Polish-South Korean armaments co-operation since 2022: a shotgun marriage of convenience

The paper examines the Polish-South Korean armaments cooperation, started in 2022, comprising arms purchases, technology transfer, localisation of production, and dedicated loans. It seeks to identify the main political, economic and operational drivers for Poland behind this policy and prioritise these factors in order to explain the motives and rationale behind Poland's involvement. For this reason process tracing has been conducted, which enabled the reconstruction of the dynamics of this co-operation under two consecutive governments of both major competing Polish political parties – the Law and Justice and the Civic Coalition. Both of these were meant to quickly enhance Poland's military capabilities, even though they prioritised different layers of the co-operation. The paper highlights the challenges faced by a state hasty arming itself under pressure of a perceived direct military threat, and reflects opportunities and challenges for armaments co-operation of a NATO member state with a like-minded non-NATO state.