"Even if you hope to be calm, be ready to fight."

'If You Want Peace, Prepare for War 'Power of Peace from Strength

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There is an interesting article from the Treasury Office website that has described the genius of His Majesty the Prince of Wales, the sixth reign of which he has the highest determination to elevate Siam to the international stage.

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For his judgment to be fulfilled, it was also necessary to instill it in the hearts of the nation, and for it to be possible to have a genuine sense of patriotism as the foundation for the 15 years of his reign, cultivating a love for the unity of the nation, adhering to national institutions, religions, and monarchs, and the duties that everyone should perform as a good citizen.

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His Majesty was well aware of the threat of colonialism from his youth, especially the case of the 12th C.E., which took place just a month before he went out to study science in England, at which time he was only 13 years old.

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In the wake of that incident, His Majesty King King Rama V was deeply grieved by having to give up parts of his country to maintain national independence because of a lack of military readiness.

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His Majesty's thesis, "Even if you hope for peace, be ready to fight," clearly shows that he hopes for the "happiness" of the Thai people.

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For the West, the phrase 'If You Want Peace, Prepare for War', although a concept from Roman times, remains in the minds of many people today and has always been deeply embedded in international political power.

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"If Peace Is Wanted, Prepare for War" was first written by the Roman general Vegetius. Vegetius believed that a strong army in peacetime would help prevent vulnerability and promote protection against invaders.

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The idea of peace through strength has been deployed in history and has influenced military strategy to date, in any regime.

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Vegetius' statement has been interpreted as The right time to prepare for war is not when the war is about to take place, but when the time is at peace; likewise, a strong army in peacetime can signal to an aggressor or attacker thinking of coming in that the battle may not be worth it.

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NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte warned on December 11 that Europe was entering a "critical phase" of the Russo-Ukrainian war extending into Europe; tapped with the flow of news from Germany's Central Intelligence predicted that Russia would build and improve its forces ready for NATO strike operations by 2029, and that European countries were building defensive walls along NATO's eastern border.

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The Republic of Poland, the country most supportive of the NATO Organization relative to population proportion, is a country bordering the belligerent country, Russia-Ukraine, and has been included in the history of conflict all along; it is also a conduit of Western influence from philosophy, politics to visual arts to Ukraine.

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Poland has been one of Ukraine's strongest supporters since the first days of the war; military, financial and humanitarian aid.

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Amid the Russian invasion, Poland served as the main transport hub for weapons from other Western countries and provided military bases for training Ukrainian soldiers.

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Poland has now decided to prepare for war under the East Shield defense program to strengthen its defenses along the border with Belarus and the Kaliningrad region of Russia, with a plan to build fortifications along the 800-kilometer border.

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Construction of the defences along the Russian border. 3,500 pieces of hedgehog-shaped concrete tank defense structures will be installed, with the project planned to be completed by 2028 with an estimated Polish government investment budget of US $2.55 billion and additional investment from the EU and NATO.

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The project, with the German Army participating in the mission, will primarily carry out engineering, including preparing defensive positions, digging trenches, installing barbed wire, and erecting anti-tank obstacles in border areas, where the mission is not classified as a combat deployment and therefore does not need the approval of the German Parliament.

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The 'East Shield' project consists of the construction of hedgehog-like defensive fortifications and natural obstacles, e.g. anti-tank ditches, and trenches, where these elements are similar to Ukrainian fortifications.

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On June 2025, the Polish parliament decided to approve the government's proposal to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty, which requires signatory countries to renounce the use of anti-personnel mines, arguing that landmines are needed to cope with the growing threat from Russia, along with plans to deploy landmines along the country's eastern border.

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The Republic of Poland signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 4 December 1997 and ratified it on 27 December 2012, becoming a State Party on 1 June 2013 and over the following three years destroying a total of more than one million anti-personnel landmines. Currently, more than 160 countries have agreed to the terms of the Convention on Anti-personnel Mines (Ottawa Treaty) by countries that have not yet agreed, namely Russia, China and the United States.

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In March 2025, Poland began a political process to withdraw from the Mine Ban Treaty, and earlier this year, Lithuania and Finland also announced plans to resume production of anti-personnel mines by 2026, while Latvia and Estonia are also withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention.

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Poland is resuming mine production after the end of the Cold War, claiming that in order to strengthen its eastern border and enhance its defense capabilities, production can begin after the end of the six-month withdrawal period, that is, from 20 February 2026 onwards.

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Reuters reports that Belma, a Polish state-owned enterprise and already a supplier of many types of landmines to the military, plans to produce a variety of landmines, including five to six million anti-personnel landmines, to be placed along Poland's eastern border. The company currently has a capacity of about 100,000 landmines a year, but next year the plant will be able to produce up to 1.2 million.

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On 18 March 2025, Poland's deputy defense minister, Pawel Bejda, indicated that Poland would restart the production of anti-personnel mines, targeting the Polish State Ordnance Group (Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa, PGZ) to produce up to one million landmines.

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Polish Deputy Defense Minister Pavel Salevsky said that if production exceeds domestic demand, it can ship to allies, especially Ukraine. He said that European and Polish security is linked to the Russian-Ukrainian front, making support for Kiev a priority.

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Of course, the re-production of landmines would make this kind of weapon easier to obtain and easier to buy; a decision like this would be to make weapons that have been banned since 1999, the year the Ottawa Treaty came into force, become normal, and weaken that treaty.

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The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) has issued a strong condemnation of Poland's intent to withdraw from the Mine Ban Treaty, which has saved many lives, officially notifying the United Nations on August 20, 2018.

Credit: Oily Texture Page

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