Józef Beck was a Polish statesman who served the Second Republic of Poland as a diplomat and military officer, and was a close associate of Józef Piłsudski. Beck is most famous for being Polish foreign minister in the 1930s, when he largely set Polish foreign policy.
He tried to fulfill Piłsudski's dream of making Poland the leader of a regional coalition, but he was widely disliked and distrusted by other governments. He was involved in territorial disputes with Lithuania and Czechoslovakia. With his nation caught between two large, hostile powers—Germany and the Soviet Union—Beck sometimes pursued accommodation with them and sometimes defied them, trying to take advantage of their mutual antagonism. As this proved unsuccessful, he formed an alliance with Great Britain and France, who then declared war on Germany, when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. When Germany and the Soviet Union both invaded Poland, Beck and the rest of his government evacuated to Romania.