Recent articles
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Disposal, Destruction and Disarmament: Comparative Analysis of US Chemical Weapon and Weapons Plutonium Stockpile Reductions
(Ahead of Print)Abstract The elimination of stockpiled weaponry constitutes a key step in arms control and disarmament processes, lending permanence and irreversibility to arms reductions. Yet it has proven challenging in practice. The destruction of advanced weapon components, like lethal chemical agents and the fissile materials from which nuclear weapons are constructed, is often technically complex and costly. To elucidate the dynamics of this back-end of arms control and disarmament processes, this...
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Negotiating the Common Agricultural Policy: A Critical Appraisal of Franco-German Intra-Alliance Rivalry
(2022 - Volume 16, Issue 4)Abstract Any exploration of the power dynamics that underly the Franco-German tandem can surely benefit from the insights that the creation of the Common Agriculture Policy provides. The purpose of this article is to ascertain which government achieved its objectives more fully during the negotiations between France and West Germany leading up to the creation of the CAP, and to determine how those greater successes might be explained. This is achieved by applying discourse analysis and...
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Double Marginalisation of the Communist Party: Ukraine’s Decommunisation and the Russian-Backed Rebellion in Donbas
(2022 - Volume 16, Issue 4)Abstract The article explains why the Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU) became marginalised during the insurgency in Donbas despite its ideological closeness to the rebel cause. The KPU was a popular pro-rebel party during the rebellion, but sharing the rebels’ ideological background doesn't automatically mean the party will profit from the insurgency to expand or retain a share of power in rebel enclaves during the rebel state-building efforts. The KPU officials welcomed the protests against...
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Iran’s Nuclear Policy: A Cognitive Study on Defiance and Compliance
(Ahead of Print)Abstract This paper argues that the divides in Iran’s nuclear behaviour between the three periods of 2005-2012, 2012-2016 and 2016-2021 are reflections of the varying modes of Iran’s cognising the value of the nuclear program versus its costs. The predominant belief in the first period that Iran is in the gain domain made it defiant and risk-averse leading to Iran’s avoidance of entering a pact with the untrusted US. The change of belief that Iran moved to the domain of losses as a result of...
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Recuperar la Patria: Xenophobic Sentiments in Costa Rica in the Context of the Nicaraguan Refugee Crisis 2018
(2022 - Volume 16, Issue 4)Abstract This case study explores xenophobic sentiments and actions in Costa Rica during the refugee crisis from April to December 2018, caused by the internal political crisis in Nicaragua. By looking at Costa Rica’s long histories of migration it is evident that xenophobic sentiments against Nicaraguans derive from long-lasting interconnections and migration movements between these two countries. This study demonstrates not only that much of nationalist and xenophobic discourses originate...
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Energy Security in Security Studies: A Systematic Review of Twenty Years of Literature
(Ahead of Print)Abstract Energy security has clear relationships with national security – historically, semantically, and practically. This exploratory study offers a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of 43 academic articles focused on energy issues, published in five international security studies journals – International Security, Security Dialogue, Security Studies, Contemporary Security Policy and Survival – from 2001 to 2020. The study identifies the main energy themes covered in the articles...