’s Challenge to Central & Eastern Europe (Agnieszka Bryc).- Chapter 9. Militarization of Security Policies in Central and Eastern Europe (Tomasz Pawłuszko).- Chapter 10. A Fragile Peace in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Marlena Drygiel-Bielińska).- Chapter 11. Energy Security of Central and East European Countries (Remigiusz Rosicki).- Chapter 12. Visegrad Group – Real Entity or Mirage (Andrea Schmidt).- Chapter 13. Three Seas Initiative (Ryszard Zięba).- Chapter 14. Central and Eastern Europe in US Foreign Policy (Ewelina Waśko-Owsiejczuk).- Chapter 15. Central and Eastern Europe in Germany's Foreign Policy (Aleksandra Kruk & Beata Molo).- Chapter 16. Central and Eastern Europe in France’s foreign policy (Marlena Drygiel-Bielińska).- Chapter 17. Central and Eastern Europe in China’s Foreign Policy (Zoltán Vörös).

“The book represents a valuable contribution to our knowledge of foreign and security politics in (and of) Central Eastern Europe. All the entries are up-to-date and empirically rich, and most fit into the neorealist approach. This fact increases the coherence of the entire volume. ... Given the increasing importance of Central and Eastern European affairs for general European international relations, even readers interested primarily in Western Europe will benefit a lot from getting rich contextualization the volume offers.” (Vít Hloušek, French Politics, Vol 21 (4), December2023)