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Environmental Cooperation and Conflict Transformation
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: This work is concerned with the tactic of using environmental cooperation as a conflict transformation instrument. This is an optimistic approach which suggests that environmental cooperation is an independent variable that may positively influence politics due to it retaining strong peacebuilding...
Libya, Resolution 1973 and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P)
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: This article sheds light on the intervention in Libya through the lens of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). This, together with the deployment of Just War theory, will help explain some of the nuances surrounding the legitimacy of the Libyan intervention in 2011. The work is based on providing...
From Peacekeeping to Peace Enforcement and Back to Peacebuilding Dilemmas: Is there A Growing Insecurity of International Security?
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: Since its creation in 1945, the UN has steadily increased the ambition and the scale of its peace and security agenda in conflict-affected countries. The development of peacekeeping is seen as a global means to achieve its aspirations of international peace and security. Yet, there are problems...
Security, Inc.: Privatising Internal Security in Post-Communist Poland
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 1
ABSTRACT:The question of how and when authority diminishes in states has been a persistent feature of international relations and the political sciences for several decades. The issue is often referred to as ‘governance without a government’ and tries to understand systems of thick and thin sovereignty....
Private Prisons and the Emerging Immigrant Market: Implications for Security Governance
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: The purpose of this work is to examine the role and involvement of the two largest private prisons corporations in the US, Corrections Corporations of America (CCA) and The GEO Group, Inc., in the immigration policymaking arena. Recent news reported the role of private prison industry in sponsoring...
PMSCs and the Regulatory Environment in Iraq Post-2011
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: This article explores the security demands and regulatory changes in Iraq since 2011 that have required the private security industry to adapt its corporate strategy. Drawing from cutting-edge primary research, including interviews with contractors and with multinational clients in Iraq and...
Rethinking U.S. Policy Toward Iran's Nuclear Programme
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: A period of Western support for Iran’s nuclear programme gave way to opposition by the same world powers, when it was realised that alongside civilian use, the Islamic Republic was also pursuing a nuclear weapons programme. Driven by Tehran’s policy of aggression, in the Middle East and elsewhere,...
Deterring Russia by U.S. Followership? Decomposing the Czech Participation in Afghanistan
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: Deconstructing and explaining the Czech involvement in Afghanistan’s post-war reconstruction are the key roles of this study. The notion of strategic narrative has recently been gaining popularity with security analysts. This work considers the applicability of this concept and its links to...
Is There a Legal Basis for Military Intervention to Protect Civilians in Syria?
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: The anti-government protests that erupted in Syria in March 2011 assumed a more formal nature following the violent government response that ultimately escalated into civil war. There is broad consensus that the Syrian regime has committed crimes against humanity against its own population...
The Issue of Madhism within Shia Ideology and Ahmadinejad’s Doctrine
Issue:
2015 - Volume 9, Issue 1
ABSTRACT: I will attempt to argue in this paper that the rise of Mahdism within Shi’a political Islam during Ahmadinejad’s era did not lead to a significant break with previous development. Relevance of Mahdism within Shi’a politicized and ideologized Islam in Iran has been on the rise since the...
The Poverty of Statistics: Military Power and Strategic Balance
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: Military expenditures and the number of service personnel are the two most common features used to compare national military power. However, to what extent they reflect the real world remains a question. This article aims to provide the answer by using data on the great power conflicts of the...
Looking for Insurgency in Cyberspace
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: This study explores the rapidly developing area of conflicts in cyberspace. Its main objective is to outline the concept of cyber-insurgency, which has so far been missing from academic investigations. In addition, this work examines other types of conflicts present in cyberspace, including...
Latvia and Money Laundering: An Examination of Regulatory and Institutional Effectiveness in Combating Money Laundering
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: In the wake of the Cyprus bailout, illicit financial flows and money laundering have shown their systemic threat to the stability of not only the Eurozone but to the international financial system. Great attention is being paid to countries’ anti-money laundering efforts and on the stability...
Saudi Arabia and the Arab Spring: Reshaping Saudi Security Doctrine
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: The Gulf regional strategic environment indicates that the balance of power is moving towards an inward concentration for the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states while Iran attempts to fill the strategic vacuum created by the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. This work explores Saudi national security...
Differentiating Arctic Provinces: A Cluster Analysis of Geographic and Geopolitical Indicators
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT:Based on a geographical-administrative definition of the region, theoretical assumptions of contemporary structuralist geopolitics, cross-sectional data for 2000, 2005 and 2010 from the Arctic Regional Attributes Dataset, and the technical capabilities of cluster analysis, this article aims...
How the 2004 and 2007 EU Enlargements Weakened the CFSP and CSDP: A Socio-Economic and Geopolitical Analysis
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: From its very beginnings, defence and security related issues were a major concern of EU policy. However, it was the demise of the USSR in the early 1990’s and the end of the Cold War that – between 1998 and 2004 – gave a major push to the evolution of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy...
China’s Multidimensional Juggle: The Challenges of a Rising Power
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: As the 21st century unfolds, it is almost unarguable that East and Southeast Asia will be increasingly important in global economic, political, and security affairs. China, depicted in media outlets as a state which is continually violating human rights, is dealing with recurrent internal problems...
Diplomatic Relations between the Republic of the Philippines and the East European Socialist Bloc under President Ferdinand E. Marcos
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2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: Diplomatic communiqués between the Philippines and the Eastern European Socialist Bloc found in the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Republic of the Philippines reveals a compendium of original data significant in tracing the inception of diplomatic relations between the Philippines and...
Religion, Identity and Citizenship: The Predicament of Shiʿa Fundamentalism in Bahrain
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: In 2011, Bahrain witnessed an unprecedented wave of political protests that came within a chain of protest movements in other Arab countries, which later came to be known as the “Arab Spring.” Irrespective of the difference in the appellations given to these protests, their occurrence in Bahrain...
Seeking Community Reconciliation through Traditional Ceremonies: A Strategy of Conflict Management
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: The debate on the role of traditional conflict management and reconciliation practices in modern post-war situations has been around for a while. The central concern is whether approaches that reflect the cultural context of the conflict setting would be better suited for responding to the...
Vindicating Neoclassical Geopolitics, Challenging Postmodernism: A NewLook at an Old Problem
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: The objective of this work is to exhort the Academia towards a Neoclassical Geopolitics, both in terms of theory and methodology. The relevance of the problem – the validity of Neoclassical Geopolitics – is based on the hypothesis that geography influences the foreign policies of States. Such...
From BSU to BSEC: The Evocation of Inter-War Geopolitical Fantasies
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
Abstract: This study charts the political, cultural and economic foundations of two inter-governmental bodies intended to emerge in the Black Sea region: the first, the Black Sea Union (BSU) was an idea developed by Ukrainian geopolitical specialist Yuriy Lypa before World War II. The second is the current...
American “Foreign Policy” in Film: Post-World War II Identity Creation
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: This article continues the author’s previous examination of sub-elite identification through popular film from ‘Three Incarnations of The Quiet American: Applying Campbell’s “foreign policy” to Sub-Elite Identifiers.’ Departing from the argument made in that work, this article examines five...
The Business of Private Security in Europe: The Case of Bulgaria
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This work offers readers’ information related to the infusion of private businesses into the area of private security in one of the EU’s “new” member states: Bulgaria. The materials and analysis offered in this text attempts to act and an inspirational probe that goes beyond publicly accessible...
Shooting Training of CSI Staff
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 4
ABSTRACT: This article focuses on firearms training in the commercial security industry. The article is divided into three parts: in the first, the authors provide a description of firearms in the commercial security industry (hereinafter referred to as CSI). The second part presents and explores some...
Across the Lines of the World State: The Case of the United Nations
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This work asks how the UN attempts to bypass the current system of states while identifying a series of reinforcing UN efforts that could be utilised to hoist this organisation to the level of acting as a world government. The title of this work – which may be read in two distinct ways – illustrates...
The New Age of the US-EU-Chinese Relations and Dilemmas
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: This article examines the world’s key actors: the US, EU and China, and analyses their political, economic and security relations, as well as stances on geopolitical and global economic development. Asia-Pacific is investigated as the chief determinant of the global development and also, thanks...
The “Marine” Factor: What the Lepenisation of French Politics Really Means
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: Marine Le Pen, president of the French extreme-right party Front National, emerged on the political scene as not only the daughter and heir to Jean-Marie Le Pen, but a smarter and more seductive leader than her father. Her rise – just a few months before the 2012 French presidential elections...
Interregional Divergence of EU-ASEAN Relations: Achievements, Challenges and External Influences
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 3
ABSTRACT: Interregionalism is a pragmatic strategy of the EU’s external action and a tool to extend norms and European values to the developing world as well as a tool in the promotion of global governance. In this sense, the EU has built several interregional and trans-regional frameworks around the...
Limits of Human Development in a Weak and Religiously Fractured State: The Case of Lebanon
Issue:
2014 - Volume 8, Issue 2
ABSTRACT: Deploying Lebanon as a case study, this article links the concept of human development to weak and failed states to provide insights into ways to enhance the effectiveness of implementing development strategies. Lebanon serves as an example of a weak state characterised by strong religious...